So many bright points, but such a disappointment.

Rating: 4/10 (25 April 2013)

Casting: Great Editing: Glorious SFX: Consistently very good with a few small exceptions not worth mentioning. The rest...
First, I am not a comic book fan in general, I prefer prose and rate the first Iron Man (2008) as well within my top10 films from the last decade and loved Iron Man 2. Having seen the trailers and felt the build-up for the last several months, I went to the cinema barely able to hold in my excitement. I was bitterly disappointed.
This is a strange movie in that there are many excellent elements which are unfortunately lost in a morass of sluggish pacing - I actually said to myself "I'm bored" at one point. The pacing issue is mainly due to the entirely unnecessary second act which feels like it's there to give the character some space and realise his potential/clear his head. Unfortunately, it actually just wastes a massive amount of time not really doing anything to forward the plot.
The character of Tony Stark, while obviously deeply affected by the events of The Avengers, is completely changed with almost no sign nor hint of the character in the first film. All I can say about this is thank the celluloid gods that we have RDJ at the helm to lend his incredible charisma to the lacklustre plot.
Another good point deserving of a whole paragraph to itself: GUY PEARCE! He brilliantly delivers a phenomenal performance which again, helps carry the bloated, lukewarm story and lets the viewer ignore the almost total lack of real back-story for the character.
The Mandarin is the biggest disappointment I've encountered since all of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Attempting to avoid spoilers, all I can say is that it's nothing to do with Sir Ben Kingsley whose performance is probably the best in the whole movie, but the way the character is used.
The technology, obviously such an enormous aspect of the film, has its role massively changed from that of a tool to almost an annoying hindrance.
I recall hearing somewhere a while ago that the new director, Mr Black would take us to a darker, more emotional place with this film. I hadn't expected that the darkness would be literally having many scenes at night and emotions would be people crying. I was expecting great things that would allow us to follow Tony Stark as his Iron Man armours improve and he sorts his head and priorities out. In the case of the former, things have become more flashy for sure, but apparently at the expense of reliability and durability. For the latter, remember the more mature, healthy Tony Stark at the end of The Avengers? Sorry...
I would say "Come back Mr Favreau, all is forgiven", but he did an amazing job and there's really not much to forgive him for, so I'll just say "BRING BACK FAVREAU!"
Go in to this film with VERY low expectations and you'll be pleased. For those among you who don't care about plot and just want flashy action and SFX, you'll be happy. This is unfortunately not a people-film and there's scarcely enough depth to fill a saucer.
Not without bright points, but ultimately such a crushing disappointment.