Joss Whedon Officially Directing The Avengers

[Lord Beautiful]

So Joss is directing this. Looks like we should be looking forward to snarky dialogue and poorly choreographed fight sequences.

So, is this an AU or am I dreaming all this in a mental institution? Because there's no way his fight sequences are bad.

I admit, I'm going off of what I've seen of Buffy and Angel, which had fight sequences unworthy of the honor of being called amateurish. I've not seen Firefly or Dollhouse, so I suppose I can't be certain if the god-awful fights have gotten better.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Well, one of us is insane. Either this is all just a dream or you've snapped.

Care to elaborate?

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

i'll reserve my judgement until I see the Cap America movie

 

[Silver Patriot]

Spoiler: snip

Spoiler: snip

He wrote Alien: Resurrection (IMDB). He then blamed all the actors and the director for how bad it was. And it was written bad. BAAAAD. So, yeah, when this guy fails, he blames everyone around him and distances himself from the project.

Wow, that was sooooooooo 13 years ago. People have a tendency to improve as writers you know? Since then he's produced a lot more win than fail:

Win:
Speed (1994) - co-writer (uncredited)
Toy Story (1995) - co-writer
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) - creator, executive producer, writer, director
Angel (1999-2004) - co-creator, executive producer, writer, director
Titan A.E. (2000) - co-writer
X-Men (2000) - treatment (uncredited)
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) - treatment (arguably, I haven't seen it but critical reviews go either way)
Firefly (2002) - creator, executive producer, writer, director
Serenity (2005) - writer and director

Fail:
Waterworld (1995) - co-writer (uncredited) (even though I liked it T_T)
Alien Resurrection (1997) - writer
Dollhouse (2009-2010) - creator, executive producer, writer, director

(Filmography blatantly copied from wikipedia and rearranged)

Win to Fail ratio... 3:1

I consider that pretty good.


Also, because I didn't see anyone crack the joke yet:
"In related news, Fox is looking into possible ways to cancel the movie without closure. More at 11!"

You missed Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog. One of my favorite musicals.

Also Commentary: The Musical!


GENUS!

Ah! how could I forget that! I love Doctor Horrible! Not only was the writing and directing great but had a trinity of awesome as it's main cast. As I mentioned I just copied the filmography from Wikipedia, it wasn't in that section and I didn't notice. But yeah, good call. I had that DVD in my old PS2 in my room for months as "the thing I threw in when I want something entertaining in the background."

I just wanted to make sure it was included. Nothin. . . . wait. He co-wrote Speed? I love that movie! Actually it seems he did a lot of stuff I liked. I never noticed.

I don't know. It seems kinda asinine to declare him unfit as a director over a few failures. Especially when his successes were really good and nether his successful endeavors or his failures were completely on him. No one is perfect. The key is did he learn from them?

 

[Will Lorus]

I think this is excellent news. Joss Whedon's biggest hits have all been based around a team or an ensemble cast and I still think his other works are well above average. Not to mention that he's the type of guy who respects the source material and won't try to inject a sense of hyper-realism into everything.

In regard to the attitude towards Joss in the UK, I can't speak for the rest of the population but myself and my circle of friends all love his work so I don't think there's any huge dissonance between American and British opinions on the man.

Oh and on a different note, I'm really excited that Black Widow will almost definately be able to play a useful role in the film with Joss at the helm. I can only imagine how sexy she'll appear when she's given purpose and dimension.

Worried about this issue of the release date though, I was hoping for a confirmed 2012 release.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

Anyway, his writing of Alien: Resurrection is balanced out with the fact that he co-wrote the original Toy Story.
And at least he didn't write Alien 3

He wrote the original screenplay for A:R. They then proceeded to change everything.[/quote]

Pfff, that's just trying to have your cake and eat it too.
If your name is in the credits, you're the one that gets the glory when it's good, and shoulders the blame when it's bad. That's just how it works. You better believe that if this apparent re-write turned out to be awesome, Joss Whedon would've conveniently downplayed most of his work being changed.
If Joss really didn't want to be associated with A:E, why didn't he take his name off of it?


The main problem with Whedon, though, is that all of his characters tend to be witty smartasses at their core, with various interchangeable shells. Be they villain, or hero, or prissy doctor, or ruthless mercenary, or preacher, they all seemed kinda similar at heart.

 

[elcamino41383]

Oh right, I forgot that this was the Escapist. All you people hate things here for the sake of hatred.

Apparently this was worthy of being reported and then warned for. I feel this proves my point a little too well.

In all seriousness, Joss Whedon's awesome, and everybody makes one flub. That was Dollhouse. I have no reason to suspect from his track record that this will not be awesome. The hatred makes no sense to me.

Well I don't "hate" Whedon, but quite honestly, I don't much like him either. (His work with Marvel Comics "Runaways" aside.) Any of the stuff I've seen from him in movies/tv has been rather lackluster to me. Buffy/Angel dislikes, mostly probably based on the fact that I really don't give much a crap about vampires, never have.

Oh and on the bit of

Oh right, I forgot that this was the Escapist. All you people hate things here for the sake of hatred.

.

I really think this is such a weak and tired argument. People use it all the time to defend things and though it may actually be true for some, it's not true for everyone. People just have differences in opinion, end of story.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Well, one of us is insane. Either this is all just a dream or you've snapped.

Care to elaborate?

Either I'm dreaming that you are insane enough to say the fights scenes are bad or you really are that insane.

I'm insane because I have taste? I could have sworn it was pretty much the consensus that the fight scenes in Buffy and Angel were shit.

They were.

Now, I'd appreciate it if you didn't accuse me of insanity because I find a man's directing approach to action sequences to be pitiful.

You're acting like I'm insulting Scorcese or something. It makes you look like a rabid fanboy. If that's what you actually are, then I'll just disregard everything you say, because really, no rabid fanboy is worth listening to.

 

[Kavonde]

What the HELL is with all the negativity and mixed reactions?! What the hell is WRONG with you people?!

JOSS WHEDON IS DIRECTING THE AVENGERS MOVIE!

If that sentence doesn't make you nerdgasm, SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH YOUR BRAIN.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

The only thing of Joss Whedon I have ever seen is Dr. Horrible which I thought was good, not great, but good. I've never seen Firefly. I wasn't a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I've never seen Angel, but to counteract it all, I've never seen Alien:Ressurection. I didn't watch Dollhouse, Serenity or even Roseanne.

To me, Joss Whedon is just a normal director. I can't judge how good the movie will be based on the director, I can only judge it by what the director has done. Personally, I would have liked to see Sam Raimi direct it (At least after seeing the Spider-Man movies I do), but I'll wait until I see the movie before I start to judge.

 

[wammnebu]

Oh right, I forgot that this was the Escapist. All you people hate things here for the sake of hatred.

what The Master says is true, you are complaining about dollhouse (by the way is my 3rd favorite scifi of all time, but thats по-моем&#1091 but i bet most of you loved dr horrible and firefly. This is wonderful news, the avengers comics feature the most angsty, crazy, arrogant, self-centered nutcases in all of comic-book history. This premise was delivered to him from a throng of cherubs.

You have
Alcoholic, self-righteous Tony Stark
introverted woman-child Janet with severe self esteem issues
abusive, insecure Heny Pym
angsty, self-loathing Bruce Banner
Cynic-is-a-broken-idealist Captain America
and Scarlett Witch, who's just plain bonkers

tell me thats not a weedon cast?

 

[Dilapsor]

I love how those who oppose this are saying things like, "God Whedon sucks!... except Firefly. And maybe Serenity. Astonishing X-Men wasn't too bad either. Toy Story, too. But HEY! ALIEN: RESURRECTION! Yeah, he's a hack."

Alien: Resurrection was a terrible movie that was a design-by-committee abortion of the studio who had Whedon rewrite the entire screenplay every time some studio executive wanted something. His original screenplay and the final product are completely different due to the dozens of changes made by the studio during production.