The fallout from The Avengers lands squarely on Tony Stark.

Rating: 6/10 (16 April 2016)

The interesting - Marvel kicked off Phase 2 with a decided switch in tone and character. Iron Man 3 is less of a superhero movie and more of a psychological detective thriller, and we will see this genre-bending throughout the movies of Phase 3. T he good - RDJ is still Tony Stark, and just watching him grow the character, dealing with the events of The Battle of New York, is worth the price of admission. Gwyneth Paltrow continues to be great as Pepper Potts, and (with very few exceptions) Pepper and Tony's relationship continues to be believable.
The great - I loved seeing Pepper suit up in some armor, if only for a moment, and I also like the strong female characters in the film. I believe this might be the first MCU property that passes the Bechdel Test.
The problems - I don't totally buy Pepper being so angry at Tony and this bugged me. The whole "twist" didn't really work for me. I missed Jon Favreau's lighter take on the Iron Man universe of Iron Man and Iron Man 2. This Tony is a much less fun Tony, and while I get why (Tony is realizing it is a much less fun world he lives in), I still miss fun Tony.
Summary - I enjoyed this movie, but find it one of my least favorite of the MCU. It lacked much of the charm of the first two Iron Man movies. I don't mean to pan it in any way, but it will certainly be a while before I throw this one on.