Iron Man 2 (2010)

Iron man 2  a film that largely benefited from its predecessor, as most of its' principal and supporting cast members reprised their roles including Jon Favreau who returned to the helm as its director. 
Remarkably all three Iron Man films continued to stay ahead of the curve with modern technology. Garnering each film an academy award nomination for best visual effects, with real tech companies marveling on how much it was on the pulse of cutting edge technology.  The film attracted billionaire tech genius Elon Musk the CEO of Tesla and friend of the director, who wanted a walk on cameo role. In exchange, the film crew was able to shoot at night at his SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, CA. as it doubled for Justin Hammer's factory. The people walking in the background were actual employees.  It turned out that Musk was a huge fan of the Iron Man character from earlier in his youth, and that shortly after filming. A statue of Iron Man, complete with company ID, "stands guard" at SpaceX, along with a Battlestar Galactica (2004) Cylon.

The US Air Force were fans of the original film, whereas before Favreau had to shoot scenes on a sound stage; but  now the military branch openly allowed access for the film crew to shoot on Edwards Air Force base.  The weapons that Justin Hammer brings out on display were actual military weapons stationed in the facility, and the various aircrafts seen when Rhodes brings the Mach 2 suit onto the base were all real.
It was during the filming that Samuel L. Jackson signed a 9 picture deal to continue to play Nick Fury as  a concession for having an unexpected diminished role and threatening to walk out. And Clark Gregg's character of Agent Coulson spun off to shoot two of the five one shots; short films. Leslie Bibb's character of reporter Christine Everhart was reprised as a favor to actor Sam Rockwell as both actors were dating since 2008 and continue to be a couple to this day.  The only actor who was noticeably absent was Academy award winning actor Terrance Howard, who was said to have displayed creative differences from his time on the first film, and as such Marvel and Disney amicably parted ways with the actor.  Marvel casted Howard's co-star from Crash (1994)  Don Cheadle to play the role of Col. James Rhodes. As  the film's principal leading stars Downey, Paltrow and Favreau  return to reprise their roles,  as was Paul Bettany to voice J.A.R.V.I.S. "Just A Rather Very Intelligent System", and Mickey Rouke to portray the main antagonist Whiplash.

Besides introducing former Russian spy, now S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Natasha Rominov, and War Machine; halfway through the film we the audience are introduced to Nick Fury at Randy's Doughnut shop. It is here at the re-introduction are we shown on a television monitor, briefly,  a newscast at Culver University where the Hulk and US Army's confrontation has led to chaos in its wake. It's also around here that we break away from the whiplash story and focus on solving Tony's arc reactor dilemma, and with Coulson re-assigned  from his babysitting duty of Tony to head out to New Mexico to locate Thor's hammer.
The film's narrative plot begins to jump around once we are introduced to Fury. Jon Favreau  who always wanted to make the film a trilogy that would have culminated to the Mandarin; surprisingly chose not to direct the third installment.  As producers were in his ear throughout the process and causing multiple re-writes even on the day of shooting. Cutting dialogue from Mickey Rouke performance, and shifting the length of Fury's scenes. The result of which has left Iron Man 2 as a film by the numbers; hitting all the required check marks for a summer action blockbuster, but lacking a character driven polish from the supporting cast.  And for many fans placing Iron Man 2 as a lower tier movie to be  remembered within the 22 film infinity saga.