Compared to "Spider-Man 2," the high watermark of comic-book adventure movies, "Iron Man 2" falls short.
Still, there's plenty of eye-popping action, snappy one-liners, and Robert Downey Jr. working at the top of his game as genius super hero Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man).
Keeping in mind the simplistic formula comic book narrative template indigenous to the form, Justin Theroux's script gets around the bases pretty well.
Stark responds to a senate hearing request for him to turn over his "Iron Man weapon," and gleefully refuses. Behind Stark's back, arms dealer Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) is working on creating similar suits for military use.
The arrival of Mickey Rourke as Iron Man's villain du jour Ivan Vanko, presents Hammer with an opportunity to access Vanko's technologically advanced ideas to create drone bots in the Iron Man image.
Obligatory romantic tension simmers between Tony Stark and his newly promoted CEO Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), while Scarlett Johansson's legal representative Natalie is brought on board at Stark Enterprises.
Natalie's character revelations add some much needed spice and kick to the wholesale destruction on display.
Rated PG-13. 124 mins.
