Excellent. Ignore the Comic Nerds.

Rating: 10/10 (31 January 2014)

I enjoyed the first Iron Man film and the Avengers. The second one was alright. This one is just excellent.
A lot of the negativity here seems to stem from the fact that the 'Mandarin' is meant to be some kind of evil wizard in the comics and he is not in this. That sounds completely ludicrous. If that genuinely is the plot of the comic books then it only reinforces the reasons I have never got into them. The portrayal of his character in this film is genuinely clever and touches on some proper world issues. If he had 'magic rings' it would have been a total joke and if it stuck to what he apparently is in the comic books then this film would be quite dreadful as a result.
Another complaint appears to be related to the film focusing more on Tony Stark than Iron Man. Personally this is the reason I found the film so good. Superheroes are kind of silly and I never had any interest in the subject until the modern films which bring them down to Earth a bit. You only have to watch an old Batman film where they are just running about in brightly coloured spandex and compare it to the more modern ones to see this much.
In this film Tony Stark feels like a genuine person. He overcomes weakness before he can triumph as Iron Man and it is ultimately his creations which save the day and not him. In this way it feels like the story has grown up and come full circle. I actually found it surprisingly poignant at times whilst still being a clever and enthralling story.
If this were just two hours of Iron Man flying about the place shooting at stuff as so many people seem to have wanted judging by the reviews then it would be pretty boring. This is sort of one of the issues that the second film had. You knew he would win out and he essentially had an arsenal of super weapons to hand so there was no question as to how that would play out. This film has him facing genuine adversity.
I cannot find fault with this film. People are ticking off a huge list of issues with writing, acting and even the music. In reality they are just hurt because it is not true to their precious comic books. I can understand that to a degree. I hate the Hitchhikers Guide film because it simply does not live up to the books or radio series. However when your complaint is that the super villain isn't some kind of genie I think you have to reassess your stance. If the Mandarin was the same as in the comic books then this film would have been dreadful. Seriously dreadful. I mean properly ridiculous.
As it stands I would say this is the best film of the trilogy and easily on a par with the Avengers.