Well, if you've been living under a rock for the past three days, then this may be news to you, but for everyone else, you know that the Age of Ultron teaser trailer has been made public. In a somewhat expected move from Marvel, they released an HD trailer on their YouTube channel on Tuesday night and the response was everything they dreamed and more. With 34.3 million views worldwide in just 24 hours, it broke the previous 24 hour-view record of 20 million formerly held by Iron Man 3. They released the HD trailer after a somewhat low-resolution leaked trailer found it's way onto the web and everyone started freaking out. It was originally slated to air during Tuesday the 28th's episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but that all went out the window once a leaked trailer found its way online. It made sense for Marvel to at least give people the high-quality trailer they wanted since everyone was going to watch it, regardless.
Marvel has now made an announcement that there will be a special press/fan junket on Tuesday, and that they will also be releasing exclusive clips from Age of Ultron during this next week's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. instead of the trailer. So the world will still tune in to watch and not all hope was lost for Marvel's TV-verse. However, there is now speculation about what Marvel is going to reveal at this special press event. Could they be releasing their entire slate of movies for Phase 3? Could they be revealing the subtitle of Captain America 3 (even though we all have a pretty good idea of what it might be, it would still be cool to get a confirmation)? Have they cast a Dr. Strange without anyone knowing? When it comes to Marvel announcing things like this, no one really knows.
Okay, now that all of that speculation is out of the way, let's jump right into the trailer, here, folks! I have been trying to collect my thoughts for the last couple of days and I have watched this trailer (I kid you not) at least 20 times since it was leaked. I'll add screenshots to help guide us through this experience.
This is going to be a pretty long post, guys. But if you, like me, love Marvel, then it won't be long enough.
SPOILERS AHEAD! If you don't want the trailer or potential plot points of the movie to be spoiled, READ NO FURTHER. I've said my peace.
We open with voice-over by James Spader as Ulron saying,"I'm going to show you something beautiful. Everyone screaming.... for mercy." This is interspersed with shots of destruction and people (surprise, surprise) screaming. We then proceed with a creepy rendition of the song made famous in Disney's "Pinnochio," I've got no strings to hold me down/ to make me fret, to make me frown/ I've had strings, but now I'm free... It's extremely eerie when put together with what looks like dark moments from each of the individual avengers. They then come together in action shots, and many parts of a battle between the Hulk and Stark's aptly-named Hulkbuster suit. The trailer ends with a quick glimpse of Cap's broken shield, then a full view of Ultron's face talking to one (or all?) of the Avengers and saying in James Spader's gravelly deep voice, "There are no strings on me." *Avengers: Age of Ultron logo, epic music, and millions of people whose brains just exploded*
You can watch the trailer here:
Now, let's talk about it! I'm just going to bring things up as they come along chronologically in the trailer. And here's just a general observation: The whole trailer is really good. But somehow, something seems "off" the whole way through. It feels like something's missing from this team, and that they're not coming together quite like they did in Avengers. It's an eerie feeling throughout and this movie is going to be a lot darker than Marvel movies past. Joss Whedon and Marvel are pulling on our collective puppet strings as fans and things are going to get real.
1. The first thing I noticed was the image of Ultron's hand covered in what looks like molten metal. This is clearly a nod to the fact that he can regenerate himself. Whether this is tony creating him, or Ultron building himself a new body out of Vibranium (more on this later) it looks fairly ominous.
2. Where is Cap's shield?!
3. AWESOME shot of the new Quinjet. They all look exhausted. I'm wondering if this is after the scene where Bruce Banner is freaking out in the snowy mountains. What kind of effects does post-Hulking have on Bruce? He looks like someone died. Did he cause it? What could he have done as the Hulk that could make him as depressed as this? Joss Whedon has mentioned that this movie will also bring in aspects of the Hulk being just as afraid of Bruce Banner as he is of the Hulk. It will be a really interesting dynamic to have in this universe. I'm excited to see where they go with it.
4. This Ultron is what looks like one of the first models. It still looks extremely similar to the Iron Man suit. It's intensely creepy the way it's walking like a marionette. No wonder everyone having dinner at Tony's house is extremely startled.
5. Who is the woman next to Thor? Could it be that Marvel has re-cast Natalie Portman? They've done it before with Rhodey so would we really be surprised? I guess only time will tell on that front.
6. Looking for Bucky?
7. What is happening to Bruce here? Hulking out? Suffering the effects of what he did while in the form of the Hulk? This must proceed the scene on the Quinjet.
8. I believe this is one of the rooms in the Triskelion that was featured in The Winter Soldier. Does Natasha miss the way S.H.I.E.L.D. used to be?
9. The twins are with Ultron here. Does Tony send Ultron to fetch them? Their motives are not totally clear in the comics so I am throwing out speculation now that the twins start out on Ultron's side and then they begin to see the light and join the Avengers near the last 1/3 of the movie.
10. This sentient army is crazy..... crazy awesome! This is what Ultron looked like in his comic book/animated series form. The way he will evolve in the movie will be something new that we haven't seen before.
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11. What could possibly cause Thor to drop Mjolnir? I'm beginning to wonder if at some point near the end of this movie, Thor does something that compromises his ability to be "worthy" to wield Mjolnir. And it won't be pretty.
12. Whatever caused Scarlet Witch to feel this way is going to really make her powers go crazy. I'm stoked to see how this scene plays out.
13. HULKBUSTER!!! That's pretty much all that needs to be said. However, there is speculation about the context of this scene. Is there a spat between Tony and Bruce? Has Ultron taken over the tech and The Hulk needs to be the one to fight him off? My bet is with the latter. It makes sense for Ultron's intelligence to have taken over Stark's suits and create his army. It's not 100%, but it makes sense to me. We'll have to see what happens in May!
14. Easily one of the most badass moments of the trailer was Black Widow on her new motorcycle dropping out of the moving Quinjet and right onto the street. It doesn't get more lady-empowered than that. Nice new bike she has, too.
15. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch have some pretty cool powers. I've heard quite a few people who are less than thrilled with the way Quicksilver has been portrayed in this trailer versus how he was portrayed in X Men: Days of Future Past. While the way Marvel chose to portray the superspeed is different, I like it. And I like the blue that you can see while he's running. Some have equated it to a cheap TV effect, but this is an early SFX scene and I'm sure that they will all be refined by the time we see the film in the theatre. Now, as for Scarlet Witch, I thought this red "energy ball" that she's got is a pretty good manifestation of her power to be able to manipulate energy in many forms. Usually it's kinetic, but she can do other things as well. We didn't get to see a whole lot of her powers, so that still leaves some mystery as to the amount of devastation that she can cause.
16. This is one of the things that I'm most excited about revolving around this trailer. They give us a small (probably less than half a second) shot of Steve in what appears to be the 1940's. We know that Haley Atwell is slated to play young Peggy Carter again in this movie so there are a few scenarios that people have been playing around with. One, Steve is having a flashback of a moment that we didn't see in The First Avenger. Two, Steve is having some sort of dream or vision about what his time in the 1940's could have been like had he not been frozen. Three, (this is my favorite theory. I ship Steve/Peggy so hard) there is speculation going around that somehow, the Scarlet Witch will use reality-bending powers to allow Steve to somehow travel back in time and have his last dance with Peggy. I know it seems far-fetched, but if there was any way in this world that this could happen, I would probably cry forever. I love them so much and Steve could get the emotional catharsis that he so desperately needs.
17. This small one second of Andy Serkis is one of the most talked-about moments in the trailer. Marvel doesn't give a character facial hair like this for no reason. Rumor has it that Andy Serkis is playing Ulysses Klaw. For those of you who don't know, Klaw is one of the main villians of... wait for it... THE BLACK PANTHER. What?! Yes, folks, it's possible that we will get mention of T'challa in this movie and that maybe, MAYBE, Marvel will cameo Black Panther (probably in one of the end-credit scenes). And even if there is no cameo, I have no doubt that one or both of the words "T'challa" or "Wakanda" will be mentioned. Klaw is also how people speculate that Ultron's Vibranium body comes about, or at least how Cap's shield breaks. All this information is too juicy to avoid talking about.
18. Straight-up awesome.
19. Let's all be honest, everyone needs a shirtless Thor scene.
20.I LOVE this moment. Black Widow and The Hulk appear to be touching hands. People have speculated about a possible romantic relationship between the two, and while I don't agree with that, I think that their friendship is much more intimate now. Joss Whedon planted the seeds of a good friendship between them in the first Avengers and this time around, we finally get to see that pay off.
21. Ballerinas means Black Widow backstory! The world is ready.
22. Supposedly Hawkeye is going to get more lovin' in this movie but we haven't seen much of him in the trailer. What we did see, however, was pretty cool. It looks like he's on the same mission as Bruce Banner assuming that there's only one sequence involving snowy mountains.
23. What in the world could break Cap's shield? Again, my bet is on something having to do with Andy Serkis' character. Whether he's playing Klaw or not, there needs to be a way for Ultron to get the "indestructible" body. They barely show the broken shield in this trailer. Hopefully we will get a full-on look at it in trailers to come. Also, note that it's Thor's hand and not Steve's. Just sayin'...
24. "There are no strings on me." *incoherent screaming* Ultron even has James Spader's menacing eyebrow glare. Of course, that's probably because James Spader did the motion capture as well as the voice of Ultron. I've seen people on the internet complaining that he sounds too human, but these robots are much more advanced than **Jarvis and he sounds pretty much like a real person. I don't have a problem with the voice. I think Spader was the perfect choice for something that is supposed to give a performance that is extremely imposing and scary, while also doing it with no emotion.
** I mentioned Jarvis in the last paragraph and that reminded me that I also wanted to mention how excited I am to see The Vision in this movie. He is played by Paul Bettany who is also the voice of Jarvis. The relationship between The Vision and Scarlet Witch plays a fairly large role in the Age of Ultron storyline in the comics. I wonder if they will have a relationship in this movie-verse and if so, if it will affect the story as deeply. All we've seen of the vision so far is a full-bodied shot in a piece of concept art, and in the background of Quicksilver's section of the Age of Ultron poster released at San Diego Comic Con.
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Whew! That was a lot of typing and a lot of thinking. I hope you guys enjoy the hundreds of words that I can spew over a two-minute video. Please let me know what you think. This kind of thing only happens every three years so we shouldn't be taking this awesomeness for granted. Let's talk it out until we lose our voices. Or type about it until our fingers fall off. Your choice.
Until next time, remember that if you create an army of sentient robots, make sure they don't know where to find Vibranium.
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