Continuity mistake: When Ivan shows up on the racetrack watch the Johnnie Walker banner on the left and you'll notice that Ivan is sometimes side by side to it, others the ad is gone, others it's way behind. This keeps changing all the time.
Continuity mistake: When Ivan is being served wine both glasses are close to each other. A frame later they're several centimeters apart.
Continuity mistake: Ivan's scar changes drastically from the beginning of the movie. When his father dies and he is building his whiplash suit during the opening credits his facial scar lays on the surface of the skin trailing down his face from the outer corner of his left eye. Throughout the rest of the film it is a smaller, deeper scar about a quarter inch to the right of the original scar.
Continuity mistake: When Stark is at the diner with Fury, Tony's glasses by the edge of the table swap from laying horizontal to slightly skewed between angles.
Continuity mistake: After Tony puts the shield under the tube and takes the level off, there's nothing on the ring around the tube. But in the next shot facing Tony, there's an object that looks like ball bearing sitting on it.
Continuity mistake: When Tony is at the party and shooting things, he shoots the watermelon from his chest RT. We see the watermelon explode and the beam dissipate. The next shot is the watermelon raining down. Then the next shot is of Tony and the beam still coming out of his chest, but he never fired twice.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie just after Senator Stern pins medals on James Rhodes and Tony Stark, we see a shot where Tony puts his arm around the Senator. All three men are arm in arm. The camera angle changes to the back of the men, and Tony's arm is at his side. Then when the camera angle goes back to the front of the three men, Tony's arm is back around the Senator. (01:56:07 - 01:56:57)
Continuity mistake: During the opening of the fight scene in Monaco, pay attention on the first racing car (the red one) that Vanko attacks. Even before he cuts the car's front spoiler off, the rear of the vehicle begins to flip over.
Continuity mistake: When Mickey Rourke is introduced to Sam Rockwell, they sit down for a rather lavish lunch in the Hammer aircraft hangar. As Sam drones on in his introductory remarks, the camera watches a waiter starting to pour red wine into the glass directly in front of Mickey Rourke. The camera cuts back to Sam, and Mickey's wineglass is already full. Camera cuts back to Mickey, and the full wineglass has moved about a foot to Mickey's right, although he hasn't touched it.
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