'The Avengers' breaks records at weekend boxoffice
A poster on Deadline.com summed it up perfectly: “Note to Hollywood: This is what happens when you let comic fans do comic book movies. Joss Whedon knocked it out of the park. The right mix of humor without camp, special effects without over usage, and action with good script. Having actors who like and/or know the characters doesn’t hurt either.”
In 2010, when Marvel’s studio head Avi Arad and Stan Lee announced that Joss Whedon would write and direct The Avengers, the fan boys and girls were excited. I’m sure there was some trepidation on the part of the executives who’ve micro-manged these tent-pole movies Arad said “My personal opinion is that Joss will do a fantastic job. He loves these characters and is a fantastic writer. . . It’s part of his life so you know he is going to protect it. . . I expect someone like him is going to make the script even better.”
For many long-time fans, ones who have stuck with Whedon from Buffy, to Angel, to Firefly to Dollhouse, to Doctor Horrible, to Cabin in the Woods knew what he was capable of and was excited that he was a huge comic book nerd, as well. We all understood his themes and ideas, and how he fit them into the universes he created. We understood that he could take his skewed view of life and adapt them into the lives of comic book superheroes without insulting the audience and still make it accessible to people like me, who don’t read comics.
The way Whedon approached this was what he said on what drew him to the movie in the first place: “these people shouldn’t be in the same room let alone on the same team—and that is the definition of family.” Family has been at the core of every Joss Whedon project. Not you’re typical everyday family, but families created out of loss, loneliness, and above all, the differences that scare other people. Look at all his TV series, and you’ll see a them filled with desperate people who are different, sometimes dangerous, yet they want all the same things: a family. These themes are present in comic books, but they’re usually brushed aside for their movie adaptations in favor of set pieces. Whedon’s ability to weave this and many other personal themes into an action heavy film is brilliant.
In the end, what makes The Avengers work are the many things that Hollywood has left behind in the wake of micro-managing everything down to the last penny, and leaching every creative aspect out of script in hopes that their films appeal to a larger demographic –quality be damned. Ironically, the story, the dialogue, the actors and Whedon’s wonderful sense of timing as a director makes the film work. Hopefully, someone will notice this.