Coming off of Iron Man (1), I really had pretty decent expectations for this movie. It seemed like the writers had their act together in creating a well thought out film that could combine both coherent plot-lining and captivating special effects. Iron Man was never the most popular comic book, but the producers recognized that they didn't need to create an A.D.D. nightmare to compete with the big boys.

Boy, they sure f*cked up with the sequel...

I understand that Stark is supposed to be increasingly eccentric, and Downey did a fine job of communicating that. But guess what? The rest of the characters were written that way too, which is just too much! Even the bit players are obnoxious and unbelievable. In Stark's Senate hearing session, for example, the audience lets off a hooting of cheers and applause every 10 seconds, and the investigating senator shouts "F*ck you Tony Stark; F*ck you Tony" into the microphone at the end of the hearing. Believable? Hardly. Necessary? Absolutely not. Trashy? 100%. Even superhero movies have to have some element of the plot grounded in reality to make a connection with the audience. Iron Man 2 had nothing.

Don Cheadle was a poor substitute for Terrence Howard, delivering his lines without any sense of purpose or emphasis. I typically think Cheadle is a fantastic actor, but poorly done here. Again, the resounding issue in the film comes down to believability. The "willing suspension of disbelief" is absolutely necessary in any fictional work (particularly one with such fantastic future technologies), but should absolutely not apply to actors' ability to connect with their roles, nor to the coherence of the plot.

The worst thing about the whole ordeal was that the movie was so terrible that I was forced to leave half-way through the movie, before Samuel L Jackson even made an appearance...