Avengers 2 Trailer

            On October 22, Marvel Studios released a teaser trailer for their new movie Avengers 2: Age of Ultron.  Audiences get a glimpse of the new villain Ultron, played and voiced by the one and only James Spader.

           

            We also get to see the return of the heroes from the first Avengers movies from 2012.  The tone of the second Avengers is by far different from the tone Marvel used in the first.  By the looks of the trailer, Age of Ultron is going to be very dark, something Marvel Studios has shied away from their movies being in the past.  Ultron is suppose to be an insane character, and by what director Joss Whedon has stated in the past, we get just that in this movie.

            The trailer also shows off some new superheroes, such as the sibling duo Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch, last seen in the mid-credit scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  Due to rights by 20th Century Fox and the “mutant” name, the siblings will not be related to their dad Magneto in the movie; instead, they will be “miracles.”  By the sounds of it they are creations by someone, maybe Baron Von Strucker, the Hydra Leader also seen in the same credits. This will certainly tie up loose ends in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well as create new plot twists.

            Last from the trailer, we see the Avengers still not getting along.  Introduced in the comics, the fan-favorite Hulk-Buster suit made by Tony Stark makes an appearance to fight, obviously, the Hulk. We also see Thor choking Tony Stark, so at this point we can just assume Tony wants all this ruckus just because its his ego to do so.

            As of this writing, the trailer has over 60 million views on Youtube, so with this being an indication Avengers 2: Age of Ultron certainly has many people’s interests.  However, the big question that is on many people’s minds is this: Can Avengers 2 gains more at the box office than its predecessor, which is currently the 3rd highest grossing film of all time? One can certainly hope so…

Marvel Universe

            In today’s film industry, the number one genre is without a doubt the “comic book hero” kind.  The runaway leader of the comic book movie is Marvel Studios, which on Oct 28 announced an astonishing 9 new movies between now and 2019.

           

            If you are not familiar with what Marvel Studios has done, the quick rundown of it all is that they are changing the way you watch movies.  Marvel Studios connects all of their movies together into one universe called the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Characters from one movie show up in another movie in the universe.  The universe is broken down into Phases; the first phase consisted of the origin stories of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and The Hulk.  The finale of the Phase was the 2012 movie The Avengers, which as of this writing is the third highest grossing movie of all time, not adjusted for inflation.

            Phase 1 was a success because it was consisted of well-known heroes.  Audiences were well aware of who the characters were.  Marvel continued the stories of these characters into Phase 2 of the universe.  However, Marvel did something bold for this phase: introduce to the audience a very unfamiliar group of superheroes into the universe.  This movie was based upon the comic Guardians of the Galaxy.  Critics were very hesitant about this movie, even predicting that it would be the downfall of the studio.  Long story short, the movie is the second highest grossing film of 2014. The film was critically acclaimed as well as many critics even calling it the best Marvel movie of all time. Phase 2 will end with Avengers: Age of Ultron next year.

            This leads to the start of Phase 3.  Marvel is going even bolder this go-round with new movies to five new characters as well as five sequels to previous movies.  Ant-Man, announced last year, will be the lead- in to the new phase.  This phase will be the most ground breaking unlike the past phases, first of which is the first women-lead film in Marvel movie history, Captain Marvel as well as the first African-American lead film in the universe, Black Panther.  These will be the biggest risks Marvel Studios has taken since they have started the cinematic universe. 

            Marvel is doing something that will be talked about for a long time.  It is already being mimicked by it’s long-time competitor DC Comics, who themselves are making their own cinematic universe.  With all Marvel Studios movies being beloved, they can do no wrong at this point.  The only company that can bring Marvel down is themselves, which will be hard to do.