I am never watching another Iron Man film ever again

Rating: 1/10 (3 May 2013)

OK severe spoiler warning impending. There will and there are a lot of fanboys who are incredibly outraged myself included.
First of all as a film it was genuinely decent. It was the only Iron Man film with an actual driven plot which is loosely based on the Exremis graphic novel, unlike the completely filler 2nd film. In fact its the plot that made me stay in the theatre, which in itself is complex enough for a 2 hour long film. Basically Tony is dealing with post traumatic stress and insomnia after the events of the Avengers. So with that he becomes a workaholic making his suits with more artificial intelligence. And he has to deal with the threat of the Mandarin, a terrorist who has become a threat to the Americans.
Now I was fine with not making him Chinese or East Asian. I was fine with him not coming face to face with Tony Stark liked he did in the comics. I was even fine with not making his rings magical even though we're in a post Avengers universe. Here was this bin Laden like figure who was incredibly menacing but ....
HERES THE SPOILER
He was not real. Nope. He was an actor hired by Aldrich Killian as a ruse, to put a face to the villainy. Except it used one of Marvel's most iconic characters. Never mind that Killian was breathing fire or Iron Man wasn't actually in person when he saved the passengers of Air Force One, this is what really got me heated.
And its not even in the same vein as Batman Begins where it turned out that there's a real Ra's al-Ghul. You do have Killian saying 'You wanted the Mandarin, I am the Mandarin!" while he's spewing fire and sporting dragon tattoos, but well.... no. Killian being the Mandarin is analogous to your parents being Santa Claus, yes he did do those villainous things but he is not the Fu Manchu sporting long coat wearing arch-nemesis of Iron Man who's been in the mythology for almost half a century.
I understand that filmmakers are entitled to some artistic liberties but to take it to the point to negate the existence a character thats was ranked among IGN's top 50 comic book villains, what was the point of all that buildup? In the first film his presence was really hammered in with the Ten Rings and all the Genghis Khan talk. I do know that the portrayal of the Mandarin has varied from a bad ass to a complete buffoon (lets not forget Modok) but... that is the same for any comic book villain including the Joker (*cough* Ceasar Romero *cough*).
I honestly wanted to walk out of the theatre after that big twist but I felt like this film still deserved my full viewership (and I didn't want to waste $11) as it still was a good film let alone. If you are not a die hard fan of the source material, you would really enjoy it.
Like Cracked.com said, comic book films are now in decline. I still look forward to Man of Steel because it genuinely looks like it's a good movie actually improving on the source material.