About three days before I went to see "Iron Man 2", I watched the original "Iron Man" for the second time. This time, my 20 year-old watched it with me. She'd never seen it before and loved it--thanking me for recommending it to her. And, considering that I not only saw the film twice (that's very rare for me) and gave it a 9 in my review, I obviously was stoked to see the sequel. Too bad I was so underwhelmed by it.

While my daughter said she also liked this film and said Tony Stark (Rober Downey, Jr.) was a jerk like he was in the comic books, I though he was simply a jerk--and perhaps my not reading the comic book made it harder for me to take this bothersome portrayal. Now I am NOT saying I expected him to be perfect--after all, in the first film he was truly irresponsible and sarcastic. But, in "Iron Man 2", you also liked him despite, or perhaps because of these flaws! In this sequel, that likable roguish quality was missing...he was simply an annoying and self-indulgent jerk. Now my perception is not everyone's, I know. Perhaps it's because I am 46 (a bit old for this sort of film) and because I haven't read a comic book in 35 years. Whatever the reason, I found it hard to love the film when I disliked the leading man so much. Heck, while he was very one-dimensional, it was often easier to like the baddie (Mickey Rourke)!! At least he had some sense of purpose in life other than his own misguided narcissism.

My other serious problem with the film is the over-reliance on special effects. Too often, the film simply overloaded my senses--as it seemed bent on topping the eye-popping images of the first film. And, while it did this clearly, it did so at the expense of the plot and, more importantly, character development. As a result, I just can't see this film as anything more than eye-candy for the very easily amused and not a film with any serious depth--something that was NOT a problem with "Iron Man". Watch it if you want...just don't expect a lot of magic.