Iron Man 2 is like the modern cinematic equivalent of comfort food; it’s tantamount to ordering cheese fries with a side of a basket of fries. This Marvel sequel, distributed by Paramount, comes after the success of the original, and after Marvel was bought by Disney. The story picks up where the first left off, only the action takes place in Russia where a brilliant physicist and career criminal Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke with multiple tattoos, ponytails and a pet cockatoo) sees billionaire Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) outing himself as Iron Man on television.

Vanko wants a piece of the metal since his father helped develop the prototype patents used in Iron Man’s suit. In fact Vanko makes his own suit and soon the battle is on. Complicating matters are a Senate investigation into Stark’s holdings, plus the competitive pressures of fellow arms manufacturer Justin Hammer, a kind of Stark-lite played with slime residue by Sam Rockwell.

If that isn’t enough Stark promotes Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) to CEO of Stark Industries and hires an attractive assistant, Scar Jo at her athletic best, as a personal secretary. Only Scar Jo is really in league with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson with an eyepatch) and the ultra-secret org S.H.I.E.L.D.

This org supervises a group of Marvel superheroes so upcoming sequels should use the synergy of Thor, Captain America, and possibly others including Hulk. The whole concept of this surreptitious group seems defeated by Iron Man 2’s plot twist that has Stark proclaiming himself the United States’ ultimate weapon and thus peace deterrent.

Try though I might I found very little in the way of depth or even political flag waving (as some have proposed) to Iron Man 2. Instead it’s a romp through CGI robots, cool actual locations (Monaco, Edwards Air Base) and Stark being a smarty pants. At one point Iron Man pees in his suit. “It’s filtered, you can drink it,” he explains. Jon Favreau’s direction is pedestrian and workmanlike. At least the effects look big budget, not something that can be said for the effort expended by 20^th Century Fox when they launched not one but two Fantastic Four flicks. Iron Man 2 contains a teaser at the end of the credit roll that reveals Thor’s hammer.

- Michael Bergeron