China disappointed to learn that Iron Man 3's Chinese-only scenes are pandering and superfluous
When it was announced that China would get its very own version of Iron Man 3—a cut with four additional minutes of footage aimed specifically at Chinese audiences—the nation didn’t expect those extra minutes to be just a pandering marketing technique, apparently, protected as they are by the trusting, guileless innocence that comes from being safely swaddled in an authoritarian regime. The Hollywood Reporter and the L.A. Times sum up the surprise and disappointment that's being expressed by Chinese bloggers, who have criticized the film’s China-only scenes not only for being completely superfluous, but blatant advertisements. Specifically, they've decried those Chinese sequences for serving primarily as product placement for Chinese electronics manufacturer TCL—this in addition to a graphic that opens the film by asking the question “What does Iron Man rely on to revitalize his energy?” with the answer being “Gu Li Duo,” a local milk drink. (In other words, it’s a crummy commercial.)