"Cowboys and Aliens" Featurette for Movieweb

Talking Cowboys and Aliens with James Bond, aka: Daniel Craig, the original space cowboy, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde and director Jon Favreau.

"Iron Man 2" is a Little Clunkier

What do you get when you take a relatively inexperienced director, a recovering train wreck of an actor and an under-the-radar superhero?

$585 million at the box office, glowing reviews and a career renaissance, that's what.

So what do you do for an encore?

In 2008, when the first "Iron Man" film headed into theaters, few expected it to create the tidal wave of success which followed. Two years later, hottest commodity on the block, Robert Downey Jr. is back as Iron Man/Tony Stark with some familiar faces and a few new playmates in tow, including director Jon Favreau with an expanded role as Stark's chauffeur Happy Hogan, Gwyneth Paltrow as his long-suffering assistant and love interest Pepper Potts, Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard's well publicized replacement, in the role of James Rhodes, Mickey Rourke taking up the resident baddy role of Ivan Vanko/Whiplash, Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer and Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow.

Phew. Overwhelmed? Apparently so were the filmmakers.

Whether the problem was a lack of focus or your typical sophomore slump, "Iron Man 2" is the tired, rusty, older sibling of its gleaming predecessor.

It could be argued that the first "Iron Man" was so spectacular and unexpected, it's an impossible act to follow. Or, it might be that the production crumbled under its own hype.

Whatever the reason, "Iron Man 2" fails to recreate the boisterous, combustible surge audiences were expecting.

Actor-turned-writer Justin Theroux, who co-wrote "Tropic Thunder," lost the fun this time around, filling the sequel with too many building montages and not enough of RDJ's riffing. Not that Downey Jr. can do any wrong, but you wonder if the best bits of his performance might have been left for the DVD special features. Meanwhile Rockwell, a chronically underrated actor, is the film's secret weapon, subtlety drawing humor from even his briefest moments on screen.

It's not that "Iron Man 2" is a bad movie, it's simply a "good enough" movie to kick off summer blockbuster season with a few cheap thrill but which fails to reach the stratosphere of the first film.

Jon Favreau's No Iron Man According to Robert Downey Jr.

In "Iron Man 2," Jon Favreau’s character, Happy Hogan, Tony Stark’s chauffeur and assistant, has a greatly expanded role. But it wasn’t just his role that was expanding during filming. According to Robert Downey Jr, it was his waistline.

“There’s three Happy Hogans in the movie,” Robert begins, grinning wickedly. “There’s the Jon Favreau who was in excellent shape, boxing every day, and made it into the ring for the scene where he gets his ass handed to him by Scarlett [Johansson]. Then, midway, he’s struggling with a MediFast but occasionally binging on pizza and saying, ‘This is crazy, I gotta get back to the gym.’ By the time we were doing reshoots, they were framing him out of shoots,” he hoots. “Here’s the thing though--”

“Oh! Here we go,” Favreau interjects, laughing. “Now the nice [stuff]. Kiss me on the cheek after you’re done with me. Throw me a dollar and a towel.”

Way to keep it classy, gentlemen. "Iron Man 2" opens May 7th.

Iron Man 2 Nerves Keep Robert Downey Jr. Up at Night

What do you get when you take a relatively inexperienced director, a recovering train wreck of an actor and an under-the-radar superhero?

$585 million at the box office, glowing reviews, a career renaissance and a highly-anticipated sequel, that’s what.

In 2008, when the first "Iron Man" film headed into theaters, few expected it to create such a tidal wave of success. After all, it wasn’t Superman or Spiderman or even The Hulk, and it was directed by a guy best known for the indie cred of writing and starring in Swingers. Two years later, after the stellar performance of the first film, hottest commodity on the block, Robert Downey Jr., who plays Tony Stark/Iron Man, and director Jon Favreau are decidedly anxious about the expectations of "Iron Man 2," arriving in theaters May 7th.

At the press conference promoting the film, Downey Jr. scoffs when asked if he feels pressure about the release of the sequel. “You mean ‘feel,’ like its past tense? I didn’t sleep last night. I didn’t sleep last night! Jon?” he quips, shucking the question off to the director.

“I’ve never done a sequel before,” Favreau replies earnestly, “unless you count me [having less than five lines] on 'Batman Forever.' For me, there wasn’t the same pressure that you’re used to feeling, especially coming up with smaller movies where you’re throwing a party and you don’t know if people are going to show up. Here, we knew people were going to show up, we just wanted to make sure everybody had a good time and this was going to be as fun, or more fun, than the last party.”

More "Iron Man 2" coverage to come soon...