I figure most people reading this will have seen the movie now, so there are a lot of plot points and spoilers discussed!
Major spoilers, so don't read if you haven't seen it!
Really Spoilers!
I thought it was a good entertaining movie when I first saw it, but the more I have thought about it afterwards the more I've decided I can't stand this movie! It just doesn't make any sense at all. Cool to watch, but don't try thinking about it to much!
I don't mind giving the movie makers some leeway when I'm watching a comic book movie, but too much logic defying film making happened for me to forgive it no matter how awesome it looked. I can forgive stuff like being able to survive being in a room with explosions going off because you dodge them in slow motions - as it looks pretty cool - and is the excepted laws of physics in the comic movie universe - I'm talking more about bizarre script choices, but I'll get to that...
I'll start with things I liked.
It worked as a sequel to the previous Iron Man movies and the Avengers, the characters had moved and developed after the events in those movies.
All the leads were pitch perfect with the material they were given. Couldn't fault the acting. There was real emotion behind the characters and you felt for them.
The directing was great to, the film looked the money. It was dark in the right places and funny in the right places to.
The special effects were mostly great, usually I don't like CG that much, but this movie wasn't worse for being an effects movie.
Some of the set pieces were amazing. I was very impressed by the plane scene, and knowing that the opening of one of the James Bond movies where Bond jumps from a plane, takes the parachute of another character and lands safely took over 100 jumps on 2 days the mind boggles to the co-ordination it would have taken to perform the 'barrel of monkeys' sequence in Iron Man 3!
The music was great to, great score, great choice of songs.
Things I didn't think were so good...
The plot...
So the bad guys have a formula for regrowing limbs and healing people? But occasionally something goes wrong and the person explodes. The explosions are a mystery, so to take the heat of off them they hire/force an actor to become an Osama Bin Laden type terrorist and take blame for it? Ok - how does that make sense? Instead of the authorities having nothing to go on, now they have someone to investigate and track down that leads right back to Killian? (Which is exactly what Iron Man did!)
Tony uses a proto-type suit through the whole movie that fails, fall to bits, runs out of power.. then says in the last 10 minutes, 'ok Jarvis now' and 30 kick-ass suits that were under the destroyed mansion come to life and were sitting there all the time? How about when his house is under attack saying '30 kick-ass suits, capture the helicopter and protect Pepper' ? Were they not online at that point in the movie, did I miss something? If Stark had said to Killian at the climax of the movie something like, 'oh, did you really think I would let you destroy my home? I needed a lead - and I wanted to redecorate anyway - now Jarvis!' Then there would have been genius behind the arrogance of Stark calling the Mandarin out at the start of the movie! It would have tied up a plot hole and I would have bought it, but as it plays out - nah.
Iron Patriot is so impossible to get into that Killian has to basically burn Rhodes out of it. All the other Iron Man suits take one hit from a magma person and fall to pieces?
The Vice President happens to be in on it because his daughter is an amputee and he is the person Rhodes and Stark contact about their suspicions! Not Shield, not the military, not anyone that might be of use! How inconvenient for them!
Where were Shield, ok its not an Avengers movie. But Marvel have gone to such lengths to tie all the movies together in a well thought out continuity that the lack of Shield involvement seemed odd.
What? every single one of the test subjects decided to become Killian's goon? It was an addictive process, but surely patriots who were fighting for their country might not go along with the whole nutty terrorist plan? Where was their motivation, was it getting a limb back? Surely they were now involved in the very thing they enlisted to defend against? Pepper didn't become a goon, so there was still free will involved!
The whole plot was horribly signposted because they ripped off Batman Forever! Aldrich Killian/Edward Nygma (socially awkward, spotty and greasy hair!) Go to Tony Stark / Bruce Wayne and get blown off. Only to come back later with a new haircut, better skin, a chip on their shoulder, and a rival company! There were no real surprises in the movie! The Mandarin twist was easy to guess, I did think though it was going to be Maya or Aldrich under make up, so the actor thing was different from how I thought it would play out. If the prologue was left off and shown later in the movie as a flashback as Stark uncovered what was happening it wouldn't have signposted things so obviously!
There were lots of little pay offs that I thought could happen that didn't happen. If you say a kid is getting bullied in act two, show the bullies getting what they deserve in act 4. It was nice to go back and see he had been rewarded, but it would have been a nicer emotional note to see him getting on a school bus and some punks about to pick on him, only to see the punks getting blasted out the bus doors, or something like that. Could have been a post, post end credit scene!
When did Tony get parkour lessons? Hated his near Spiderman like running jumping hanging on end of movie theatrics! Wasn't he a few days earlier a non-sleeping, unfit, neurotic mess?
Pepper came back to life? Ok, no one stays dead in comic books, but wouldn't this have been a great loss to motivate Tony and get him back on track but also have giving him a dark edge? Maybe I wanted it to dark.
Tony gets the arc generator removed? If this was the last appearance of Iron Man, I think that would have been a cool ending. But isn't that literally the heart of the character?
The Mandarin issue. Well I didn't mind what they did with the Mandarin, but I'm annoyed they ignored the set up of the first two movies. In the first Iron Man Tony was kidnapped buy the 10 ring terrorist group - you can see the symbol on the wall behind him in the cave. Iron Man 2 - Whiplash was also meant to work for the 10 ring organization, though admittedly this was cut from the final movie for time reasons and you only find it out listening to the commentary. All this was meant to work towards the big reveal in Iron Man 3 that the Mandarin was the mastermind behind several things in the previous movies. My ditching this and having him a unaware actor kinda undermines all the set up that was seeded in the other movies! I guess that's what happens when you change the director - new ideas, a different vision. And what was the deal with all the shots of the Mandarin flexing his rings in the trailer that weren't even in the movie? - le sigh
So, I know I am in the minority. Its done better that the other Iron Man movies, so I totally accept my opinion is against the mainstream - but this movie was a let down for me!
(I know I think to much, but also wouldn't the extreme heat burn of Killian's tattoos? Even if they were inked in some super heat resistant material, why would the body art return when he regenerated?)