Completely agree.  Each actor nailed their role, but some could've used more screen time.  Tony-Pepper did it for me and made the movie much funnier and fun to watch.  WOOO!

Got to disagree with you on Scarlett and Rourke but otherwise your review nails it! it was excellent fun and really that is all it put itself out there to be :) 
 
great review and thanks Gman!!

Rhodey simply was my fav in the movie i dunno why LOL (Of course Mr. I'm keeping my Eye on you aswell LOL)
 

The part when Iron Man uses his lasers... everyone actually clapped. Was so weird but awesome.

I loved the film the back and forth between War Machine and Iron Man in that one battle was awesome, great review G-man

 I'm sure I'll be flamed more than Human Torch, but I don't care. My two cents:

I was kind of disappointed in Iron Man 2. I didn’t think it was bad, the action was outstanding...but I just didn’t feel the heart of the original. It felt very mindless and superficial, whereas to me the first had a lot of underlying ethical themes. It wasn't about the fight scenes; it was about why he was fighting. It delved into the psychology and moral dilemmas of being a weapons manufacturer, that crisis of conscience. This time around I felt more like it was a spectacle just to be a superficially cheap eye-candy event. It felt far more camp cliché blockbuster-ish and manufactured. But my biggest issue lied in the dialogue. The humor in this lacked much of the wit seen in the former; instead it's replaced with kid-friendly goofball comedy and horrible one-liners. I wouldn't say the original is devoid of that, but the seriousness of the predecessor just isn't present here. In fact, in my opinion, it's seriously dumbed down.

So much of the film felt like a filler issue in a comic book. While Whiplash was probably my favorite new role, he himself never felt especially threatening and was ultimately dispatched pretty quickly. Where were the police at the race? One bullet to Ivan's very exposed head and that's game over. Roll credits! That was a huge plot hole in my opinion. You mean to tell me that a guy with limited reach, little mobility, and a completely exposed body could take being repeatedly hit by a car and not instantly taken out by a single Iron Man blast...really? I know this is a comic book, subtitled suspension of belief, but I find an Iron Man suit that comes out of a freaking suitcase more realistic than that! I couldn’t buy that at all…suspension of belief became eye-roll. In fact, I just couldn't buy Whiplash being a physical threat to Tony whatsoever. And is there really any denying he was a bizarre choice for a film?
 
 It almost feels like an overindulgent Iron Man story, made less for the title character and more just as a glorified setup for the Avengers. It doesn’t feel required viewing to me in any way. It's like that issue in a comic that has the failed nothing-but-gimmick one-timer villain that no one remembers later on down the road. You know, the ones that become nothing but an obscure trivia question used to impress friends or that satire joke character that only you and your pals ever talk about aloud. "Remember the Rocket Racer? What about the Kangaroo?" I feel they basically decided to take something like that and run with it. I just keep thinking "This over Mandarin?" If this was a comic book, I'm convinced people would deem it forgettable, but because it's a big budget motion picture, it'll get praise from some. Seeing what Favreau can do, I can’t help but feel he somewhat lowered himself to Hollywood Michael Bay levels. The first film felt so tailor made for the comic audience in particular, I think part of that being its critical success, but this felt very..."Lets aim it at children," especially when it came to the extremely overused brand of juvenile comedy and the shameless marketing plug kid in the toy Iron Man helmet - now available at Wal-Mart for only $35.99! ...I gagged a little, cute though he was. I thought this franchise would be above putting a real-world product placement tactic in the film itself. That entire scene was just a multimillion dollar brainwash commercial.
 
The film isn’t bad enough to say I feel betrayed, it’s rather good at accomplishing certain things, but I’d certainly say it’s disappointing enough to say claims of it failing to be a worthy sequel are fair. But hey...that's me! I honestly don't hate the film, but I've just got more beefs with it than a butcher. Maybe the original set my bar way too high, I'm in freaking love with it, but I just found this very shallow and campy, especially when compared to said original. Over all, I'd give it a solid 3. I would never say it's bloody awful, but it's not ...well...much of anything in my opinion. Just another shallow blockbuster.  

Minor comic book nerd gripes: I really wanted Black Widow to have a Russian accent. I’d much rather have classic Nick Fury over Ultimate. I really wish Whiplash’s final suit (which is destroyed so anticlimactically) was crimson in tribute to his other amalgam inspiration. Nothing that really hurt the film for me, the comedy did enough of that, but in an ideal world...

Maybe i'll watch this movie after all.

I wasn't disappointed per se, because I wasn't too keen on the first movie, but this film was a mess. Way too many characters, with many of them being all over the place, a semi-interesting origin for Whiplash that wasn't really interesting enough to keep me entertained, random ridiculous events that make no sense, and don't even get me started on the bickering (actually I went into considerable detail regarding the bickering in my own review I posted here on Comic Vine). Big thumbs down from me, shame really.

This movie is brilliant and imo leagues above the first ironman which was also awesome.

Agree 100% G-Man!  Downey Jr. and Rourke were amazing in their roles!  Little bits here and there that could have been changed, but overall a great film.  I've already seen it twice, once on Wednesday because Audi gave an advanced screening in my area due to the "product placement" and once last night at midnight just for $h!ts and giggles.  I'm actually ready to see it again!  Favreau knows how to make a comic book film!

I loved the movie, but I felt there was just something missing. I hate to say that, but all and all I loved it.

I have to say I found this one better than the first Iron Man, which I took over Dark Knight. Great movie, great cast, can't wait to see more in the Avengers. Plus the end scene after the credits. Chills! I saw the first movie opening night too and my girlfriend, me and 3 people stayed out of a packed theater and saw the end scene. This time. Two or three people left.

i was surprised on how (opposed to what everybody thought) Scarlett Johannson nailed her mysterious Black Widow role!
 
But here's my review: http://bit.ly/aXujh4

I was surprised on how (opposed to what everybody thought) Scarlet Johannson nailed her mysterious Black Widow role.
 
Here's my review: http://bit.ly/aXujh4

"i was surprised on how (opposed to what everybody thought) Scarlett Johannson nailed her mysterious Black Widow role!
 
But here's my review: http://bit.ly/aXujh4 "

yeah... i dont have the same opinion. The writing wasnt good. But i could understand why it wasnt. There was too many characters that had a lot going on.

There were just some fantastic geek moments in the movie and the little nods they put in for the Avengers films were rad too.  
 
Also, my favorite scene:  

" The part when Iron Man uses his lasers... everyone actually clapped. Was so weird but awesome. "

... does anyone know if that was Thor they blew up in the prison?

does whiplash turn into crimson dynamo by the end of it? cause who's the final fight against, it cant just be those drones.

"does whiplash turn into crimson dynamo by the end of it? cause who's the final fight against, it cant just be those drones. "

"@DH69 said:

"does whiplash turn into crimson dynamo by the end of it? cause who's the final fight against, it cant just be those drones. "

EEEEH! Sort of...minus the crimson. I actually thought his armor at the end looked a lot more like one of the comic versions of Titanium Man. "

I loved it, I said in another area of this site that it was like a glimpse into the life of Tony Stark.  That its felt more than a movie, like this is what Tony Stark's world is like now.  I liked it too, maybe not as much as the first, but I thought it was good.  4/5 for me, or 8/10 or something like that.

my favorite part is when he turned on the reactor and said, "AAAAH, that tastes like cocoanut!"  
 
and i liked how it was dedicated to DJ AM

I've said it before, I shall say it again; this movie is AMAZING...ly average. The references were nice, and the acting was great. Johansson and Rourke were both exemplary. But the characterisation was just bad.
 Tony is not a good person. That's the picture I got. He's an egomaniacal douche. He saves people because it gives him something to do, not because he actually wants to, and only as long as it doesn't interfere with his day-to-day existence. Not once do we see Tony dart away from something he's doing to actively try and help someone. Nope, the danger has to fall in his lap, or someone else can handle it. How are we, as the audience, supposed to cheer for someone like that? That's not humanising a character, that's making him a giant shmuck. In addition, Justin Hammer really wasn't a bad guy. He freed one incarcerated individual so he could build weapons in order to protect the U.S. He's arrested at the end, because he was duped. Yeh, that seems fair. At the race in Monaco, we see Hammer try to befriend Stark, and Stark makes him look like a complete twit in front of the Press. Uncool. Hammer was a far more altruistic character in this film than Tony, imo.
 
All in all, an average outing for Iron Man, where he was upstaged by the Black Widow and Whiplash.

 
I just saw it a couple hours ago and i thought it was great!  Kinda wish there was a little more action but there was a pretty good build up to the final climax.  I actually think i like this story better than the first one.

 
I feel like noting the very brief Stan Lee cameo which, as mentioned in the "Unscripted" review, is a little more special then other cameos because it's so quick and easy to miss.  I always get giddy whenever i see an epic Stan Lee cameo but since it's so obvious that feeling doesn't last too long. 
 
The post-credits teaser was pretty EPIC aswell and it makes me excited to see the next movie.  Here's a hint for those who haven't seen it yet:

"my favorite part is when he turned on the reactor and said, "AAAAH, that tastes like cocoanut!"."

I absolutely loved this movie, the only thing I had to complain about was the Black Widow was the lack of naming certain characters and Black Widow not having a Russian accent at the very least in certain times when she was actually Black Widow. Hell I would have even settled for maybe a phrase or two in Russian just to show she is, not many people in the theater got that she was Russian other than those who knew who she was.

Tony Stark,

I thought Black Widow was a little sucky. But over all it was good.

i loved the it . iron man 2 was awesome 4.5/5