SR Pick: Retro Trailer for ‘The Avengers’
Aug 25, 2010 by Ben KendrickThe Avengers battle the Skrulls in this awesome fan-made trailer for The Avengers – using footage from a variety of 1940s and 50s film and television productions.
Marvel Studios debuted the teaser trailer for the upcoming super-hero mash-up film The Avengers back at Comic-Con to a lively room full of fans. The crowd was already hot, anticipating a potential appearance by Mark Rufallo, but when Samuel L. Jackson’s voice boomed over the speakers, narrating the teaser trailer, Hall H nearly exploded with raw geek power.
But the teaser for The Avengers is nothing compared to the “premake” Avengers trailer that had Comic-Con fans back in 1952 on their feet.
“Premakes” The Avengers is a fan-made trailer that splices together various footage from comic book-related movie and television productions from the 1940s and 1950s, creating a convincing trailer for a retro Avengers film.
The premake trailer portrays an epic battle between the Avengers and the Skrulls with appearances by several familiar Marvel Studio properties: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, Nick Fury, Black Widow, Peter Parker, Reed Richards, Professor X, Scott Summers, J. Jonah Jameson, Edwin Jarvis, and The Hulk, as well as a few characters yet to get a modern make-over: The Watcher, Giant Man, Wasp, Dr. Strange, Rick Jones, and the Skrulls.
Here’s the faux-press release:
“What if… the Avengers movie was created years before the actual comic book?
Lost in the annals of time and space, comes this magnificent motion picture of epic proportions. Taking a page from such horror classics as “Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman” and “House of Frankenstein,” Timely Atlas Studios (the precursor to Marvel Studios), created the first superhero movie team-up. “The Avengers” featured an awesome array of characters such as Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man in a larger-than-life battle against evil aliens from the planet Skrull. Face front true believers, this one is for the funny books!”
Check out the ”Premake” Avengers trailer below:
The trailer culls footage from a variety of sources including: Flash Gordon, War of the Worlds, The Dirty Dozen, and even Batman. You can view the entire list of sources on the trailer’s YouTube page.
It’s easy to miss a number of the trailer’s more subtle references to the Marvel Universe, so creator Ivan Guerrero has also prepared a complimentary special feature, detailing the various characters and locales – as well as his version of the, now traditional, Stan Lee cameo.
The premake Avengers trailer isn’t the only retro film teaser Guerrero has put together – Ghostbusters (1954) and The Empire Strikes Back (1950) are also available.
The highlight of the whole trailer, for me at least, was the subtle way the original special effects were handled – compared to the over the top CGI sequences we see today. Sure big-budget CGI sequences are fun to watch but they lack the magic of these early film and television serials.
It makes me think that, despite the epicness of modern filmmaking, we’ve lost a bit of the wonder.
The Marvel Studios production of The Avengers will be in theaters (3D and 2D) on May 4, 2012.
Around the web:
Loading ...
Iron Man looked awesome.
Here is a shock but I disagree. In regards to special effects. Honestly I don’t consider there to be any magic in the effects of the past.I will say there is something to be said about practicle effect that’s one thing I love about Nolan he really doesn’t like using CGI, but the effects of the past were very dull and a lot less exciting and no where near magical. At least not to me, but it’s all subjective. The last sentence was thrown in to protect my self.
I’m not saying that it isn’t subjective or that Its a fact and not my opinion. It is all subjective and of course it’s opinion, but some people need you to go out of your way to express the obvious and you get insulted if you don’t say it’s your opinion in ever post. I’ll say this about the 50′s at least they didn’t have to deal with the bloggers. I may think the special effect lacked the magic you saw, but they don’t have to deal with the blood thirsty crowd.
Oh and the fake trailer is ok I guess. A little boring the only parts to me that worked were the Captain America parts I guess Black Widow worked to. The Iron Man and Thor stuff looked awful to me.
Wow! I think that fake trailer was BAD A##! It looks like it was really filmed in the 40′s or 50′s. Who ever did this should make a 1hr episode of this and put it On-Line, I would love to see that! Well done guys.