Why Iron Man 2 is better than Iron Man 3.

1. Better action.

Just watch the race track scene, the Black Widow fight scene, the Iron Man vs War Machine fight, or the climax fight. Compare any one of those to ANY fight in Iron Man 3 and it's no contest.

2. It doesn't contradict the previous storyline. (Well, not as badly)

Yes, Iron Man 3 completely contradicts the happenings of Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and Avengers. So everything that makes the character WHO HE IS is now easily fixable by surgery. He acts irresponsibly and learns this so-called "lesson" for like the fourth time, whereas in Iron Man 2 it was only the second time.

3. Comedy that is legitimately funny and not stupid.

Yeah, most of the jokes in Iron Man 3 were totally forced and not even funny. Iron Man 2 actually did have quite a few hilarious moments whereas in Iron Man 3 they are just cringe worthy.

4. A villain whose motivations actually make sense.

Killian's motivations against Tony barely make sense. He is mostly out for revenge against him because he, ditched him that one time? At least Whiplash's fathers's tech was stolen by the Starks and is now being used by the world's hero. Vanko feels the need to show the world that Tony isn't the only one with this power and wants vengeance. Had his father kept the arc reactor, he may have still lived. That's not even mentioning how much tougher and more threatening Whiplash was then Mandarin.

5. It felt like an Iron Man movie.

It had the same look, feel and tone as the first film which was lacking from the third. Iron Man is just so much tougher in 2 than in 3. Not to mention AC/DC.

I still think both films are just mediocre, theyre both cheap abd generic action flicks. but I feel sure as hell that Iron Man 2 is SO. MUCH. BETTER. Than Iron Man 3.

What do you think?

Honestly, I didn't like either. IM 2 felt rushed, and was mainly there for the avengers tease. IM 3 failed once they screwed the mandarin up. They managed to make a movie with ben kingsley average, which is quite a feat.

@dratini1331:

True, like I said they're both terribly mediocre. IM2 was at least fun, action packed and funny whereas IM3 has some good parts but most of what happens is cringe worthily bad.

@darehulk: true. I still find the whole ending sequence with his suits cool, but mostly lack luster.

I admit. Maybe I'm just skeptical because I'm not much of an Iron Man guy anyhow, but I still loved the first film even if it did have a weak sauce villain.

They both were mediocre, so yeah...not really a point in comparing imo :P

Though I will give Iron Man 2 the nod, simply because War Machine armor >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Iron Patriot armor.

@dratini1331: I just didn't like how easily his suits can be destroyed all of a sudden. I mean what happened to the guy who could take on pissed Russian prisoners, suits more advanced than his own, a god of thunder and a space eels now suddenly can be destroyed by....a semi-truck?? WTF?

@darehulk: what I don't understand is the end of the movie, when the suits explode, one those was holding the rig up, right? So, did that guy just not explode?

He needs the Igor armour to base the hulk buster on in IM4. Fingers crossed. wishing hard.

I like IM3 more than IM2. 2 was jus going through the motions. 3 they actually flipped the script and took Tony out of the armor and showed another side of him as a hero - the fact that the man is the hero eve without the suit.

The Mandarin thing was great. 10 magic rings is kinda passé. I am glad they didn't try to shoehorn that in.

The above is from someone who appreciates the movies as a thing in and of themselves. Most of the criticism comes from people who want the movie to be a vehicle for seeing their favorite thing from the comics in live action. Over 90% of the people that the movie is marketed toward never heard of the Mandarin. I collected comics in the 90s and I had to Wiki Mandarin.

Only good thing that came out of IM2 was when War Machine was kicking ass.

Both honestly didn't live up too the first. It seems any movie that is Marvel related doesn't have the best luck with third movies. Hope thor and cap do it right

I actually like Ironman 3 more than 2. 3 was way more fun in my opinion.

The harder question is what movie is worse then Iron Man 3

@edblank: The plot holes are hard to ignore though.

hmm, I think 2 possibly just nicks it, but both are beaten comfortably by the first Iron Man, my favourite superhero film involving a single hero...

Iron Man 2 sucked, it undid all of Tony's character development from the first film and made him a jerk again, and Mickey Rourke's Russian accent was really hard to understand. And continuity wise, all anyone needs to know about Iron Man 2 is that Rhodey got his own suit and Tony's arc reactor changed to a triangle

Iron Man 3... well it was a great action movie, but one of the worst comic book movies ever made. Also it seemed like they were trying to be a little bit too hard to be funny, mainly when they had the Mark 42 armor get hit by a truck and get broken again at the climax, it was just ridiculous

I still prefer Iron man over Iron man 2, it was funny and was well made. Iron man 2 felt like Marvel threw everything in it, couldn't they hold off Nick Fury and Black Widow for a little longer. I do understand the praise for Marvel studios but they are know different from any other studio making money, if they see a opportunity to push profits through tactics they use such as Iron man over again and the comedy then they'll do it, which really kills the creativity (hence the issue with Alan Taylor and Patty Jenkins for Thor 2).

Agreed.Iron Man 3 was .......horrible.

I'd honestly rate the trilogy in order of release:

Iron Man-9/10

Iron Man 2-6/10

Iron Man 3-5/10

I actually like both movies. And yeah, Iron Man 3 does contradict previous story points in the other movies, but I still enjoyed it. Both movies don't really have a lot of substance, but they're fun. I like them equally.

Iron man 3 sucked

Both had terrible storylines, but both were very enjoyable.

I went to see IM2 solely because of War Machine.

I was not happy that I only got 15 minutes of Rhodey in the armor.

Most of the Marvel movies suck. They do good with the first one then the other after that tend to suck. Blade II and Spider-Man 2 were pretty good though.

Why did they have to go and ruin the Mandarin in this movie

The suits are designed to BE suits. Meaning they're designed to have the extra mass of someone inside to help hold them together. And the ones in the previous movies weren't DESIGNED to come apart on the fly. They were all locked and riveted into place, making them much better held together than the Mark 42. Given those points (it was empty AND designed to come apart at the seams) not to mention the substantial damage it had already undergone, I can understand it falling apart from a semi-truck.

On top of those points, the suits in the previous movies were filled with a plethora of upgrades and improvements from each previous version. They weren't specialized, they were all around better than their previous model, with the exception of the suitcase armor, which was cut down substantially to be more portable. In between Avengers and Iron Man 3, Tony has gone from the Mark 7 in the Avengers, to the Mark 42 armor of Iron Man 3. He's not sleeping, not thinking out what he's doing, he's just tinkering to keep himself awake. He's not testing or prototyping and carrying out an idea, he's just throwing them together to give himself something to do.

For example, you remember the Mark 2 from Iron Man? How Tony decided to make a suit that could fly, and then went through a bunch of procedures and prototypes, designs on stabilizers and tests before actually MAKING the suit? And even then, tested and learned it's weakpoints before building the Mark 3 as the final version of that suit?

He's not doing that with Mark's 8 through 42. He has an idea, such as, "Let's make a space suit!", getting a conceptual idea of how to make it, and then making it. Then moving onto the next idea before even really testing it out. His suits in Iron Man 3 are easily destroyed because most of them aren't really designed for combat: They're haphazardly thrown together for highly specialized jobs or circumstances, and then forgot about.

So... there is a valid reason for them being torn apart with ease in Iron Man 3. Rest of your points are fine though.

War machine in IM 2 was better than Iron patriot in IM 3.