Originally posted by WhiteWitchKing
I disagree though. Up to the point of reveal, Mandarin was a force to be reckoned with. He bombed multiple sites on American soil, hacked into U.S. news feds and the presidents phone line, killed a guy without remorse, had Killian working for him, and blew up Tony's mansion after be verbally threatened. I was expecting an all out war between the two then it turned into a joke and became another I'm pissed off at Tony Stark revenge story. Yet another mad scientist/business man who wants to get back at Tony. Boring.Seems like Marvel and Black doesn't have the balls to do Mandarin justice because they were afraid of stereotypes. So what? Wasn't the Ten Ring terrorist group Middle Easterners?
It is tricky, since China is a huge market for movies like this one. They would have had to be explicit that Mandarin's history was of a Chinese national who stood against the revolution, so China's government wouldn't see him as a yellowface villain representing China as a whole.
There's some parallels here between this and The Dark Knight Rises from last year. I was mildly disappointed to find Bane wasn't the mastermind in charge after all; it felt like it took some edge off the final confrontation, seeing as Bruce was willing himself out of that prison the same way he thought Bane did (and only after that, could he defeat him.) So I understand a bit.
Right now, introducing any magic elements in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a challenge. You would have to have Thor & Asgard involved in the story, bringing the worlds of science and magic (yes yes, one and the same in Asgard.) Because it worked in Thor, it worked in Captain America. You can't just have the Mandarin as a man who achieved immortality through self will and concentrating his chi; and has also been sitting on ten 'magic' rings of power all this time and not used them already to further his goals. Comic book logic and movie logic aren't the same.
Now perhaps they could have gone and just made him a triad kingpin with some access to tech and given him a name other than Mandarin - that's more realistic. But I'm sure fans would have complained about that, too.