Avengers: Infinity War trailer – reaction

It is astonishing to realise that, only a month past the release of Thor: Ragnarok and with Black Panther in the final stages of post-production in preparation for February 2018, that following swiftly after in May that Avengers: Infinity War will be the nineteenth feature film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an empire which has already grossed over thirteen and a half billion dollars and shows no sign of stopping.

Although considered a risky investment prior to its release Avengers Assemble was in fact the first in the sequence to take over a billion dollars and remains the single highest grossing of all the Marvel films, pulling together all the heroes established in the previous films and building on their plotlines in an epic adventure which defined the summer of 2012.

Since that time, Marvel have expanded their roster and introduced multiple new characters to stand alongside Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye: Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Ant-Man, Black Panther, Doctor Strange and Spider-Man – and that’s not even taking into account the supporting characters of each film.

For that reason, Infinity War promises to be the biggest of all the Marvel films simply in order to accommodate the vast number of characters who will come together from across the globe and across the galaxy, with filming locations including Edinburgh, Durham, Atlanta and New York, as they fight the mysterious Thanos as he continues to gather the Infinity Stones.

Directed by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, behind the huge success of The Winter Soldier and Civil War, it is the first Avengers film not written and directed by Joss Whedon, but written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely they bring a wealth of Marvellous experience with them.

The first trailer now released, there are perhaps few surprises or revelations so far, but that has not stopped the team expressing their views as anticipation grows for the opening shots to be fired in Infinity War next May.

Michael Flett – They’re not telling us anything here we didn’t already know or could have guessed. The trailers for Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 were very much tone pieces rather than divulging the plot – and they were telling us “more of the same,” which is what we wanted. Thor: Ragnarok gave a bit more but were principally saying “change of tone.”

Of all the recent Marvel films only Black Panther needs to give more in the trailer because it’s a new set of characters so it can’t coast on previously established goodwill and excitement, which is largely what this is doing – “here’s the gang, all of them” – but with this cast, who can blame them?

Marvel can now sell itself almost exclusively on the love of these characters, and who can blame them? They’ve earned it. They don’t actually need to do more than say who is going to be in it and that is enough to guarantee an audience because they’ve spent ten years doing the legwork to build up to this. They operate with a supremely justified confidence, where even their less-good films are still eminently watchable.

I do love the new Spider-Suit, Bucky is out of the freezer and Steve Rogers looks fantastic with the beard as he skulks in the shadows of Waverley Station. I know those arches well. Considering how long the production was here I barely saw anything, but most of the area was cordoned off so unless you were prepared to spend days hanging around you were unlikely to see anything significant anyway.

Unless you’re my next door neighbour who bumped into Chris Evans when he was out clubbing one night. Jealous, moi? It seems Peter wasn’t the only one whose spider-sense was tingling…

I wonder if it will actually be Edinburgh it’s set in, or some random middle European city in a made-up country…

Am I stupid for being surprised that it’s largely set on Earth? I just became accustomed to Thanos floating around in outer space. I suppose since we knew most of the Infinity Stones were on Earth it should have been easy to work out he would be on his way, with his big purple chin and all. He still looks ridiculous.

One thing I am wondering about is what Tony Stark is going to do – he’s accustomed to being in charge and he likes to be dominant, but with a cast this large it simply won’t be practical, the action is going to have to be divided between different fronts, and considering the circumstances of Civil War and what we’re seeing here it looks like Tony will be leading one narrative and Steve another, possibly with Thor and the Guardians in a third.

It’s annoying that the scene where Thor collides with the Milano, which we all know about from the leaked Comic Con footage, isn’t in this, possibly because it offers a laugh while the tone here is very much… doom.

Considering the third and fourth Avengers films were originally supposed to be a two-part adventure and are now being marketed separately, I’m curious as to how closely they will be tied and with two other Marvel films released between them, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel, it will be difficult to have an effective cliffhanger – Avengers Dissasemble/Reassemble, anyone?

Garry McLaughlin – I wasn’t particularly hyped for this movie coming; I’m focusing my excitement on Black Panther.

The trailer looks… good. But not anything that I wasn’t expecting. Looks like there’ll be lots of scenes of teams mustering their forces and charging at each other across wide open spaces, which, yaaay… That’s the kind of stuff that’s left me cold about a lot of the comic events, and it looks like we’re definitely there in the Marvel Cinematic Universe now.

If they can handle the massive ensemble cast with some good dialogue and not just loads of action, this could be alright, but it’s not lighting my fire so far. Possibly just ‘cos I can’t get over how baaaaad Thanos looks… Meh. Keep the armour on, man.

Matthew Rutland – Well, what can I say? Its been a long time coming, not just in terms of the start of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008 with Iron Man but also for the release of this trailer. With much fervour surrounding the screening at D23 earlier this year, we have been anxiously awaiting this release, and it did not disappoint.

Although this version differs from that earlier release, it certainly sets up all the players, mostly, for the big clash. Sadly no Ant-Man in this trailer, and only a small cameo from the Guardians at the end, so we miss some of Rocket’s humour, but it certainly sets the tone.

It was interesting to see Thanos in a somewhat casual attire, no armour for him, and as he is talking about his conquest and desire it will be exciting to see whether we finally get an appearance from Mistress Death – fingers crossed! The outriders looked awesome, and seeing them en masse charging to a fight against the Wakandans led by some of our Avengers truly gave this scene a sense of enormous scale. We of course still have the Black Panther movie to see before this, so will be interesting to see what is set up in that for this.

Of course, talk has around that a potential Marvel/Fox deal is still alive, which will obviously come too late for this film, but with the rosters getting cleaned by the Black Order in this, I cannot wait to see what Phase Four will have in store for us. It may still be too soon to dream of Deadpool fighting Thanos over Death, but we can dream, right?

Michael Flett – Doesn’t Phase IV bring the supremacy of hyper-intelligent ants?

Adam Dworak – You know what is infinite? Human stupidity.

I said this before but I will repeat it – stop watching those crappy movies, stop stuffing Marvel’s pockets with your money – you are killing real science fiction! Go out, read a good book, adopt a polar bear…

About the trailer itself, well, another generic Marvel production, another digital bad guy, another doomsday device, and all this looks horribly bad – I haven’t seen such bad effects for a very long. Marvel must have come to understand that there is no need to put any effort into their movies anymore – the fanboys will watch it anyway!

Have fun at the cinema watching this nonsense and stuffing your faces with popcorn and hotdogs – I will go and read some Kafka, I have heard he’s good read.

Les Anderson – My appetite is well and truly whetted. It’s clear that a lot of work has gone into realising Thanos for this film and making him a visually-engaging villain which I find promising for the film as a whole. Juggling the vast ensemble of characters was never going to be easy but I have high hopes that there will be a good balance of character moments versus spectacle.

It looks like Vision and Wanda will represent the emotional core of the story and it’s a wee thrill to see these familiar characters in our local setting, particularly Waverley Station.

Wes Morrison – There is absolutely nothing about this trailer that doesn’t give me a full on nerdgasm. Seeing this collective of Marvel’s greatest heroes together, the immense threat they face and knowing that this is a culmination of a decade’s worth of universe building for the Marvel Cinematic Universe all makes this a can’t miss movie event. Next spring can’t arrive fast enough.

Avengers: Infinity War is scheduled for release in the United Kingdom on April 27th and in the United States on May 4th

 

 

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