Iron Man Not Ready for the Rust Heap

Iron Man 2 is clunkier than its predecessor and its self-destructive hero has succumbed to boozy overconfidence, but Robert Downey Jr. saves the film, not to speak of the world, say critics.

• This movie is "bigger, louder and dumber than its predecessor" but still plenty of fun, writes Bill Goodykoontz at the Arizona Republic, praising Downey's "enormously entertaining" performance as the Marvel Comics superhero.

• The flawed hero is still an absorbing character and Mickey Rourke has some great "psycho-Slavic stylings" as a bad guy, but in contrast to its predecessor, Iron Man 2 relies too much on CGI battles and "is more about iron than men," writes Lisa Schwarzbaum at Entertainment Weekly.
• Downey's Iron Man could be "a self-destructive hero out of a Dostoyevsky or Mailer novel" and his performance is worth the ticket price, Richard Corliss writes at Time. The rest, however, is "a cluttered, clattering toy story."
• Director Jon Favreau hasn't suffered a "sophomore slump" with this sequel, writes Pete Hammond at Box Office Magazine. "This Iron Man may not be the Godfather II of comic book movie sequels critics hope for but it is a complete blast anyway."

(More Iron Man 2 stories.)