While it is a considerable improvement over Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3 struggles to reach the level of the original. There are many elements of this one that work very well. The effects are top-notch as usual. The new score is vibrant and bombastic. There are several characters that get well developed. Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian has an intriguing character arc that was well delivered. Happy Hogan also gets more screen time. And as always, there's Robert Downey Jr.'s indomitable Tony Stark

All this good stuff unfortunately gets bogged down by a few glaring issues that bothered me. Firstly was the whole Mandarin plotline. This was just ridiculous and wasted what I felt could have been one of the best villains we've seen in a while. Secondly, the effects of Extremis seemed a bit outlandish. I doubt that playing with human DNA to any degree could create lava powered, flame-spitting super soldiers. This seemed like taking it a little too far for me, even after the whole alien fight we saw in the Avengers. Also, I felt that Rhodey could have used a larger role. He barely seems to have anything to do in this one, despite getting upgraded to the awesome looking Iron Patriot armor.

Overall, an enjoyable diversion, but I was a little uncertain about the direction that the series was going at times.