I found the Mandarin twist a frustratingly unambitious storytelling choice because I knew it was a limited twist that didn’t actually alter the base formula the film was repeating - I tend to think Iron Man 3 largely coasted to a billion as the first post-Avengers movie, and that mostly it just wasted time trying to be clever rather than actually being something anyone needed to remember. It was a competently done film in a situation where competence would be rewarded with massive financial success, and left money on the table because it wasn’t actually clever.

I feel like it’s largely the most ignorable Marvel film not so much because of quality or a lack of faithfulness, but because functionally, it was just a formulaic film in the right place, at the right time, with the right lead… and had nothing else of real value to contribute.

Which means I don’t necessarily see it as a bad movie overall, but more as a bad MCU entry, one that I’m happy to see get ignored in favor of more ambitious storytelling in other films… which, yes, means I’m the odd duck who thinks that Iron Man 2 was ultimately a better MCU entry *and* a better film even with how crowded it’s plot was, simply because it was actually substantial and ambitious in what it contributed to the character and the MCU.