One of the excuses that Iron Fail 3 apologists have constantly volleyed is that, "well, comic book Mandarin is too much of a racial caricature for 2013!" Now let's dissect why this argument is completely and utterly disgusting.
1. Inability to differentiate between cultural stereotypes and racial caricatures
For example, a depiction of a(n orthodox) Jewish man wearing a yarmulke and eating gefilte fish is simply a somewhat stereotypical depiction that has a base in reality. Stereotypes exist for a reason, which is that they are true. A racial caricature of the Jewish man would involve anti-Semitic attributes such as a ratty appearance and money-grubbing nature. The difference is quite obvious. Now, in his publication history, The Mandarin has had varying degrees of stereotypical nature, though none of them verge on the path of caricature. In fact, his more recent business suited appearance would have worked very well. Also, note that fact that many fans are clamoring for a Luke Cage movie, despite that characters VERY stereotypical nature. In fact, many elements of Cage are borderline carictures, namely his "quest for white booty", noted by the fact that all of the women that he has been written as having had pre-marital sex with were white. Also keep in mind of the fact that BEN KINGSLEY WAS DRESSED IN THE MORE STEREOTYPICAL MANDARIN COSTUME, SO THEY HAVE NO EXCUSE!!!!!!
2. Ignorance of The Mandarin's actual premise
Many (ignorant) people believe that The Mandarin's motivation is a yellow peril-esque, "Oh, I kirr thee dumb white man and wape his Pepper. Then me go over to DC u-nee-vewse and team up wif Egg Fu." No.....god, no. The Mandarin's premise is complete and total untapped potential, and would have absolutely worked in story since Marvel Studios seemed content with getting in bed with China faster than a cheap ho wanting gas money. The Mandarin despises Communist China and wishes to regovern the country back into its pre-communist government and culture. This is why he dresses in the Feudal garb, from the long robe to the armor that he wears sometimes to fight Iron Man in sometimes. Thus, China would actually be seen in a benign manner, with Iron Man helping them take out this threat. This is also the basic plot of when Mandarin first appeared in the comics, in which China asked for Iron Man's help in trying to take this guy out. This ain't rocket science, Shane Black.
3. Previous stereotypes in the series
In the first film, you had an Al Quaeda esque organization who were somewhat stereotypical Middle Eastern terrorists. In the second film, Whiplash was (idiotically) combined with Crimson Dynamo, calling back to the Silver Age with Iron Man's evil "Ruskie" foes. So why in the hell is a Chinese villain too much? Whiplash was even poor and living in Siberia! If that doesn't sound stereotypical, I don't know what does!
All in all, Iron Man 3 is a mediocre AT ABSOLUTE BEST movie that failed at every possible second to make the film have any sense of threat or of legitimate villains. Iron Man 2 had one decent but underused villain, and one crappy one; neither of the first 2 films were very good on making the villains accurate to the comics. IM3 could have easily fixed both of these by essentially combining Joe Casey's "Enter The Mandarin" with Warren Ellis' "Extremis", using The Mandarin's dexterity, martial arts prowess and powerful rings to give a much different and much better final fight, as well as casting Chow Yun Fat, AN ACTUAL CHINESE MAN. Hell, even Ken Watanabe would have worked, despite his being Japanese. The actor they went with was of course Ben Kingsley, which is dumb as hell considering that he's white and Indian and could pass as simply the former. On top of that, even his great talents are wasted on a stupid joke that helped fill a boring movie with other stupid jokes. Just......just damn. Everything about this movie is failed potential: too much damn comedy that isn't even funny, wasting time on poorly written "set pieces" disguised as plot points as opposed to actually developing characters, bringing up the PTSD and then doing nothing with it, selling this movie as a dark and serious flick(which Iron Man should be, and not some new age Beverly Hills Cop) when it is anything but, oddly placed action that is for the most part kind of boring, RETARDED use of the suits, and not to mention Tony "protecting" Pepper despite not protecting his house and readying the retardedly used suits, who become trapped under rubble despite taking hits from Hulk and Thor. Speaking of which, how in the hell do the soldiers so easily break those suits that withstood such force before? All in all, a rusted iron.
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