I was finding it difficult to write about Iron Man 2. There doesn’t seem to be that much substance here. The new characters are interesting but flat, the fight scenes  predictable yet still exciting and the story is similar in structure to many other comic book film sequels, but none of this actually detracts from the experience. This is a high-budget popcorn movie and it doesn’t hide that fact. It’s completely self-aware, and delivers on most of its promise.

The film starts off with Tony Stark finding political pressure back home as the government (faced by a very funny Garry Shandling as a US Senator) believes that they should be in control of the Iron Man ‘weapon’. Stark makes some jokes, makes everyone smile and lets the peeps of the world know that no one could EVER get this technology in ten… TWENTY years. LITTLE DOES HE KNOW that a completely pissed off Russian, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) has a nice blue print of that EXACT SAME technology that makes Iron Man so iron-y and man-y. CUE MOVIE.

Jon Favreau’s direction is spot on, and he shows us once again that he can be quite the comic actor when he wishes. Apart from the perfect Robert Downey Jr filling the shoes of Tony Stark, Sam Rockwell might just be the best thing about the film. I wish this man could be in every film ever made, but I don’t think he has time to do that, which is a great loss for this world. He plays Justin Hammer, an arms dealer who finds an ally in Vanko. He reminded me a lot of and is every bit as good as Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight.

Unfortunately Rourke just doesn’t pull off the villain as well as he probably should have – the character is excellent, but by the end of the film it’s all just a bit flat. Unfortunately this can also be said for Scarlett Johansson and Sam Jackson, who don’t leave me with too much enthusiasm for future Avengers films. Although I’m glad that this quite obvious set-up for future releases wasn’t as in your face as I had expected.

But I’m not going to lie, the action is just as mesmerising as the first film, and while it all felt a bit of a re-hash, there aren’t that many moves you can pull when you are a man in a flying suit, being chased by other flying suits. Favreau and Downey Jr. have once again provided the world with two hours of pure fun – they aren’t out to push boundaries or make us sit there and think about the state of the world, and that’s just fine with me.

Three stars out of five.