A friend of mine got to see Iron Man 3 at the premier in the UK. I asked him not to ruin the film for me as I am very much looking forward to seeing it next week. But he said he needed to tell me something because if I experienced it in the theater I would have most likely thrown a fit and gotten kicked out. I'm glad he told me and I'm here to offer this opportunity to those of you who don't mind having the truth about the Mandarin in the film spoiled.

Near the end of the film, Tony Stark decides to track down the Mandarin who for some reason lives in a mansion in Florida, and attack him in his home the same way he did to Tony. Well it turns out The Mandarin is actually just an actor pretending to be a terrorist leader having filmed all the threatening videos on a set. He quickly realizes the gig is up and reveals he was being paid by the true villian of the film Aldrich Killian. The Avengers tattoo is actually worn by the "Mandarin" and as it turns out is because the actor playing "Mandarin" is a huge fan of Tony and the Avengers. Tony then sets off to confront Killian resulting in the grand finale seen in the trailers with over 30 Iron Man suits running about.

So there it is, I'm relieved I was told about this alteration to the character, I think this will seriously upset many devoted fans and even split the audience. But lets hope its handled better as a cohesive film.

Regrettably, it's true. Man I was pissed.

With so many marvel movies, there's bound to be more lemons.

Although that sucks I will still watch the film with an open mind.

after the mediocrity of the second film not sure why everyone thought this film would be amazing

This film was a massive disappointment.

I... the one part of the trailers that I found to be interesting, the thing that changed my mind on the future of Iron Man movies, neigh, Marvel Movies in general, is just a lie?

You think thats bad? You should wait to see what happens at the end of the film. I was like "Wut da hell?"

I was very disappointed in this film. Imagine if you watched a FF movie only to be told that Doom doesn't even exist.

I do think that it isn't completely unfixable. What if it was all a ruse, a double bluff. Maybe Killian really was working for the Mandarin and either Trevor Slattery was an act or maybe the Mandarin was calling the shots from behind the scenes. I hope that's what happens.

If not then how does this film fit with the first? Were the terrorists in the first film working for Killian? that doesn't really make sense.

What will happen to AIM? Their presence and origin in this film was very disappointing.

I'm surprised Fiege signed off on this script.

Iron Man 3 does remind me a bit of the Christopher Reeve Superman 3. Maybe Iron Man 3 would've been better had Mandarin been a black comedian instead to promote diversity ?

Just saw it last night and one of the first things I thought was how angry real iron man fans were going to be.

Even besides that there are enough plot holes in this thing to liken it to a piece of Swiss cheese. Not to mention the whole narration bit was garbage and the whole reason they used it just to connect it to a pointless post credits scene was a ridiculous premise.

I'm not surprised how good the reviews are as I think casual marvel movie fans will think this is good but real fans will be bothered by the artistic license Black took with te film. I like creative directors mixing it up with these heroes but not to the point that the hero is no longer recognizable.

Also, they took the iron man suit(s) and made them pieces of worthless garbage in moments. He went through 1 state of the art suit in the crazy events of Avengers 1. Now suddenly his new and inproved prototype is a total POS that cant fire a missile. really!? They finally made Tony into an idiotic chest puffing tool who willingly put people in danger. Tony's suposed to be the one who's always a step ahead. Yeah he's been a tool plenty of times and all but not to the point of vengeful idiocy.

It seems like they totally wasted the Mandarin on a joke thats really not that funny

I was disappointed by that surprise twist but in retrospect i saw it coming a mile away. I went into the movie expecting the Mandarin to be like Ra's al Gul in Batman Begins and they harken back to the dude in first movie by saying he was a "student" of the Mandarin. I guess they kinda did with the reveal that Killian is the True Mandarin(the dragon tattoos and fire breathing was a bit much though).

All-in-all it wasn't a bad movie, IMO. I like seeing all those automated Iron Man suits fighting at the end and Tony jump between them on the fly was pretty awesome.

Do they ever say how long after The Avengers this takes place? It seems Tony definitely had a lot of time on his hands to have have built 35 unique suits.

I'm not mad about the twist at all. Why? Because they didn't turn the Mandarin into a joke. When Killian said "I am the Mandarin" he meant it literally. He may not be Asian, but he was in fact the Mandarin, and he was badass. It's not the first Iron Man film to combine two characters in one.

Well as someone who enjoyed the Extremis story from the comics, I'm pissed. As a fan of Iron man in the comics, I'm pissed. Overall, you could say I'm pretty pissed.

@daltonmunnal said:

I think i'm more upset about the false advertising(setting up Sir. Ben Kingsley as the main villain) but i guess that was the point. The REAL mastermind always hides in the shadows while someone else does the fear mongering.

Spoiler warnings are like magnets to me.