The second adventure of Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) and his awesome suit has him up against two deadly enemies: Ivan Antonovich Vanko (Mickey Rourke), a disgruntled Russian physicist with a grudge against the Stark family, and himself, a billionaire entrepreneur with a drinking problem. The original Iron Man set a bar against which all other Marvel comic book movies must be measured, and while Iron Man 2 doesn’t really come close to matching its predecessor, it’s still surprisingly good, all things considered — despite obviously being rushed into production and featuring characters and subplots that just don’t need to be there (the biggest culprit being Scarlett Johansson‘s sexy yet rather pointless Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, though the first adjective probably renders the second one null and void, at least according to cynical studio execs). Downey, Jr. is, of course, excellent, and once again his rat-a-tat flirting/arguing with Gwyneth Paltrow‘s Pepper Potts provides some of the best moments; Sam Rockwell, who’s come a long way since playing the put-upon bellhop in director Jon Favreau’s Made, is also strong as the scheming Justin Hammer. By the way, for those keeping score in leading up to The Avengers, Iron Man 2 takes place six months after the events of Iron Man and before both The Incredible Hulk and Thor.