For the past decade, if there is any production house that has learned how to glue together bits and pieces of their individual properties into a much larger canvas, it’s definitely Marvel.
Starting off with Iron Man in the year 2008, Marvel has come a long way to enhancing their vision of a shared superhero universe. Not only have they succeeded in maintaining the integrity of their tales, they have also kept the audiences interested with their post-credit scenes that give a preview of what’s more to come. Thus, as hard as it is waiting for the next movie to come out, the surprises just keep getting better.
The next installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Avengers: Age of Ultron, the trailer for which was released last week and swept both the Marvel fan and non-fan communities off their feet. It has boosted the anticipation among the audiences who clearly are super eager to get their hands on the first show for said movie.
The trailer starts off with the menacing Ultron exclaiming how he would show something beautiful, “everyone screaming, for mercy” as a chaotic sequence shows people shouting. Enter Captain America, who seems to have been worn out by the chaotic situation, followed by a shot of the whole team sitting in what seems to be a ship, distressed and under extreme duress. A cranked robot, the disoriented Ultron declares them all to be puppets who are “tangled in strings”. The chaos continues as armed forces open fire, a scene depicts people dispersing, ending with Bruce Banner, played valiantly by Mark Ruffalo, wandering perplexed in a winter forest.
The next scene shows Ultron standing in his might along with two newcomers to the cast of the Avengers series, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver. An army of robots presumably created by Ultron is then seen climbing the mountains. After a few glimpses of Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, and Nick Fury, the Hulk is shown getting ready to fight against Iron Man’s Hulk Buster suit. Further chaos ensues as the Avengers struggle with the apparent war and quarrels among themselves. As the trailer reaches its climax, Captain America’s broken shield is shown as Ultron’s larger-than-death voice exclaims “Now I am free, there are no strings on me”, with a display of sheer wrath on the robot’s face.
The addition of James Spader as the antagonist Ultron is possibly the cornerstone of Avengers: Age of Ultron. His powerful and suave tone is exactly what gives that metal face the look of a merciless dark entity. His character is said to be so intent upon changing the world for the better that he gives ample justification to why the humans should be eradicated, which to him is the logical and right thing to do. Add a mix of persuasion to these elements and the result is a solid vocal performance that leaves one breathless as they witness the birth of a remarkably violent being.
The trailer has been splendid with a lot of indications of comic book moments as fans have noticed, specifically Thor’s hammer Mjolnir falling out of his hands, which has been speculated at the comic book event where Captain America proves to be worthy of holding the hammer’s might and is able to pick it up, a feat only Thor has been able to claim. Secondly, the broken shield of Captain America is a precursor to the already announced Captain America 3, which would be based on the Civil War storyline. The broken shield might indicate Steve Rogers’ departure from the universe as Captain America. However, these are just bits and pieces of whats about to come in the actual movie next year and there would definitely be more material coming in soon as new trailers and images are received.
Ending the epic second phase of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, Avengers: Age of Ultron is expected to be released in May 2015.
