Last week, the first trailer for the Max Steel movie arrived online—even though it was an international trailer, even though the film’s domestic release was scheduled for October 21st, and even though we’ve seen barely anything from this movie. This is changing, as today brings the first domestic Max Steel trailer, which looks like what you might expect from a toy-to-movie adaptation with a young-adult genre spin.
Directed by Stewart Hendler and starring Ben Winchell as the eponymous hero, the film sees a teen boy named Max McGrath who moves back to the small town where his late father worked as a scientist. Searching for answers to his dad’s past, Max messes around with his technology and is blasted with energy bursts. Now he can manipulate and harness energy for a variety of purposes. Plus, he has an alien sidekick named Steel, and when the two merge together they form Max Steel, an armored hero that looks like if Tron and Iron Man fused their suits together.
Watch the U.S. trailer below:
Yahoo Movies debuted the preview, in addition to a brief chat with the director. When asked the obvious question of why the film took so long to come to theaters, considering preview images were first shown in 2014, Hendler said:
I wish it was something sexy and interesting, but it really just comes down to paperwork and release date. It just took a second for them to figure out what date they wanted it on, and find the perfect window for it. It’s Mattel’s first movie, and [the movie’s distributor] Open Road is new, so the handshake took a minute. But now it’s onward and release-ward.
In addition to Winchell, the film stars Maria Bello as Max’s mom, Andy Garcia as Dr. Miles Edwards, and Josh Brener as the voice of Steel. Though, perhaps the best casting addition is Mike Doyle, whose death on Law and Order: SVU still haunts me.
Here’s the exhaustingly long plot description:
Max Steel is an in-depth “origin” story packed with captivating characters and fast-paced action. The plot chronicles the adventures of Max McGrath and his mother have just moved back to Copper Canyon, the town in which Max’s scientist father died in a mysterious accident shortly after Max was born. As Max adjusts to his new school, things get complicated when his body starts to generate strange energy flare-ups that he can’t control.
At first a confusing mix of inconvenient and exhilarating, this unpredictable power eventually grows too intense for Max to handle, causing him to distance himself from those around him including the girl he likes, Sofia. Eventually the energy pushes him to the verge of fatal combustion. In the nick of time, a techno-organic extraterrestrial named Steel, who has been secretly monitoring Max’s progress, saves him just before he loses consciousness. The two discover that when joined together they can control the energy and harness it into superhuman strength – and that when apart, neither can survive for long.
As these two unlikely friends learn to accept their connected fates, they begin to uncover secrets surrounding the death of Max’s father. As they dig deeper, they soon find themselves hunted by an unforeseen enemy bent on capturing Max and Steel for a sinister agenda of destruction. Uncertain who to trust, they will have to work together to find the truth, and fight the mysterious forces threatening our world.