You may remember a few months ago I wrote about trailers of upcoming comic book adaptations, and mentioned the teaser trailer for The Avengers. Well, the first full trailer for The Avengers has finally been released, and if it’s anything to go by- trailers can be notoriously misleading- the film will at least have a kick-ass soundtrack and a few witty quips.
Admittedly, the trailer starts off on shaky ground with a very tired trailer opening: civilians on the streets looking scared, miscellaneous stuff getting blown up, an ominous voiceover from an unknown villain (as it turns out, Loki (Tom Hiddleston)). But there are a few notable contributors that make this worth watching.
Nine Inch Nails
Oh, who’s kidding, what would this trailer be without the bad-ass, glitchy techno rock going on in the background. Bass heavy, the music gets your heart pounding and blood pumping. Sound can be one of the most memorable elements of a trailer – just think about how much the sound design in Inception was imitated and spoofed – and this music leaves exactly the right impression.
Joss Whedon
Joss Whedon, creator — of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Dollhouse — knows how to put together a clever action sequence. Although not proven in this trailer, if you’ve ever watched any of his previous work you’ll know this to be true. But perhaps even more so, Whedon is best known for his dialogue, which the trailer plays up to great advantage. The Avengers is going to be a film of fast-paced repartee between the team. For example:
Captain America (Chris Evans): “Big man in a suit of armour. Take that away and what are you?”
Iron man (Robert Downey Jr.): “Ah – genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist?”
Which leads me onto the last – and perhaps most important – contribution to the trailer. The characters themselves.
The Team
Ensemble movies can be hard to do correctly. Giving just enough time to each individual; allowing them to develop separately, while still developing the characters as a team; and making sure the plot doesn’t get bogged down by too much detail are all notorious difficulties. But when ensembles are done right – when the characters bounce off each other, and complement and contradict each other – it makes for great viewing.
In this case, you can see how the team is going to work. The intelligent egomaniac Iron Man (Downey Jr.) will be played against the unbelievably good Captain America (Evans); Thor (Chris Hemsworth) will be appropriately almost-Australian in his laidback mediator role; Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) will be the stoic silent killer; Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) will be the token girl (there’s got to be one); and my money’s on Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) being the stick in the mud. That is, until he Hulks out.
It remains to be seen whether such a large ensemble cast can be effectively managed – already, about half the characters received little-to-no time in the trailer – but the film might provide a more equal forum.
There are many questions that arise from watching the trailer. How did the villain Loki – or, for that matter, Thor – end up on earth again, when at the end of Thor the Vikings’ intergalactic transporter Rainbow Bridge was destroyed? How is Hulk going to control his anger, and refrain from eating the tasty-looking Iron Man? And is anyone else pleasantly surprised that the entire trailer isn’t just a montage devoted to Scarlett Johansson in a skintight cat suit?
What are your thoughts after watching the trailer?
