i just can't let the Mandarin thing go. i was totally ok with him playing possum. i thought he was trying to throw them off the scent a little bit making it seem like he wasn't running things. i was even thinking that the after credits scene was going to be Mandarin revealing his true self. but to have the Mandarin being nothing was just terrible. if Trevor was so high and strung out, how'd he hold it together long enough to be so terrifying in the videos? what about the dude he shot? why was everyone calling him "master"? did his own people not know that he was a fake? what's the point of that?

Killian being the Mandarin made absolutely no sense. neither did his idea of controlling the war on terror by assuming control of Iron Patriot. using the Mandarin idea just to cover up people accidentally blowing themselves up is stupid.

Pepper saving the day at the end and then being all "omg i can't believe i just did that" was cheesy.

all in all though, i really did like the rest of it. so much so that it didn't completely ruin the rest of the film for me. i was just totally disappointed in the Mandarin (or lack thereof).