I like Cheadle, but in this role, I think Howard did a better job. The story was all over the place. It had a few too many elements that, while all related, didn't really come together to tell an interesting story, since the individual parts weren't that interesting. Tony Stark as a character, and to some extent the action, carry the whole movie. I wasn't disappointed with it, it just feels like a "middle" movie, and as mentioned, a launch pad for Avengers and Captain America. If you didn't catch it, that was Captain America's shield that was used to prop up the tube in the "new element" scene.
