When comic book fans heard that the Chinese would be getting a special cut of Iron Man 3 (as a result of Marvel Studios' deal with DMG Entertainment; a Chinese production company who helped finance the threequel), they were worried that it would mean they would miss out on some great material. Fear not! According to The Hollywood Reporter, it sounds as if the extra four minutes of footage adds absolutely nothing to the movie. Below is a brief excerpt from their report.
As the houselights dimmed in cinemas across mainland China at around midnight on Tuesday, audiences attending the first wave of public screenings of Iron Man 3 fell silent with apprehension as a question appeared on screen: "What does Iron Man rely on to revitalize his energy?" After a three-second blackout, three big Chinese characters appeared onscreen: "Gu Li Duo." The Marvel fanboys shouldn’t bother to rummage through their libraries to solve this riddle, because Gu Li Duo isn’t a a mystical power source in the original comic series — it’s a milk drink which is on sale for less than $1 a carton in convenience stores across mainland China.
All of these additional sequences revolve around Chinese characters. There’s Dr Wu having a telephone conversation – from his office in Beijing, in Chinese – with the television behind him showing a news bulletin of Iron Man cheered by schoolchildren in one of the Chinese capital’s landmarks. And towards the end of the film, Dr. Wu is shown operating on Stark – and then having a short conversation with his unnamed assistant (played by Fan Bingbing) about the task.
As you may have guessed, this footage was criticised and ridiculed by Chinese bloggers who saw the film and clearly doesn't bring anything of any note to the movie. Shane Black confirmed that he had no involvement with what was shot in China, so fans angry with him about that big twist won't be able to blame the director! Whether or not
Transformers 4 handles its Chinese co-production remains to be seen, but it seems unlikely that Marvel will bother putting this on the Blu-ray!
Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3 pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy’s hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?
STARRING:
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin
Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts
Don Cheadle as Rhodey/War Machine
Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian
Rebecca Hall as Dr. Maya Hansen
Ashley Hamilton as Jack Taggert
James Badge Dale as Eric Savin
Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan
RELEASE DATE: May 3rd, 2013 (US).