The characters all had this great rapport with each other, I definitely agree with that. And I love how they handled the Mandarin. I have a theory on that which I am currently writing, but I won't post it until next week when most people have seen the film and it won't be as much of a spoiler anymore.

Yeah yeah, the Mandarin thing. Comic fans are pissed off and hate that Tony Stark's great adversary in the comics was literally made into a punch line. Non comic fans don't care. I think it's an important piece of what makes this movie what it is but there is too much focus on that right now. The fact is, to just focus on that one topic as if it determines how good or bad this movie is is short sighted. This movie was pure garbage from start to finish and here are 10 reasons why:

1. Plot Holes
Had tons of them, basically the movie would say one thing and do the opposite later on.

2. Tony Stark The Pussy
As someone else said, douche bag Shane Black made Iron Man a pussy. For another character I get it. Tony Stark is swag though. Tony Stark would get PTSD and have panic attacks from a battle in New York.

3. This Wasn't An Iron Man Movie
Tony Stark barely wore the suit. He used a gun in some scenes. His character was more like a spy/detective throughout the movie than a super hero. There was no ACDC Black Sabbath music in this movie at all, just Blue da da bee. Again Black and his ego in trying to take things in another direction tried to turn a sci-fi super hero movie into a cop/spy action film.

4. Remote Controlled Iron Man Suits Without Tony In Them
Seriously?

5. No Character Development
Black was so busy spending half the money setting up his mockery of the Mandarin that he failed to develop Killian's character at all. Ok, So he used to be crippled and Tony Stark dissed him once. That's his reasoning for wanting to take over the world? If you are going to have a guy do what he did how about just a little back story or reason for his actions so I can give a *beep* about him one way or the other. Also, Maya Hanson, literally ZERO character development, has an important part in the movie and then is killed for no reason with no explanation.

Part 2

6. Fifty Iron Man suits At The End
Not was it just stupid, but why is it that Tony's mansion and all of his stuff is destroyed, he ends with the kid in Tennessee and Jarvis back on line, and doesn't deploy one of the 500 suits the 20 times he needed one before the end battle?

7. Rhodey Couldn't Wear A Suit
So they can only go on Tony, but one goes on Killian and Pepper about 10 minutes later which leads to Killian's death. Also, if Tony was just messing with Rhody as I have seen some say, why would he when a suit would have made him (his best friend) much safer in the middle of a battle.

8. *beep* Story Lines
This movie was a *beep* with the story line when you think about it. It just jumped from one sub plot to another to another without sticking to a central focus, tightening up the loose ends, etc. Okay, So Tony's depressed, then he calls out the Mandarin, his house and life are basically destroyed. Then all of a sudden he's this pseudo father figure for some kid, and at the same time he becomes this detective Mcgyver like character. Then he finds the Mandarin who isn't the Mandarin, and some dude who Tony dissed is actually the Mandarin and does all of this *beep* without any real back story or explanation.

9. No Direction For The Iron Man Franchise
You could literally not watch this movie and miss nothing that you need to know to watch anything in the Marvel universe before or after this movie. I realize the last few Marvel movies were directly building up to the Avengers and this was the first post avengers marvel movie but this movie simply felt nothing like marvel movie with no place or point to anything and the movie ended with more questions than answers as it relates to that.

10. This Movie Was Not What We Were Led To Believe
Forget the Mandarin not being the Mandarin. We were led to believe that Tony was about to face someone who made everything personal for him. Someone who was so smart, and bad, and crushed his spirit at it's very fibre. Remember the quote in the one trailer that went something like "I will either let you die with dignity or live in shame" (which was never in the movie by the way, nor were the Mandarin's 10 rings which were showed in the trailer)? The lack of story line and character development which I mentioned above never made anything done to Tony make any sense, unless you think dissing a guy who has an idea 13 years ago is reason enough to take his life away from him and try to take over the world.

This movie was just a big piece of crap with no story, no character development, no meaning, no heart, no substance. We got some explosions, CGI, 3D, one liners, etc which is, unfortunately, enough to dupe the masses into turning out in droves to line the pockets of a fraud like Shane Black and the sell outs at Disney. Marvel should be completely ashamed.

I wouldn't say it was the worst (2 was), but I agree with most of your complaints.

Damn near propaganda with Mandarin(Osama Bin Laden), Plane crash(911) but people are saved by iron man. Which lead to 5 minutes of clapping in my theater because right after that scene they stare at the screen and say no casualties. Beyond even that the movie was again like all marvel movies I have watched a kid with some action figures because that is all disney will allow directors to do. They do not develop the characters and those who believe they do should study character development. They mention PTSD sparingly, Mandarin is not the main villain but rather some Reisdent Evil Boss that went in the garbage. The After Credits scene essentially says hey were you expecting something remotely serious well fuck off this is Disney

You actually make some valid points there. I believe that some people wanted the Mandarin to be all mystical and vile and evil. At the same time, people wanted to see the super hero Tony Stark rather than a character with vulnerabilities.

I get what you are saying, and I would be lying if I said I didn't want to see some big bad Iron Man movie with armored fighters fighting Stark the whole way. Maybe the next story they can adapt would be the Armor Wars story, check that out if you want to see a big, all out fight between Iron Man and multiple armored enemies at one time.