100 Days of Marvel: Road to Infinity War - Day 15: Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King

"Come not between the dragon and his wrath" is displayed on the screen the screen in the initial moments of this film, but I struggle to find out why they needed to open this short with a quote. I guess it fit, but the tone of it didn't really end up matching the end product, at least not when it come to the character the viewer is focused in this Marvel One-Shot.

Ben Kingsley reprises his role as Trevor Slattery in this one, which acts as an epilogue of sorts to Iron Man 3. Really it is just a long post-credit scene with two of its own ridiculous post credit scenes. We get Slattery in prison, and for some reason the inmates are completely enamored with the guy.He has a body guard who sacrifices his life to save him, and a group of "fans," as he so calls them, who come to his defense in prison. It is weird because he was a terrorist, and I found that part to be a bit incredulous.

Gripes aside, this, the last of the Marvel One Shots (I believe) is one of the better ones. You can really see here that Marvel was really begining to explore the comedy aspect of these movies. It was present all along, but this one had the same humor woven throughout that some of the later movies had. I am actually not so hard core and I don't remember what Marvel Phase Iron Man 3 was released (2, maybe?)  but this certainly has latter phase energy, so I suspect it fell on a shift.

Jackson Norris (Scoot McNairy) was a Ten Rings Agents in this, and apparently when I rewatch the Iron Movies I need to pay closer attention because Ten Rings has been around since Iron Man 1 and I am none the wiser. I only know this because a series of links that led me away from IMDB to the Iron Man Wiki for them.

To me, this is by far the funniest One-Shot. I actually like Trevor as a character. He is a horseshit villain, but he is great comedic relief. His presence in Iron Man 3 seems to be hated - not on a Jar Jar Binks level, but you get the idea - but I liked him okay. I actually was really amused for his first scene with Robert Downey Jr. Where he is revealed to be an actor. And in this, he was no less humorous. He had some great dialogue in this, such as the line where he talks about how actors don't actually do any research but just Google themselves and jack their ego, really good material.

Going back a few pegs though to something I mentioned earlier, I do think the Marvel post credit scenes are maybe a little over done, or at the very least done where they are not needed. This is a 10 minute movie that has a mid credit and post credit trailer scene. They are funny, but I mean, the film itself is basically a post credit epilogue to Iron Man 3. Were these really needed here? They were funny, and they fit the atmosphere of the short, but I question why those scenes couldn't have just been a part of the regular short? Why not just make an 8 minute thing a 9 or 10 minute thing. I liked how it had a "this guy was here all along," feel. But I ponder whether that pay off was really worth a post credit scene in a 8 - 10 minute short.

Short one tonight, but tomorrow I start Agents of Shield and I CAN.NOT.WAIT. But I will wait because I am going to bed.

P.S. I was SO happy to see Lester Speight in this. He is an actor who I never see coming, but when he appears in things it is always a perfect role for him. He can funny, serious, dramatic (though I often see him in funny roles) and he is just great on the camera. He had a small part here that I think they could have done more with in the short amount of time it runs, but he brought that character to life no matter how unrealistic the circumstance.