Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, Samuel L Jackson
Running time: 120 mins
Rating: ★★★★

THE first Iron Man film was one of the better movies based on a comic book hero, not least because the always-likeable Robert Downey Jr brought humour and charm to the metal man.

I seem to recall stories about director Jon Favreau being worried about getting a second instalment on screen so quickly.

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And there are signs in Iron Man 2 that not all the issues of making a sequel have been resolved. But at least the makers don’t opt, as other sequels have done before them, for a total re-run of the first film only with bigger explosions and grander special effects.

It’s obvious thought has been put into trying to top the Iron Man’s first big screen outing by concentrating on character as well as action. Okay, so the plot’s a tad complicated and the final confrontation lacks the wow factor but Iron Man 2 earns four stars for its talented leading man and several powerhouse action sequences.

Billionaire industrialist Tony Stark has revealed that he’s Iron Man, whose heroic efforts have done the impossible – achieved world peace. It won’t, you don’t have to be psychic to guess, last long.

He’s under attack from a government committee that wants him to hand over his revolutionary weapon – his iron suit – to the military. No way Jose, Stark tells them.

Also unlikely to let him rest is technology expert Ivan Vanko (Rourke, with Russian accent and mad hair), a figure from the Stark family past who’s built his own secret weapon. His nickname Whiplash is a clue to his particular power that he puts to good – bad? – use at the Monaco grand prix where his electrifying whip-like arms slice through metal like a hot knife through butter.

Sam Rockwell as a shady businessman, aiming to be bigger than Stark in the weapons business, is not to be trusted. Then there’s Natalie (Johansson in and out of a series of figure-hugging outfits), a new employees at the Stark corporation who may, or may not, be on his side.

At least Johansson gets to do some action, Gwyneth Paltrow, as Stark’s newly-promoted CEO, is left too often on the sidelines, looking on in open-mouthed wonder at the fantastic superhero shenanigans.

Perhaps if she wasn’t wearing such high heels, they’d have let her run around more.

Director Favreau appears on the other side of the camera as Stark’s driver and bodyguard Happy Hogan when not orchestrating the impressive action set pieces. Whiplash disrupting the Monaco Grand Prix is a humdinger and one that the final confrontation between Stark, chum Lt Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Cheadle taking over from Terrence Howard) and many androids can’t top.