This film did almost the same amount of business as the first film, but a lot of people consider it an inferior film. I am not one of those people, I actually think it is just as good as the first film. The first film had a bit more polish, but this one had more bang for your buck as the last action sequence in this film has more action than all of the cation scenes in the first film put together. They did recast Rhodes in this film substituting Don Cheadle for Terrance Howard, but quite frankly I thought it was an improvement. Cheadle just has a better presence than Howard and though they recast the role because Howard wanted more money, I think it worked in favor of the studio because Cheadle is a better actor. All the other primary players are accounted for as Robert Downey Jr. is back as Tony Stark/Iron Man and Gwyneth Paltrow is back as Pepper Potts. The two do great as a very eccentric pair and I thought Mickey Rourke as the villain was an improvement over Bridges in the first film. I just am not seeing what others saw that make them say that this film is a worse film than the first one.

The story has a man in Russia with ties to Tony's father blaming the Stark family for all the misery that he and his now dead father have had to endure. He designs his own reactor and a pair of whip like weapons. Meanwhile, Tony is having problems as the U.S. government wants the Iron Man suit and the reactor in his chest is killing him at a rapid rate. So, thinking his time is limited, Tony goes crazy trying to live every moment as if it was his last. This leads to him to giving away his possessions, wearing his Iron Man suit to his birthday party and driving a race car. It is during the race that he first comes face to face with the new villain Ivan Vanko. Vanko is stopped by Iron Man, but his stay in prison is shortened when Justin Hammer, who is desperately trying to design his own Iron Man suit springs him in the hopes Vanko can create him the suit he yearns for. Tony soon gets information on a way to save himself and it all culminates at an all out battle at the newly opened Stark expo.

The movie to me was fun as they brought back most of the cast and as I said, I thought the one they had to recast was an improvement. Also, introduced in this film is Natasha Romanoff who gets to showcase her skills a bit in this film. A lot more than Hawkeye would get to showcase his in his first appearance in the first Thor film. I enjoyed the Iron Man suitcase armor in the first fight with Vanko and I liked how Vanko looked in that fight as well. Something primal as a man with just a couple of whips and slight enhancers on the body trying to challenge the hero.

Once again, not sure why this one is thought of as inferior. Tony was dying, that is why he reverted a bit to the jerky out of control self. He was just trying to enjoy his last days. I heard a lot of complaining that the final fight with Vanko was not long enough, but that was only one portion of the final action scene. Before that you had Iron Man being chased by drones while Romanoff was kicking butt at Hammer industries and then you had Iron Man and War Machine fighting against the horde of drone robots. Like I stated earlier, this final action scene was long and had a lot going on. The humor was still good and there was still heart to it. To me, this film is just as good as the original and the action was actually better.