Geeking Out About Cinema #11: MCU Rewrite | A Better Mandarin Twist

 

Ah yes, who can forget 2013's Ironman 3 debacle. The sequel that had audiences hyped after the incredible trailers depicted a new threat of which the MCU has never seen before since the first Ironman's sideline antagonist segments. That being the Ten Rings and its sinister leader, The Mandarin. Well, clearly things went into a massively different direction than what fans were positively anticipating considering the big twist that pulled the rugs under everyone's feet. The big surprise coming out of Ironman 3 that left countless of both fans and critics alike debating and compelling over. I'm speaking of course about the promised villain from the trailers, The Mandarin as portrayed by Ben Kingsley, being downgraded into buffoonery  as a character in favor of Guy Pierce's Aldridge Killian.

For years, I've always tried to step into comic book movies with the expectation that characters will be different in some fashion from their previous source material counterparts. Whether it's a few changes of costume aesthetics or traditional personality traits, this will always be an inescapable part of the adaptation process that we always have to accept and be open minded about.  That being said, what they did with the Mandarin villain from the comics here is a massive stretch and a huge ask for the fans to be flexible with. They took Ironman's biggest villain (The joker to Batman or Lex Luthor to Superman) and turned him into a clueless, cowardly, delusional, junky, British actor name Trevor who was merely playing a role for someone far less interesting. Or should I say more accurately, they took the Mandarin as we were promised in the trailers and earlier scenes and reveals him to essentially be a goofball decoy.

Now, before it sounds like I completely hated this reveal, I must admit that I do find the twist to be extremely bold, and if you're familiar with my sensibilities as a moviegoer, you'd know that I always admire bold moves being made in cinema. That being said, just because something would make for an ambitious direction, it doesn't necessary mean that it would make for the ideal direction to veer towards. Honestly, once the movie was over, I immediately started to think of much better ways that they could have approached both the character and the overarching story. I felt this subversion of expectation wasn't a necessary one worth sacrificing the potential from the source material over. 

Even for a new unique adaptation making him more of a grounded terrorist leader with terrifyingly great resources instead of a man with rings of cosmic magic powers could've still worked given the performance and direction being in the right place. The "true Mandarin" in the movie ended up being generic villain, Aldridge Killian, as he proclaims to have been using Trevor's acting profession to portray the scary terrorist image on the news while he himself works in the shadows. It's actually a pretty clever idea and plays on our real world history of famous terrorists and popularized conspiracy theories surrounding the U.S. government, but the execution itself fell completely flat on its face by the end of it all.

The trailer gave us something worth being excited for which was a grounded scary villain and a phenomenal actor (Ben Kingsley) who could perhaps elevate the standards for the MCU's rogues gallery. And with that hook going in, they never delivered on that. One of the worst things that you can do in storytelling is understand what the audience is excited for, tease it in front of them, pull the rug under them to fool them, and then replace their desires with something of glaringly lesser value. In a nutshell, this is what the writers did with the Killian character considering how one dimensional, forgettable, and uninteresting the character was. So, what could we have done to change this end result tremendously into something more positively received instead of controversial and stepped over?

Well for starters, simply removing the Killian character out of the equation (we really don't need a cliched jealous villain who hates Tony Stark in the franchise since Justin Hammer already perfectly fits that role) gives you a lot more room to play with. Secondly, despite its controversy, you can actually keep Ben Kingsley as a decoy Mandarin keeping that excellent concept of subversion of expectation in the movie. Like I said, I think it's a great general concept and something that we're not used to seeing in superhero movies which could allow Ironman 3 to uniquely stand out amongst the overly crowded market of superhero properties. However, instead of making him some ignorant druggie actor named Trevor who's basically a walking, talking comedic gag, you can actually make him a serious loyalist to the real Mandarin.

What if "Trevor", or in my version, the man with no name who's never identified by the authorities which could be even more interesting and mysterious, was sent by the real Mandarin (Wenwu) to give America a boogyman to fear as he infiltrated secretive objectives behind the scenes? What if the footage that we see in the news clips of the Mandarin's threats and murders weren't staged performances by an ignorant actor but actual terrifying acts of terrorism by a mysterious devoted servant made to put the entire nation on high alert as well as distracting Tony Stark and the government from ulterior motives behind the curtains? When Tony finally confronts this man, he finds a legitimately intimidating cult leader-like figure with extremis servants around him that he has to fight through with only a partially operational suit before getting to what we expect to be "the big final boss".

Finally capturing who he believes to be the Mandarin, the unidentified man tells him one final line "Like I told you before, Stark...you'll never...see me...coming" before slitting his own throat. This baffles Tony to a staggering fear-inducing state (connecting to his previous panic attacks surrounding the Chitauri invasion) as the fake Mandarin drops to his knees staring back at him with cold dead eyes as he bleeds out to death. Tony, in a state of paranoia, falls to the ground as a large TV screen behind the corpse switches from the Ten Rings logo to breaking news footage of technology being stolen from high tech facilities connected to Stark Industries around America with massive explosions happening in several laboratories. Tony realizes that the man he just witnessed kill himself was only a distraction for something larger and much more concerning that feels beyond his reach. 

The movie eventually ends later on with him speaking to Rhodey as a defeated hero who genuinely doesn't know how to move forward with any shred of confidence (something that we're not used to seeing with the character) after everything that he's been through. This allows for the Mandarin's looming shadow to feel even more close to home than the alien invasion of New York and other previous criminals that were out to get him. It feels personal because it's his company resources that were stolen and it's his ego and pride to challenge this false-faced bad guy publicly that distracted him from the real threat that could have dire consequences to the world. Tony knowing that the "real Mandarin" is out there as an elusive power, and feeling responsible for his failure due his legacy and pride makes for a great thematic thread carrying through the Ironman trilogy.

Make this be the conclusion to Ironman 3 setting everyone's anticipation levels higher for the Mandarin villain without sacrificing the "version" that we got here. Ben Kingsley's performance and character would remain intact as a legitimately scary villain, and even more so mysterious, that challenged Tony while also having an amazing surprise twist at its center. This would later be followed up by another great conspiracy twist via Winter Soldier's Hydra reveal making Phase 2 the era of awesome villain revelations planting the seeds for greater threats to come. With this rewrite, you get to effectively follow through on an excellent recurring theme surrounding Tony's fear of larger, looming threats of which he doesn't have the capacity to confidently handle despite his long-running high intellect and resourceful nature. The ultimate humbling of a character all in one movie with the perfect villain conundrum.

The post-credits scene could be all of the technology and items that was stolen being placed inside of a building somewhere undisclosed where you see Ten Ring symbology around (almost like a modernized temple-like aesthetic). The servants, after placing the resources down, bows to a robed figure who we can only see from behind and eventually his hand enters into the frame revealing rings on each finger. And...there you have it. That's it. It's as simple as that. That's right folks, you can have your cake and eat it after all (if I'm even using that phrase correctly). You can have your fake Mandarin twist while still revealing the real one yet still making the fake one threatening all in the same movie. 

Ironman 3 would've been celebrated for its subversion of expectations narrative while also being known as the movie that did an amazing job at setting up a future threat in a dramatically impactful manner. No generic super powered corporate antagonist (Aldridge Killian) or goofy, comedic character shift (Trevor). Just one scary bad guy with a celebrated performance who ends up being the set up for an even scarier bad guy and we can love them both for what they uniquely offered. Online discussions following the movie would've been more about clever new creations that superhero movies can do learning from Ironman 3 giving the release a memorable role to play in the superhero cinema genre as a whole. This, in my opinion, would've been a greater legacy for the Ironman Trilogy's third entry than what we were given. Following this up with an Ironman 4 or small crossover movie pitting Tony against Wenwu before Endgame/Shang Chi would've been ideal.

Side Note: This article was taken from my 2013 Ironman 3 review and simply repurposed as a MCU Rewrite entry with a few new ideas inserted. Contrary to what you might think after reading this article, I actually quite enjoyed the movie what it was being a Tony Stark movie more so than anything else. There's great action to enjoy, and like I said, I do admire the general idea of a villain identity twist being involve. I just felt like the direction taken was the wrong one where a much better one was staring them right in the face and would've perfectly fit in with everything else that they were doing long term. Anywho, hopefully you guys enjoyed the read. I just might end up doing more of these down the road as they tend to be more fun versus straight forward movie reviews.