I Am… (for the second time)

OK, this was worth waiting the extra few days to catch…

“It’s good to be back!”

Plot-in-a-nutshell – bad men try to make new Iron Man outfits, real Iron Man has real-life crises and has to stop them. Come on, it’s a superhero film. You want a plot?!

It’s very, very rare for a sequel to outdo or even equal the original. Iron Man 2 has succeeded. Whether it’s better than the first is going to be a matter of opinion but it’s certainly every bit as good.

What I liked most about the first film was the wonderful banter, mainly in dialogue involving Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr). It’s fast, sharp and witty. I seriously wonder if they’ve hired a scriptwriter from The West Wing to add the extra zing. In all honesty, this dialogue gave me more laughs than I get from many so-called comedy films.

OK, let’s be honest. It’s not a complicated plot. A bad guy (Mickey Rourke) makes a cool exoskeleton with electric whips. Another nasty rich man wants to rip off Stark’s suits so he can make money in the weapons market. Things get out of hand, and a huge special-effects and explosion-laden fight ensues.

In with all of this, romance maybe seems to blossom between Stark and “Pepper” Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Samuel L Jackson reappears as Agent Nick Fury, and the Avengers project starts to gain some momentum. There is a very interesting post-credits sequence that’s apparently worth staying back for. I didn’t. So I read about it here.

This is a simple film with a good core set of actors. The effects are superb, the action sequences big and silly, the dialogue – as mentioned – witty. As far as it goes, and it doesn’t try to pretend it’s anything it’s not, this is a great piece of entertainment.

Which – after all – is what you’re after when you watch a film.

That and Scarlett Johansson in a sexy black outfit. Tick that box as well. Phwoar.