IRON MAN 2 (12A) Action. Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L Jackson, Jon Favreau, Garry Shandling. Director: Jon Favreau.

Director Jon Favreau’s first encounter with the Marvel Comics superhero was one of the most exhilarating diversions of the 2008 summer blockbuster season.

The film’s heady conflation of dazzling special effects, playful performances and sizzling screen chemistry between Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow jet-propelled the film to gargantuan box office takings.

%movie(769)

Money talks loudly in Hollywood and so inevitably, Favreau and most of his cast return for the sequel.

The weight of expectation on Iron Man 2 would test even the strength of the eponymous hero’s red and gold armour and regrettably, the turbo-charged sequel misfires.

Screenwriter Justin Theroux struggles to integrate the new characters, though he does incorporate several scenes of Nick Fury (Jackson) which lay the groundwork for the forthcoming film of The Avengers featuring Iron Man, Captain America and The Incredible Hulk.

Billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (Downey Jr) announces to the world that he is Iron Man and buoys his over-inflated ego with the adulation of the masses.

He single-handedly maintains world peace, to the chagrin of the US government and private investors, who are keen to acquire his technology for their own needs.

Stark refuses to share his invention, causing a furore at a Senate Armed Services Committee run by Senator Stern (Shandling).

Soon after, Russian physicist Ivan Vanko (Rourke), whose father helped to pioneer the Iron Man technology, creates a crude replica of the electromagnetic device in the industrialist’s chest and transforms himself into the villainous Whiplash.

His attack on Stark compels the military to take action, seizing one of the suits.

Stark races to avert disaster aided by good friend ‘Rhodey’ (Cheadle), new secretary Natalie Rushman (Johansson) and chauffeur Happy Hogan (Favreau).

Iron Man 2 is sluggish, weighed down by the anguish of Downey Jr’s inventor, who is being poisoned by the technology that keeps him alive.

There are a couple of cute one-liners but these are few and far between.

The rapport with Paltrow’s sassy love interest energises several scenes and Rourke’s tattooed villain is quietly compelling, destroying the myth of Iron Man because as he tells Stark: “If you can make God bleed then people will cease to believe.”

Action scenes are slickly orchestrated but don’t get the blood pumping and the final showdown is a huge anti-climax.

Like its central protagonist, the sequel feels tired. ***