Whether you're in the camp of people who liked it or not, it's hard to argue with the fact that the Mandarin twist in Iron Man 3 was one of the biggest WTF moments of 2013. The film's first half builds up Ben Kingsley as being the fierce villain known as The Mandarin, only for Shane Black to pull the rug out from under us, revealing that Kingsley's character is just an actor called Trevor Slattery to help build the mystique around The Mandarin and distract from the real Mandarin, who is Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian. On one hand, it was a daring subversion of everything we had come to expect from a comic book movie, but on the other hand, it took one of Iron Man's most feared enemies and turned him into a joke character. Whichever side you fall down on, it was totally weird and unlike anything else seen in a superhero movie.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
