Shark jumped, Fridge nuked, next.

Rating: 4/10 (26 January 2014)

There is a review by 'sirdavidofthecourt' below which has eloquently vented all the rants I'd like to make regarding this film. So, for the sake of consuming time and minimalising the repetition, I'll be summarising my feelings when I sat through this last night.
Whenever I sit through a film, I rely heavily on my impressions and general feelings towards the spectacle. After enjoying the majority of the original 6 'Avenger' movies (of which I felt IM2 was the weakest), I was expecting something better than this. I will grant kudos for the flashbacks to the Avengers in IM3, but instantly burn the respect by the way TS suffers anxiety attacks 'Nam film style throughout, followed by the bearing that these panic fits have no relevance or importance as the movie reaches its climax.
That mini spoiler summarises everything. There's way too much clichéd cinema which has little relevance to the plot being ripped off throughout this movie. There's Short Round from the Indiana Jones movie. Here's Edward Nigma from the Batman film of the '90s. Bye, bye home base, as seen in Xmen 3.
It's all be done before; but throw in some sloppy/not well thought out plot twists you know is coming from the opening flashback (the geek will be a supervillian, the shunned girl his helper), and the tone is set for predictability and rehashes of other not so great movies.
It all boils down to the superficiality of a comic book movie made shiny by 3D. The movie is soulless and devoid of humour. War Machine/Iron Patriot/Rhodes... what a waste. Pepperpot... standard damsel, with a predictable twist. And RDJ... He was bored when shooting this, right? Even his ego was embarrassed by the usual 'in joke about his early career' which made earlier films charming but are no longer amusing considering he's arguably the biggest and richest actor around these days; or so it seems.
After watching this film, it's pretty apparent that my impression of IM3 is not good. The reason can be broke down to the following statement: once again Hollywood has gone for style over substance, as the producers of this movie rehash not only old lines from previous movies, but also rip off and rehash audience tested plots from not so great movies which create a lot of pointless set pieces and plot conflict.
Avoid, unless you're really stuck for a new movie fix. Even then, prepare yourself for flashbacks of every other clichéd and overused set piece you've ever seen.