2. Self-Conscious Parody
There are far too many "Shane Black Moments" in the film, for it not to have been a conscious creative decision to make Iron Man 3 an inter-textual account of his own work, as well as an opportunity to gently parody his favourite tropes and techniques. Perhaps it is less obvious as in the Last Action Hero script, but the frequent mentions of Christmas, and the very much irresistible tonal riffs on Lethal Weapon (particularly when Stark and Rhodes team up towards the end) press the issue nonetheless. The Mandarin - who was presented very much as the archetypal grandiose, and theatrical super-villain - is a grotesque version of Black's former villainous creations, as well as those his work went on to inform, and there is something perversely comical in his very existence throughout the first half of the film. He is repugnant and despicable, an amalgamation of the old grandiose villain and the new modern "cult-leader" despot we have come to recognise in out own media, and there is certainly something knowing in the way the character is built, as if Shane Black is slightly poking fun at the way he used to write villains beneath the very serious message of Mandarin's villainy.