Iron Man 3: Shane Black's tribute to Lethal Weapon

Rating: 1/10 (1 May 2013)

Just saw Iron Man 3 and the problem with the film isn't The Mandarin, which Stark himself calls "Embarrassing."
The movie actually lacks continuity with the previous Marvel films featuring Robert Downey JR. as Tony Stark/Iron Man in some very big ways. Up until this film Tony has been brilliant and resourceful. And the Iron Man armor has been a powerful weapon. But in this film Tony is a guy with a big mouth who isn't all that great with the suit and his suits seem like they're made of aluminum scrap. And there are various times in the film where Tony's once amazing tech is reduced to malfunctioning junk just for cheap laughs.
It also seems like the creators of Iron Man 3 forgot that Tony Stark's mini Arc Reactor powers his various Iron Man suits. The mini Arc Reactor was the driving plot point of Iron Man. It's what everyone was fighting about and it was ripped from Tony Stark's chest by Obadiah Stane and used to power Stane's Iron Monger weaponry. Later Stark recovers the mini Arc and places it back inside his chest. It's still there in Iron Man 3, yet Stark runs around looking for ways to jump start his Iron Man armor after it's damaged.
There's also no explanation as to why Tony stays in Tennessee as if hes stranded and why Tony labors on repairs for his damaged armor when later we find Tony has had dozens of fully operational Iron Man suits hidden in California, that he could summon at any time. And why did Tony don his only non operational suit after daring terrorists to attack him at home in California, when he had many ready to go suits in his basement and bunker?
We learned in Avengers that Tony's artificial intelligence design; 'Jarvis', also exists in the NYC Stark Tower and can manufacture suits without assistance. Yet in Iron Man 3 he only exists in the Iron Man armor after the Malibu home is destroyed. Another bit of Iron Man canon that is ignored to keep Tony stranded in Tennessee and stuck with a damaged Iron Man suit.
Tony's Iron Man armor has survived direct hits from missiles, being run over by a car, SHIELD Heli-Carrier propellers, Thor's hammer and many violent crashes in previous films but in Iron Man 3 it is shattered by a collision with a semi truck and later in the climatic battle, multiple suits are ripped apart like wet tissue.
Iron Man 3 was directed and co-written by Shane Black, the creator and writer of the Lethal Weapon series. And much of this movie breaks the cannon of 2 Iron Man films and Avengers, just to morph Iron Man into a retread of Shane Black's glory days writing scenes for Rigg's and Murtagh.
Shane Black became friends with Downey JR. while they worked on Black's 'Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang'. It was Downey JR. who pulled some strings within Marvel Films to get Black his Iron Man 3 gig. Marvel did itself and it's fans a great disservice handing such control of it's Iron Man franchise over to Black who in turn used it to pay homage to himself and to his Lethal Weapon series.