Iron Man 2

OK, this is pretty weird that I am debuting an entirely new website design and name to the site - "Kano's Lay-Z-Boy Theater". The name of this site derives my inability to get to the theater anymore.

But, for my first post on this newly revamped site I, ironically, will be posting a review of a movie I saw in the actual theater - Iron Man 2.

Iron Man sort of came out of nowhere a few years ago, and was a huge surprise hit in the same summer that brought us The Dark Knight. Iron Man I was not able to see in the theater, but was able to check out on its arrival on DVD and I found it very entertaining - sort of the anti-Dark Knight as it wasn't dark at all and most of its appeal came from its humor and leading man - Robert Downey, Jr.

Well, Tony Stark (Downey, Jr.) returns as a huge phenomenon to the adoring public, however, he continues to battle the same health issues from the first movie - and his suit only appears to be causing his health more damage.

This time around the characters are aplenty as we are introduced to Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), a competitor of Stark Industries; Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), the main villain of the film; and Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson), who we know as Black Widow. Also around are Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) - who took over for Terrence Howard.

I have to admit that in the past (older Batman films, Spiderman 3) I have always been against the inclusion of so many characters, but in this film it really didn't hurt too much. There was a lot going on in the film, but for the most part it worked.

My main complaint would be in the finale. There was such a major buildup for the final fight that was sort of let down by how brief the ending became.

Another huge part of this movie was the continued recruitment of Stark to possibly join Fury's Avengers team. I am pretty interested in seeing that film as long as it is done correctly - again the more characters in a film sometimes takes away from the actual story telling.

On a side note: I remember during the showing of this film thinking to myself that I could take a hit in the man department because, honestly, I found Paltrow to be much better looking that Johansson. I am not sure what it was, but she really stood out to me - much more than she did in the first film.

Finally - I am sure most of you have heard about this already, but make sure to stick around until after the credits for a little extra does of fun.

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