Epic yet Dissatisfying

Rating: 7/10 (10 October 2013)

It's epic.
But only for the action sequences for the story is lacking. Like the Dark Knight Trilogy that gives you an ending that lowers the bar for the previous two installments, this one does exactly that. Although the plot is greatly expanded - it's the aftermath of The Avengers - and digs deep into Stark's brilliant mind and into his psychological state after the event, it is shallow.
The improvement the movie did is they put Paltrow in a suit - which is a great nod to the comic book reference of Pepper Potts being another suited-hero named "Rescue" -, but then they took Happy - the ever funny and interesting sidekick/driver of Stark - out of the picture by blowing him half to hell in the beginning of the movie. Though that was probably Favreau's personal request to not to be included in the movie further than that, but still, this movie needs a character like him.
The thing that really put this movie off for me is probably the magical reference that the terrorist used. It's a scientific breakthrough made for medical purposes to regenerates one's cells rapidly(or whatever it was), it enabling them to grow cut off limbs in a second - this is probably Spongebob Squarepant's reference - emitting heat from the inside of their bodies, exploding like a nuclear even, and breath out fire which I found really ridiculous.
And the downfall was when they revealed the truth that the master villain introduced in the trailers - The Mandarin - is not really a villain at all. He is just a puppet used by Aldrich Killian, a long and agitated acquaintance of Stark with vengeance towards him, which obsessed in ruling the world and getting Pepper. Although a nice twist it was, I just did not feel the kick to it.
Plus sides, the casts are devastatingly amazing. Downey, Jr.'s portrayal of a traumatized man from his encounter with aliens is awesome as ever, Paltrow did a fair one, Ben Kingsley was amazing and the rest of them - including the horde of unmanned iron-man suits at the end of the movie - are incredible. Like I said in the beginning, the action sequence was EPIC with capital. You get to see various technological advance created by Stark and stunning action scenes with humor on top.
It's a great movie and I would watch it again, be it in cinemas or DVD but it won't change the fact that the story is lacking depth. They tried though and the outcome is a wonderful movie.
Watch it.