Honestly, no. I am among the few that enjoyed the film very well but they could have done better. The first Iron Man film was a great start to the Marvel Cinematic Universe itself so Iron Man 3 didn't have to be a great start to phase 2, hell Iron Man as a character BEGAN the MCU in the first place. If I had to choose which film should have come first instead of Iron Man 3, probably Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

No because all the movie was ruined with the Mandarin´s joke.

I hope that The Dark World is better.

@perethorn: True the twist wasn't good if you read the comics

Thought it was a terrible movie

No.... I still hope they don't do that to Mandarin...or whatever they call him.

Best CBM of the year.

No, mediocre film that used a lame joke for its after credits scene instead of anything useful like the other Marvel movies did.

That movie was a joke,so no...I waste money seeing that in theaters

No it was pretty bad, but I think Thor: The Dark World will be epic.

lol

I really liked the film -- lots of reasons why. Mandarin decision aside, I enjoyed every character in the film and each stood out on their own, showing a very solid casting.

I think the franchise kept up its quality with this addition. My opinion.

It was disappointing at best

It undid more than it established and was overall a lacklustre experience.

I actually LIKED the movie and I'm going to have to say no to this one. The first Iron Man set up the MCU and had elements in it that carried all the way to the Avengers. SHIELD, Coulson, the Avengers Initiative and the evolution of Stark Tech.

This movie on the other hand had no foreseeable connection to any of the future movies especially the MASSIVELY DISAPPOINTING end credits cameo which was nothing more than a quick joke unlike all the others which foreshadowed the next movie or the bigger picture in the MCU. The only thing that may carry over is Starks "retirement" but even that will be dealt with within 5 minutes of the Avengers 2.

@gambit75 said:

I liked the movie. But it didn't add a whole lot to to the universe as a whole, likely because RDJ's contract was expiring when they were finishing the movie and they didn't want cement anything for his future in case he didn't resign (obviously he did).

Still, I think Iron Man 3's box office success was largely due to the momentum created by Avengers. Because I don't believe Iron Man 3 was a "billion dollar" quality movie.

I mean Iron Man 3 made more money than The Dark Knight did (although TDK wasn't in 3D so that didn't inflate TDK's box office). Does anyone really think IM3 was better than TDK? I sure as heck don't.

I still enjoyed the movie overall, but I don't really see what the movie did for the Avengers 2, or anything in the universe as a whole. If anything I felt IM3 was simply just a good finale to Iron Man's trilogy. I really would be more than ok if we didn't get another Iron Man solo movie until the character is rebooted. He doesn't need it at this point.

And yes. I hope Thor: The Dark World is good - especially the action. Thus far Marvel has held back Thor's battle capabilities.. There's only a couple moments of him being a the badass god of thunder that he is, so I hope we some of that.

Great start? no. Bad start? no. Decent start? yes.

If they actually used Mandarin i wulda been satisfied but they didnt...aholes

I enjoyed it well enough, but I guess considering its massive financial and critical success, Phase 2 could've started a whole lot worse.

I didn't like the whole Mandarin thing, but I think now knowing what we know about Ultron (and Tony possibly making him) that it will be a good start to Phase 2.

The Mandarin twist was the worst part. They were building him up to be this sort of bin Laden terrorist which would have been an okay alternative to the fu manchu comic book version.

Or we could've had the fu Manchu version whose rings were made of Asgardian tech.

I think your asking a Loaded question

honestly, it frightened me how they decided to handle a "audience difficult character" when GotG and Thor the dark world on the horizon.

@martianmanhunterisbetterthancy:

That was the point. It was too shoe that terroist arent aleays foreign. That they arent always teh people from another country or that look differnt. That they can be home grown and guess what. White. That the media latches on to foreign threats as scapegoats when there are terroists from america as well. It was extremely meta.

The original mandarin from the comics was a gross racist caricature of the chinese communist when he was first created, and used to make us fear "the other". Meanwhile iron man 3's mandarin did the same, except they did it within the context of the film, he was caricature just like the original mandarin a caricature to use as a scapegoat while the real threat was another american.

I fail to see how Iron Man 3 was part of "Phase 2." I mean besides getting a reporter ask about "what happened in NY." ( + )

No, But i think Thor: Dark World and Captain America:Winter Soldier will be an excellent start to Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Without a doubt.

I didn't mind Iron Man 3 thought it was a pretty ok film, but it was way to dumb to act as proper precursor to The MCU phase 2.