So the curtain has gone down on Marvel's Comic-Con presentation and the general sense is that they took their foot off the pedal a little bit. That's not to say there weren't some amazing moments, like footage from Peyton Reed's Ant-Man and Joss Whedon's Avengers: Age of Ultron, but in terms of big reveals there simply weren't very many we didn't already know.
For instance, the show ended with a video of James Gunn and Chris Pratt confirming Guardians of the Galaxy 2 after the news broke hours ago. What we didn't know was the July 28th 2017 release date, occupying one of the eight open slots Marvel is holding on to. But there was nothing on the other dates, and not even a mention of Doctor Strange.
The Ant-Man portion of the show was all about establishing Peyton Reed as a capable director worthy of filling Edgar Wright's shoes, and Kevin Feige spent most of his time hyping the director. While filming doesn't begin until next month, there was still a little something shot that focused on a conversation between Michael Douglas' Hank Pym and Paul Rudd's Scott Lang, with neither man actually seen on screen. Instead we got an impressively-shot scene with Ant-Man hopping a wasp in the midst of a heist. The biggest surprise may have been the reveal of Evangeline Lily's role as Hope van Dyne, the daughter of Hank Pym and presumably Janet van Dyne aka the Wasp.
But what people really were waiting for was Avengers: Age of Ultron, and they got exactly what they wanted and more. After the cast danced their way on stage to Michael Jackson beats (their entrances are always a highlight, but take forever to finish) and answered a few questions, a video by the pregnant Scarlett Johansson teed up the first teaser. It was EXACTLY what had been leaked before, although it's obviously cooler to see it in action. The team gathered at Tony Stark's crib, all trying to lift Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. James "War Machine" Rhodes is there and helps Stark in trying to lift it. Others try and fail, with Thor obviously pleased that nobody is worthy, until Captain America steps up and nudges it just a little. It's soon after that Ultron walks in, questions the worthiness of them all, and sends his drone army after them. That's followed by a battle between the Hulk and the Hulkbuster armor, glimpses at Scarlet Witch casting a hex while Quicksilver races around, plus a shot of Andy Serkis. Yep, Serkis playing a regular human not some mo-capped creation. The footage ends with a menacing giant Ultron, followed by a jaw-dropping scene where Iron Man finds Cap's broken shield (that thing doesn't just break), only to find that the entire team is broken far worse and are possibly dead.
It's great stuff and is so much darker than the last film ever came close to approaching. As a way to get the crowd hyped it did the job, but the overall panel just seemed to be lacking a little extra something. To be completely fair, Warner Bros. didn't give us everything we were hoping for, either. It seems both studios decided to give the fans just enough and nothing more, and one has to wonder if this is a strategy they will employ going forward.
