Straight out of Marvel comic books and delivered onto the big screen comes the sequel the classic box office blockbuster “Iron Man”, which is “Iron Man 2”.

In the original, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), a rich billionaire, has no choice except to build a suit following an incident in his life that nearly killed him. Like the sequel the suit is used to fight crime and keep the longest state of peace the United States had yet to see.

One of the main differences between the sequel and the original, as far as plot is concerned is that in the original Tony Stark had to create a suit to keep himself alive and now, in the sequel he has to create a superior element to replace palladium, which is inside the arc reactor that is installed in his chest to keep his heart beating; due to the fact that he is being slowly killed by the very thing that is keeping him alive.

“Iron Man 2” starts out in a shady part of Russia where it opens with a scene introducing the ultimate “bad guy” Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) who nails the role right down to the gibberish, mumbling dialect that the character spoke part of the time.

The story then continues on into the scene where the “Stark Expo” is held, which is where all the latest and greatest inventions of the time are brought out for “show-and-tell”, this is also where the high, flying Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) made an introduction into the movie, complete with fireworks while jumping out of military bomber plane and touching down on the center of the expo floor.

The majority of the story revolves around the fact that the military and Senator Stern (Gary Shandling) has found the Iron Man suit to be a weapon; therefore, following

the expo, Stark is served a subpoena in order to relinquish the suits to the military, which he attends though refuses to follow the orders given.

During the court proceedings Lt. Col. James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes (Terrence Howard) who also doubles as the Iron Man sidekick, War Machine, is introduced and delivers his feedback from his military investigation of the Iron Man suit.

All throughout this time Ivan Vanko is creating his own arc reactor in order to create “hell on earth”, which indeed he does with the help of two electric whips during a race that Tony Stark is racing in, ending up with the first time the two would fight each other face-to-face.

Following the fight, Ivan Vanko is arrested and spends a very short time in jail, which is where Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), Tony Starks competition, steps in and helps Ivan Vanko escape in order to have him start working is his laboratories mass producing Iron Men for government use.

Tony Stark becomes very sick and in an attempt to help the Stark Enterprises he raises Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) to CEO and replaces her with Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson). Together the two put up a good fight when they try to stop the government form making copyright infringements of the suit.

Although it is a sequel, “Iron Man 2” was quite a show till the very end with all the high-flying stunts, special effects and even a little bit of humor all throughout the movie along with a great plot to follow to add to it.

Director: Jon Favreau

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Mickey Rourke

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Running Time: 124

Grade: 4-stars