Why the hate?

I think it's a terrific sequel. It gives us more Iron Man than any other film, and introduces Black Widow and War Machine. I think Whiplash is the best Iron Man villain we've seen yet, and Sam Rockwell was just incredible as Justin Hammer. The movie is funny and action packed.

On the downside, Whiplash had too little screen time. The story of his father feeling ignored by Howard Stark is the best villain arc the series has seen, but it was largely overlooked. By the end of the film Ivan Vanko basically became another mech suit character, which many found redundant, and the climax was over a bit too quickly. Instead the movie spends a lot of time on Tony falling apart. He seems to be falling apart in every Iron Man film, and I think it is the least necessary here. I enjoyed the old movies of Howard Stark acting like some hybrid of Walt Disney and Howard Hughes, but could have done without the damaged Tony. It worked better in the third film, as a side effect of the Battle of New York spurring a personal journey of his own identity. This really should have been about Vanko and Hammer. Still, that's just my opinion and I don't think any of this significantly detracts from the film.

Communism was just a red herring.

I still hear people ragging on this movie. The first one is probably better as a movie, but I think this one is much more re-watchable. You don't have to slog through the origin story, for one thing. This movie is awesome, IMO, it gives us the briefcase armor at the racetrack, which is pretty cool, and the first look at Scarjo as Black Widow. War Machine is in it.

Most people who slag this movie seem to complain about Whiplash, I notice. Well, people have said that the Marvel movies tend to be a little weak on the villain side, so why the big deal there? Personally, while I was a little disappointed in Whiplash, he has grown on me with repeated viewings. Just like this movie.

I agree with the above poster: Iron Man 3 would have been a much better movie had the Mandarin not been a twist.