Jon Favreau returns to direct Iron Man 2, once again starring Robert Downey Jr., this time as the open superhero Iron Man; open meaning he has no secret identity. When things begin to stop going his way, he becomes very irrational, drinking at parties and ruining his reputation. When an enemy comes around, a Russian named Ivan Vanko, Tony must put aside his immature actions, and once again assume the role of the one and only Iron Man.

To begin, I don't know what happened to Jon Favreau's mind in between Iron Man (2008) and this movie. Some movie-hating parasite must've crawled inside of Favreau's ear and influenced him to make a bad movie. This movie isn't, in my opinion at least, absolutely horrible, but no normal human could say this film is good. The cheap plot, bad dialogue, horrible villainization, and the fact that the whole film is a trailer for The Avengers (2012).

To start with the pros, Robert Downey Jr. does pretty good as Tony Stark, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts is pretty good as well. Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko isn't really an overwhelming performance, and neither was Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer. The best casting choice, however, was Bill O'Reilly as himself. Yes, Bill O'Reilly is in this movie. And he's the highlight. Just kidding.

The special effects aren't the best, and it shows most during the fight scenes. The CG on Whiplash (Ivan Vanko) is really bad, especially during the final fight scene, in which the main villain fights for about two and a half minutes. There is honestly more arguing in this film more than any actual physical fighting.

The plot is also very bad. Many plot holes exist throughout this movie. I feel as if Marvel sacrificed this movie so that The Avengers (2012) could be good, which paid off. However, I also feel that Marvel could have made both of the films good, without have making Iron Man 2 bad like it is. There's many ways this movie could have been better, starting with the introduction of our villains. There's an old saying that says "a movie is only as good as its villain." This is true most of the time, including this film as an example. Whiplash, or Ivan Vanko, is a villain that is only introduced by the history between his father (Anton Vanko) and Howard Stark, Tony's father.

Overall, Iron Man 2 is a very washed down film, with a poor villain and some bad acting. The plot was cheap, and the exposition was way too heavy. I'm going to give Iron Man 2 a C-, or a 7 out of 10.