Some bits are great... if you haven't read the comics

Rating: 5/10 (29 September 2013)

No spoilers here, but I loved Ben Kingsley in this. How cool would it be if he turned up at your house on Christmas Day and just sat about drinking beer and telling entertaining yarns about Croydon and Ray Winstone... I actually had a long think about this as various iron men outfits fought bad fire people near a boat for about 30 minutes. Finally, I saw a credit and realised it was time to start paying attention - as I had to find the remote and turn the TV off.
No I don't read comics so I enjoyed the big thing involving Kingsley. With hindsight (after reading other people's reviews) it seems like a really dumb ass thing to do if you're trying to make a superhero franchise popular. However, Kingsley is still AWESOME in this movie. Don't blame him.
So many plot holes here which leave a sour taste. Gwyneth Paltrow is reliably awful and totally miscast as expected - but I get the impression she couldn't really be bothered to try and act in this film - and why should she? The bit with the kid was funny, then the director realised how funny it was and - like so many other bits of this movie - he went overboard and it just got a bit annoying.
One thing really annoys me - how come Tony Stark still drives an Audi A8 with an internal combustion engine? As an engineer himself surely he would be aware of it's meagre 11% power efficiency and would have built an Iron Man drive to power it. Maybe he did? If so why didn't he solve a larger world issue and just start making more fuel efficient cars for everyone? He could have based his HQ in Detroit, thus aiding the redevelopment and regeneration of an impoverished area of the country. Hmmm.
Little things like this got on my nerves throughout the film, but overall it entertained me until the predictably loud, fighty and explody end which sent it into a final nosedive.
In a nutshell - started promisingly, took a gamble, lost direction and veered out of control to become a other pointless waste of moviegoer's time.
Watch it ONLY for Ben Kingsley.