Conspiracy theorists can find no shortage of fodder for wild-eyed suspicion in the ruthlessly efficient money-machine that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sucking up respected, idiosyncratic actors and spitting out formula-adhering movies, the MCU practically invites the supposition that it’s being run by automatons programmed to create pleasing entertainment for a wide consumer base. When Marvel Studios overseer Kevin Feige takes the podium at one of Marvel’s innumerable press conferences, it would not be entirely surprising to hear him begin his speech with the long earsplitting dial-up noise.
Perhaps as part of a concerted effort to convince the general public that Marvel movies are in fact made by carbon-based human beings who enjoy fun and laughter, the official Marvel YouTube channel has posted a clip of the ‘Phase 2’ outtake reel. The full compilation of flub-a-dubs has been bundled with the recently released Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 2 Box Set, an exorbitantly priced collection that includes Ant-Man, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Thor: The Dark World, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Iron Man 3. But a 30-second clip from that reel is now free to view for anyone unwilling to drop $180 on movie they may very well already own, and it is indeed humanizing for the actors involved.
They may be better-looking and wealthier and have cooler jobs, but A-list movie stars are just like us! They curse, they mess up on the job, and, in the case of Anthony Mackie, they want their damn money. The clip is probably too short to drum up major laughs, but it offers other insights; the split-second snippet of Jeremy Renner asking where the invisible thing he’s supposed to be looking at actually is provides a nice exposé of just how strange and unnatural it must be for actors to perform in total-CGI environments.
