Warner Bros. and Zack Snyder did their best to try and blow the crowd away at Comic-Con, but I think they’ve been bested by Marvel yet again. Not only did they bring news of Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Ant-Man to Hall H, but they brought a fantastic reel for Avengers: Age of Ultron that garnered a standing ovation.
Now Burnsy gave you a taste of this last night with Josh Brolin and Robert Downey Jr. holding hands with the Infinity Gauntlet, but there’s so much more to be sifted through. If you couldn’t tell from the concept posters that were released leading up to this event, The Avengers are in for quite a fight. From Slash Film:
We start on a city scape and the whole team is assembled in Avengers tower. They’re all hanging out. Drinking beer, joking, and Hawkeye tells Thor the whole no-one-can-grab-the hammer thing is “a circus side show.” He disagrees and Stark tries to pick it up. “If I lift it do I get to rule Asgard?” he asks. Yes, Thor says. He fails on a first attempt. “I’ll be right back.” He puts on the Iron Man glove. No dice. He and Rhodie try, both in their Iron Man gloves. Nope. Hawkeye fails. Banner tries and really exerts himself. Everyone gives him a look. Next up is Cap and he budges it which really gets Thor worried. However, having all failed Thor says he has a simple theory “You’re all not worthy.” Just then a huge screeching sound. “You’re all not worthy.” Enter a brutally broken, almost zombie like metal being. It’s Ultron. “How could you be worthy? You are all killers. You want to protect the world but you don’t want it to change. There’s only one path to peace… your extinction.” Just then a bunch of other robots fly in and we get the Marvel Studios logo.
Ultron continues in voice over with a bunch of other images. “I had a vision … the whole world screaming for mercy.” People running away, escaping. “Everyone tangled in strings.” Banner all sickly looking on a place. “Strinnnngs.” Massive battle scenes, Hawkeye and others helping people evacuate. Banner in the snow, then a random hospital, Scarlet Witch on a bus, Thor smashing a tank. Then Tony Stark “It’s the end,” he says. “The end of the path I started us on.” Widow adds, “Nothing lasts forever.” We then see a screaming Hulk and the massive Hulk Buster armor. Black Widow on the Harley Davidson, Quicksilver running around, Andy Serkis as a human (!?!), more explosions, Iron Man flying by what looks like a prison and shooting some soldiers. Hulk throws a car at the Hulkbuster and then punches him through it. A quick shot of Widow and Hulk almost touching hands.
The whole time, a song has been playing about strings. It’s very eerie and morbid. Finally, we get a fully realized, metallic, 8 foot Ultron. Referencing his statement “There are no strings on me” as his clenching fist turns into the circle around the “A” of “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” The title card.
Then, after that, we see Cap’s shild broken, Tony Stark looking down at it, the camera pulls back and we literally see every member of the team laying on the ground in tatters on what may or not be Thanos’ tomb. They look dead.
Wow. The footage is simply breathtaking. This is a wholly different, much bigger Avengers movie than we’re used to seeing. But don’t worry friends, I don’t think the Avengers die. That’s likely just a vision that Scarlet Witch makes Tony Stark see.
And that’s enough to pretty much ruin any staring contest you might have between Batman and Superman. It’s also enough to ruin every seat in the hall, but that’s another story.
Apart from the clip, the entire cast was on hand. Robert Downey Jr. led them out by tossing roses from the stage before being joined by pretty much everyone but Scarlett Johansson. It would seem that pregnancy takes precedence over silly conventions.
Joss Whedon wasn’t in attendance either due to an injury, but the team soldiered without the missing members, providing some nice insights on the film and what we can expect. James Spader stole the show though. From Variety:
Spader, who plays the robot villain Ultron, said “I’ve always thought life could get weird or crazy enough for me, but this place may be the weirdest craziest place ever,” he said of Comic-Con. “It is really fantastically crazy here. It’s nuts.
But the film puts him in a new position too.
“I play an eight-foot robot,” he said. “I’ve always played humans up until now. Everything was so entirely new — the process of making (the film), playing this character, the world it was entering and even the world these movies inhabit.”
Eight-foot robot and there’s not a Del Toro in sight? I’m sold. Then again, I was sold when I saw they hadn’t screwed up Ultron’s look on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. The look on the posters just pushed that into overkill.
Now take all I’ve mentioned so far and remember that Josh Brolin was there wielding the Infinity Gauntlet. We know he’s playing Thanos and we know Thanos was the big secret at the end of the first Avengers movie. Throw in also knowing he’s also a big part of Guardians of the Galaxy and the release of Guardians 2 being set in stone. Combine it all and you’ll start to have some pretty crazy ideas flowing in your head.
Clearly the path we are heading down is a big combination movie, even bigger than The Avengers. Does this mean that The Avengers 3 will be some sort of throwaway movie that leads to another? An Infinity Gauntlet movie? Or was Josh Brolin just in the neighborhood for the Sin City panel?
I guess we’ll just have to wait to find out about all of it. For now, we start the march toward May 2015 and Age of Ultron. Marvel didn’t announce anything for their future unnamed films and I doubt they will until next year. It’s just hard not to get ahead of yourself if you’re a fan.
(Via Slash Film / Variety / Screen Crush)