Sunday, March 7, 2010

Iron Man 2 gets a second, lighter trailer.


This second trailer seems to be selling comedy and light action, as opposed to the introspective, darker tones of the first trailer that was released back in December. I can't say I relish the idea of Tony Stark doing battle with a bunch of robots, but that's my problem for the moment. Robot smashing should generally be reserved for video games and media aimed at audiences too young to watch humans bloodily beating the stuffing out of other humans. As I noted upon viewing the first trailer, the majority of the film certainly seems to be trying for a smaller-scale, more personal story, more akin to Spider-Man 2 than X2: X-Men United (most of the action beats come from the race-track attack and a mass-robot fight/chase that feels like climactic material). Of course, Tony Stark isn't the sort of superhero who generally puts on his suit every night and looks for trouble, so the opportunities for action are somewhat limited. Regardless, if this means that the film will be a more honest look at the contradictory nature of Tony Stark's character-arc, then I'm all for it. But the footage on display seems to be avoiding any kind of gravitas or introspection, with the whole 'let's team up and destroy Iron Man' bit feeling like something out of Batman Forever. Granted, different trailers are cut for different moods, but I much prefer the character-driven moodiness of the first preview versus the overly peppy second one. I'm not saying that every comic book adaption should be as grim as The Dark Knight or Batman Returns (I'm the guy who more or less likes the Fantastic Four series). But there is something off-putting about seemingly flaunting just how little is at stake. As always, we'll see...

Scott Mendelson

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dead on, Scott. Considering the story of Tony Stark, you would figure it would be more introspective but that vibe isn't there.

I'm sure it will be there but at what capacity? As you said, it doesn't have to be The Dark Knight but these two characters, Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne, really require deep characterization.

Unknown said...

I agree with your concerns. I liked the first movie trailer better because it showed Tony Stark flying high as a kite with no other option to but down. The worst thing that can happen in this movie is a "Deus ex machina".

Gabe said...

So disappointing....

I was so excited when I first saw the original trailer with it's dark themes and Rourke looking so menacing as Whiplash. Now all I see is "robot bashing videogame" with Rourke looking like not the major player I thought he'd be.

Hopefully it's just a badly cut trailer.

Wasn't this supposed to be the intro into the whole "demon in a bottle" storyline?

Scott Mendelson said...

Favreau all-but nixed the idea of doing 'Demon in a Bottle' as he (wrongly) felt that it would be too similar to Hancock. Also, he's stated that he didn't want to the series to get too grim, which I guess is code for 'without too much substance'. Bruce Timm and the gang admitted to making said mistake with the first season of Justice League. Of course, now that he's (theoretically) seen Hancock and knows that it's not about an alcoholic superhero, perhaps he'll change course should we even get an Iron Man 3. At this point, I imagine that The Avengers will basically serve as a third Iron Man film with the other heroes playing second-fiddle to the top star in the Marvel film cannon (especially if Captain America and/or Thor under-perform respectively).

Gabe said...

So disappointing....

I was so excited when I first saw the original trailer with it's dark themes and Rourke looking so menacing as Whiplash. Now all I see is "robot bashing videogame" with Rourke looking like not the major player I thought he'd be.

Hopefully it's just a badly cut trailer.

Wasn't this supposed to be the intro into the whole "demon in a bottle" storyline?

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