Iron Man 2: Iron Harder

Not as good as the first, but overall I liked the movie! [SPOILERS BELOW]



Good:

• Tony Stark doing what he does best. The classic Iron Man stories involve Tony Stark using his mind to get past the obstacles presented before him -- though generally by building new armor. He was technically given the answer in the movie by his long dead father, but whatever.
• Suitcase Armor -- a staple in the classic books. 
• Happy Hogan getting a little more screen time. 
• Humor/charm of the first movie still present. 
• Oodles of mechanized fight scenes! My favorite of which was the IM/Whiplash bout at Monaco. The fact that they included Whiplash in a way that made sense (read: not ridiculously outmatched) was fantastic. Iron Man's rogues gallery is fairly weak. 
• The cast minus Scarlett Johansson. Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer in particular -- new spin on old character, played it perfectly. I still think Michael Jai White would have been an ideal Rhodey, but Cheadle is loads better than Terrance Howard.
• Special effects top notch again -- damn I want his lab.

Bad:

• Scarlett Johansson.
• Avengers Initiative/SHIELD. I felt the movie would have been better if they focused on the Stark/Hammer/Vanko triangle. Having Fury and SHIELD didn't really bring anything to the table except setting up upcoming Thor and Avengers movies. Though Cap's shield was humorous.
• Drunken Tony Stark party. This wasn't actually that bad (and nowhere near as bad as emo Spider-Man (3) jazz alley dance number), but it just made Stark's alcoholism ridiculous instead of troubling. 
• Scarlett Johansson.
• Final fight between IM/War Machine and Whiplash. I know we just sat through probably close to half an hour of armor/robot destruction, but I think a more dramatic fight (and by more dramatic I mean more talking, less fighting) would have made that showdown better. It felt kinda thrown in just so they could beat up on him one more time. 
• Stark/Pepper hooking up could have happened at the end of the next movie. I fear this might lose some of what makes them great on screen, and just turn it into Peter Parker/Mary Jane style drama.
• Scarlett Johansson.

Setting up the third: Well in the future because of The Avengers, but where does this movie lead? War Machine is here, so don't think you can take him out. Hammer has vowed to get vengeance. And as probably the last in a trilogy, IM's arch-nemesis the Mandarin will have to make an appearance. The Mandarin -- possibly one of the most politically incorrect characters created. He's a Chinese kung-fu master who wields  ten magical rings and at one point was in control of a large green dragon. And of course his choice of dress happens to be long flowing robes and he sports a fu manchu. He resides in the "Valley of the Spirits", deep in the jungles of China.

Luckily modern incarnations of the characters have made him more of a businessman bent on creating a new world order and his rings have been revealed to be alien technology, so there is something to draw from to make a legitimate movie villain. In the first Iron Man, the terrorists that captured Tony Stark was named the Ten Rings, in obvious reference to the Mandarin. I couldn't find any such references in second movie (after one viewing), but it'll be interesting to see how they present him in the third.

Yeah...

Go see Iron Man 2! Next anticipated summer movie: Predators.