Continuity mistake: In the final scene when Stark, Rhodes and the senator have a picture taken, Tony's jacket is first buttoned, then unbuttoned from the same viewing angle. (01:56:50)
Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie where Stark, Rhody and the Senator are taking a photo, Stark's hand is supposed to be behind the senator but when the scene switches to the zoomed out view, his hands are by his side and when it switches back again, his hands are behind the senator.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Mickey Rourke is in the laboratory discussing how long it will take him to reproduce the robots, his glasses change position from him wearing them to not wearing them throughout the conversation.
Revealing mistake: When Tony goes to the bathroom and scans his blood toxicity, the Tony who faces the camera is supposed to be his reflection in the mirror, but the problem is the reflection is not reversed because it's not a mirror image, note Tony's clothing. Also, note how he scanned his right hand's finger, but then in the "mirror" he's sucking on his left hand's pricked finger. (00:28:30)
Continuity mistake: When Ivan climbs the ladder to inspect the Hammer prototype, his hair changes repeatedly from underneath the frames of his glasses to outside the frames. (00:51:00)
Continuity mistake: Rhodey falls on the brook far from the cascade. When he stands up he is now standing much closer to the cascade.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Whiplash is talking on the phone with Tony, you can see fresh blood running down his hand, but when it goes to the close up of him, the blood is wiped off and there is only a stain. (01:31:00)
Continuity mistake: While Rhodey and Stark are fighting, right before the house explodes, all the guests run away. Half a second later an aerial view shows the house being blown to pieces, but not a single person or car is seen on the premises.
Continuity mistake: In Monaco, Stark smashes his head against a green car. When he falls on the ground there's a red sign with the numbers 885 on it. In further shots the sign has disappeared.
Continuity mistake: When Mickey Rourke puts the explosive onto the wall, he slaps it down and it spreads out a bit. We cut to a quick closer shot, and it's suddenly more compacted. (00:43:25)
Continuity mistake: In the opening senate scene, the Senator's jug of water keeps turning around and moving closer/away from the nameplate between shots. (00:11:35)
Continuity mistake: During lunch with Ivan, the way Hammer's napkin is tied around his neck and laid on his shirt keeps changing between shots, despite Hammer not touching it.
Continuity mistake: When Stark and Rhodey break through the roof of the house the hanging debris from the hole above keeps changing depending on the angle focusing, with hanging parts that appear or disappear randomly.
Continuity mistake: The scene in the Monaco lounge when Tony Stark and Justin Hammer are sitting down at a table with Christine Everhart to give an interview, Hammer sets his drink on the table while he's standing but then the shot immediately cuts to him sitting down with the drink still in his hand.
Continuity mistake: When Hammer takes the parrot away from Ivan, the Russian's black jacket keeps swapping from opened to closed between angles.
Continuity mistake: At the Stark Expo in the beginning, when Tony Stark talks about "kicking back", as he says "on my best day" his hands are by his sides, then we cut to a different angle and his hands are instantly behind his back.
Continuity mistake: In the beginning when Tony's press conference is on TV in Anton Vanko's home, the dialogue exchange between Tony and Christine Everheart has more talking than that same scene in "Iron Man" at the end. In "2", Christine mentions that Tony hates body guards in the exchange, but, this is never said in the first "Iron Man".
Visible crew/equipment: When Natalie and Pepper arrive at the Expo and open the car's door a huge lighting screen gets reflected on the door. (01:32:30)
Continuity mistake: When Ivan crashes Stark's car during the race there is a close-up of Tony's face showing a red scrape on the cornea of his eye. When he puts the suit on there's another close-up of his face inside the armor and both eyes are completely undamaged.
Continuity mistake: Before Hammer starts eating dessert (and thus much before the "moving spoon and cherry" continuity mistakes), there's a back angle where he dips his spoon into the dessert and starts eating. The angle cuts to a front view with the spoon laying spotless on the saucer, and Hammer saying "I'll start with dessert", and then repeating the whole previous scene as if it were the first time.
Chosen answer: Hammer is impatient. he did not want to waste time and money to go find Vanko's bird. he just wanted Vanko to get the work done.
MasterOfAll