Here is is: without a doubt, the one moment from this year that pretty much p*ssed off everybody who paid money to see it. Yes, we're talking about the Mandarin reveal inherent to Iron Man 3, of course... that instance when Marvel fans (and cinema-goers in general) were stunned to find that Tony Stark's arch-nemesis had been reduced to that of a bumbling theatre actor named Trevor Slattery - as played by the brilliant Ben Kingsley - who was once "the toast of Croydon." The reveal came at the movie's mid-point, you'll remember, where Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian reveals himself to be the true mastermind behind all the evil scheming (and is therefore the "real Mandarin), with Trevor Slattery, a drunk, poised as a kind of decoy - a mere frontman. Fans had waited with baited breath to see what Kingsley was going to do with the Mandarin, of course, but the reveal pretty much stunned all those who laid eyes upon it. Marvel fans weren't pleased. You can sort of understand why writer/director Shane Black went down this specific path, though: the Mandarin, a relic from the Golden Age of Comics, is a rather racist and inappropriate character for today's times. Instead of trying to rebrand the Mandarin, Black opted to pull a switcharoo, riddling himself of the complicated problem entirely by making Killian the true villain. Whether or not it worked is another matter entirely. Fanboys will tell you it didn't, of course. Like this article? Let us know in the comments section below.
