The 2012 release of Marvel’s “The Avengers” changed two things forever: The genre of superhero movies, and audience expectation of superhero movies. With the first Iron Man in 2008, Marvel started one of the most successful movie franchises of all time. With a worldwide box office gross of nearly 13.5 billion dollars so far, it’s beaten Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies,
and the Fast and the Furious franchise.
Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow, once superheroes known only by those who had read comic books through their childhood, were now household names.
Fast forward 10 years and one of the biggest events in the history of cinema, “Avengers: Infinity War” is set to hit theatres in April of 2018. The first trailer hit the internet on 29th November, and became the most watched trailer with 230 million views within the first 24 hours.
With its massive popularity, it would be no surprise if Infinity War grosses over $2 billion worldwide, a feat achieved by only 3 movies in the past. To be able to achieve this, Marvel will definitely need to generate a lot of hype for the movie, and put their best foot forward in the marketing department.
Trailers are a standard way of getting the attention of the audience, to generate hype before the release of the movie. They give the viewers a small peek into what to expect in the movie, helping in generating excitement before the movie comes out.
Good trailers not only manage to get the masses excited about the movie, but also don’t reveal so much so that the plot of the film is ruined.
And even though at this point everyone has a pretty good idea of what to expect in a superhero movie, the Infinity War trailer seemingly flips those assumptions on their head.
The trailer begins with a shot of an orange, desolate-looking planet, with lightning storms striking the surface. It cuts to a close-up of Tony Stark on that planet, looking visibly shaken. Could this be Earth? Has it really been destroyed?
Bruce Banner is lying in a crater which looks to be of his own making, as he fell through a building. Above him, looking down, is Doctor Strange, who looks to Wong concerned.
Running in the background is the monologue that Nick Fury gave in the first Avengers movie, spoken in parts by Nick Fury, Tony Stark, the Vision, Thor, and Black Widow.
The entire tone of the trailer, right from the get-go, is very dire and dark. Throughout the trailer, apart from a few shots of Captain America beating up one of the alien henchmen of the movie’s big bad, Thanos, and Black Widow stabbing someone off screen with a spear, none of the heroes seem like they have the upper hand.
Spider-Man is slammed into the ground by Thanos, as he helplessly kicks around trying to get out of his grip. Vision has the Mind Stone seemingly ripped out of his forehead by force.
Iron Man is sucker punched to the ground. Things do not look good for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
During these scenes, to add to the feeling of helplessness, Thanos has a monologue on how it’s the Avengers’ destiny to lose to him, making him seem even more of a grave threat.
All this leads to how the trailer builds hype. By showing us the Avengers in trouble, faced against massive odds, and with our knowledge that the superheroes win in the end, we’re left wondering:
“How are they going to get out of this? Can they get out of this? Can they win? Is it impossible? It can’t be, right? They have to win! But, how will they?”
The only way to answer these questions is to watch the movie to find out, and so speculation turns to anticipation, creating hype. Getting the audience to ask questions is a great way to generate hype. It creates intrigue and a desire for closure.
We want to know what happens next. “Does Spider-Man die? He did just get slammed to the ground by a giant alien. Is that even Tony Stark in the Iron Man suit?”
Posts and comments like these have been circulating all over the internet ever since the trailer hit. The Russo Brothers, directors of the film, have stated that this movie is a game changing event, leading people to believe that some, if not most, of their favorite Avengers might just bite the dust in this movie.
Good trailers manage to get people excited and get them to ask questions like these. It’s a fine balance that must be struck. If you show your audience too little or make the trailer too vague, you risk confusing them, as they’ll have too many questions, and may not even bother to find the answers.
However, show your audience too much, and you risk them piecing together the story, in which case all questions are answered, and hype is lost.
“Avengers: Infinity War” is Marvel’s 19th film, so they’ve had time to practice and perfect their craft. The trailer provides us with no definitive timeline of events, so we are left to speculate.
It is also well known that Marvel is very secretive about their movies, and that they have gone so far as to alter footage in the trailer so as to not reveal the plot. This means that we can’t even be certain as to whether these shots will be the same in the final movie.
This just adds to further speculation, creating more intrigue, fuelling hype. One thing is certain: “Avengers: Infinity War” might just be the largest movie event sofar.
Author: Pavan Atukuri
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