Review – IRON MAN 3
Iron Man 3 is the story of Tony Stark dealing with PTSD that he received during the climax of The Avengers. This is the first comic book story (at least in movie form) to deal with this issue, and it’s an issue that really someone should have thought about way sooner. The fact is Tony Stark escapes normal human interactions even with his partner, and spends all his time attempting to be safe by building fifty or so Iron Man suits in order to assure he’ll be ready for anything. All the while, an international terrorist, The Mandarin (or Man Daren if you’re in China) is threatening the president of the United States. There are so many mini arcs, stories to pay attention to, and bait and switches that this must be one of the most complex stories I’ve seen in a comic book movie yet, but to the credit of the production team it was never difficult to follow. Whatever you think this movie is about… you are wrong.
Which brings me to my main point, let’s talk about Sir Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin. Since even before the original Iron Man premiered much has been speculated about the branding and whether it’d remain true to the comics. While still finding ways to tell the story, the production team have done a very good job of keeping true to Tony Stark’s sarcastic wit, his MacGyver-like ability to problem-solve, and the role he plays in American Militarism/the military industrial complex. All the same, the biggest question on fans’ minds since Agent Coulson first hinted at the Ten Rings Initiative in the conclusion of the first film was “How will the studio handle The Mandarin?”
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MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
From a fan perspective the production team basically shot The Mandarin in the head. From a story perspective and cultural perspective it was probably for the better. Let’s start culturally. The Mandarin as a character has been an unmistakable and unshakeable Chinese Stereotype. Though a formidable foe to Iron Man sporting ten rings of various powers, it speaks volumes that they changed the character’s name in the Chinese release of the film to “Man Daren.” The team knew they had to craft their version of The Mandarin with care to appeal to all audiences but above all craft an interesting story.
While telling some of the more modern interpretations of the Mandarin may have still brought some badassery to the character there would still be that “Yeah but his name’s the Mandarin… he’s still a stereotype” response. So they got Sir Ben “There’s no way in hell I’m Chinese, or even of East Asian descent,” Kingsley for the role and crafted the idea of the Mandarin after Osama Bin Laden and orchestrated some very impressive PR, media hacking, and even early in the film the Mandarin takes credit for an explosion at the Mann’s Chinese Theatre which, the audience has already seen, has absolutely nothing to do with the Mandarin at all, except that he took credit for it. The Mandarin later sits in a mansion transformed into a studio and the allure is deepened, he sits on a throne between two twin dragons and appropriates bits and pieces of Chinese culture to create mystique and allure. This completely works because of what you find out about him.
The Mandarin is an actor. He’s a character created by Aldrich Killian in order to perpetuate his own evil deeds. If the production team had used the straight forward Mandarin it wouldn’t have emphasized what the Iron Man Trilogy had been saying about American Militarism from the start, that even though our enemies look foreign, seem different, and are meant to be an alien force, it is used as a show and enemies aren’t always as foreign as we make them out to be. Kudos to Ben Kingsley who blows your mind as both the Mandarin character and as an actor picked up to portray “the Mandarin.”
It will be interesting to see if Marvel continues with the Iron Man story since Robert Downey Junior has recently said he’d rather move on to other things and the story arc from this production team closed so well. Obviously there’s a lot more going on in the story that this review hasn’t even touched (The Extremis serum, the correlation of Stark’s PTSD and the main villains all being missed opportunities of his past self, Stark trading one addiction for another, all the Man-Thing references) but the fact of the matter is you should see this movie.
