18 Worst Moments In Every MCU Movie (So Far) - Ranked

2. The Mandarin Twist - Iron Man 3

The Film

Iron Man 3 is by far the highest-grossing of the three movies, and benefited hugely from both the post-Avengers boost and the addition of Shane Black as writer-director.

Black brings a unique tone and style to the movie, focused on character-driven humour yet not at the sacrifice of some ludicrous action sequences.

There are definite issues and one heavily divisive moment in particular - which we'll get into momentarily - but after the more generic simplicity of Iron Man 2, it's a refreshingly ambitious return to form.

The Moment

Tony Stark heads to The Mandarin's (Ben Kingsley) fortress only to discover that, in fact, the man is merely a British actor named Trevor Slattery, who has been hired to perform as the supervillain in order to shield the "real" Mandarin, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce).

The reveal angered many fans who both felt they had been denied a true screen version of the Mandarin and misled by the movie's marketing. As a result, Marvel Studios eventually released a short film, All Hail the King, which ret-conned Iron Man 3's events somewhat, essentially revealing that Killian wasn't the true Mandarin either. What a mess.

This might be a case of Black getting a little too clever for his own good, because the end result was more frustrating than satisfying.