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