In defense of 'Iron Man 2': It's not great but it's not so bad

There's a scene I wanna say about a third of the way through Iron Man 2 that is really fantastic. It comes after probably the only thrilling action scene in the movie -- a showdown between Mickey Rourke's Whiplash and Robert Downey Jr's iconic performance in the titular role. Rourke and Downey have a quiet, tense dramatic scene opposite each other in an empty cell.

Rourke's charisma and intensity overcome the somewhat silly Russian accent and there's something electric about seeing these two legendary character actors in the midst of their dramatic comebacks (although Rourke's would be much more shortlived) as Hollywood stars. Unfortunately the dramatic stakes set up in this scene are never fully realized as the overstuffed sequel pushes Rourke to the margins and suffers from to much table setting for future installments.

The film. from the beginning feels like half a victory lap for the original Iron Man film from two years earlier, which is understandable because it was such a game-changer and turned Robert Downey, Jr. into an A-list superstar very unexpectedly in his 40s.

He's in cruise control here as the smug but still likable Tony Stark. There seem to be a couple attempts to add complexity to his character -- they dip a toe into alcholism and suggest his physical health is dramatically deteriorating but there isn't a lot of momentum behind the narrative because it's so patched together.

For instance, why start your superhero movie with a far too long sequence set at a Senate committee hearing. It's fun to see Gary Shandling in this movie, don't get me wrong -- but it goes on way too long.

Then there's the inclusion of Scarlett Johansson -- playing a way too sexualized version of her Black Widow character (they wouldn't figure out how to use her character until far later) and Samuel L. Jackson playing Nick Fury a bit like Jules Winfield in Pulp Fiction.

None of these actors are phoning it in per se. For instance, Sam Rockwell is a lot of fun as a nerdy wannabe Tony Stark (Guy Pearce would do a different take on a similar character in Iron Man 3). And I think Don Cheadle is definitely as upgrade on Terrence Howard as War Machine, although they also didn't figure out how to use him effectively until several movies later.

It's kind of wild watching the movie now when we've seen how much the Marvel universe has grown and how much better these films got at integrating their mythology while not sacrificing a compelling and coherent narrative.

As it stands now Iron Man 2 is a bit of a well-intentioned failure. But I don't hate it as much as many others do. Some of this comes from my affection for Rourke, one of my favorite actors and also, one of the most frustrating. Had he be given more of a fleshed out backstory and had he be given a chance to establish himself as a real key antagonist opposite RDJ, that could have been something.

Instead there are some nice moments here in there is a bit of a mess.