What principle would be that be? Googling the character after the twist upset them, and then waxing about the virtues of alien rings and Chinese ancestry after the fact? I've heard of that principle...I think it's called confirmation bias.
I have the utmost respect for people who didn't like the twist because it simply didn't suit their personal taste. Some people didn't like the humorous nature of the reveal; I get it. Maybe you thought the plot was just lame. Once again, I get that. The folks I can't take seriously are the more unscrupulous types that rail on and on about the comic book interpretation(Edwin Jarvis says hello, by the way), when they previously were hyped to the heavens from what was shown in the trailers. That tells me that if Ben Kingsley was a terrorist war monger as was depicted in the trailers, everyone, even these so-called comic book faithfuls, would've never batted an eye. The second the wool was pulled over their eyes; however, not only did they cry foul, but they formed an opinion on a character with which they weren't very familiar in the first place. Where was the uproar when it was explicitly declared that this Mandarin would be a contemporary interpretation without alien power rings, whose heritage was deliberately left ambiguous?
It's interesting that we've finally been given a villain in the MCU whose motivations are more complex than "kill er'body and rule the world!", and yet all this fan community has done is cry foul. What have we decided to celebrate instead? General Zod, a cliche villain with a cliche plot, whose convictions can be explained away by genetic programming. How about that robot Silver Samurai? Sheer brilliance, and comic book faithful to the T. That's some deep stuff right there; far too sophisticated for the plebeians who appreciated Iron Man 3.
I can accept all of that, and the startlingly appropriate use of plebeians,
And, while I hated IM 3, I actually have to admit the reveal was hilarious.
Sir Ben is such a great actor. Trevor Slattery could have a film to himself.
Although, had they gone with the more conventional version of the Mandarin,
as megalomaniac, he certainly could have pulled it off. Sir Ben does villains seldom, but when he does them, he's superb (I would argue he's better than Ralph Fiennes, a bit better than Mark Strong, and at least as good as Alan Rickman or Ian McKellen).
Here's the bit I take exception to........General Zod , his motivation was to re-start his civilization, which admittedly has been done before, and no doubt will be done again.
However, I submit to you sir, that that particular plot is only a cliché when done badly. I thought Zod's obsession, due to genetic programming, and a lifetime of conditioning was pulled off well enough to rise above cliché.
Plus, the terraforming itself was destruction on a scale not even approached
in Avengers, which is distinction all its own (some hate it, but I loved it).
The bit before the final smackdown, where he almost breaks down to tears, and his increasing craziness during the fight were admirably handled by Shannon.
So while I'll concede I didn't like the twist, and that's just IMO, I will also concede that it was a bit more original than the standard supervillain plot.
Maybe I should give Black and co some credit for originality, but its execution
just didn't pan out for me.
Who knows, I'm a big Nolan fanboy, maybe Nolan would have done it in a way that would have worked for me.....although that would change the whole tone of the movie, as Nolan makes humour peripheral, whereas RDjr integrates humour into pretty much everything IM does.
Okay, maybe it wouldn't work.
The Silver Samurai, well that was pretty crappy, but I blame the source material - it's tough to make a guy who wears silver armour, and carries a samurai sword, and calls himself silver samurai interesting.
(and remember that Killian's whole plan in IM 3 is really just a live action version of the Incredibles, sort of. LOL ).

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