Not worthy of the hype!

Rating: 5/10 (6 May 2013)

Lured into the movie theater by the very high average value of nearly 80 % at Rotten Tomatoes and 7,8/10 points at IMDb as well as by the huge box office success, I was nothing but disappointed of what, according to lots of other reviews, was supposed to be a "witty, entertaining adventure and a strong addition to the Marvel canon" (Rotten Tomatoes), and unfortunately turned out being a - for about two thirds of the runtime - mostly dull, uninteresting, unfunny, silly, unimportant, overlong, plot-holed, Marvel-canon-breaking, and unnecessary blockbuster that, although admittedly upgraded by well-done action sequences, cannot be otherwise described than with the word: "mediocre" and therefore does not deserve more than 5 points.
Now, let me sum up the movie without giving away any spoilers: Babble, babble, babble - action sequence - more uninteresting babbling - oh, a dull twist! - more action - another forced surprise - babble, babble, babble and finally the bombastic finale with lots of explosions and a bunch of Iron Men bustling around in the air like a cluster of flies.
I'm sure that a great deal of more people would see the dump mediocrity of the plot if it weren't for the action scenes and most of all the charisma of Robert Downey Jr. whose sheer presence carries the movie like Atlas carried the entire globe on his back and yet he as well is far away from being as funny and entertaining as he used to be in his first appearance as Tony Stark. The so-called love story between him and Pepper Potts, tolerably played by Gwyneth Paltrow, leaves you cold as it is with the super villain who is just a huge blatherer.
All in all, you have to be very patient with the movie until it gains momentum during the last 30 minutes or so where you can be assured that you don't have to try finding any sense and significance in all this any more, because there never was any, but simply lean back and enjoy the action pleasantly aware that it's going to be over soon...
Phase two of the Marvel franchise had a weak beginning, very weak.