Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. So, the big Disney Live Action panel was a bit of a fizz-out in terms of news breaks. Star Wars was mentioned and Alan Horn did confirm a Summer 2015 release date for Episode VII and that Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinsberg are developing spin-off flicks, but other than that there was nothing. He was actually booed by a ton of the audience when he moved on without giving any new updates.
Marvel, on the other hand, still knows that if you're making an appearance you bring something to drive the buzz. Kevin Feige ran pretty much everything from Comic-Con.... The Thor: The Dark World footage, Captain America: The Winter Soldier footage, Guardians of the Galaxy footage and the fantastic teaser for Avengers: The Age of Ultron... but on top of that he also brought some sequences from Thor 2 and Cap 2.
I'll get to those in a moment, but I want to take time out to reiterate how much I'm looking forward to Guardians of the Galaxy. This is the second time I've seen the footage and I loved it even more. Seeing Groot standing above everybody amongst a big fight with Rocket Raccoon standing on his shoulder and firing a machine gun just puts an absurdly large smile on my face.
Feige said that working on Guardians and seeing footage come in makes it feel like 2006 for him again and they were developing a character most people didn't know or care about. Iron Man got to be a big surprise for its audiences and he think Guardians is going to be a similar surprise and it's easy to see why. There's spectacle and humor in equal measures shown here and I can't wait to see it all come together.
Tom Hiddleston was brought out to an adoring public. He in turn brought out Natalie Portman, who got a lot of cheers, and then Anthony Hopkins, who got a standing ovation. The crowd had the right priorities, right?
It was appropriate that Portman was there because she's the focus of the new scene they showed us, which was Jane's first day in Asgard, the majority of it spent on a crazy operation table, sadly enough. She's awake and in great spirits, obviously enamored by the technology around her. It became clear pretty quickly that she's infected by something, some energy or force and Thor brought her to Asgard to cure her.
This futuristic machine that is scanning Portman is new to the Asgardians. They don't know how it works. Thor is nervous about them using this machine on Jane, but they said she doesn't have a choice, really because they don't believe Jane can survive the amount of energy moving through her. Jane recognizes it as a Quantum Field Generator and is quickly dismissed by the snooty Asgardian medic/scientist/whomever lady, who calls it a Soul Forge.
”Does the Soul Forge transfer molecular energy from one place to another?” Silence from the snooty Asgardian for a beat then... “Yes.” Jane looks to Thor and loudly whispers “It's a Quantum Field Generator.”
Odin storms in, unhappy with a “mortal” being brought to Asgard. “Are my words so noiseless to you that you ignore them completely? She does not belong in Asgard anymore than a goat belongs at a banquet table!”
Jane is naturally offended. “Did he just... Who do you think you are?” “I am Odin, King of Asgard, protector of the nine realms.” Jane: “Oh. I'm... not a goat.” Odin: “I know who you are. Jane Foster.” She turns to Thor with a bit of a mischievous smile on her face. “You told your dad about me?”
Thor pleads for her to stay so he can figure out what strange energy is within her. Odin won't have it, saying they have healers on earth and they can deal with it. He calls the guards to take her back to Midgard. They approach and before Thor can defend his girlfriend a red pulse of energy comes from within Jane and pushes them back. She looks scared and the Asgardians in the room look confused. The snooty scientist lady comments that this force acted like it was defending her. Thor corrects her. “It's defending itself.”
What this is I have no idea, but it was a good scene that shows us the family dynamic is still strong between father and son, that something's terribly wrong with Jane and nobody knows what the hell is going on. Strange things are afoot at the Asgardian Circle K.
Next up was the Captain America: The Winter Soldier footage... first the Comic-Con fight in the elevator and then a really cool sequence, which I understand takes place early on in the film, that was legitimately the first time I've seen Cap let loose with his super soldier powers and talents at tossing the shield around.
The sequence starts with Cap and Black Widow in a jet flying to a mission. There's some small talk about Cap's personal life as they suit up. She asks if he did anything fun on Saturday night. Cap laughs it off and says unfortunately all the guys from his barbershop quartet are dead.
As the rear loading door opens up Cap prepares to jump out and Black Widow gives him shit for not having a lovelife. As he jumps he says, “I'm too busy!” One of the SHIELD guys looks after him as he jumps out of the jet. “Does he have a parachute?” No, he didn't...
Cap freefalls through some clouds and we see there's an ocean below. He plummets towards the water and a large cargo boat. Cap flips before he hits the water, going in boots first with a teeny splash. From there he climbs up the thick chain and comes up on the deck, feet hitting silently, not alerting the armed guard a few feet away.
Silently, he takes out the guard. There's no score going on as he takes out a few more with a combination of shield throws and fists. One of the throws nails one guard, ricochets off the rail and nails another in the head, knocking him out cold, before it returns to its rightful place on Cap's arm.
Cap starts running the length of the ship, around the rail side and the camera pulls back, the temp score swelling as we see a tiny Cap running, knocking some guards over the rail and into the ocean. One particular move was pretty rad... he's running, a guard is walking in front of him and Cap throws his shield at the guard's feet, sending him falling painfully over the rail. Very cool.
He gets into some hand to hand stuff at the end of the clip as he surprises a few more guards. He disarms them with the shield and just as he gets it back one of the guards pulls a knife. Another guard is knocked back by the alarm. Cap sees this, beats the knife out of the hands of the attacking guard and throws it, impaling the other guard's hand as it is just about to reach the alarm.
Cap knocks him out and dispatches one more guard by holding up his shield to the guard's head and punching the back of the shield. He turns only to find an automatic rifle aimed at his head. He freezes and a second later the guard is shot from somewhere else. Cap looks up to see Black Widow floating down, leading a squad of parachuting SHIELD soldiers.
Black Widow lands, snaps the parachute off and without missing a beat says, “What about the nurse who lives across the hall from you? She seems nice.”
I loved seeing Cap covertly taking down these guys with military precision and I am just giddy to see his shield being used so well. There was also a little kind of force-push ripple effect that happened sometimes when he'd kick a guard and send him flying backwards or over the rail. It sells the intensity of his strength, really makes him a super superhero.
So, once again Marvel shows up everybody else and gives a kickass presentation, best of the day by far.
There you have it, the new Marvel stuff. Thoughts?
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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