10 Comic Book Movies That COMPLETELY Wasted Their Potential
9. Iron Man 3
If everyone was honest, they'd admit that the Iron Man movies have wasted potential with each installment beyond the first. While IM2 suffered from a poor choice of villain in Whiplash, IM3 suffers more from taking Tony Stark's greatest comic book nemesis and turning him into a massive joke within a movie that jumps the shark on several occasions.
Starting off, Iron Man 3 is so at odds with its tone. Early on, it's established that Tony is deeply traumatized by his experiences during The Avengers, so he's going through some harsh PTSD. Serious topic, right? Well, while the movie doesn't play this up for humour (thankfully), it does frame these moments of intense anxiety with an uncomfortable eye, like the movie's waiting for him to stop freaking out so it can go back to being funny.
The Mandarin topic has been talked to death so no need to dig into it too much. Ben Kingsley was perfectly intimidating throughout but gets his legs cut out from under him thanks to the twist. Guy Pearce (the quote-unquote real Mandarin) never comes close to Kingsley's level, thus leaving the movie with nothing but tonal clashes and a climax involving guys breathing fire and Pepper Potts beating the villain in Yoga pants.