All Hail the King - 7/10

If Marvel has anything going for them currently (and they have many things going for them currently), it’s that they have a solid plan. Nobody needs to worry about their plan. They certainly don’t. Perhaps we worried back in the day, pre-Avengers, but now we can safely assume that we’ll continue to get quality programming each summer. They’re so far ahead of the game they now have a TV show on a major network that incorporates themes from their MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). With all these goings on in the world of Marvel, including rumors and news of future motion pictures and possible other spinoff material, it’s not hard to let a little thing such as All Hail the King slip through the cracks.

Beginning with the Thor DVD release, Marvel began releasing special “One-Shots” (or short films) as special features with each subsequent release. 4 major releases later, on the Thor: The Dark World DVD/Blu-Ray, comes the fifth and (by my count) longest Marvel One-Shot, All Hail the King, which continues the story of actor Trevor Slattery who infamously portrayed The Mandarin and is now in prison. Ben Kingsley does an excellent job recapturing the magic of the actor Trevor, who’s now in prison and has quite a (literally) tough fan base.

Many MCU fans were not particularly happy to find out the Mandarin was a fake portrayed by actor Trevor Slattery in Iron Man 3 (the ultimate troll), but have no fear. The true Mandarin and his organization is out there, and visits with Trevor in prison. Little was he aware that they were an actual force to be reckoned with or that the Mandarin was an actual figure, but they make it painfully clear (again, literally).

While All Hail the King does raise some serious intrigue within the world of Iron Man and the MCU as a whole, it only just grabs your attention, and is, like many One-Shots, just a tease and can be easily overlooked. Despite Trevor’s charm, it’s not perfect, and any longer would have been far too much. There is a great cameo with actor Sam Rockwell who played foe Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2 during the credit sequence. This is certainly worth the wait and is a decent laugh.