A Taste of Phase 2

Disney and Marvel have the teaser trailer for Iron Man 3 available to watch on iTunes at the moment. All in all, this is a fantastic trailer...

Many have already talked about the darker tone this trailer has in comparison with the first two Iron Man films and all of the Phase 1 Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Not a shred of the lighthearted humor that defined the MCU films is in this trailer, even the trailers for The Dark Knight Rises had a few humorous moments, this one is entirely humorless and bleak. None of the trademark "save the day" escapism is here either, just Tony Stark in absolute trouble. All of the pre-trailer talk about Stark having everything taken from him is demonstrated wonderfully in this trailer. The trailer even ends on a downer note: Stark sinking into the ocean after his home is blown to smithereens, and Pepper Potts nowhere to be seen. Then we see Stark dragging his suit through a snowy forest. The music is hardly heroic, it suggests despair more than anything.

The Mandarin? Despite the complaints, I think Ben Kingsley's portrayal seems promising so far. His voice is a bit strange, but the few lines in the trailer establish that he's not going to take it easy on Iron Man. He is going to ruin Stark, big time and also shake the world up. Early on, I had worried that Stark would be pitted against another Iron Man wannabe, but thankfully this is not so. How director Shane Black will handle the mystical elements of the Mandarin (i.e. the rings) is up for grabs at the moment, but I'd like to see a splash of some fantasy elements despite the fact that this film will be rooted in reality more so than the other Marvel films.

We do get to see James Rhodes' War Machine/Iron Patriot armor a few times. Hopefully we'll see some action with him and Stark, since their teaming up sequence in Iron Man 2 was a highlight in that problematic mess. We also get brief glimpses at the other characters, but we don't see Aldrich Killian, Eric Savin or Firepower. [Killian was in it for a second, Savin for a split-second, Firepower wasn't even in the film] Perhaps the next trailer will give us glimpses of these villains.

Overall, an incredibly satisfying trailer. I loved every second of it, and that's rare for a trailer. There's not one moment that doesn't work. I've been looking forward to this for a while, but now I'm really pumped. It looks as if Marvel Studios is going to make sure that Phase 2 surpasses Phase 1's films. Marvel's little renaissance is only just getting warmed up.

What did you think of the trailer? Did you love it? Did you not care for it that much? Or were you disappointed? Sound off!