On March 4th, Marvel Studios released the third trailer for their upcoming "Avengers: Age Of Ultron" feature film. You can watch it in all its glory in the embedded video player...
Like many people, I was blown away by the 2012 film. There was a lot of hype and high expectations leading up to "The Avengers", with the massive success of the previous Marvel movies and with Joss Whedon directing. But it did a fantastic job and it became a favourite amongst comicbook fans and the general public.
It did so by following a formula time proven by the original 1963 Avengers comicbook. You take all the coolest characters from everyone's favourite movies, and put them all into one big event. You make sure the threat or villain is something huge, something no single hero could possibly handle themselves. You let all the characters play to their strengths, to their stereotypes, and find magic in their various interactions. And, of course, you give us a hulk who is less-emo, less-conflicted, and more smash!
The actual plot of the original film was pretty simple. The sequel's looks to be just as straightforward, and that's going to be a good thing. The whole cast is back, and we have a new villain (complete with a amazingly menacing voice provided by James Spader), and we look to be adding three new heroes. That's an incredibly large number of characters, and they're going to be doing a hell of a lot. Remember the super-speed character in "X-Men: Days Of Future Past", the one in the film's party-piece scene? He's in this film too. Did you like the Thor-versus-Iron Man bit in the first Avengers film? We're going to get Hulk versus Iron Man this time, and Iron Man's breaks out a special toy just for it. Even with a two-and-a-half-hour runtime, it might feel pretty crowded onscreen.
Ten years ago, if you asked me if we'd ever see a big budget Avengers film, I would have said no. Never. Comicbook-based movies rarely saw success, and those that did never really built on that success to create the cohesive universe required for a big team film like that. Now, its 2015, I'm looking forward to seeing the second Avengers film on May 1st, and am super curious as to what the third one will turn out. Crazy!