What Iron Man 3 tried to do, Iron Man 2 already did

Rating: 8/10 (14 October 2013)

Yes, here is another review comparing Iron Man 3 to another movie. For one very simple reason, this time. Iron Man 2 already did what Iron Man 3 tried to do. Iron Man 2 succeeded, while Iron Man 3 failed.
In Iron Man 3, the question is said to be raised whether Tony Stark or the suit makes Iron Man. Well, Since we have already seen other people taking on the suit, we know the answer. In IM1 we saw Stane have a stab at it, and in IM2 it was Vanco. Neither of them made a decent Iron Man - so Iron Man IS Tony Stark.
In Iron Man 3, we were told to expect some buddy-cop moments between Tony and Rhodey. We just saw the latter wandering around, contributing nothing to the plot. In IM2, Rhodey was the one friend that Tony had. Giving him the occasional butt-kick if needed, but also be the one Tony could share stuff with he couldn't share with Pepper. He event went so far as to let Rhodey inherit an IM suit.
In Iron Man 3, we were told to expect the exploration what Tony Stark would do if he hit his all time low. If that is so, then he would treat his all time low as a temporary set-back. Well, his house did get blown up, but it didn't affect his behaviour. And neither did the PTSD, except for walking out of a room once or twice. In IM2, we saw Tony at the brink of dying from his own hands. It affected his behaviour. Made him go a little crazy, made him giving away stuff (like his company and IM suit), turned him into an alcoholic. He got so weird, that even SHIELD director Nick Fury had to intervein at one point. If you want to see Stark at his all time low, IM2 is the movie you want to see.
I don't want to get into spoiler territory, but even if you want to see Pepper do some heroics, you can get it in IM2. And yet again, it is handled better than in IM3.
To make a long story short. The territory that is explored in IM3 was already explored in IM2 - just better and more profoundly. Making IM3 a redundant movie and all the more disappointing. If you want to see a good Iron Man story, that is not an origin story, Iron Man 2 is the one you should see...