I liked it a lot. Not quite as good for me as Iron Man 1 or The Avengers, but definitely better than Iron Man 2, and the crowd seemed to enjoy it.

I loved the end credits.

The extra scene at the end means nothing to The Avengers series, but it's pretty damn funny and the crowd loved it (at least 80% stayed for it at my showing).

B+

This was so stupid I cant believe it did so well on Rotten Tomatoes. I think I liked the 2nd one better.

And was I the only one completely unaware that Brad Pitt was in this?

I loved the Avengers, which had friggin Aliens and LOKI in it. But some how, Iron Man 3 felt dumber and campier than Avengers. The extremis plot line is just fucking awful. It is like the same thing as the FANTASTIC FOUR or Wolverine suffer from. Science which just makes things up is fucking horrible in movies. Science which is practical (ala what is use din the batman films, or jurassic park) makes sense. Any time the plot is centered around something which as a whole doesn't exist, it sucks. Avengers - with aliens, the tesseract, etc - is basically an exception to the rule. Everything relating to the people glowing red and whatever was just SO stupid. The guys somehow overpowering the iron man suits at the end? SERIOUSLY?

Pitt's character is practically THE SAME DAMN CHARACTER as the SAM ROCKWELL character in IRON MAN 2? The even look alike and talk alike! They even do the SAME DAMN THING with hiring the foreigners to be the face of the villains.

Paltrow looks great, as do her abs, but character is given very little to do. Downey is great but even he seems like he is getting bored with the role at times.

Kingsley is completely irrelevant. They hype up the mandarin like he is some boss and then....he is a fucking actor?

And the direction is ALL OVER THE PLACE. The pacing felt terrible. The attack on his house and the saving the falling passengers scenes are excellent, but other than that they're not that greatly.

I am giving IRON MAN 3 a legitimate D+. I CANNOT BELIEVE it got the RT score it achieved. Completely unwarranted.

I saw Avengers 4x in theaters, own the dvd, have watched it a bunch of times. I will not be watching this again EVER.

I am stunned at how much i disliked it and incredibly disappointed.

Also - the ending? They some how just save Pepper AND figure out a way for Tony to live normally JUST LIKE THAT? What took 2 seconds in IRON MAN 3 could have saved the ENTIRE SERIES if he had just done it in the very beginning. The whole "Iron Man retiring" thing felt completely forced and random. Iron Man 3 is not going to be remembered well. It will be on the scale of x3 and Spidey 3.

At the same time, part of is wondering if the notion I had for the past decade regarding team up films is just coming true - that following a successful team up film, the solo films will just pale in comparison and seem worse as a result. Either way, I really did not like the film much at all.

Every time the person glowed red, it was just....

The fiery people weren't any worse than the CGI-laden aliens that came through the magic portal in Avengers.

I very much liked this movie. I think it's the best of the series and totally, unmistakably a Shane Black movie. It makes me want to re-watch Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang immediately.

They werent worse, but that film was infinitely more fun. this is verrrry slow at times.

Pretty easily the best IRON MAN movie, if for no other reason than I wasn't bored out of my mind during act three.

I agree

BJs Grade:

B/B+

A noticeable step up from the highly mediocre 2nd film, definitely not as good as the first film or the avengers. By far the best third act from Iron Man series. The action scenes were amazing, among the best I have seen put to screen. Not a fan of the Meridian story but Kingsley did indeed OWN the role. Pearce as Killian was great but I was really hoping that Meridian would be the big bad, what ev's. Superb acting all around, and I think Cheadle really stepped up his game in this, I thought he was annoying in the 2nd film, but man was he awesome in this one. Disappointing with the execution of Hall's character, was expecting her to be a bit more fleshed out, and have a much larger presence overall. Downey Jr. and Paltrow are fucking AWESOME! Perfect execution from beginning to end from these two, not a single stale moment. Overall a very enjoyable film and by far the funniest of the series.

Did they ever explain why Tony was having anxiety issues? I hope they expand on it, more in future was expecting more from that plot point.

If you go over to IMDb.com, many are pissed on how they handled Manderin, very controversial move indeed, and after the dust settles I think it will one day be viewed as a brilliant one serving as a brilliant piece of commentary on supervillains in superhero flicks.

IRON MAN 3

First, I ended up seeing this film with IM, IM2 and the Avengers. I really enjoyed IM2 much more than in the past. The Avengers is still perfect. It was a fun experience with a small crowd aided by a few vocal theatre employees who attended the showing.

Anyway, as for the feature film I was entertained by it overall. It's still a good Ironman film and continues the continuity of the previous films but there are some things you can nitpick over. The good however were things like RDJ and Gwyneth. In fact, I think the acting from everyone was good in the film. I thought the story was good and action/visual sequences were great. I thought the use of the Mandarin was an interesting turn. It's not great and it's not horrible. I think it's somewhere inbetween. Concerning that idea I found that to be a very relevant presentation. My favorite part of the film was the 20 or so minutes with the boy in the small town.

As far as my nitpicks, I wasn't excited about the fighting with the villain minions since they were on the verge of being invincible. Yeah he beat them all but it seemed extremely easy for them to get the upper hand on him. The whole coming back to life for them was over the top too. Where was Rhodes? He isn't in Avengers so I thought he'd have a bigger role in this. Well, he was here but it seems like he actually does less or less interesting things. War Machine/Iron Patriot whatever he is was MIA for me. He was there but not. Killian getting blown up in the Mark 42 suit itself and still living. C'mon now. That was over the top. In fact, the whole finale reminded me of the finale locale of the A-Team. While it was cool seeing all these IM suits it was still over the top with them fighting these no name minions. Lastly, I didn't like the end credit scene. This reminded me of the Schwarma scene. Yeah it's funny, but what does it have to do with Avengers 2. Apparently there was also a line about Tony Stark returning. Okay...we know that already. Where's some enticing visual of something or someone. That was a letdown.

Overall, though I was happy with it even with the nitpicks.

Grade - A

A+ I absolutely loved it. I loved that they did take a lot of elements from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang over (I too hoped Kilmer have been involved somehow)

Fuck the comics, Mandarin was one of the more brilliantly surprising villains I've ever seen in such a high scale movie. It could have failed, but they are so committed that it just works. The best thing is it does work as a great post Avengers film. The Action and humor overall are much better, even more so than the first, with a better thought out story. Iron Man 3 breaks the 3rd Superhero rule that switches directors, usually meaning an inferior sequel. Not only does it takes everything that is right with the series, Shane Black is competent enough to expand on them.

I have never seen KKBB and may just not be a big fan of the style.

The house destruction and plane scenes were perfection, I just cant stand films whose central plot is entirely dependent on bizarre an impractical science made up only for the film. I found extremis cringe worthy the second it was introduced.

I really liked Kingsleys character and had hoped there was more for him to do.

But the ending was easily the worst part. After four films, Tony Stark randomly discovers how to heal his heart and decides to go through with it in a matter of 2 minutes. Like, really?

AVENGERS = A
IRON MAN = A-
IRON MAN 2 = C
IRON MAN 3 = D+

That bit with Downey and the kid, ending with "I'm cold" and Downey driving off, put such a huge grin on my face. It was basically Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2 at that point.

After stewing on it...

AVENGERS: A-
IRON MAN 3: B+
IRON MAN: B+
IRON MAN 2: C

I saw it at a marathon yesterday. I really loved Yinsen appearing in the opening scene.

Hispanic Scott Baio was my favorite KKBB reference

I'm in agreement with the comic readers, I have never read an Iron Man comics but I think what was done was definitely straight up stupid on the part of Marvel.

I pity some of you guys for not being able to have fun.

I had lots of fun yo, I laughed through every Kingsley scene in the 2nd half of the movie, but it did not sit well with me in relation to the character, turning a super-villain into a drunkard is annoying.

But he's not the super-villain. I would agree that it's the wrong move if it was a last-minute reveal -- "Ha, it's all been for nothing!" -- but the Mandarin is still in this movie. He's Guy Pearce.

Killian as the Mandarin was also acceptable, I really liked him as the main villain, but I was 100% expecting an awesome Kingsley Mandarin. I felt the advertising promised that. I do like the overall story a lot but I'm not a fan of this one little/big element, not sure why because it was executed to perfection and many other films have had similar twists that I loved. I think it really just hinges on me unwilling to relinquish Kingsley as the Mandarin.

While perhaps just a little bit below The Avengers (and perhaps also the first Iron Man) in terms of entertainment value, Iron Man 3 is immensely satisfying as summer blockbusters go. With new blood in Shane Black behind the camera, the film feels significantly faster and fresher than the first sequel, and it succeeds in being funny and exciting in about equal measure. In fact, Black's presence plays a major role in keeping the film from feeling like a been-there, done-that experience in regards to its franchise; there are elements that make it feel like as much of a follow-up to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang as it is to the Iron Man/Avengers movies. Once again, Robert Downey, Jr. is a blast to watch as Tony Stark. He's still sinking his teeth into this character and giving it all he has (despite the fact that he is on record wanting to be done with standalone Iron Man films), and the addition of voiceovers adds a new, further snarky edge to the character. More than its predecessors, this is his movie; returning players Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle have some standout moments, and there's stellar work from franchise newcomers Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce, but the show belongs to Downey, Jr. The advertisers also very wisely kept many of the specifics of the story under wraps, and the script introduces enough interesting and/or unexpected turns to keep the audience on its toes. On the whole, Iron Man 3 is a fitting display of the best elements of Marvel Studios' big screen M.O.: while it isn't as thematically rich or daringly dark as the Dark Knight trilogy, it's sharp, it's quick on its feet, it doesn't neglect to give us a protagonist and a storyline worth caring about, it delivers the goods as far as the action is concerned (the third act here is the most accomplished and most entertaining segment across the three Iron Man movies), and by the time the lights come up, it has been a damned fun time at the movies. Consider the bar raised for the rest of this summer's popcorn flicks.

A-

Or, as I put it to some friends that haven't seen it yet: if the first Iron Man and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang had a one-night stand and made a baby, it would be Iron Man 3.

One aspect I certainly enjoyed with regards to this flick was just how much Iron Man/Tony Stark actually sucked in fights. It made him more human as is not seen with a lot of superheroes. It works sorta in the same vein as Indiana Jones or John McClane (in both's first outings) in which we see our hero take more punches than he actually gives. It was a brilliant move to only have Tony Stark in his suit for a few of the fights as it only added to this aspect.

I disagree, I found him to be relatively well in a fight. That take on Mandarin's lair was extremely inventive with Home Depot weapons, and the other fight he was handcuffed and pinned under metal for most of it. I wouldn't really call him vulnerable like Indy or early McClane.

The guy in the Miami compound who was all "I hate working here/screw this" and drops his guns MIGHT have been the most realistic character ever portrayed in a super hero film.

By all means, please dislike Iron Man 3. Its Iron Man. 3. I needed another Iron Man like I need a lifetime supply of shredded wheat. But stop doing it for stupid reasons

i really hope you didn't watch this crap, yoshue.