I don't understand the hate for this one. The fact that Tony Stark is barely in the suit makes for an interesting take on analyzing the humanity of the character. I also found the villain plot twist halfway through the movie to be quite clever and surprisingly satisfying.
It certainly feels more like a Shane Black movie than an Iron Man movie, but that's a great thing. It shows Marvel is willing to give their filmmakers a voice and the room to take risks in their storytelling. Iron Man 3 is a very risky movie, and to me it paid off.
This was probably the first time a movie has made me this angry in the theater. It pissed me off then and it still pisses me off when it's on television. If I could summarize this film in one word, it would be: obnoxious. I wasn't really hyped for this film but I was expecting to have some fun since I did enjoy the previous Iron Man films. This was the movie that made me start to dislike the character of Tony Stark/Iron Man (RDJ is still the man though). Stark's narcissism had charm in the previous films but here, it made him into a complete idiot, dick, and coward. The Mandarin had potential to be an effective villain but the movie scraps him for a more lame villain than Justin Hammer from Iron Man 2. The comedy was forced and annoying and the story has plot holes that were distracting. I watched Thor 2 a while after this released but the taste from this movie was so bitter that even though I thought Thor 2 was alright, I just didn't want to see anymore films from this cinematic universe. This movie is what killed the MCU for me.