Thought I'd post my musings on Iron Man 2. Firstly, thought the first movie was a pleasant surprise, primarily due to RDJ and some good set-pieces, with nice character building and of course, impressive FX.
Had read a few reviews prior to going in, and regret to have to side with those rating it as a pretty poor second outing. This movie should get done under the trade descriptions act firstly; the 'iron' Iron Man barely features in the film. Instead, we get treated to interminably long stretches of dialogue, some of which were just plain rambling and appeared to be ad-libbed (particularly by Sam Rockwell). The whole middle act was a yawn fest and killed the movie stone dead. KiRAB / teens might get pretty restless during this stretch. There is definitely an excess of characters, some far fetched plot contrivances, RDJ veering from annoying to sulky, the prime villain under utilised and just general filler scenes (step forward Sam L Jackson). By the time the final battle comes around, I was past the point of caring - particularly when you see the 'army' IM takes on. Few laughs in between the (ahem) mayhem, so no relief there either.
Visual flourishes were there, but night time battles with whizzy metal men and explosions wasn't as satisfying as even the rather weak battle at the end of the first movie. A saving grace was the eye-candy on show - Scarlett Johansson, with a Hit Girl take down scene...but not quite as gory.
But ultimately, if all Iron Man films are going to feature 'metal men' slogging it out in a grand finale, then on the evidence of the sequel perhaps a third showing is unwarranted and maybe a relief. 2/5.