Undoubtedly the most anticipated sequel of the year, Iron Man 2 had some shiny metal shoes to fill and doesn’t disappoint.

The sequel picks up mere seconds after its predecessor left off; as the titles flash we hear Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) at the post disaster press conference announce to the world media that he is Iron Man overheard by embittered physicist Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke). Vanko believing the Stark family to have been the source of all his hardship concocts a devastating plan to destroy Tony and his reputation.

Stark’s troubles are stacking up; he has a new-found nemesis, the military are demanding he hand over the Iron Man technology, his industrial competitor Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) is breathing down his neck; his best friend Col. Rhodes (Don Cheadle) is losing faith in his ability to play superhero, his relationship with long suffering sidekick Pepper Potts is being strained by the appearance of sexy new assistant Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson) and to top it off he is secretly dealing with the fact that the arc reactor keeping shrapnel out of his heart (see the first instalment of the franchise) is also poisoning him.

For a sequel the character development is exceptional. Director Jon Favreau and screenwriter Justin Theroux (Tropic Thunder) went the extra mile and added believable personal conflicts to the lives of all main characters. Robert Downey Jr. steps up his game as the tortured Tony Stark, crumbling under pressure and facing his own mortality. Equally the smitten and doe-eyed Pepper Potts of the original is given more depth as she takes on more responsibility and Don Cheadle’s ‘Rhodey’ no longer hero-worships Stark and all his exploits.

Robert Downey Jr. is phenomenal as Tony Stark, playing him with the same sexy swagger as before but with a touch of humanity as he struggles to tell Pepper about his worsening condition. He really shines at the senate hearing where the cocky Stark, impeccably down-played by Downey Jr., claims to have privatised world peace and argues that since he IS Iron Man to hand over the suit would be “akin to indentured servitude or prostitution”. This exacerbates the committee and Senator Stern to Paul Gogarty levels garnering the reaction “Fuck you Mr. Stark, fuck you buddy”.

To Favreau’s credit, though the eponymous hero is at the centre the rest of the cast, even secondary characters, are given due respect and development. The support cast is solid, Scarlett Johansson doesn’t have a lot of screen time but when she does appear she sizzles. Her scenes as Stark’s assistant are a little lacklustre but dressed as her alter ego Black Widow (oddly, perhaps wisely, never referred to as such) she kicks ass, and in a powerful, no-nonsense kind of way.

Though the material was juicier, a few members of the cast failed to shine through. Oscar winner Paltrow’s paltry attempt at softening the now-powerful Pepper Potts fails miserably, and despite the fact that you know our hero belongs with her, she just cannot make her character in any way likeable.

Equally Don Cheadle’s attempt to take over the role of Col. Rhodes from Terence Howard’s doesn’t work well. There is nothing wrong with Cheadle’s performance; his time on screen just lacked the chemistry which Howard and Downey Jr. originally had in the 2008 film.

Mickey Rourke also failed to impress as Whiplash, his menace was rooted in his grubby appearance and scary tattoos while his Russian accent had hints of Sesame Street about it, “Von, Two, Three Iron Drones, mwah ah ah”.

However, the show stealer was Sam Rockwell as Stark’s kooky foil Justin. His impeccable sense of comedic timing and off-the-wall energy provide comic relief but also add an unhinged and terrifying element to Hammer’s character.

Samuel L. ‘just-make-sure-the-cheque-clears’ Jackson is back after his post-credit sting with a sustained cameo as Nick Fury. It’s a minor role but his main purpose seems to be to drive Internet fan-boys wild in speculation and anticipation for what lies ahead in the Marvel world. The now-confirmed Avengers film featuring Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, and Thor unsubtly referenced throughout; both Captain America and Thor are overtly discussed in the film, handy since a film on each hero is due out next year.

Though this can be seen as needless plugging of upcoming Marvel projects it actually adds to the film, creating a rich, layered and believable world where superheroes exist; the use C-SPAN, CNN news updates and even a Bill O’Reilly rant add to the authenticity of Iron Man’s world. It also makes me for one anticipate upcoming Marvel projects with more relish, presenting viewers with the (super nerdy) challenge of spotting in-house references and jokes. Similar to a Discworld novel, when characters, events and places crop up across the franchise it enriches the audience’s knowledge and experience of the diegetic world. But I digress…

Favreau has really upped his game on this film, with the direction taking on some fun quirks. A high-speed airborne Iron Man chase is interspersed with still shots of a car park where each passing metalman sets off a medley of car alarms. Even the exploration of Tony Stark’s character is sassed up, a POV sequence is used at the beginning of the film (complete with regal cameo) to give the audience a taste of life in Stark’s playboy world. Favreau’s creativity even sees his own character, driver Happy Hogan, pressed betwe­­en Scarlet Johansson’s thighs (I guess being the boss has it’s perks).

It is refreshing to watch an action movie that doesn't take itself too seriously and Iron Man 2 has the perfect balance of action and comedy. Packed full of break-taking CGI (though there are still shots where the gleaming suit looks a bit more animated than it should), full of snappy dialogue, and with compelling performances (apart from the woefully wooden Paltrow) Iron Man 2 effortlessly pulls away from the pack of mediocre superhero films and takes its place as one of the best action films of the year.

Transformers – Revenge of the sequel

Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen is riding on the coattails of the 2007’s hugely successful Transformers and – as is often the tragic fate of the sequel – doesn’t live up to its predecessor.

The film begins with an update on Sam Witwicky, his inexplicably scantily clad girlfriend Mikaela Banes, their shape-shifting space-robot friends the Autobots and the fate of the Earth.

Optimus Prime and his team have partnered with the US army to take out the remaining Decepticons (evil robots) living on Earth; while teenage smart-mouth Sam is leaving the Los Angeles suburbia of his childhood and onto the manhood that awaits at college. Not two days into lectures Sam is once again called upon to help the Autobots in their fight to save the planet from destruction.

The shoes of the 2007 original were always going to be hard to fill. The movie grossed over $700 million worldwide, wowed critics with its impressive CGI effects, satisfied any 80s nostalgist and spawned a new army of teen Transformers fanboys. Like the student who knows they aced their last test, director Michael Bay and his team have gotten a little lazy with this film.

The first Transformers movie worked because the cast and crew were enjoying the preposterousness of the story; they didn’t take themselves too seriously and had a bit of fun. The plot was simple – bad Decepticons were searching for an energy source on Earth and were prepared to obliterate humanity in the process while nice caring Autobots were here to protect and defeat the evil menace.

Revenge of the Fallen’s plot is a sprawling, meandering mess and takes almost two and a half hours before completion. The robot civil war rages on, but they’ve thrown into the mix an ancient sun destroying machine, Shia LaBeouf suffering alien-maths induced seizures and the return of a fallen mechanical apostle.

The acting is really dreadful and the machines manage to upstage their human counterparts throughout. LaBeouf’s attempt at replicating mental breakdown is laughable. His quick teenage wit served him well in the original when he was an eager boy discovering a race of alien robots, but it really lags in this film. He’s a bit like that guy in school who nobody really liked, and no matter how funny something he said was you absolutely couldn’t laugh because he annoyed you too much. At 23 LaBeouf still needs to earn his leading man status, making out with Megan Fox might get him some man-points but his whiney sarcastic tone (lifted directly from last year’s dreadful Indiana Jones 4) undercuts any likeability he may have had.

As far as Fox is concerned there is no room for acting. Just as the camera pans slowly across the sleek bodywork of the cars, so too does it slowly pan over her sleek bodywork. She is introduced to us provocatively mounted on a motorcycle in a pair of Daisy Dukes working in her father’s grease shop, most of it slathered on her body. Let’s face it, she wasn’t hired for the first film for her keen intellect, and fulfils her duties yet again as the fanboy’s wet dream of a leather-clad, hot wiring, biker chick.

John Turturro returns as Agent Simmons and provides some of the tragically lacking comic relief of the film. The real comedy gem, however, is Sam’s mother played by Julie White. When she barged into her son’s room in the last film asking if he was engaging in “Sam’s happy time” we knew we were onto a winner. Now she’s earns her true comedic stripes rugby tacking college jocks, talking about her son’s cherry and pointing out bald spots on her head. The ever hilarious Rainn Wilson makes a cameo and is absolutely wasted as a sarky college lecturer in one small scene.

The team of Autobots is now expanded. Most likely aware of the misogynistic tone of the last film, the makers have added three lady-bots to the crew who sadly rarely feature. The most offensive addition is the duo of Mudflap and Skids – a pair of jive-talking imbecile robots who could have easily served as Huggy Bear’s idiotic henchmen in an old Starsky and Hutch episode. It’s almost like the film is trying to be a bit offensive, a mini-Decepticon humps Megan Fox’s leg and Sam makes a throwaway comedic remark in a butcher shop about Swine Flu.

It’s not just the acting and the tone that’s problematic; director Michael Bay is being a little too pushy with his audience this time around. Consistently throughout the film, Bay makes some immensely unsubtle nods to his past catalogue of work. The New York skyline is littered with destruction in the style of Armageddon, a giant air craft carrier is blown apart á la Pearl Harbour but the most glaringly obvious reference is the Bad Boys II poster we see on Sam’s college dorm room. It is as if the director is insisting to us that he knows how to make a good action film. Bay bashers beware this is the height of pretentiousness.

The Autobots and Decepticons are not the only shape shifters in the franchise, Bay himself transforms into one of those eager tourist fathers dragging his viewer from place to place. His packed itinerary takes us from the Pyramids to Paris; Nevada to New York all with the intention of wowing the audience who are really there to disconnect and see giant robots battle it out before our eyes.

To its merit, the fight scenes in Revenge of the Fallen are as impressive, if not more so than the original. Given that the combatants are mechanical Bay has been given a lot more freedom with his 12A rating to experiment with some violence. In one staggeringly well constructed robo-battle in a forest Optimus Prime literally tears his foe’s face apart directly to camera. As with the last film the robot fights are unduly hard work to keep up with, telling battling bots apart is often more difficult than the film makers seem to realise. Both sides are, well, metallic and speak with an intense Christian “I gargle thumbtacks and white spirits” Bale voice. Often it doesn’t matter, as the graphics are so near flawless you enjoy the scrap regardless of who’s winning!

The film is clearly shopping for a new audience; however, newcomers to the franchise will be baffled by the relentless use of space robot jargon throughout. Equally kids and young teens will begin to wane an hour and a half in and dedicated fanboys will be disappointed with the divergence from the original tale. Undoubtedly the film will have massive takings at the Box Office due to the last film’s success, but I’m not sure who Bay and co. were trying to please with this film.

The biggest problem is that too much has been crammed in. The extensive locations are breathtaking but overwhelming, the whirling fight scenes and endless explosions are an all-out sensory assault and the acting is trite and clichéd.

Unlike its mechanical main characters, Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen is so much less than the sum of its parts.