Robert Downey Jr. i think did the best he could have done with what he had to work with here.

I think that i went into this with an open mind but it was shut off pretty quickly.

First off... The lack of Bruce Banner in the film was a let down as in the end of the Avengers we clearly see that Tony and Bruce drive off together as also mentioned in the earlier parts of the film where Stark was telling him about the "top 10 floors all R and D and that he would love it there" So that was a bit of a let down... Not that i expected it to be a Hulk themed movie.

Second... The Mandarin...

The Mandarin is one of Iron Mans greatest villains. The Mandarin is to Iron Man as The Joker is to Batman. Imagineif at the end of "The Dark Knight" if you were to find out that the Joker was only an actor hired by the mafia to keep Batman Busy... You would probably be a little upset right? Well thats what they did with the Mandarin. Its shameful.

And this turn of events would not have been SO bad if they had not added in all the extras to make it seem like he was real. Evidence that goes back to the first film.

In the first film the lead terrorist that was holding Stark captive in the cave was wearing one of the 10 rings of power. He was even admiring it in one of the scenes. along with a poster of the 10 rings in the back of his tent. Why would he do this if the whole ring thing was faked. Why would they fake the 10 rings of power for Iron Man 3 as you can see "the Mandarin" wearing them in the video. The Mandarin and the 10 Rings are real in the Marvel universe. its a shame they made all these errors and made it out to be fake.