More in-depth thoughts on Iron Man 3? I noticed that you put under “good” in your MCU ranking. I always found it to be one of the more underrated entries in the MCU.

I think IM3 has several things going for it:

1. Shane Black’s script, which is especially suited to a smart, snarky main character like Tony Stark and the kind of people he likes to have around him.
2. I actually think having Tony Stark out of the suit, experimenting with new tech, etc. was a good move after IM2′s repetitious robot-fighting. And the supposed whip-saw over the Iron Legion that some people didn’t like I would argue works much better in combination with CA:CW.
3. Likewise, I think there’s better use of the secondary cast, especially with Pepper (although I would have liked to see more fallout from her getting super-powers). 
4. Going really far out on a limb, the twist with the Mandarin is actually a great idea. The original Mandarin, while having a neat power suit, is so rooted in nakedly racist Yellow Peril/Fu Manchu tropes that playing it straight would be unforgivable.