So, were you home today around noon? Near a computer? I was. And if you were like me, you were hitting refresh at the iTunes Movie Trailers site, eagerly awaiting the second trailer for The Avengers to make itself known to the world. If you haven’t seen it, click the link above and watch and then come back here, because I am about to break it down.
Seen it? Great wasn’t it? Granted, a lot of it was stuff we already saw before. But it was arranged in such a way that we get a better idea of what the film has in store for us. And the new stuff? Wow.
First off, we get our first look at Nick Fury in command of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
The set is not new to anyone who was at last years New York Comic Con or seen pictures from the event.
Next is the “gathering of the players” time. Here is Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America (Chris Evans) meeting Bruce Banner, a.k.a. Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).
I was wondering how they are going to get all the characters in one place. For instance, Thor, who at the end of his film was trapped in Asgard with no way to get to Earth. The trailer doesn’t answer this, but we do see him controlling the weather, a power that was underused in his own film.
Another player with an issue in how he would be involved was Iron Man. At the end of Iron Man 2, Nick Fury told Tony Stark that he didn’t want him to be an Avenger because he was too much of a loose cannon. The trailer lets us know that this will become a plot point in this film, and will probably go to show why Tony is such a rhymes-with-pick in all the footage we’ve seen so far. We get a better look at the Stark Tower and how Tony manages to change out of his Iron Man suit.
The trailer also gives a look at Agent Maria Hill (Colbie Smulders) and good old Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg). Their scene comes in the middle of what seems like a battle between Thor, Iron Man and Captain America, and their comments lead me to believe it is the real deal fighting, not any alien duplicates.
Here’s a shot that would make any fan of the Avengers comic book squeal–the Big Three:
Another tidbit we can gain from the trailer is how Loki will be portrayed. Well, it looks like we get Loki classic…
And a new, spiffy, GQ-model Loki as well!
Another question mark that the trailer doesn’t quite answer is how the Hulk will be portrayed in this new film. The scene where Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) collects Bruce Banner that made the rounds of the convention circuit is at the beginning of the trailer, with an emphasis on the Widow’s line “I’ll persuade you” when Banner brings up the idea of saying no. This could be taken as flirtatious, but the scene shifts to armed soldier right outside Banner’s hut.
This is further complicated by the scene this screen grab is taken from:
Now, are the Hulk and Black Widow escaping an attack on their headquarters, or did Banner “Hulk-out” and want to discuss the widow’s persuasion techniques with her. Could be seen either way. Or, maybe, she’s an impersonator? Hmmm.
However, later on in the trailer, in a moment that made me squeal, the Hulk saves Iron Man in a spectacular scene after Shellhead gets whacked by some of the aliens that he is fighting.
So it appears that the Hulk eventually comes around to be a team player is a sense.
Another personal favorite scene from the trailer is this one:
I just love the fact that Cap is shielding the Widow with his shield. That is totally something Cap would do.
We get a look at the aliens again, and they appear to be riding on some kind of flying steed kind of thing.
Hawkeye is a character that we don’t know much about, so we have to look at what they gave us to see if he’ll make the transition to film okay.
Getting in a last shot as he falls to his almost certain doom. Why be worried? He’ll figure something out. Yep, that’s the Hawkeye I know and love.
Another thing that gives me confidence that the film will be great is that is seems they will be playing up the fact that the human Hawkeye and Black Widow are in over their heads and outclassed by monsters, gods, super soldiers and hi-tech armor-wearing geniuses–and that they know it.
That is a great angle to play and gives their characters an arc to work through.
And leave it to Marvel to give us a button scene on a trailer. Right after Iron Man says “I’m bringing the party to you,” we get this:
Oh, man, you just know that party is going to suck!
I don’t know about you, but May 4th can’t get here soon enough.
