Iron Man 3 has now hit UK cinemas, after a raft of positive reviews emerged in the past week or so, and the film's likely box office return is not to be doubted at all, even at this early stage. But it is an event movie, and as ever, there are several points of contention (which is entirely as it should be), and the one major lasting hangover the film might suffer comes in its portrayal of the chief villain The Mandarin. I won't openly spoil it here in any way, but needless to say there is something very different about the Mandarin created by Drew Pearce and Shane Black for Iron Man 3, and some fans will be vocal in their dissent, as some already have been as the news filtered onto the web of how the narrative plays out. Contention is a valuable thing of course, and a little artistic debate is what really brings the internet to life, but I would argue vehemently that what Pearce and Black have done in the film was the right thing for the character, no matter what the response to that bold statement might be. And here's why...
5. The Evolution Of The Action Genre
Thanks in part to the stewardship of Shane Black, Iron Man 3 is as much a traditional action movie, with one foot firmly planted in the past, as it is an out and out comic book movie. Unfortunately for Black (and fortunately for the film, in a way) the genre is no longer the same as when Black wrote Lethal Weapon, and even when he directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. In some way, this treatment of The Mandarin, and indeed the entire twist of the film is a commentary on and lamentation for the "good old days" of action movie villainy. When Tony Stark ponders on coping with an event as big as New York and fantastical elements like aliens and wormholes and other dimensions, we can safely assume that Black is doing the same, referring to a genre now defined by such alien characteristics compared to when he first started working. And in response to that realisation, The Mandarin is very much a post-action movie villain, a traditional villain who has no place in the genre anymore, and one who, as a direct result has had to be molded into something different entirely as an overt commentary on how the genre has changed.