Back in 2008, Jon Favreau’s Iron Man reinvigorated the world’s interest in super hero action flicks. Now with the release of the second Iron Man movie, Favreau hopes to keep that enthusiasm alive.

What was so great about the first movie was that it was the first really good super hero movie in a long time and that made the experience special for everyone. The main problem with Iron Man 2 is that it too heavily relies on the people’s love for the last movie.

Don’t get me wrong, I really liked Iron Man 2. I just think Favreau may have relied too heavily on borrowed excitement. At points it just felt like an extension of the first movie that had been cut for length.

The most common complaint I’ve come across is that the movie is being described as “a really expensive trailer for the Avengers movie.” This issue is actually based in some fact because, at the core of it, that’s exactly what this movie acts as. But, if this is just a movie trailer, then I want to see more entertaining trailers like this.

And that’s exactly what this movie is: entertaining. It doesn’t reinvent anything; nothing in this movie pushes the bar of cinematic technology. It is just an extremely enjoyable way to spend two hours and ten bucks.

The movie goes just as you would expect: the chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow is as believable and humorous as ever. The action is as explosive and intense. And the humor is relatively unchanged, which isn’t a bad thing.

The first Iron Man was your typical origins story; the second installment is the more about dealing with the decisions from the first film. Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) is dying, and the device that is keeping him alive is also killing him. He can’t find a solution and time is running out fast.

An egotistical narcissist like Stark confronting his own morality is interesting to see and Downey Jr. pulls it off spectacularly. Every one of the A-List cast plays a believable, funny, and cool character.

The only other complaint I can think of is that the “villain”, who is Whiplash, a relatively unknown villain in the Marvel universe, doesn’t get nearly enough “evil-guy-face-time”. The person who takes that role is Stark’s business rival Justin Hammer. Hammer is played extremely well by Sam Rockwell in the sense that, by the end of the movie, you really hate his guts. The only problem with that is that Whiplash, played by Mickey Rourke, is a much more interesting character who deserved a little more fleshing out.

While Iron Man 2 doesn’t pack as much punch as the first one, it is a still a really good movie and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys this sort of thing and is looking for a fun movie to go see on a Friday night.