October 23rd, 2014
No strings on me, boss.
I am unbelievably excited for this, for several reasons:
* Everything in this trailer is gold. Even the Hulkbuster Iron Man armor, which I’m inclined to dislike. I always thought that gimmicked armor for Iron Man and Spidey cheapened the on-screen value of their opponents. If you can just armor up to defeat [Hulk, Thor, Electro, Rhino] then it makes the villain that mush less heavy.
* I understand that this isn’t based, completely, on Age of Ultron. Yet there are clearly some echos and Age of Ultron is the only Marvel event mini-series of the last 10 years that was any good. And it’s not just any good, it’s really good.
* Whedon is bringing two of my favorite characters, Scarlet Witch and Quiksilver, into play. Which opens up all sorts of narrative avenues. Such as . . .
* I take it you’ve read the House of M mini-series? Now that would be a sensational movie, but the problem is that it requires putting both Avengers and X-Men charaters on the screen together. Which Marvel can’t do. Yet. And it’s all motivated by Wanda Maximoff going crazy and altering reality on a global scale.
* By the by, I’d bet that , for a hot five minutes, Whedon seriously toyed with using the Ultimate universe versions of Wanda and Pietro–which had them as (vaguely?) incestuous siblings who were on the verge of getting it on in just about every panel, creeping out all the characters around them. And I’d bet that it kind of killed Whedon to realize that this just couldn’t be done in the big-screen version.
* On the question of Marvel re-unification, I’d argue that it’s inevitable. Like the division of Berlin, it’s an abomination, and nature abhores it. Eventually, the X-Men and Spidey *must* be pushed back into the Marvel cinematic universe.
That said, sometimes inevitability takes a really long time and I see no obvious pathway except for one: Marvel basically bribes Fox and Sony, simultaneously, by accepting all of the upfront costs of developing the properties while guaranteeing some large share of the profits. Basically turning Fox and Sony into rentiers. I’m sure that would *kill* Disney to do this. But Sony and Fox would be crazy to sell the rights back permanently without getting participation. These properties are almost beyond value–to Marvel.
* Interesting that Ultron seems to be neither Hank Pym’s creation, nor Jarvis–but a second Stark creation. I like that.
* I don’t believe that Whedon is omnipotent and I’d argue that he has some weaknesses as a writer, which are pretty obvious. But my confidence in his ability to have total command of this kind of material is basically 100 percent. He gets this stuff on such a deep level that I have zero concern about him getting caught in a let-down spot after The Avengers.
* How much is the IMAX / 3D ticket? $22? Here, Marvel. Have my money now. I was only keeping it warm for you, anyway.
SkinsFanPG October 24, 2014 at 11:51 am
How does Marvel reconcile two separate actors playing ostensibly the same character (Quicksilver – though in possibly different timelines/universes) which will ultimately merge at some point? And who wins out- I loved the Evan Peters Quicksilver from X-Men DoFP, but I also like Aaron T-J.