Unlike some of the other recent Marvel titles, this sequel clearly failed to deliver on the promise of the first in the series. Which is not unusual in the least, Hollywood sequels being almost always trash (but not necessarily so with Marvel sequels).

Downey is back as the tired, flaky billionaire weapons magnate, only this time around tired really is tired. Paltrow and Cheadle are thrown supporting roles which use none of their considerable talents (the guy who had Cheadle's role in the original is actually better for the part). The whole production seems entirely uninspired, much of the movie is endless talk talk talk leading up to two techno-fight scenes. Which leads us to the other problem, the fight scenes when they do occur are so computer-generated they are almost impossible to follow (like in Transformers II, another movie which bears more than casual resemblance to this one). And the "climatic" fight is almost over before it begins, like nobody cared at the end of this.

The stuffing of this movie is just sort of crammed meaninglessly together, including the SHIELD angle. I find Iron Man 2 so uninspired it's difficult to write an inspired review for it. As with Transformers 2 it was work getting my 5 year old to sit through it. Highly unrecommended.

Post-script: Iron Man 3 was almost as good as this was bad, so skip this one and go directly to 3.