I think Iron Man 3 is one of the worst Marvel movies. It was apparently one of the least liked by audiences, because it's box office weekend multiplier was one of the two lowest in the MCU, down there with Incredible Hulk.
It's sort of like Phantom Menace in that everyone goes to Jar Jar (or Mandarin) as the main criticism, but there were so many much more serious problems with the movie. If the rest of the movie had been written well, Jar Jar (and Mandarin) wouldn't be cited as scapegoats. Iron Man 3 simply had a horrible, preposterous plot. The whole climax was based on the villain wanting to assassinate the president (because he had the V.P. as a mole, a story element that deserves to be massive but is glossed over in a 5-second scene). Yet the villain kidnapped the president out of an airplane. If he wanted to kill him, all he had to do was drop him, or shoot him. Nevermind that Tony Stark is rendered helpless for the entire second half of the movie without the use of his suit, then right at the end of the movie, just in time for the action climax, he manages to call his other 30 suits to life. The mindless, possessed villains were boring and looked like horror movie cliches or something out of Lucas' Howard the Duck.
As for Dark Knight Rises, I thought it was very good. Bane was a superb villain and the twist with the other villain was wonderful. The action scenes were epically conceived and executed, moreso than in any other Nolan movie, Bat or otherwise. The only weak spot was the romance with Baleman and Catwoman, which made Batman look weak.
j/k
