What are your thoughts about Trevor? MAJOR IRON MAN 3 SPOILER

Again the following is a spoiler for a big plot twist in Iron Man 3 so please do not read any more if you don't want the movie ruined.

You've been warned.


*Spoiler*


What do you guys think about the fact that the "Mandarin" was actually a British actor name Trevor working for Aldrich Killian who turned out to be the real Mandarin?

I was kinda meh on it. It was funny, and it was nice to have a twist. But I have to say I kinda saw it coming.

WhiteBoy wrote:I was kinda meh on it. It was funny, and it was nice to have a twist. But I have to say I kinda saw it coming.

You saw it coming?? What were the clues? I was very surprised and a bit confused by the odd choice. I've since learned it may have been motivated by a desire to distance the movie from the concept of The Mandarin, which was thought by some of those in the creative process to be a racist character concept.

I would have preferred they re-imagine the character but still keep him the main villain than to pull his teeth out like they did. But it didn't bother me so much as confuse me as a story choice. And even though Ben Kingsly did a great job with the comedy, I felt the movie already had plenty of comedic elements. I would have liked The Mandarin to remain threatening.

I also googled the Killian character and learned that in the comics he was nothing more than a lab guy who ended up killing himself. Not a villain or anyone very special. Just a dude. So making him the "big bad" is yet another strange choice.

In the end though, the sum of all the strange choices in Iron Man 3 didn't hurt the movie much for me. The rest of the production rose well above those odd choices for me.

Since Aldrich Killian was also in charged of AIM does that mean he was also MODOK?

The biggest clue to me was how much Killian was building up the Mandarin's presence...trying to make him ominous. I wouldn't say it was a big give away, but I remember thinking "I wonder if he is really the puppet master."

I was slightly disappointed that they didn't go with the superpowered Mandarin, and then I was slightly disappointed again when they pulled the "he's just an actor" card, but I rolled with it. Killian was a cool villain, but could have been stronger in my opinion. I was was surprised they made Maya Hansen fall more on the villain side than in the comics.

I was also surprised that Tony Stark didn't get the Exremis project done to him like it was in the comics. I really thought that is the direction they were going.


FYI The Iron Man: Extremis motion comic is available on Hulu for free. If you want to see more about Killian and Extremis I recommend checking it out.

DNArington wrote:and then I was slightly disappointed again when they pulled the "he's just an actor" card,

I kept waiting for him to do a double trick, and convince Tony he was an actor but really was the Mandarin, much like Alan Rickman's character convincing (Bruce Willis) he was a Nakatomi employee in the original Die Hard.

However, not actually being a comic book reader, I enjoyed the twist and layout plenty. If Arington hadn't mentioned a superpowered Mandarin, I'd have never know that the character should have possessed any.

Overall, I enjoyed the film. Kind of saddened by the Clean Slate protocol, however. And my wife is curious if this is the end of the Iron Man run. Are there intents on doinng a Iron Man 4?

I loved it.

Loved. It.

It was a surprise, and as it dawned on me what was happening, it turned into a pleasant surprise. Since we had already been following Killian's arc, which is the direct opposite of Tony's (Tony was a jerk who gained humanity; Killian was a human who became a jerk -- and an evil mastermind one at that). The opposite trajectories makes one of two things have to happen: either Killian IS the Mandarin or disposes of the Mandarin.

Turns out, Killian IS the Mandarin.

And does this mean that Killian was behind Tony's original kidnapping?