Review of Iron Man 3 (2013) by Kinbladez — 02 Oct 2013

As a movie watcher, I enjoyed Iron Man 3. It is action packed, it's pretty, RDJ as Iron Man/Tony Stark is as always one of the best casting decisions for any comic book adaptation ever.

But as a fan of the comic books, I feel disgusted and betrayed. The Mandarin, and Extremis- two of the best things to ever happen in the Iron Man universe- aren't even shadows of what they were in the comics. They're completely unrelated to their comic book source material, in fact. Ugh. I held off watching the movie, avoided seeing it in theaters, because I knew the Mandarin couldn't be handled properly in our politically correct world, and I disliked Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin. Even though the trailer seemed to imply he'd be imposing and bring to the role his usual mastery.

The trailer was an outright lie. This movie took THE Iron Man villain, and made him a fraud. It showed the ten rings, for all of a second, and they turned out to be props. So awful. So disgusted, I want not just my money back, I want my time back. The Mandarin was one of Iron Man's most formidable enemies, and this movie made him a fake, played by "a stage actor" who's got a British accent and a recreational drug problem. REALLY?!?!

And Extremis. Let's talk about Extremis, one of my all time favorite story arcs and I have literally read almost all of them. This movie was written by someone who'd heard the word and thought it was a good idea. Aside from the fact that Extremis is unstable and can aid regeneration, nothing from the original masterpiece storyline remains. So if you watched Iron Man 3 looking forward to seeing the Mandarin's ten rings and the suit of armor Tony built into himself, you're out of luck.

Despite the fact that those two things are what the words "Mandarin" and "Extremis" promise.

This is by far the worst mainstream comic book adaptation. I wanted to love it. I really did. If they had called the Mandarin literally ANYTHING else, it would not have altered the storyline one iota, and yet they had to use "Mandarin"? WHY?! Same goes for Extremis, for that matter. If the serum had been called it would not have altered the storyline one iota.

It's like Shane Black and the other mongoloids who are responsible for this storyline WANTED to piss off fans. It's like they specifically made these choices in the writing of this film to piss on the greatest Iron Man villain and one of the greatest Iron Man storylines of 50 YEARS of the character's history.

While writing this review I have gotten even more angry than I was already, and the score dropped from a 5 to a 0, because the more I think about it, the more I realize that there is no reason for this shameless butchering of canon. Pathetic attempt to sell a comic book movie by someone who has no love and no concern for the comic book. Bottom line if you're looking to enjoy an action movie with Iron man, watch Iron Man or Iron Man 2 or the Avengers. Don't give Shane Black a dime of your money, and don't waste your time. I could pick apart why this movie doesn't deserve a solid rating, but the real reason boils down to the fact that the movie's creators pissed on their fans so thoroughly and shamelessly.