Iron Man 2

-The Pros and Cons of the Man of Iron’s Second Journey-

            Six months after the first movie, Anthony Stark (Robert Downey JR.), has used his Iron Man armor to broker a major peace deal with the world’s leading superpowers. Stark then fulfills his dead father’s wish to have a “Stark Expo” to increase his popularity and show the public what Stark Industries is working on next. In politics though, he continuously vilified by the U.S. government for not handing over the secrets for his armor. Meanwhile the palladium in the arc reactor that keeps his heart beating is slowly poisoning him, and so far an alternate element hasn’t been discovered. Stark slowly begins to go crazy, and makes a “bucket list”.

           

While racing in Monaco, Tony Stark is attacked by a mysterious man who has built his own arc reactor, and whip-like attachments. Tony uses his “Suitcase Armor” (the Mark V Iron Man armor) to take out the assailant. The attacker turns out to be Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), the son of a Russian Physicist that worked with Howard Stark on the original arc reactor. Some time after this incident, Tony Stark gets drunk at his last birthday party, while wearing the Iron Man armor. James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) is sent in a weaponized version of the Mark II armor to subdue him. In attempt to placate Tony Stark, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) gives him a chest  of his fathers old stuff. Looking at the video from his father, he discovers the 1974 Stark Expo was actually the hidden plans for an alternate element to the  palladium in Stark's arc reactor. While Stark is modifying is reactor, the free Ivan Vanko is trying to take the Stark Expo by force. Iron Man and War Machine are dispatched to deal with him…

According to the people I interviewed, Iron Man 2 wasn't as good as the first Iron Man in 2007. The best part about the movie was the action, the music and the CGI (not nearly as good as Avatar though) What most people didn't like was the length (almost three hours), and that Robert Downey Junior wasn't in character. Overall, the movie has a 7.5 on the popularity scale mainly due to the length isn't balanced by the amount of action.