Did The Iron Man Series Fall Flat?

Iron Man 3 gave me mixed feelings. On the one hand I had fun watching it, but there was something about it that irritated me. After I saw the first Iron Man again I realized what about Iron Man 3 irritated me. It was too silly. After re-watching all the Iron Man movies I see a gradual decline after each installment.

The first Iron Man had funny moments. Tony Stark is supposed to be one of those funny asshole figures that is self absorbed. However, in the third movie he loses that charm. The only moments I found him funny was when he was interacting with the kid. They made Tony too paranoid. He always freaks out, remembering the events of The Avengers. However, it is forced and comes off as weird. 

The main problem of the movie was that Tony was separating himself from Iron Man, but the audience likes him because he is Iron Man. When Tony blows up his suits at the end of the movie a lot of people including myself thought it was stupid. What was the point? Especially since he is returning as Iron Man in the second Avengers movie.

The logic behind the decision was the idea that Tony could be Iron Man without the suit. However, the audience wants to see him kick ass in his suit. In the movie he barely wears the suit. The message itself is not bad, but it was handled poorly. Mainly because the second movie was not good. The second movie was just filler to introduce Nick Fury, Black Widow, and Shield. Stuff to tie the Iron Man franchise to the Avengers movie. Iron Man 2 had a good start, but after the fight with War Machine, it went downhill.

The third movie decided to make up for the lack of action in the second movie, by being over top and action packed. However, the story suffers from it. I thought the Mandarin plot twist was funny, but the movie's real Mandarin was lame and generic. The story itself was not well put together. Tony seriously did not prepare for a terrorist attack after he told the terrorists his address? Also the comedy at times was unnecessary. For example the scene where Tony is captured and counts to three several times until his glove comes to him. That disrupted the pace of the movie. This is the same problem I had with another Marvel movie; Thor: The Dark World.

The first Iron Man movie is one of my top five favorite comic book movies of all time, but the sequels to it are lack luster. Iron Man 3 is like The Dark Knight Rises. The first time you watch it, it's entertaining, but soon after you see it, you realize how flawed it was.

What do you guys think?