Iron Man 3 (Spoilers)

[Spider-Dan]

Of all the things that I think didn't work about this movie, I think this criticism is unfair.  First off, I don't think his "come get me" speech was anything more than trash talk.  He also thought the Mandarin was overseas, not local (which was part of the twist).  He certainly wasn't waiting around for helicopters to have a missile attack on his home.

He answered the doorbell in his Iron Man suit.  That sounds like a person who expects an attack.

In the moment, that suit was the one that can be controlled remotely.  AND anyway, even if he did know, he'd likely choose the prototype suit.  The character that they've given us in the first two movies would trust his design and be over-confident that he didn't need to fully test it.  I believe they'd actually done some of that before.

I can think of no instance in which Stark picked a prototype over an available functioning model.  In other movies (e.g. Avengers), he only went to the prototype when his existing suit was damaged.

[mecadonzilla]

The main suit he wore throughout the movie was the prototype. It was the one that could break apart, home in and fly (in pieces) to his location, and be controlled remotely.  The new suits in the big finale were prototypes as well, as he revealed he'd been doing a lot of tinkering when he wasn't sleeping.  His main suits were destroyed in the missile attack and were not capable of remote control...which, apparently, was his new toy/tinkering fascination.

I'm still on the fence with this movie.  I enjoyed it because RDJr is great at the role and so were the rest of the actors.  However, there was something missing that I'm having a hard time putting my finger on.  Perhaps it was the lack of Favreau's direction.

I'm still a little cheesed at the treatment of The Mandarin character considering his importance in the Iron Man canon.  It's not unlike having Lex Luthor reduced to a non-entity in a Superman movie.  I do like the story twist and misdirection with the character, though.  It was at least entertaining...mainly because of the awesomeness of Ben Kingsley.  I hope there is a shady, slow play in mind with the character for an upcoming story, but that's probably a false hope.

[Spider-Dan]

The main suit he wore throughout the movie was the prototype. It was the one that could break apart, home in and fly (in pieces) to his location, and be controlled remotely.

That doesn't explain why he chose to wear that suit when he expected terrorists at his front door.

The new suits in the big finale were prototypes as well, as he revealed he'd been doing a lot of tinkering when he wasn't sleeping.  His main suits were destroyed in the missile attack and were not capable of remote control...which, apparently, was his new toy/tinkering fascination.

None of this is supported by dialogue.

1) There is no indication whatsoever that the new suits were not completed.
2) There is no statement at all as to whether the "main" suits also possessed remote control capability.  Remember, his main suits in Iron Man 1 and 2 required a lot more work to "equip" than they did in Avengers, so his main suits obviously go through evolutions.  And the main suit at the end of Avengers possessed enough remote control capability to come get him when he was thrown out of a window.