The not-so-wise-cracking between Stark and Ultron got on my nerves quite a bit while watching Ultron, and also, the action wasn't that exhilarating at all. Shrug

I think Iron Man is a film that people remember as being far better than it actually is. It's ok. But it was never celebrated as anything great. Reviews were majority 3's out of 5. The story is fairly simple. There's not much in the way of depth. The action scenes are few and far between, last about 30 seconds each and are pretty uninspiring, while Jon Favreau is a bland, uninteresting director. The sole reason it's entertaining is thanks to Robert Downey Jr. He makes the film and if he hadn't been in it I think it would have been pretty dull. Maybe you noticed something I missed, and if so I'd be glad to hear what you have to say. But I don't see it as being a better film than Age of Ultron.

Ant Man was a laugh, but it was a pretty far cry from the film we would have got if Edgar Wright had been left to do his thing. So I still don't see it as being better than AoU either.

I think it's placing is roughly fair. I personally prefer it to Winter Soldier and GOTG, but If someone argued they were better I wouldn't dispute.

What is odd is that it's The Winter Soldier that's above it rather than Civil War. Civil War is generally regarded as the benchmark for MCU films. Civil War I would say is better than AoU.