What I would have done with...Iron Man 3

 
To kick off this new series of posts entitled "What I would have done with..." I have decided to talk about Iron Man 3. 

BEWARE! IRON MAN 3 SPOILERS FOLLOW! 

For those of you still here you will know that there have been a number of considerable  criticisms leveled at the third installment in the iron man franchise(See here), none more vocal than the films treatment of its antagonist as played by Ben Kingsley, the Mandarin. I for one actually found the twist quite interesting and definitely didn't see it coming, but I still wouldn't have done it...

I should point out that in these series of posts I do intend to convey my own ideas for "what I would have done with" these films but after finding this alternate version of the Iron Man 3 plot online I couldn't find a way to top it. 

Lifted from GeeksofDoom this alternate version of the plot not only gives the Mandarin a proper, meatier role, but includes the Hulk (yeah!). The basic points are as follows...

Act 1

- Stark tower would have been the main setting for the film instead of Malibu

- Banner and Stark would be hard at work throughout the film to try and discover the secrets of the Chitauri from the Avengers.

 - Rhodey is fighting against the ten rings abroad, in his own little personal war. The Ten rings are of course led by the mysterious Mandarin who captures Rhodey. The Mandarin releases a video showing James Rhodes held hostage, the Iron Patriot suit dismantled like a cheap plastic plaything. The Mandarin reveals himself, stepping out of the shadows, with a gun pointed to Rhodey’s head. This catches Tony’s attention, who has been consumed with his work at Avengers Tower. 

- The Mandarin issues a threat, If Stark doesn’t show up in 24 hours, the Mandarin is going to execute Iron Patriot on national television. Banner offers to help but this is "Tony's war" and he goes it alone in a new armour (if we really need to)

Act 2

 -Tony flies across the world and blows up some tin rings installations, beliving that he is making a big difference and kicking some ass. He makes his way to the Mandarin's palace and the two face-off.

- Long story short, Tony’s first fight with the Mandarin doesn’t go as planned. This is the first time we really get to see the extent of the Mandarin’s mystical powers, derived from the ten magic rings he wears on his fingers. In the battle, Tony fails to save Rhodey, who is murdered at the hands of the Mandarin. Tony’s suit is blasted beyond repair and Iron Man barely makes it out of there alive. 

- Tony makes it back to Mailbu to be nursed to health by Pepper and Happy (Who have considerably diluted roles in this version of the film) whilst the Mandarin taunts the world and threatens a last attack on New York to finish what the aliens started.

Act 3 

- Final showdown in New York. Stark and the Mandarin fight at Stark Tower. As Stark is about to defeat the Mandarin he uses his mystical rings to take control of Banner, who attacks Iron Man...lets be honest, we all want to see it. Tony escapes and of course dons the Hulkbuster! 

- There is then a massive Stark and Hulk fight. Hulk tries to squeeze the life out of Tony and crush the suit, but Tony delivers a crushing blow to the Hulk’s head and gets free, just long enough to get his hands on the Mandarin. In the Hulkbuster armor, Tony grabs Mandarin and crushes his hands, preventing him from using the magic rings. Hulk shakes off the spell and slowly regains self-control, transforming back into Banner.

- The Mandarin is taken into custody. Stark and Banner wax-lyrical about the research they were doing and Tony flies off into space in his space armour.

Final thoughts...

Personally I love this story line and think it would have made a lot better film than the one that we ended up with. You will notice a distinct lack of Pepper and Happy in this version and I agree with that. I could not abide the "super-girl" Pepper that we got at the end of Shane Black's film and this alternate version would have been a much better use for her character.

Extremis is also not a major plot point in this version. Personally I wouldn't have used it at all. Knowing now that Ultron is going to be in the Avengers sequel as the villian I suppose Extremis could have been a background element for Banner and Stark to be discussing, but it just didn't need to be central to the plot. 

As I sad previously, in future posts of this series I will attempt to convey my own ideas for alternate plots to movies, but as I am sure you will agree this idea was so good that I could not see any real way of improving it. Do feel free to head over to Geeks of Doom to read the unabridged version here.