[trackercowe]

I thought it was a step up over the 2nd movie, but still not as good as the first, or The Avengers for that matter. I did like how they seem to accept it as part of the post-Avengers universe and used the basis of that movie for how Stark acts in this one. So while it might be a stand-alone, they didn't completely ignore prior events.

I also quite liked the villains, and didn't really mind using Kingley as a fraudulent Mandarin. I know some Iron Man fanboys are pissed that they "ruined" The Mandarin, but it was something different than the usual Osama Bin Ladin type terrorist threat. It didn't work flawlessly, but they needed to find a way to make Pearce and his Extremis the real threat, so they couldn't focus too much on Mandarin.

Downey Jr, was great as usual, as was everyone else in the movie. Sort of disappointed that there wasn't a single cameo from one of the other Avengers (until the after credit sequence), but I guess they didn't want that to bog down the movie. Although I do home they give us a Hulk/Iron Man movie eventually as RDJ and Ruffalo have a ton of chemistry, and would definitely make for a fun movie.

I agree with you that people being able to use the suit within 5 seconds was quite frustrating. I thought Stark only creates them so only he (and Potts) can use them, but for this it seems like everyone and their mother can easily suit up in them. On that note I also don't like them making Potts into a badass for no real reason. I get that they wanted her to play a larger role, but her saving Iron Man is a tad silly.

Finally I know a lot of people didn't like Dark Knight Rises, but at least that movie raised the stakes, and I felt the characters were actually threatened. In Iron Man everyone ended up better off than in the beginning, so things were more light in tone then darker as I had hoped. Stark really didn't suffer like Mandarin said he would, unless suffering is spending time in Tennessee for a couple days.

Oh and other other thing, regarding the Tennessee scenes how is Stark able to walk around the town (and other places) with complete amnimity? He has to be the most well known person in the world, so how was he able to get around without being noticed? Putting on a hat isn't the best way to camouflage yourself either.