Worst Offender: Iron Man 3: It's time to beat a dead horse: a horse that has taken more shots than James Franco at a Comedy Central Roast. As everybody knows, the Mandarin was a little bit different from his comic book counterpart. The drastic change caused a major uproar between fanboys the likes which the world had never seen. The twist was so shocking and risky that its still being debated today like in this article. The reasoning behind the change was because of the Mandarin's Fu Manchu sterotype; Shane Black wanted to change the character to avoid any racism. Instead, The Mandarin is a Middle Eastern terrorist bent on destroying America's ideas of heroism and the trust in their government. Wait a minute. That sounds fantastic and Ben Kingsley's portrayal was fantastic as well. The Mandarin was intimidating and bone-chilling. Black had successfully rebranded the character for the film until the twist came. A washed up, drunken actor named Trevor Slattery was just a frontman for the real Mandarin. Decades of Iron Man history reduced to a juvenile poop joke and a punchline. Not only that, a side-character who appeared in one page of an Iron Man comic was revealed to be the real Mandarin. Iron Man's greatest adversary had been stripped down into another generic powerful businessman. Aldrich Killian was just another recycling of Obediah Stane and Justin Hammer. It's a shame. Ben Kingsley could have been a legendary cinematic villain. Marvel has always been lacking in the villains department. Only Loki has been their most memorable villain whch is why he is used every chance they get. Whether you loved or hated it, there is no denying Shane Black successfully fooled everyone and his twist will live on in infamy. Best Example: None: Every film that was critiqued also falls into the "Respect the Source Material" category. I don't want to recycle previous entries so I will just summarize instead. Not every film is perfect. That much is obvious. While each film is gulity of disrespecting a few parts of the source material, they all also do a great job of respecting it as well. The Wolverine did a great job of portraying Wolverine's time in Japan until the final act. Man of Steel stripped away classic pieces of the character, but also explored the modern components comic book writers have added. Kick-Ass 2 adapted both Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall and Hit-Girl: the Comic into its film, but contradicted its characters in crucial moments. Thor: The Dark World respected the characters, especially Thor and Loki's relationship, but disrespected a villain with unique history. Iron Man 3 tarnished the Mandarin, but was funny? I don't know.
