Avengers 2 · 3:09pm Oct 23rd, 2014
Massive excitement: that's what I'm feeling. they are planning for some all out craziness, if this trailer is to be believed. Ultron is no joke when it comes to villains, and they've made him a menacing as he ought to be, at least in this short clip. They managed to turn Ronin into a clown for a half a movie, so it's not like the deal is sealed. Still, I trust Joss Whedon to make good choices.
I both love and hate trailers like this. You can definitely get a sense that big things are happening, but not enough to really know what they are. Or course, it revolves around Ultron, and anyone who knows the character can see where that arc logically leads to, but how exactly that is happening is unclear. We just get a sense that there is conflict. Lots of conflict. Conflict upon conflict. That's cool and all, but it doesn't really give me an idea of whether I'm going to dig the thrust of the film like the trailer for Captain America 2 did. That trailer let me know that it was going to be Cap questioning the current system while also fighting to protect it. That was interesting to me. This has... um... Well, it's got a lot of destruction and some ballerinas. And Cap gets his shield broken, which would be bigger deal if adamantium was a thing in these arm of the MCU.
But we do get a nice look at the Hulkbuster armor, even though Tony Stark has no chance against the Hulk. Well, comic book Hulk. He's always kind of underpowered in movies and TV, and necessarily so. Keep in mind that comic book Hulk is invited to cosmic level meetings between concept beings like Eternity and Death because he is the living embodiment of rage. Unless they've made changes to the character that I'm unaware of, the Hulk literally has no upper level of strength. As long as he's getting mad, he's getting stronger. Tony Stark's armor has no chance against someone who is a threat to Death. At least, not in the comics.
Unfortunately, we also get a few shots of Black Widow and Hawkeye not doing very much. That's really a big concern for me. They've actually impressed me with both characters so far, but I'm still worried that they'll just be relegated background status before too long. It's what I think of as the Justice League effect. What do you need Green Arrow for when you have a team that includes The Flash and Superman. I mean, what possible situation could arise that one of the two of them couldn't solve more efficiently? However, I was a fan of Barry Allen Flash, so it might be that he's less powerful than before, but there was literally nothing he couldn't do back in the day. Anyway, I just hope they continue to make those characters useful.
The odd thing here is that it diverges from the main stories that we have been following, so I'm curious to see how it will all come together. We have the loose thread of Loki in Asgard. Thanos is out there. Hydra is has a strong grip on the world. Yet none of this is evident at all in the trailer. We do get to see Captain America in an old castle at one point, which could point to Baron von Strucker (Seen at the end of Captain America 2), or maybe investigating some of the Red Skull's old artifacts. Or maybe even Baron Zemo, if we are lucky. If so, Joss, please don't have that weird, pink ski mask thing on him. Some things just don't translate well. A pink and yellow bodysuit with eremite trim, capped with a baggy pink facemask is one of those things.
All in all, I'm excited to see what they are doing with Ultron. Joss Whedon says that are going against the trope of the Coldly Logical Robot Destroys The World thing. He's saying that Ultron is a flawed, illogical mess, basically. I think that's either going to be totally fascinating, or a complete disaster. Joss has a history of great characters, though, so I'm eager to see what he's done with that kind of a concept. It would be nice to move away from that Skynet kind of thinking into something new.
I'm just worried if Avengers 3 really does follow through on the Civil War arc. Because, well... that sucked. It sucked on levels never before believed to have sucked. And then Marvel topped that with Secret Invasion. Something that managed to suck even more. Those were dark days indeed...
2551299 I'm pretty sure they are going to go through with Civil War, and I'm worried about it because Joss Whedon isn't doing that. It seems weird to walk away at that point, so it makes me concerned that the studio is pushing for stupid ideas.
They also don't have enough people for Civil War. You can't have a war between like ten people. That was the whole point. It divided up the entire superhero community.
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Plus, what exactly are they gonna war about? Much if the public outcry in civil war was because super villains kept on escaping and stuff. In this universe the heroes actually kill the villains. Plus, they don't really have secret identities. At all. Along with the fact that both Hulk and Thor will probably be involved. The entire arc for Civil War was centered around personal freedoms and such, but there's none of that here. Even Avengers vs X-men would make more sense here than Civil War.
2551335 Didn't it get set up because Nitro blew that superhero team up on live TV? Was it the New Warriors? It's been a while since I've read those comics.
The upshot of that whole time is that it led to more appearances of Bullseye in the later Dark Avengers comics. I never get enough Bullseye.
I hadn't thought about the whole secret identity thing. Without Spiderman there to reveal his secret identity to the world, it would take some of the edge of the whole thing.
This did not escape my attention and I'm likewise worried. Black Widow's proved herself in both Avengers and Captain America 2, but Hawkeye is kind of severely useless, all things considered. They're superheroes meant for more human-level villains.
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Civil War's been confirmed for Captain America 3, actually, not Avengers. I'm rather looking forward to it, though the "there aren't enough people for it" criticism is worrisome.
2551479 I really liked Hawkeye's role as the clear-eyed strategist in the first Avengers movie, but it's not really something that's going to thrill audiences for two more films. I just don't really see where he's going to be all that useful when battling Thanos. We'll see, though. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until they prove themselves incompetent.
Iron Man 3 certainly didn't help any. And about half of Guardians of the Galaxy was filled with questionable choices. Hopefully those will be the exceptions...
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Oh yeah, you didn't like GotG. <.< I'm shocked I'm agreeing with you at all right now.
2551605 I liked Guardians of the Galaxy, but only just. I felt like the first half was very expository and awfully convenient in terms of plot. It was better in the second half. Also, Gamora was a totally wasted character.
James Spader's voice + effects is absolutely chilling.
As for Civil War, I've never read the comic (though I'm told I'm lucky for that) but the premise does have a lot of potential. Heck it was one of the main arcs of the Watchmen graphic novel. And the ending of Cap 2 did set up the basic quandary: you have these extremely powerful people wielding extremely powerful weapons, shouldn't someone responsible be in charge?
We, as the audience, know that Steve Rogers is the very definition of "the right hands," but if you lived in that world, what would it take for you to be convinced?
All in all, I'm excited. MCU hasn't had a bad movie yet, and even the nadir (IMO, Thor 2) was still enjoyable enough for me to see it twice in theaters.
2551773 I'd say Iron Man 3 was far worse than Thor 2, but that's just my opinion. I enjoyed Thor 2 despite it's numerous flaws. I hated the third Iron Man film.
I didn't hate Civil War as much as a lot of people, but it could have been better. One of the problems with Marvel and their crossovers is that they tend to come up with really great ideas and then try to shove it all into far too few issues. Something as complicated as Civil War needs to span years, not twenty-five collective issues. I think that if they'd given it the necessary time, it would have been very interesting. Instead it was kind of rushed and hard to take because of it.