The Avengers: Age of Ultron is nearing Spider-Man 3 levels of giving the game away before it opens. Which worries. Why the hard sell with a third trailer when you're going to break records even if you advertised with only the illustration of a turd -- and I don't mean the shitty poster, but an actual turd. This hard sell combined with the bleak tone of all the trailers (where's the fun of the megahit original?) combined with Joss Whedon calling the production "a nightmare" has me suddenly worried. Because, true story: I want it to be great. I love The Avengers (in comic and movie form). Yes, TFE complains about the glut of superhero movies but that doesn't mean they should've have a place in the movie ecosystem. They just shouldn't dominate it is all. They're dessert, not a balanced meal.
So at the risk of obvious spoilers (hey Marvel provided them not us) here are the three moments we must discuss...
We'll start with the superwomen because ACTRESSES. Is it too much to hope that The Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and The Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) have a conversation in this movie so that The Avengers: Age of Ultron can pass The Bechdel Test? The Marvel movies do a horrible job of passing it. It's easy to pass but I think only Iron Man 3 does, right? All you need is an exchange between two named female characters that's not about a man for chrissakes. That's NOT too much to ask.
As for this image, the Witch is clearly possessing the Widow which would account for the heroes fighting each other in the trailer including the eagerly anticipating Hulk vs. Iron Man's Hulkbuster Armor. But wasn't this a plot point in the first film too with Hawkeye's eyes gone all possessy? Worrisome.
The second image is the trailer's money shot... already gif'ed and memed by the internet because it's so grabby what with all The Avengers leaping, biking, jumping or flying through the air to do battle. (Bet you anything that's our interviewee stuntman Bobby Holland Hanton in Thor costume right there!). Imagine layers they had to composite in the VFX department for that shot. I can't imagine the cost of just that one image. Anyway, it's the best "ripped straight from comic book page" big screen image ever... or at least since the merry go round money shot from the first team-up when we circled all the Avengers, assembled in the city rubble.
I think Ryan from Sorta That Guy says it best.
Still haven't seen the new Ultron trailer, but that gif of the Avengers all jumping in action I've seen. It's both RIDICULOUS and AWESOME.
— Ryan (@sortathatguy) March 5, 2015
Ridiculous and Awesome. That just about perfectly describes the appeal of superheroes, doesn't it?
P.S. We also got our first glimpse of The Vision (The computer Jarvis in humanoid form -- played by Paul Bettany. Hooray -- who will eventually fall in love with The Scarlet Witch if they stick to comic book mythology). See they're not holding anything back before release.
