Iron Man / Iron Man 2
Director: Jon Favreau
Writer: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway / Justin Theroux
Based on: Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Don Heck and Jack Kirby‘s comic
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard / Don Cheadle, Jeff Bridges, Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, John Slattery, Samuel L. Jackson, Paul Bettany, Jon Favreau
Part of: Marvel movies
[Here are my other reviews.]
Plot:
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is the kind of guy Bruce Wayne always pretends to be: Rich, constantly drunk, an ass. Now take away the social consciousness of Bruce Wayne and add “manufactures weapons” and technical genius and you know Tony Stark.
That changes pretty drastically when he’s abducted in Iraq and forced to build a rocket for a group of terrorists. Instead of building what they ask for, he builds a hightech suit of armour and makes himself a superhero on the way. But becoming a superhero doesn’t come without its costs.
I guess since it’s not the first time that I’m watching the films, nobody will be surprised when I say that I like them. And I really do.
Since I already reviewed Iron Man twice and my opinion hasn’t actually changed that much, I’ll keep this short. The film is fun and I love Robert Downey Jr. in the role and they really do a good job establishing the characters and the world. Also, Jeff Bridges has a great voice. It’s almost as sexy as Paul Bettany’s.
As for Iron Man 2, I had actually forgotten how much of an ass Tony Stark is. He’s an idiot and I wanted to strangle him a lot. I mean, his character makes sense that way and it makes sense that he would lash out by behaving like an utter idiot, but I couldn’t help but be annoyed. At least he still has a sense of humor and he is actually funny. Makes the entire thing bearable.
Having seen Captain America again so shortly before, I was completely irritated by John Slattery being Howard Stark. I mean I know that he was technically first, but Dominic Cooper completely inhabits the role for me. On the other hand, I was surprisingly little irritated by the switch from Terrence Howard to Don Cheadle. Don’t know why.
In any case, I still like those films a lot. I like Pepper and Natasha and their relationship. I like the sass. I’m still not the world’s greatest Iron Man fan, but I really have no problem watching these films over and over again.
Summarising: awesome entertainment.
kalafudra's Stuff 
They are both ok. However, I think that both have problems that kept them from theing the “awesome entertainment” you claim them to be ;-). In the first one, the villain and the showdown were huge letdowns for me. And the second struggled with being an Iron Man sequel as well as an Avengers-prequel. I like them both, but none of them blew me away.
To say that they blew me away would be a little too much. But I still think they’re awesome entertainment, in the grab-your-popcorn-let’s-have-fun way. They end up firmly in the middle between bad and fantastic, which makes them easy to watch, entertaining and fun without any sort of huge emotional attachment.
I don’t know if I’m describing this correctly. But there are very few films that are like that and I enjoy the Iron Man movies for that.