I'm really torn between a rating of 7 and 8 and should probably see it again before a final verdict. But my initial feeling is this one had too much talk and too little heart.

While there certainly was more action, the action scenes - especially the last - did not feel threatening at all. The one possible exception to this is the first battle between Iron Man and Whiplash - the one on the race track from the trailer.

The main problem is probably too much dialog, possibly too much happening, and too little heart. Too few quiet moments. I'm not sure.

My guess is the film makers heard that people loved the humor from the first (which was mostly ad-libbed from the actors) but missed more action. So they apparently gave the whole cast (of GREAT actors all around!) free reign to talk up as much as they want in each and every scene. And they added action sequence after action sequence to make up for the mere two major sequences from Iron Man 1.

The end result was slightly underwhelming, yet almost satisfying.