Trailer Reaction: Avengers Age of Ultron

Well, hold the front page.  Following a leak (which Marvel Studios amusingly blamed on HYDRA), the Teaser for Avengers: Age of Ultron showed up on-line today.  Now, if I was to write about my actual reaction to this trailer, it would be very difficult to find the words that convey the gibbering, excited noises I was making as I watched this, combined with a kind of drooling.  Instead, this is more of an 'analysis' of what's on display, and why (if justification was ever needed) a lot of people are getting very excited about this film.

Firstly - Ultron is unveiled:

The Avengers need a suitably big threat to make them unite, and a genocidal robot, with an army of drones, should do it.  It had already been confirmed that Tony Stark creates Ultron - supposedly to help the Avengers - but the AI goes all Skynet on them, and decides that the cause of all humanity's problems is, well, humanity.  But I don't think that anyone expected Ultron to be so damned creepy!  He's creepy in his initial form above...

And even in the final shot, where he's fully formed, his lines are delivered with such menace by James Spader it's impossible not to be creeped out!

On top of that, it won't help the Avengers that Ultron is pretty much indestructible (in the comics he's made from every comic/sci-fi writer's favourite fictional metal, Adamantium) - this shot gives a hint of it, but it's not clear whether this is during some attempt to destroy him, or when his final form is being forged.

Secondly - the team will be made to hurt:

Joss Whedon promised he would find ways to hurt the team in this film, and there are shots that indicate they're well on the back-heel - check out the sullen poses in this shot (which appears to be in a Quinjet); Banner looks especially distraught.

There's hints that the team itself will fracture somewhat, as we get a shot of Thor grabbing and lifting Tony Stark by the throat, and also Iron Man taking on Hulk (more of which further on).  But there are suggestions that the Avengers have well and truly met their match - the motionless body below appears to be Thor, and Ultron appears to have found a way to break Cap's apparently unbreakable shield...

There have been all sorts of rumours about what happens to Hulk in this film (I won't comment on them here as I've been trying to avoid them), but this shot depicts an almost tender moment between him and Black Widow.  Is this before or after his fight with Iron Man?

Third - new friends; and foes???

The mid-credits scene from Captain America The Winter Soldier indicates that new characters Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver are the result of HYDRA experimenting on people using captured Alien technology.  This shot indicates that they won't just be working with HYDRA, but also with Ultron...

But at some point they could end up fighting alongside the Avengers - this shot seems to show Quicksilver taking out an Ultron Drone to aid Captain America:

Interestingly, they've chosen a different tack to portraying his powers compared to the approach taken in X-Men: Days of Future Past; this one is slightly more stylised, perhaps, with the flashes of slivery light (can you see what they did there?) that follows him.  This depiction looks like it might be more in keeping with the look of the character from the comics - but some people might not take to this version due to the great job by Evan Peters in the X-Men film (especially my wife, it seems).

But these two aren't the only new characters - Hydra are still around, led by Baron von Strucker (who we saw briefly in The Winter Soldier's mid credit's scene).  Judging by this shot, Hydra are still packing plenty of fire-power to test our heroes...

And finally we get a glimpse of Andy Serkis, who for a change won't be doing mo-cap.  No details of his character - will he be a help to The Avengers, or a hindrance???

Fourth - HULK BUSTER!!!!

This is a HUGELY fan-pleasing element to introduce - in fact it makes me sad that due to the rights issues, we're unlikely to ever see any of Hulk's legendary punch-ups with Wolverine or The Thing.  But we finally get to see Iron Man's 'Hulk Buster' armour, and they have a big scrap in Johannesburg (there were reports earlier this year that they were shooting this scene there).  But why?

Anyway,  Hulk Buster armour - yayyy!!

Hulk vs Iron Man - coooool!

Fifth - Ballet?!?

We can only speculate as to what part this plays in the plot.  IS this how Ultron plans to subdue humanity - by forcing all to take part in classical dance?  Is this a cover for a secret HYDRA plan??  Did Joss Whedon just feel like including some Ballet lessons in the film???

Well, all will be revealed at the end of April for us UK folks (sorry, America)!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go back and watch this trailer again.

And again, and again, and again...