Avengers: The paradox of too many trailers

The Third Avengers: Age of Ultron Trailer in Two Weeks.

In an age where cinema is dominated by genuinely good super hero movies, everyone is in some way a fan of either the Marvel or DC cinematic universes. But there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

When the Comic-con 2014 teased the first footage for the Avengers sequel, Age of Ultron, the rest of the world begged and pleaded and were left to wait for what felt like an eternity for their first glimpse at the reassembling of Marvel’s movie juggernaut. The trailer was awesome, and not awesome in the sense of ‘Bro, that’s awesome’, awesome as in a breathtaking spectacle that wetted the appetites of children to professional film critics. The Initial trailer which gave us a few glimpses of the return of our favourite characters and the rise of their new nemesis was leaked before its planned release, which Marvel took in good spirit. As such they released a new, amended trailer on the original broadcast date featuring each of the heroes, Iron Man, War Machine and Captain America  attempting to lift the mighty Thor’s godly hammer. The reason this brand new Avengers footage was so exiting to fans was not just what the content of the trailer suggested about the film, but the fact that they had waited so long for it – it was considered a highlight of ComicCon. This restrained marketing that leaves fans banging their heads against walls in turmoil makes the final product all the sweeter. But as of today a new (only slightly altered) trailer has been released.

Perhaps cynically reduced, we now have 3 trailers in the space of a few weeks for a film that comes out in May 2015. The newest trailer follows along the lines of the previous two narrated by James Spader as Ultron musing about the strings constricting humanity but is interspersed with very slightly varying footage of our main characters generically fighting and offering no more of the plot. While the trailers are themselves far more interesting than the brawl fests of the Avengers Assemble (2012) marketing, and the new footage is in its own way exiting, but the sheer mass of marketing thrust at us already is threatening to cheapen the experience of waiting for what I have no doubt will be one of the greatest super hero movies to date.

Marvel can of course rectify this issue by giving the fans nothing until early 2015 but this is unlikely given the high television audiences of the festive season. If Marvel do wait until next year to release any further footage this will be a disappointment to Guardians of the Galaxy fans who were expecting a new trailer on their Blu-Rays on November 24th.

The tragic paradox of this situation is that no-one wants to watch so much footage before seeing the film that they feel like it’s all been seen before, and yet few are prepared to turn down an offer to get a glimpse of scenes from a brand new Avengers film. It seems we are but puppets to Marvel’s marketing… puppets… tangled… in strings!

The Original Teaser 

Days Later Trailer (with Added ‘Hammer’ Scene)

Avengers: Age of Ultron is set to hit cinemas on May 1st 2015.