Iron Man 2

Above everything else, "Iron Man 2" is a beautiful film. Every frame is beautiful. A few of the scenes, the calm ones that serve as interludes, are beautiful in a stylized, clean way, maybe like a frame from "Mad Men". But this movie doesn't have many interludes, and most of its compositions are beautiful with a gritty, rich, overwhelming beauty, filled with contrasting shapes and colors that fight for your attention. Frames like this one:

The "clean" scenes are the ones that have Gwyneth Paltrow and Scarlett Johansson in them, usually together - unbelievably beautiful. The gritty scenes belong to Robert Downey Jr. and Mickey Rourke, who both look amazing. I know that they've both been to hell and back in the last few years, but they've come back as two unbelievably attractive men, and I hope that along with their apparently successful comeback, they get to enjoy their improved appearance at least as much as I do.
Side note - in the last three films I've seen him in, Rourke was wearing the same clothes, boots and beads, which leads me to think that they are his own. Like he's decided to just wear his own stuff to the set from now on, and the production people just write it into the script somehow. Works so far.

Aside from being beautiful, Iron Man 2 is filled with great actors. The main four characters are great, but so are Sam Rockwell, Garry Shandling (love you Garry!), John Slattery in a tiny-big role as Stark's father, and Jon Favreau himslef. The part of Agent Coulson, played by Clark Gregg, is so funny it should've been much bigger. Samuel Jackson shows up at some point and does what he always does, which is fine unless you're tired as hell of it like I am.

It's a hilarious film. The intended jokes are funny, the way people act are funny, even single frames are funny. The scene with the rotating thing on Pepper's desk had me crying with laughter. The exaggerations are funny - one person builds an incredibly complicated piece of machinery all by himself in order to create something that has never before existed in nature. You can get annoyed by that, but you also have to laugh.

On the negative side, the film doesn't have as much soul and story as the first one. There's almost no struggle for the characters, and nobody is fooled *tiny spoiler* by the empty threat that Tony Stark might be fatally ill. Still, we all love to see Robert Downey Jr. be all self-destructive and tortured.

To sum up, Iron Man 2 is two hours of beautiful, entertaining, non-stop action. It isn't much more than that, but it's still better than most comic book adaptations, and style-wise it stands alone.