2. Respect For The Core Fans
The first two Iron Man films didn't make any particularly egregious missteps as far as offending the fans went; Jon Favreau's films were reverent and on the whole faithful to the vision of the comics. Iron Man 3, however, refuses to play it safe, and as a result, despite the strong critical reception so far, it is almost certain to upset a
lot of comic book fanboys who see it this week. The third film makes the daring choice to have Ben Kingsley's Mandarin actually be an actor employed by Aldrich Killian, something that has already stirred up those online who have seen the film or read about it - it's a move that's extremely brave on the part of the filmmakers, though perhaps also very stupid. There's no doubting that the film is going to make a truckload of money regardless of whether or not it adheres to comic book lore, but to waste a classic Iron Man villain so brazenly no doubt feels like a bit of an insult to the legions of comic book nerds who had been looking forward to the portrayal, only to be completely short-changed. Surely these are the sort of people it's best to keep on side rather than risk alienating for absolutely no reason whatsoever?