Hopes for The Mandarin's Reintroduction in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

@NightAvenger - In what possible way was the twist fine?

Yeah I agree, the plot twist is an absolute plague to Marvel

Since this article is composed of complete persistent subjectivity, I'd say that I'm totally fine with the decision Iron Man Three went with. Yes, Aldrich Killian ended up being an amalgamation of Killian, Mallen, and the Mandarin, but I don't know how he doesn't do what the Mandarin is supposed to do when he had completely orchestrated a big, villainous plot throughout the movie, and still ended up being the archnemesis of Iron Man himself, by showing himself as the ultimate terrorist Tony's supposed to face against in the final battle, et cetera. I wouldn't comment much about the "doesn't look anything like the comic book counterpart" part, since at this point, CBM's shouldn't all be about just that, to me; and if that really matters, then a bunch of other characters should as well be brought up to be troubled upon. (After all, Killian's intention is to NOT gain much exposure, thus the lack of any prominent attributes on himself and the classic comic book-ish appearance on Sir Ben Kingsley's Trevor Slattery instead.) I don't know how putting a big twist in a movie equals to not giving an "honest satisfaction," when it's fairly been an essential part in storytelling. That's about my view on this matter, and given the amusing amount of hyperbole implied through the rest of the article, I'll just leave it there.

Oh, I don't recall the Mandarin being the backbone of any incarnation of Masters of Evil, either.

Ryden: Your first idea sounds pretty good, but it would partly undo the point of the movie, if it was included. And I do agree that the real leader of the Ten Rings may just be still out there, since apparently the organization had no part at all in the movie's plot, while its name was just used by Killian as a cover-up brand to put the blame of his actions on something. My theory is that the real Ten Rings (the one which held Tony hostage all the way back to the first movie) will end up recognizing Killian's act, and thus seeking revenge upon the whole scapegoating plot he did, of course led by the true leader, who may (or may not) be the Mandarin. Heck, I think him being Temugin would be pretty damn fine enough an idea. But that seems like a far fetch, and personally, I'd be fine with the whole matter being left behind.

*botched

Ryden: I didn't say that the twist is essential to this particular movie; I did say that a twist is essential to storytelling, in general. And I think it's the key here; it's about storytelling. Yes, that idea does sound like an overkill on theory - I've been concerned with the whole "too much going on" aspect this movie initially had - but it turned out otherwise thanks to Black's handling, and that's why I'm perfectly fine with the twist. Shane Black made this movie with the intention to tell a story, an adaptation of the comic book lore and less like a perfect verbatim of what was in it, and this is his way to "play" with the elements he's presented with to be fit into that story he wants to tell, yet without ignoring the core characteristics - and yes, they're still present, with Mandarin still being Tony's archnemesis despite his different incarnation, Tony himself is developed in such a depthful character piece, et cetera. He brings a CBM that puts more emphasis on the movie, yet still with the heart of comic book, and I'm personally really glad with such a method (it's also somewhat applied to X-Men: First Class), as it injects a whole new level of gravitas toward the movie.

@Jolt17 - I would argue against that. There are plenty of stories that don't require a massive twist in the story for it to be successful. In fact, IM3 has shown that it was detrimental to the overall story.

Highly acclaimed superhero films like the first two Spider-Man films, the Dark Knight and the first Iron Man didn't need or have a big "Oh didn't see that one coming" aspect of their story, and it's done them well. I'm not saying it never works, but in this case it really hasn't.

As well as this, to 'play' as you put it, is fine, but when you're actively disregarding the source material then it's no good. Especially when you're dealing with a character that fans have been waiting to see since the first film and has been hinted at and eluded to since then as well. It's not really fair to promise a character and then when he finally shows up, for it not to be him at all. In fact the whole 'Killin = Mandarin' thing doesn't really hold up either.

When Killian declared that he "was the Mandarin all along" it was more of him saying, he was in charge all along, as opposed to literally being 'The Mandarin'. So for you to say that he still served the purpose of being Tony's arch-nemesis doesn't hold up.

I never asked for a straight up adaption of the Mandarin or any aspect of the comics, so long as the core essentials are there, and they weren't. The Mandarin wasn't even in the film, he was an illusion. We got a villain who was fairly boring and was utterly misused. Again, I would have left A.I.M and the Extremis storyline for IM4,and have it be far more faithful to the comics.

Marvel should have had Mandarin be the only villain of the film, that way we'd get to see Tony actually deal with a villain unlike he's ever come across before. Someone unsympathetic, and completely driven and with a whole lot of power. It would have brought things full circle with Tony's escape from the cave in the first film. Seriously, THAT should have been the whole thing. Tony finally closing that chapter of his life, which would have made the 'clean slate' nonsense far more reasonable and would have truly been an Iron Man film.

Tony's character development is a little lost in this movie as well. I really like how they started it and a lot of interesting developments take place, like the after-shock PTS of the Avengers. And yet it didn't go anywhere, it kept being brought up but as the criticism from that video review stated they were just sort of left there. We never get to see him actually deal with it. We're just suppossed to buy that somehow Tony's fight with Killian cured him of this and that's it. That's lazy storytelling. I imagine that the 3 hour, 15 minute version of the film dealt with this but that's something that should have stayed in, and they could have gotten rid of the entire Extremis storyline.

But, despite all my issues with the film I still enjoyed it. I just wish Marvel and Shane Black had taken a closer look to the comics and didn't go out of their way to piss of the fans. I mean did you hear Shane Black basically sitting ripping on everyone who likes the Mandarin? It's quite pathetic.

They should really consider going with the idea of having the REAL Mandarin be out there somewhere, to get rid of the bad taste from this twist.

@Ryden I completely agree with your thoughts on Iron Man 3. You verbalized them quite well. Here's hoping the real Mandarin is out there somewhere. It would almost completely redeem Iron Man 3 for me, as I really liked the movie apart from the twist.