Different writers made all the difference in this disappointing outing. The dialog is painful, characters make awful decisons and I couldn't have cared less when Tony Stark finally kisses Pepper at the end of the movie. The effects are first rate and Mickey Rourke is amazing - everything about him is from the first movie (he's treated a serious villan) while everyone else is in the new cartoon version they filmed with human actors. Justin Hammer's character in particular would NEVER have been in the first movie - he is a buffoon that couldn't possibly have made it to running a company. Lt. Col. Rhodes would never sell the Iron Man suit to this buffoon. Iron Man wouldn't say "we need to get all these people out of here!" before engaging in 5 minutes of human-threatening battle over the Stark Expo (AFTER 5 minutes, he declares: "we need to take the fight away from here!). The first movie was very smart and real and STILL had humor and action and amazing acting. This was a cartoon with great special effects and another wonderful performance from Mickey.