There were high expectations for the third film of the Iron Man saga — being the first film of Marvel’s phase two, the first after the success of The Avengers. New director Shane Black has delivered an epic popcorn movie of armor and action. A good superhero flick. But there is something missing in this movie, or something that feels like too much about this movie.

Maybe it disappoints because of the huge marketing campaign that led us to believe it was something that it wasn’t really — more of an action thing than a comedy. For example, I was very excited to see Pepper in a suit like it had been announced (some superhero badassness in a girlfriend, yay! Agency!) and was duly disappointed by how that turned out. It was Tony who put her in the suit, to protect her. She continues to be the damsel in distress until a sole scene in end. And then she is “fixed” of it. Bummer.

Tony’s character feels tired, and the endless jokes are not as funny as they were before. Maybe because we’ve already heard them. Maybe because there’s too much Tony, over two hours where he’s in practically every scene. This is a movie focusing on Tony Stark and not Iron Man (I mean, the end!) and Tony is not the party animal he used to be. The booze, the parties. Yes, I know, character development. But it means there are very few moments of Iron Man action, as it seemed to be the case in previews: an epic fight almost until death. Actually when there are Iron Man scenes, Tony isn’t in there most of the time, just calmly controlling the armors from a safe place. Or JARVIS controls them. Which is a bit sad.

Okay, so maybe the point of the movie is that Tony doesn’t need the suits because he can be a hero without it. An Iron Man without the iron thingies. But this has been done before, and better: In The Dark Knight Rises, where Bruce has to climb out the prison without any of his bat-gadgets; in the whole first part of Captain America, when Steve Rogers shows what a good guy he is throwing himself into grenades, even if he’s a skinny little guy. One of the good aspects about Tony Stark was the fun he had being Iron Man, how he enjoyed being a hero and the many perks of the suit. Because being Iron Man was very cool.

There were good parts, too. The start in Switzerland was a good setting, an interesting beginning for Guy Pearce’s character. The scene in the Air Force One and the saving of people in the air was pretty cool, good superhero action. And the fanboy in the van (it was Max from Happy Endings! Max from Happy Endings! How awesome was he?) representing all the fans who where watching, like Darcy Lewis did in Thor. Those were good, yes.

But the Christmas setting, why? Why did the part in Tennessee have to be so long? Were the many Maya Hansen twists (now I’m good, now I’m not, now I’m good again) really necessary? Could there have been less destruction of suits? (It broke my heart a bit, let’s be honest.) And couldn’t Pepper and Rhodey have been more helpful? I feel like War Machine/Iron Patriot is one the most underdeveloped sidekicks of all time.

All in all, I enjoyed the film because yes, it’s enjoyable. It’s a good action film that has many positive points. You don’t get bored. But maybe because the build-up was too high, or because I now want all Marvel movies to be as good as The Avengers, I felt a bit disappointed. And I didn’t want to see it again, like I did with the much simpler Thor or the more complicated but still great X-Men First Class. The main point being: it could have been better. Just that.

Nevertheless, I’ll be eagerly waiting for Tony’s contribution to Avengers 2.