"There's no politics here, just good old fashioned revenge."

Rating: 7/10 (11 May 2013)

Well Downey made a downer this time. Not that the movie doesn't have it's abundance of excitement and over the top action, but story wise, the film left a lot to be desired. I'm still thinking about the plot that introduced the Islamic looking Chinese villain called The Mandarin. The set up would have you believe that there really was such a character, but the reveal when Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) makes his secret known, all I could do was go 'huh'? I thought the Ben Kingsley charade would wind up amounting to something, but that was not to be. Instead, The Mandarin was a molten lava man who's evil power seemed to be making things hot. Rather feeble now that I think about it.
And what's with all the Iron Man suits? And why did they all break apart so easily? Now the psychic link between Tony Stark (Downey) and his armor was a cool idea, but some of the stunts they put the Iron Man suit through was a bit much. It got a little over done after a while and began to look monotonous. And if they're going to have Don Cheadle employ the War Machine gig again, at least give him something to do. In the climactic battle scene, he seemed to be more of an observer than a forceful participant.
I liked a few things, like the Barrel O' Monkeys stunt, and the humor was generally well placed, but this Iron man doesn't measure up to the first two. Then when Tony ditched the chest thingie at the end, I had to wonder how Iron Man was going to get back in action with the Avengers. I'm sure they'll figure it out, but why jump through those hoops when you don't have to. Even the after credits clip seemed disjointed and didn't offer the usual inducement to make your mouth water for the next Marvel flick. These guys have to come up with some better ideas.