Totally agree! I thought the twist was brilliant and one of the best things about the film. Overall the film was not quite as good as I was expecting but this was mostly my own fault for building it up too much. Still it was a brilliant movie, at least on a par with the first one, if not better.

didn't like the twist at all,i really wanted see the mandarin but that scene did make me laugh.

Mandarin........the real one, would work in an Iron Man movie. Its not magic, its ALIEN technology. Alien tech was introduced in Avengers. They could of given us Mandarin with his rings if they wanted to. They chose not to. I'm hoping for a good reason. Gonna see it this weekend. Why do I feel like so many people trash talk this version of the Mandarin when I feel like they don't know the actual Mandarin? The Iron Man animated movie used magic. That was the point of that film. Tech vs magic. I know the Makluans haven't been introduced in the films but aliens in general have. So why couldn't we have the rings? I was ok with them changing his ethnicity. The first time. Made sense. Not this twist. I hope it doesn't ruin it for me. I'm an optimistic person that doesn't mind change, but I'm hearing way too many complaints to the point its actually worrying me.

Mandarin would've worked everyone was in the edge of their seats feeding into the Mandarin waiting for Tony to fly in and whoop his ass but, they did the twist instead, I'm not saying the movie was bad it was still my favorite of the three but, I don't wanna hear how ridiculous Comic Book Mandarin is, Whiplash is a ridiculous character in general who should have been aborted from the Marvel Cinema Womb HOWEVER we suspended our disbelief for that no one was upset about the questionable Avengers plot, why give up on possibly the best thing that could've escalated Marvel Cinema but...again that's all my rant still loved the movie I want to know if their were easter eggs

Mandarin would have worked fine in this movie. This movie had numerous references to the alien attack from Avengers, plus the main bad guys were a bunch of people that got really hot, blew up for some random reason, could die and regenerate body parts. If we have to suspend our reality for all of that we could easily accept a terrorist that has some sort of magical ability. We also had to accept that Tony's mark 42 could fly piece by piece indefinitely without the room for a propulsion system or any apparent fuel source. I thought that the "twist" was funny as played on screen, but felt let down by how much they hyped the Mandarin in the trailers and the performance that he gave. We already saw everything he did in the trailers. Accept for the phone scene with the president.

Back when Shane Black took over he said we would not be getting the Mandarin because he's a silly, racist villain. He did not lie because that wasn't the Mandarin. It was stupid. I have loved everyone of these movies so far. While I enjoyed this one, it was the worst one out of all of the Marvel movies in my opinion. Too much humor, a very confusing plot with the villain, and a big let down with Mandarin.

I like the twist. It's grown on me cause it makes sense. Comic book mandarin would look goofy and cartoony. It would never work. Alien tech that is pretty much ten magical rings? Certain things only work in comic books. Plus, it was brilliant the way they did it. You have Kingsley as "The Mandarin" who lets face it, is really too old for any action scenes anyways without risking his health more than if he was younger. Aldrich Killian is the mastermind behind it cause lets face it, anyone actually believe that a great actor (especially villain actor) like Guy Pearce would have a cameo appearance or something in the movie? The way they did the twist, characters and everything as far as Mandarin and Killian goes is great. I honestly think it'll be appreciated more when people realize that you can't do The Mandarin justice in a movie without it looking incredibly ridiculous.

I did not like the twist it ruined the movie for me!!!!!

"The Marvel Cinematic Universe is an alternate Earth on its own right: Earth-199999"

WTF are you talking about???

"Portraying the Mandarin as a terrorist only to have him proven a fool seems to me like Shane Black mocking Nolan and his obsession with turning comic book villains into terrorists."

again.. WTF are you talking about??? if this is true then it makes black an asshole who selfishly stuck it to another filmmaker via a very consequential inside joke in a huge summer blockbuster.

i've never seen someone present so many assumptions and opinions as facts.

Kingsley as the mandarin, straight-up, would have worked. you even say yourself that he nails it when playing mandarin.(and then go back and say he wouldn't work in an iron man movie.) even the actor himself would have rather played it straight.

speaking of playing it straight, when i first heard the whispers of there being a very controversial twist to the mandarin's character i thought they were going to make him gay lol. something like that pales in comparison to making the mandarin not even exist.

tobeyoungagain@ c'mon man you have absolutely no proof that this guy ever hated on nolan's decision making. by saying what you said you're just as guilty as those you accuse.

that being said - at least in nolan's movies the characters were who they said they were. and in the case of henri ducard and ras al ghul - at least that twist was a reversal of the mandarin twist and was contained to one movie and ras al ghul ended up looking and sounding exactly like his comic counterpart. it doesn't undercut anything that happened before it. as where the mandarin twist just raises so many more questions about obadiah, raza, the ten rings, aim, the us govt... is muddies the water when it totally didn't have too.

Of course it's fiction, @OdinsBeard. I was just making a point of not getting angry about changing things from the original source. It's an adaptation, not a calque.

i felt a little let down when i left, but that was because i had followed it for so long and really feel satisfied, but now that i think about it, it really is a good movie. and i see how the ending works, that it isnt the end of iron man, just the one that was behind the suit. i think well see an iron man (hopefully he makes a return) that knows the suit isnt all that he is and can be stronger than the tony that he once was, a self reliant genius.

That pic is similar to what whiplash looked like in IM2 and I like that pic you've shown also but, I feel as if some people were worried of that a lost of the technology feel in the to someone with powers like, Thor has powers no tech. Get me?

Right but they want to keep all of those aspects separate it's everyone unique attribute like IM tech related movie, Thor Magical, Captain America political, Hulk Brawler self-conflict

Just got back from it.

I really liked Killian. Ben Kingsley was pretty hammy, but who doesn't love him for it?

Are people REALLY that buggered by the Mandarin not actually appearing, or do they feel slighted because of all the advertising?

Cuz I know it isn't because they LOVE the Mandarin from the comics. I mean please - the character gets a makeover in nearly every appearance - the writers can't decide what they like or hate about him, so they just start off with some clean slate. Can anyone REALLY suggest a four or five-star storyline even INVOLVING the Mandarin? I thought not.

Killian was cold-blooded. My only problem with his character was that his Extremis abilities weren't really defined - and his death didn't really show a body, so how do we know he's not regenerating somewhere?

@Tainted
It's all of it as the reason why people dont like it. There is just so much that is mishandled in this movie. They still try to make you laugh to hide the fact that they dont have a really tight plot in another movie.

It's one of the pissed poor twist ever in a movie. Marketing was misleading and plot was piss poor.
Even though its leagues above IM2, it is still no where near IM1.

So WHAT IF Chris Nolan's Joker Was actually an actor Hired by Two Face In The Dark Knight Then It Turns Out That Two Face Was The Real Joker. How Would You Feel ?

Everybody is saying that they are okay with this because the mandarin is too goofy to actually do. You are all lying to yourselves, I'm sorry, this was horrendous, at least Whiplash was a real villain. I mean c'mon, an alien god possessing a mutant telepath, thats ridiculous, it could never be seriously done in an X-Men film, so they changed it for X-Men 3, and most of you hated it. What is with all these double standards, stop making excuses for this terrible decision just because it's Marvel Studios, they messed up, it's okay, they don't have to infallible, they gave Shane Black too much power over the film.

They've hinted at the Mandarin since the first movie, it seemed to be building up to this. I think Jeremy Jahns summed it up best Killian wasn't the Mandarin, he just said that because he was behind it all. Going by this logic means that Talia is really Bane in TDKR and we KNOW that is not the case. I always bring this up, this is the public interpretation of the Mandarin, some goofy actor! It's like Sandman killing Uncle Ben in Spidey, it's like Catwoman having powers in Returns and the Catwoman movie (although Rises has kinda stopped that) people will think of this when they think of the Mandarin.