It's Good, Just Not The Avengers.

Rating: 8/10 (29 April 2013)

Iron Man 3 is the over-hyped side-sequel to The Avengers, a movie a lot of people really like, and the spiritual successor to Iron Man 2, a movie a lot of people DIDN'T like. I don't think I'm the only who saw Iron Man as the one who stole the show in The Avengers. Sure Hulk had his moments, but Iron Man really just took everyone by surprise. And that's really the main reason I was looking so much forward to Iron Man 3. I like the two first movies, but I think they're a little bit overrated (at least the first one).
In this movie, the United States is threatened by a viral terrorist called the Mandarin. So Iron Man and War Machine (who has now been renamed Iron Patriot) go on a quest to find out who this Mandarin guy really is. That's all I'm gonna say.
I actually enjoyed the story in this movie a lot more than I did with the other films. The Mandarin, who at first just seems like a clone of Bane from The Dark Knight Rises, actually develops into a very different kind of villain. It's actually pretty original. I also found myself more engrossed in Tony Stark's character.
I wish the story would focus more on the teamwork between Iron Man and Iron Patriot. If there's one thing that make superhero movies great but aren't fully realized in movies, it's teamwork. Movies like Spider-Man 3 and The Avengers utilize teamwork greatly, but those are just two movies. Iron Man and Iron Patriot are mostly separated throughout the movie, communicating wirelessly.
The action scenes are terrific. Especially the last one, which is a lot of fun to watch and very well thought out.
The main reason this movie is disappointing, though, is because as a follow-up to The Avengers, it fails miserably. Of course, it's not really meant to be, but we all know it's part of the Avengers saga, and that makes it kind of underwhelming in comparison. I don't think any movie will able to top The Avengers until the true sequel comes out in 2015.
Overall Iron Man 3 is a bit disappointing, but in the end I didn't really expect it to be as good as The Avengers. It's not the best Iron Man movie, but it is the best superhero movie released since The Amazing Spider-Man (which is not really saying much when you think about it).