What do you do when a trailer you’ve painstakingly kept secret for months gets leaked a few days before its official release? Simpel, steer into the curve!

That’s right! Hydra’s at it again! Though don’t start chanting “Hail Hydra!” just yet; because the good folks at Marvel want to remind you there is always another way. So don’t look at those grainy leaked videos; and instead behold the OFFICIAL – and long awaited – release of the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer! Watch it once, twice, as many times as you want. When you’re ready, meet up with me below to begin analyzing this trailer piece by piece.

Fallen Heroes:

Remember the first trailer for Avengers? Sure there was fighting and villains; but the whole tone of the trailer was “This is Awesome!”. Now whereas this trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron was awesome, its tone was anything but awesome. The narrator of the trailer is Ultron, so this immediately frames the Avengers as the secondary characters; but the visuals of the Avengers falling and screaming in agony go beyond that.

The Avengers look tired and battered, which fits into the story of why Ultron was created. The various shots of Scarlet Witch and shirtless Thor – that’s right ladies – just paint this picture of futility, that they are losing. Though the most blatant shot of this is towards the end when we see Thor lying motionless next to Captain America’s shattered shield. The shattered shield again reaffirms the whole vibranium theory; but either way this is the high point – or rather low point – of this trailer. It seems like even the mighty Avengers can’t stand against this new age of Ultron.

The Age of Ultron:

The true highlight of this trailer is of course James Spader’s Ultron. No longer the unfeeling robot bent on annihilating humanity, this Ultron is frighteningly intelligent and just basically demented.

“I’m going to show you something beautiful! Everyone screaming… for mercy!” – Ultron

At first the humanoid face of Ultron seemed strange; but not with all the effects in – including a moving jaw – we can honestly say that this is the most amazing Ultron we’ve ever seen.

Though it’s not just Ultron the Avengers have to worry about; but also his army of drones. Ultron and his drones will undergo some upgrades throughout the film, the most startling of which appears to be Ultron’s new body made from vibranium. There is still one more Ultron creation to be seen – Vision – but let’s let all of this settle first.

Hulkbuster Suits Up:

We’ve known for a while now that the Hulkbuster Ironman Armor would be featured in this film. In fact, this was one of the first things we knew about this film back in March when Marvel premiered their “Assembling A Universe” special on ABC. Though now – 7 months later – we finally see the massive mech in action; and there is a ton of stuff to learn.

 For starters, unlike its prototype – Igor as seen in Ironman 3 – the Hulkbuster here is an exosuit adds-on to a preexisting suit much like in the comics/animated series. Additionally, the suit here appears to function a lot like the Mk XLII’s prehensile free-flight features. By using this tech, Tony can summon the Hulkbuster add-on to fly to him and assemble around his existing suit amplifying its strength in order to deal with an enraged Hulk. In order to accomplish this excessive power output, you can see multiple Arc Reactors on the suit to deal with the load. Throw in what appears to be the enhanced punching gauntlets of the Mk XXV Striker suit, and you have a Tony Stark at the top of his game with this creation.

Hulk Goes Rogue:

Initially we couldn’t figure out what would make Ironman and Hulk fight – especially since they’ve become such good science bros. Did Ultron take over the Hulkbuster unite or was Hulk just in a blind rage? Well upon a closer inspection of this trailer, we can see that something is definitely wrong with Banner. In the trailer we can see several moments where he is struggling and seems to be in serious pain. He’s not just raging; he’s freaking out. The most telling of this is when we see him trembling while on the Quinjet. So what happened?

Well later in the trailer you can see that his eyes have a sort of redish hue to them – or should I say Scarlet. It appears as though Hulk might have gotten too close to Scarlet Witch and she got inside his head. Powers such as these were alluded to in the Entertainment Weekly article when we learned that Scarlet Witch would signify a shift in superpowers, where the villains no longer rely on just punching. We know that she eventually turns good and doesn’t know how to control her powers that much, so this all could be by accident when the Avengers raid Strucker’s Hydra lair. Whatever the situation, we at least have a better idea of what cause our favorite duo to duke it out.

Strange New Face – Ulysses Klaw?:

In a trailer full of familiar and to-be-expected faces, it’s strange to see someone who we haven’t heard of even once. Who is this bearded man in the trailer? Well this is complete theory for the moment; but it could be Ulysses Klaw. Klaw is a scientist who eventually gets turned into solid sound due to a run in with – wait for it – vibranium. If this is in fact Klaw, then this would further support the theory that Wakanda and Vibranium will be featured in Avengers: Age of Ultron, as well as set the stage for a Black Panther movie.

Medical Procedure – Making “Miracles”?:

Another curious moment in the trailer was when we saw a brief glimpse at medical instruments and someone lying on the table. It might seem out of place; but it actually could serve as a flashback glimpse into the Twin’s – Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch’s – origin story. Sure Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier introduced us to them; but we have still yet to see what these ‘experiments’ were that Baron Von Strucker reference them having survived.

Considering they’re playing just a role in the film, a flashback to make the audience feel with them is a must. You can even see them in the crowd of angry protestors, which makes this a flashback to how Hydra first picked them up. If we see the horror they went through to gain these powers, then we can be able to see just how broken they are and why they would join Ultron before ultimately joining the Avengers.

Comparison To San Diego Comic Con Footage:

After conversing with Abigail – my San Diego Comic Con reporter who was present at the Marvel Studios panel – I can confirm that this trailer is in fact different from the one shown at San Diego Comic Con all those months ago. Though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The SDCC footage had an intro clip of the Avengers trying to lift Thor’s hammer as well as an closing moment containing stars and galaxies. Additionally, some of the moments in the Official release trailer were different from the one shown at SDCC.

 

This all being said, don’t think that this official look is a “lesser trailer”. According to Abigail, the key difference here is that unlike the SDCC footage, this actually IS a trailer. The framing here is much better and there is a lot more available footage here than was at SDCC. So overall, the official release trailer is more encompassing while SDCC’s footage was more extensive to only a couple scenes. In the end, I think we’re all perfectly content with quantity over quality here. In the end, both looks were amazing and let’s just enjoy what we have. Remember this is only the first trailer, so expect more goodies in the months to come – especially SuperBowl 2014.

As always, thanks for reading and stay tuned! In the meantime, sound off in the comments below about your favorite moment of the trailer.