On Iron Man 3 & the Marvel Cinematic Universe

PART 1
Well, big news on the Marvel Cinematic Universe! A trailer. Whoo.

But thankfully the revealed clips indicate that Tony Stark's trilogy will hopefully culminate in an emotionally satisfying and cathartic installment. That is what I'm hoping. The trailer for Iron Man 2 just looks shiny, and that movie was a big steaming pile of poo--shiny poo, but poo nonetheless.

So what do we see?

Well, Tony admits to not being able to sleep, referencing the events in New York during The Avengers, leading to the impression of a more emotionally vulnerable Tony Stark. Through the trailer we see Stark systematically stripped of his home and his Iron Man suits. It seems similar to the concepts behind The Dark Knight Rises, taking everything away and having the character come back ... or die. Either or.

If not for the scheduling of Avengers 2 (and the seemingly never-ending series that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is becoming, but I'll get to that), I'd be half expecting them to kill him off, especially after Downey's comment that he would like to "leave it all on the field."

Also worth comment is Stark's new suit, which reverses the red and gold motif, and takes inspiration from the Extremis storyline. We also see if moving on its own, which is a frightful concept. Stephen King would have a field day with a possessed, autonomous, evil Iron Man suit.

Also, excitingly, the villain, Mandarin, is being played by Ben Kingsley, and Guy Pearce will be geneticist Aldrich Killian, one of the creators of the Extremis technology. Marvel can, at the very least, never be faulted for their casting.

So, overall, I'm certainly far more excited for this film than I have been for most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Other than Avengers, everything since the Incredible Hulk has been sub-par for a variety of reasons.

The unfortunate part, is I can't imagine what kind of resolution the character will meet in this film that won't leave him open to further exploitation in future films. Granted, being a long-time fan of Whedon, I'm not worried about Avengers 2 in terms of quality. I just like it when a series knows when and where to call it quits and actually end. 

But can I blame them? No. When you've got your hands on one of the most successful cash cows of cinema history I certainly wouldn't let it go either. 

Oh, and the film will be released May 3, 2013.

PART 2
This leads me to my second point, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If I didn't make it clear, LET IT DIE. We're now in phase two of the entire shebang. We culminated the 6 part series with the 2012 film Avengers, and Nerds wept/jizzed/raged across the globe, and it knocked the box-office out of the park. That was the climax to phase one. Where, I beg you, will it end? Phase three? Four? Five? Marvel doesn't have a great running streak of letting their comics end, and I wonder if they will continue these films until the actors actually get too old to play them anymore ... and then maybe they'll just Ruffalo in new actors.

So what do we have to look forward to beyond Iron Man 3? Well, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier,The Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers 2, and Ant-Man all before the end of 2015.

So lets break it down.

SPOILER WARNING

Thor: The Dark World

The Thunder God (Chris Hemsworth) returns next in line, and 'will have to save the nine realms from an enemy older than the universe ... which begs the question, "How was the Big Bang?" Actually, the actor cast is Christopher Eccleston, which really begs the question, is Thor battling a Time Lord? 

Anywho, he will get to team up with his girlfriend, Padme (Natalie Portman) again, but what nerds really want to see (believe me, my school is crawling with them), is where Tom Hiddleston will next take Loki's character. He's stated he'd like to take him to rock bottom, and see where to go from there.

The film will be directed by Alan Taylor, who has worked on the television series Deadwood and Game of Thrones. Writers Christopher Yost and Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely will take over for the film, and since most of them don't have wikipedia pages, I don't think there's much I can even say about them.

The film will be released November 8, 2013

Captain America: the Winter Soldier

Cap (Chris Evans) will continue to struggle with living in the Modern world, and they will bring back his friend Bucky, who will now be a brainwashed Russian soldier. The plotline is near direct from the comics, which is cool, I like Bucky (moreso in the comics, but after the Covenant I'm a little overly harsh on Sebastian Stan).

Originally Rogers adjustment was to included in the Avengers, but it was deemed to fit better in the Captain America sequel. Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely return as screenwriters for the film, but Joe Johnston will be replaced as director by Joe and Anthony Russo, who are best known for ... their ... work in sitcoms...

... Strange choice. 

The film is scheduled for release April 4, 2014.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Oh.....kay. This is about where they start losing me. I mean, I know I'm not an in depth comic book nerd but I thought I was well rounded (mostly read Batman comics), but I've never even heard of these dudes. In the concept art we see Drax the Destroyer, Groot, Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, and Gamora. I don't know them, but they look fucking weird. I mean ... Rocket Racoon? According to my quick glean from the interwebs there is a talking dog?

The only grace this film has is the soft spot James Gunn earned in my heart for Slither, who has been signed on to direct.

The film is scheduled for release August 1, 2014

The Avengers 2
Okay, so this I am excited for, but it's Joss Whedon, so if you couldn't have predicted that already, you really didn't pay attention to my Avengers review. He has signed on to return as writer/director, and I couldn't be happier about the choice.

He has promised a smaller Avengers, saying "Normally, a sequel is supposed to be bigger than the first film, but I actually think it should be smaller. In saying that though, people might ask 'Is the volume of the film going to decrease?' but that's not the case." He adds, "Of course, new characters will be added but presently we're still trying to figure out how they'll encounter our wonderful cast (referring to the actors from the first film). They all have tremendous respect for each other and how you work the new characters into that synergy is something I'm still trying to figure out. I think instead of how big of a scale the movie/story is, the most important thing is, how much devotion you can put forth. Films have an ability to be large in scale but also be personal. It's a godsend that makes the issue of adding characters irrelevant. The real question is how deep we can dig down into the story."

... I'll just leave it at that.

The film is scheduled for release May 1, 2015

And lastly, the last announced film is ... Ant-Man? Seriously, who cares? I mean, the guy grows giant. Cool. I'm not sure if the character still has fans out there. If you are an offended Ant-Man fan, sneak into my house and write your complaints in blood upon my wall. Or leave a comment cause you're probably a lazy wanker.

The film will be helmed by Scott Pilgrim director Edgar Wright, so at least their will a quality team at work in the development. I just don't know how much I will care.

The film is scheduled for release November 6, 2015

So! There you have it, my knowledge and expectations. Let's see how much changes and whether or not I'm forced to eat my words. Cause I totally know there will be one asshole out there who will remember everything I said today in late 2015 when Edgar Wright blows my mind (haha, not likely).

~ Godzello