Still keep Aldrich Killian, Just have it so he sells the Extremis to a terrorist group just like the book. Instead have the terrorist group be the Mandarin's.
The Mandarin was always going to have to be radically changed for the movies, because he's a Fu Manchu stereotype in the comics. So radically altered we got. And the movie made $1.2 billion. It's over, man.
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"I'm not smart so much as I am not dumb." - Harlan Ellison
What bothers me personally..
1) people say it was done so there'd be a twist.
- they could've done some other twist
- what kind of twist was that anyway seeing how at the very beginning of the movie we see the bad guy all pissed at Tony and Tony's voice saying "we create our own monsters". Some twist...
2) people say that Mandarin is too unrealistic for the IM movies.
- they already had gods and radiactive monsters in the Avengers. How is Mandarin different?
- and he's NOT unrealistic, the way he was portrayed in the trailer... it WORKED. He was scary, badass. They could've just finished this concept and it would've been great. No need for the magical rings even, just make him this brilliant terrorist we thought he was.
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Azula: My mommy didn't love me so I'm going to burn down your village.
The problem with the Mandarin isn't that he's too unrealistic; it's that he's one of the most ridiculous racist stereotypes around.
And honestly, if they made him more like the comic book version, the film would still essentially be the same, just having the villain switched out, but having the action set pieces be the same.
If anything, the twist made the story more interesting.
The only ones who seem to really care at all are comic book fans just simply because it wasn't the comic book Mandarin. Most movie goers who don't read the comics didn't mind at all.
I hate watching things like that in movies. Was I aupposed to go "wow! Awesome!" at watching him piss away untold millions of dollars in armors on a whim?