how did Vanko know Stark was going to be a driver in the race (when it was never scheduled for Stark to race. It was an impulsive move and he just told the original driver to gtfo).

Even though it was already stated in past interviews that Favreau wasn't going to touch upon Stark's alcoholism, he still sort've played on it with the whole "Oh shit I'm dying, so let's party like I'm drunk off my ass since I don't have much longer to live" thing. And if he decided to do that, then WHY NOT touch upon his alcoholism. I almost thought they were when Pepper asks Stark if he's been drinking again. What a let down.

And then the whole fight between Rhodey and Stark was pretty badass. But I was expecting the comic book version of how War Machine would be introduced; not by some Air Force. I prefer the original lore, where Stark's suit goes berserk and on a rampage with a mind of it's own, as well as Rhodey becoming Iron Man for awhile, while Stark dealt with his alcoholism. Then bring in the actual introduction of War Machine created by Stark.

Also, I think what irked me the most was that they had a Transformer 2 type ending. Some huge epic build up battle scene which lasts like 10 minutes long, only to have the main villain show up the last second and be obliterated in less than a fraction of what the previous scene took. And I think Iron Man 2 did it a lot worse than what Transformer 2 did; At least in Transformer 2 the fight lasted roughly a minute or so long and it got me kinda excited... this, well it was like "Oh shit, Whiplash/Crimson Dynamo electric wires! Yo War Machine, repulsor beam Hi-five! Yeahh!"... Lame.

And seriously, the main villain is Vanko, yet it felt like there was no true purpose for him in the film except for just the name sake of having a main villain for Iron Man to fight. The whole, "your father used my father and stole all the fame and glory" vengeance thing just doesn't really fly with me. If they would have just taken out 5 minutes from one of Stark's scenes and gave Vanko another Stark/Vanko chemistry scene then he would have at least felt somewhat significant to the movie. That short scene where they only meet once face-to-face and talking wasn't really anything which impacted the movie greatly (as I've already said, the aforementioned dialogue just doesn't fly).

There were some more poorly thought out scenes and tiny quirks that I don't like, but the ones I briefly elaborated on were the ones that made me go .