Dec. 7, 2018. The day Christmas came early for Marvel fans with the arrival of the first trailer for Avengers: Endgame, Anthony and Joe Russo's rousing wrap-up to a series of films that started ten years ago with Iron Man.
It is Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark who we first see in the two-minute tease, with the Avenger lost in space, literally, and sending a message to Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow).
"Part of the journey is the end," Start tells his wife through a smashed piece of Iron Man head gear, but the actor could very well be speaking to the millions of Marvel fans who will watch this trailer at least 100 times before the Captain Marvel premiere brings us a new preview. It's supposed to be sad, ladies and gentlemen. Stop asking for sunshine, rainbows, and kitten pictures here.
After all, every hero's journey carries a bittersweet end sooner or later. Stark saw all of this coming in Avengers: The Age of Ultron, when the future revealed his friends and family scattered across the Earth with aliens ruling over them. Thanos tweaked that vision, eliminating half of the world's living creatures at the end of May's Avengers: Infinity War, which included half of the Avengers.
The only question is...now that Thanos carried out his plan, what are the Avengers prepared to do? I find myself thinking of Sean Connery's Malone from The Untouchables screaming at Kevin Costner's Elliott Ness about taking down Al Capone. One could say Josh Brolin's Thanos is the Marvel villain version of Capone, an almost impossible to take down bad guy.
Rocky comes to mind as well, because the good guys have been knocked down, and now they must get back up, their wits being carried along the way. Before we get to the theories that the internet has told us over the past year, let's take a look at a few highlights of the trailer.
~HAWKEYE IS BACK! After sitting Infinity War due to house arrest (like Ant-Man), Jeremy Renner's Clint Barton is back and mad as hell. It doesn't take a fortune cookie to figure out that his family was taken out with that fateful snap of the fingers, so he has turned into the Ronin persona from the comics. Outside of Ultron, Hawkeye hasn't gotten a real good look in the MCU. He's always been the guy without superpowers who followed orders. Now, he's on his own, killing everything in his path, rocking a new haircut, and still shooting Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow desperate sexy eyes in the rain.
~Chris Evans' Captain America looks to be taking back the center of the action, and that will fit the first part of the film with Stark stuck on a ship in space. I don't like the clean shaven Steve Rodgers, but he's no longer the Nomad Captain and presumably back in the Avengers playbook. Not that I define a beard as being rogue, but...well kind of. Let's be honest, William Hurt's General Ross will have to shut his mouth at last. America's hero is all we have.
~Chris Hemsworth's Thor is only seen brooding on a bench in a hoodie, carrying the scornful memory of stabbing Thanos in the chest instead of going for the head or the hand holding the gauntlet. The actor has come a long way and can do a lot with a look.
~Black Widow telling Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner that Thanos did exactly what he intended with tears in her eyes got to me for some reason. Like Barton, she doesn't have a superpower or high-powered tech to help her fight. She's an assassin trained to kill who decided to use it for good. Seeing her get a good part to play in the past couple films gets excited for Johansson's solo adventure.
~Downey Jr. shows you why he's the best of the bunch and one of the finest actors around. The actor adds a soulful touch to the beginning of the trailer, sending his wife a message that he thinks will be the last. As a fan, you know he is going to be rescued somehow, but the actor conveys such a grace there that it still gets to you. After all, Iron Man rescued Downey Jr. in many ways from imminent death.
~Thanos' armor hanging in Wakanda reveals a nation in mourning over the loss of their King.
~Paul Rudd's Scott Lang does show up at the Avengers facility, which tells you he was able to escape from the entrapment he found himself in at the end of July's Ant-Man and The Wasp. I love Evans' expression of shock at Lang showing up. "Remember Germany...I got big." Quietly hilarious.
It's a sad trailer, and for good reason. Thanos won, is resting comfortably on his land, and has nothing to fear for the time being. For the first time in a widely released comic book adaptation, the bad guy won in the end. Clearly. The Russo Brothers took their time in crafting this trailer, but have done an outstanding job of teasing fans just enough. You don't have to show us everything...just enough to make us race into fan theory chat rooms, comic book history, and re-watching Infinity War.
The job of a movie trailer is to make us NEED to see the movie. It shouldn't tell us everything. It doesn't have to tell us about the set pictures that have leaked showing the Avengers in Shield gear escorting Tom Hiddleston's Loki in a time travel sequence. You don't have to show Paltrow's Pepper in some gear that looks like Rescue from the comics. We know Brie Larson's Captain Marvel will play a part in the takedown of Thanos. All the filmmakers have to do is make us need more. Tease us.
I can't help but remember these two guys were known mostly for You, Me, and Dupree before they changed their lives and our own with Captain America: Winter Soldier. What a ride it has been.
Now, if you would excuse me, I need to head to Walmart, grab some supplies, and go rescue Tony Stark in space. Goodbye for now. Happy trailer viewing.
