Tony Stark, now publicly known to be Iron Man, has brought peace to many places in the world. Yet he still has a lot of enemies. The US government believes the Iron Man suit is a weapon and should be under their control. Tony disagrees and refuses to hand over his property. Meanwhile, Ivan Vanko, a Russian man whose father was wronged by Tony's father, is working on a suit of his own. He plans to avenge his father by killing Tony Stark. At the same time, the reactor that is keeping Tony alive is also slowly poisoning him. Never a dull moment for Iron Man.
First off, I'd like to address the major casting change. Rhodey, Tony's best friend, is no longer played by Terrence Howard. Don Cheadle has stepped into those military shoes. I was a little apprehensive when I heard the news. However, my misgivings were misplaced. Cheadle is amazing as Rhodey. In my opinion, he should have had the role from the very beginning.
Now down to the meat and bones of it. I'm not nearly as big a comic book fan as my husband is. While I usually enjoy a good action flick, I look to him to see whether the team has stayed true to the comic. The Iron Man team has done an awesome job and I really wish they could do all of the Marvel films. It would suck to have an awesome Iron Man movie but then have an awful Thor movie then try to smush them all together into the Avengers movie. (By the way, there are a few nods to other heroes...keep an eye out for them!)
So...go and see it. You won't be disappointed. Except maybe in Mickey Rourke.