New Release: Iron Man 2

I won't bore you all with a long review of Iron Man 2, as almost everyone reading this review will already have seen it.  So I'll skip right to what I liked and what I didn't. 

Liked:

1. The fight scene with Jon Favreau
2. Scarlett Johannson as the bad ass who helps save the day (her role in the next installment should be more substantial, though then I probably won't like her as much)
3. The aside at the beginning when Don Cheadle arrives and says, "I'm here, it's me, get over it" as a small nod to the fact that he replaced Terrance Howard.  I thought he did a good job, particularly when he got his own suit.  He learned to fly it awfully fast. 
4. Stan Lee as Larry King
5. The effects were good, and inventive, without being totally over-the-top-sequel-esque. 
6. RDJ was good playing the self-destructive/self-pitying guy, but it went on too long. 

Disliked:

1. While the dialogue was good, they spent way too much time talking/fighting over each other.  Normally that kind of banter from RDJ is terrific, but it was hard to get all the jokes and to figure out what was going on.  It was usually 2+ people talking almost all the time.  
2. Mickey Rourke's affinity for birds.  Change it to a chihuahua and it would have been watching cuckoo Mickey Rourke playing himself (though with crazy physics skills)
3. Too long, a large chunk of the middle could have been chopped down. 
4. I would have liked more explanation of who the heck Nick Fury was and how he knew Stark Sr.
5. Sam Rockwell is wholly unbelievable as any part of the character he was playing.  Just Sam Rockwell playing himself again? 

Overall, the good outweighed the bad, and it was entertaining. A good stand alone movie, not dependent on the original, and broke new ground, but as with many sequels that already plan to be a trilogy, it spent too long setting up the next film.  4 of 5 stars/lambs