[Author’s note: I’m not overly fond of doing
in-depth trailer talks. Too often movie trailers mislead us into making
assumptions and judgments about a movie that end up being not at all
representative of the finished product. That said, this one provided too much solid
stuff to pass up, so here I go.]
Kicking
off the second phase of Marvel’s shared universe of movies next summer is the
long awaited Iron Man 3. Fans and
spectators alike have been wondering not just what the third installment of
Marvel’s most popular character (who doesn’t crawl walls) will be about, but
how it will follow (and as Marvel hopes, tops) The Avengers, this summer’s mega-blockbuster. Now the first official
trailer for the movie has debuted and it’s like “insert gift giving holiday
here” come early. Not too much info is given away, but it is clear that the
movie will be action packed and Tony Stark will be tested and pushed to the
brink like never before. The two minute trailer makes it clear that the stakes
have never been higher for our hero.
And
in observing this dark tone, comparisons started to spring up that were most
intriguing. From the somberness of the footage to certain shots and story
elements, it started to seem more and more like the moderately light-hearted
and jaunty fantasy tone of the first two Iron
Man movies and The Avengers has
been substituted for the gritty seriousness of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight
trilogy. Specifically, the trailer echoes a great many elements from this
summer’s The Dark Knight Rises,
Nolan’s third and final Batman movie to the point of making it look like it
takes direct inspiration from it.
The Dark Knight Rises saw our
protagonist hit his lowest point before he rose to overcome in the end. If the
footage is to be believed, Tony Stark is also in for some hardship in Iron Man 3. He appears battered and
defeated in many scenes. Voiceover of him talking about the many apologies he
needs to make and how many people want to kill him puts a grim mood over
everything. The trailer ends with a shot of Stark hauling his armor behind him,
alone, in some remote winter area.
Even
the font type of the giant “3” when the title card appears at the end is shown
to be dying and crumbling away, exactly like the backdrop of DKR’s title card (a bat signal formed
from what appears to be broken concrete).
Then
there’s the villain. A fanatical terrorist leader, played by a respectable
British actor (Tom Hardy as Bane in DKR,
Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin in IM3)
who’s speaking in an accent that doesn’t sound anything like their own voice,
giving an ominous voiceover speech about what they consider themselves (“I’m
Gotham’s Reckoning”; “Some people call me a terrorist. I consider myself a
teacher.”). So, yes, as you can see, they’re not similar in any way.
Since
we are talking about an Iron Man movie here, the footage wouldn’t be complete
without a lot of stuff that goes boom. We are shown that Tony’s previous armors
are destroyed by individual explosions, culminating in a scene in which Stark’s
Cliffside mansion is leveled and blasted into the sea by a group of assault
helicopters. This scene is sure to be one of the centerpieces in the middle of
the movie, similar to the destruction of the football field and bridges in DKR. A looser tie-in, I know, but both
scenes are treated similarly and feature prominently in their respected
trailers.
And
then it happens. Pepper Potts picks up a broken Iron Man helmet, a symbol of
our protagonist’s humiliating defeat. Hmm… I don’t seem to recall any movie in
recent memory where our hero gets his ass handed to him and has his shattered
headgear used prominently to convey the severity of the beating. Except I do.
Maybe
my geek brain is just working overtime on this one. And for all we know at
seven months out, the movie itself could turn out to be nothing like the
pointy-eared one’s final outing. But from here and now it is clear as crystal
that Iron Man 3’s first trailer is
attempting to be reminiscent of DKR.
Which is weird because, if internet-land is to be believed, aren’t these two
franchises supposedly mortal enemies? Is Robert Downey Jr. not on record saying
he didn’t understand The Dark Knight?
Aren’t Marvel fans Hatfields and Dark Knight fans McCoys, with no middle ground
or tolerance of liking both franchises?
Joking
aside, there are far worse ways of creating buzz for your trailer and it would
be a lie to say this trailer doesn’t do just that. Iron Man 3 opens May 3, 2013.
