Iron Man 2

Dangerously close to being "for comic fans only"

To me, Iron Man (the movie) was very good, because it could appeal to the old-time followers of Iron Man (the comic) as well as casual movie goers.

This time, as the franchise seeks to become an empire, the problem will clearly begin, where fans will expect one thing, and casual movie goers will expect another.

So Marvel are trying to infuse a whole series of characters (Fury, Widow) which quite frankly, while not really "disturbing" the core of the movie, does distract.

On the other hand, its been 2 movies in a row where the Iron Man battles a variant. In the first movie, Iron Man battles a lumbering Stane in a bigger more powerful suit. Now, Iron Man battles an army of Iron Man drones, the War Machine, and even Whiplash is a variant, of sorts.

Its getting boring. 

What does keep some interest is Downey, who plays Stark really well. Yes, there might be some parallels between the self-destructive Stark and Downey himself, but I've seen Downey do everything from Chaplin to Holmes to a blackface White guy playing a black guy (Tropic Thunder). Downey is that good. He can play anyone, including himself.

The other thing that rocks would be the action sequences. Compare this with the Expendables, and well, Iron Man 2 is from the 21st century, whereas the Expendables is clearly from the previous century.

Overall, it might be worth watching on Blu-Ray with a really good sound system just to enjoy the movie.