Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King (2014)

Brilliant and touching

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

First off, let me just say, that anybody who at the very least disliked the Mandarin twist in Iron Man 3, watch this right now. Not only does it remedy that, but this short is actually confirmed to be canon by Feige.Let's start out with the star of this short, Kingsley's Trevor Slattery. I loved his performance in Iron Man 3 because as the "Mandarin" and as Slattery. He nailed both roles of harrowing villain and bumbling buffoon. And I'm glad he hasn't changed now that he's in Seagate Prison.Thankfully, it is revealed that the Mandarin actually does exist as Killian took it from legend to make Slattery into him. Kingsley can actually play the real Mandarin too, because in Iron Man 3, Slattery said that Killian's men gave him plastic surgery, most likely to make him look like the rumored Mandarin, so that's good news.I also loved the Justin Hammer cameo. Sam Rockwell is an underrated actor (watch Moon), and I like his character in Iron Man 2.+ Mandarin lives!...and can still be played by Kingsley! + Kingsley's Slattery + Hammer cameoFinal Score: 9.3/10

This is a 14-minute short film which takes place directly after "Iron Man 3". We find out what happened to Trevor Slattery in here. The first half of the film basically shows us a bit of his life in prison, while the second half we witness Slattery during an interview where he keeps emphasizing how it's all about his art as an actor. Kingsley is fun as always and basically the only reason why I gave this film more than 4 stars. The rest is fairly insignificant, but the Indian's joyfully, over-the-top performance makes this one watchable. Another prominent cast member here is Sam Rockwell, but he only appears briefly during the end credits and does not really add a whole lot to this film. Writer and director is Drew Pearce who also worked on the "Iron Man 3" screenplay and has a couple interesting projects coming up. At 14 minutes, it's a decent watch, but don't expect anything really great. Recommended.

As Trevor was by far the best part and about the only redeeming factor of Iron Man 3, I kind of expected more from this. It wasn't as funny as I thought it would be but Ben Kingsley still played his part well. What was the point of this little short? I'm not really sure. The plot almost seemed like it was a setup for a future movie and this was just a long teaser, but as far as I know nothing has come of it. It was still entertaining but it left you with a cliffhanger. Cliffhangers usually imply that something is coming in the future, this one apparently doesn't have that implication. So it was kind of a fun little video but in the end ultimately unsatisfying.

I give it a deserving 9.5*Ben Kingsley returns in this wonderful One-Shot, and he doesn't disappoint. The 'twist' in Iron Man 3 had the fandom divided, some people liking Trevor Slattery and the others hating him, but this One-Shot gives the answer to how the hate was misdirected after all. Before I go let me tell you this wasn't a work of appeasement, or Marvel tracking back their footsteps, though they tease it a little when Trevor says, "Once an actor plays a part for too long he becomes the character...", or something. On the contrary the One-Shot establishes the Ten-Rings connection from the first Iron Man and shows that there is yet more depth to uncover in Iron Man's own side story. TLDR: It's an awesome ride for MCU and Iron Man movie fans, though if you are just a regular movie goer, chances are that you won't get what all the fuss is about.