10 Movies That Subverted Expectations (And Fans Hated It)

1. Iron Man 3

In the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s fair to say that any sort of missteps have been few and far between. Granted, movies such as The Incredible Hulk and Thor: The Dark World may not be universally loved by everybody, but the rest of the MCU’s output has been pretty much consistently adored.

Iron Man 3 is far from a bad film - and it took home over $1 billion at the box office! - but the 2013 outing for Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark had a moment that completely caught its audience off guard – and not in a good way. Yes, we’re talking about the reveal that Ben Kingsley isn’t really the nefarious Mandarin.

Since Stark had first been brought to big-screen life in 2008, many comic book aficionados were wondering whether or not we’d eventually see The Mandarin butting head’s with RDJ’s Iron Man. As it pertains to the Armoured Avenger’s comic book villains, The Mandarin is seen as the ultimate Iron Man bad guy.

For over an hour, Iron Man 3 gave us a calculating and clinical Mandarin who had Tony Stark beaten at every turn. It was thrilling, it was engaging, and the movie was doing that rare thing in superhero movies: having you believe that there really was no way that the hero could overcome the impossible odds and save the day.

And then, in the blink of an eye, The Mandarin was revealed to be a jobbing actor called Trevor. *Sigh*

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Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.

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