Iron Man 2: Quick Review

I took the family to the drive-in Saturday night to see the newest Shrek movie and Iron Man 2.
Shrek was pretty much what I expected, a good family movie. There were some really funny parts, a good moral lesson (ala It's a Wonderful Life) and fairly enjoyable. If I didn't have a daughter I probably would  not have seen it, but I don't think it was a waste of money.
As for Iron Man 2, I have mixed feelings. Part of me thought it was absolutely awesome, but I also felt kind of let down. The story seemed to go in too many directions needlessly and there were just too many characters. Favrea played too big of a part in the movie. I just don't think his character was important enough to get as much screen time as he did, it added nothing to the movie. Actually knowing who he is kind of distracted from the story.
Cheadle was great as Rhodey as was Paltrow as Pepper. Downey Jr. made Tony Stark a little to cocky and arrogant for my tastes. It was almost as if he got his billionaires mixed up and was playing Bruce Wayne, the publicly flamboyant and inept alter ego of Batman. Although he got some bad comments from reviewers I liked Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer. Of course I think Rockwell is one of the most underrated actors when it comes to playing slime-balls.
While everyone seemed to rave about Rourke's character Ivan Vanko I thought the character was dull and uninteresting. I'd rather have seen Rockwell as the primary bad guy who designs and builds an army of armored drones to battle Iron Man and War Machine with Rourke's Whiplash/Crimson Dynamo amalgam removed from the story completely. Scarlett Johanson as Black Widow, while I will never complain about seeing Johanson in skintight black leather, served no real purpose in the movie except as a quasi team up with the chauffeur.
The fight scenes were cool, though they were over too quickly. While it was neat to see War Machine and Iron Man duke it out, that part of the movie seemed forced to me. We all remember how much trouble Stark had learning to use the armor, but Rhodey puts it on and acts as if he has been using it for years. I also thought that Stark build the armor(s) to be powered by the arc reactor in his chest. Since when does he build them with the arc reactors already in place? Otherwise how did Rhodey power the suit? Plus the reason behind why he put on and then stole the armor just seemed wrong to me. Very out of character. They could have come up with something better. Also Stark's illness and miraculous cure, kind of lame and a big time waster.
Over all I liked the movie and will definitely be buying it on DVD. I will also be watching it multiple times as Iron Man is one of my favorite Marvel characters, but I was kind of let down.