Iron Man 2

***1/2 – Having a movie both begin and end with someone or something flying into or out of the picture accompanied by the annoying strains of an AC/DC song is not the way for a filmmaker to impress me. Luckily, those two parts of Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man 2” are arguably the worst two in a film that is otherwise pretty enjoyable on most levels. Yeah, there’s a lot of largely unbelievable technology - such as Tony Stark’s creation of a highly advanced particle accelerator in his living room over the course of an evening - but it’s a sci-fi superhero film, so that sort of thing is to be expected. And, yeah, all the shots of women in the movie seem to rather immaturely focus on the hinder region for a little longer than is probably natural, but this is a movie that is supposed to be appealing to adolescent male nerds, so, again, that is to be expected. And, yeah, there are lots of huge explosions and gunfire and corny one-liners being spouted, but… well, I actually like that sort of thing. The plot is a little on the weak/hackneyed side, and seeing as it seems to eschew the comic book’s continuity by combining a couple of Iron Man villains into one, it probably tends to anger the nerdish side of me. But Sam Rockwell was awesome as Tony Stark’s rival Justin Hammer, and lent a much needed breath of fresh air to what could have easily become a rather stal