Joss Whedon Officially Directing The Avengers

[GloatingSwine]

Oh, wait, what am I saying. We're talking about Joss Whedon? The man responsible for giving one of the iconic female superheroes in Buffy, creating Willow and numerous wholly crafted and explored women of sci-fi that have been lauded and praised pretty much everywhere.

Yeah, that guy. Screw him, right? pfft.

I think the problem is that he's created Buffy and then... errr... reproduced her in everything he's done since. One of the worst things that happened in Serenity was that they turned River into Buffy 2. She was far more interesting before, when she was just mental and possibly psychic, and it detracted from us getting, well, any focus at all on Zoe at the time when she should have been the most in-focus character. (In fact, for all this "oh Joss makes great female characters" talk, Serenity shat all over Zoe and Inara).

 

[VeX1le]

Wow this thread turned into, I didn't like some of Joss' works so this movie will suck, or Firefly, Angel, etc was great, and this movie will also be great.

I personally think he'll do great, but who knows.

 

[Actual]

What is this insanity!? This is awesome news!

I am now very hopeful for the Avengers movie.

 

[elcamino41383]

Well I'm not looking forward to this as much as I originally was. I don't think Joss Whedon is "bad" but I really haven't like much of anything he's done for movies/tv.

 

[David Bray]

Yes, the man known for the numerous similar female characters who definitely hasn't been awarded numerous times by female organisations for advancing the portrayal of strong women in films and television.

Oh, wait, what am I saying. We're talking about Joss Whedon? The man responsible for giving one of the iconic female superheroes in Buffy, creating Willow (you know, the girl who grows throughout the series from shy, awkward teen to realizing her strengths, sexuality and growing into an independent and strong woman) and numerous wholly crafted and explored women of sci-fi that have been lauded and praised pretty much everywhere.

Yeah, that guy. Screw him, right? pfft.

Hey, strong women are great, but he has problems. First; the illusion all women are like that, and second; the lack of variety that he achieves because of this

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Well, I liked "Angel", despite never seeing "Buffy". I'm currently fixing that with Netflix, so don't freak your shit.

I loved "Firefly"...

Dollhouse was good, but I think Eliza Dushku ruined it more than anything.

 

[Legendsmith]

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

That's 4chan.

 

[GloatingSwine]

You mean like the time in Firefly when River used her powers to shoot every single henchman in Niska's station with just a glimpse? Her powers and Miranda the Planet were supposed to be the culmination of Season 1, which became the plot for Serenity instead.

Which is rather different from her being, essentially, Ryu Hayabusa in a skirt, which is what she turned into at the end of Serenity. For a start, it doesn't rely on sudden improbable physical capability from a character who had previously been highlighted for her improbably mental capability ("doing the math" in that scene, and psyching out Jubal Early).

Why should have Zoe been an in-focus character? She was Mal's right hand "man", the one who kept him in check most of the time from doing anything too stupid but she wasn't the main focus ever in the show or the film.

She was also Wash's wife, and we get basically no acknowledgement of any effect that his death has on her character, at all, because all of a sudden we're watching the Magical Girl Ninja River show.

Inara had her ark work as well as it could throughout the show and film,

Inara didn't have an arc in the film. She stood around and smouldered. And whilst I'm not saying that Morena Baccarin is bad at that, it's still a disservice to the character. She barely had any fucking lines in the film beyond her first scene, she was only there to make up the numbers.

River was always going to be the big focus on the show for the first season and since that's all we got, I don't see what exactly the complaint is.

Except the show worked because of the ensemble, not because of River, and that suffered in the film, because half of the cast didn't get to do anything.


And oh look, the Avengers is an ensemble, something that Whedon has not successfully written in a movie. We'll be lucky if it doesn't turn into "Wasp kicks everyone's ass, Cap, Iron Man, and Thor golfclap for her".

 

[Hiphophippo]

I may never understand the love of Firefly. In my head Avengers is going to end up like that and there's little that makes me sadder.

 

[zHellas]

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

No, no. ALIEN: RESURRECTION.

What are you talking about, my unusually tall and muscular Chinese friend?

 

[Silver Patriot]

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!

 

[NickCaligo42]

Not to be a buzzkill. But I hope that J.J Abrahms stay the hell away from this movie. Before he mutates it into another slick and stylish piece of crap like Star Trek. Or take all the credit for it, like he did with Lost.

Slick and stylish? It looked like Spy Kids. It was about as stylish as Vanilla Ice. Which is exactly why I agree with you.

Whedon, though? He may have had a couple of misses here and there, but I'd say something like The Avengers is right up his alley. I sincerely enjoyed Buffy and Firefly and I'll be looking forward to seeing how this goes.

Yeah, I'm kind of confused right now. Normally the members of the Escapist praise him, and all the comments so far have been negative.

Me? I just want to see an action movie. Firefly was awesome, so I hope this is.

For anybody who's made it to the 5th page without reading the other comments: from what I gather Whedon's popularity in the UK aint so hot, and there's a lot of UK users on the Escapist. Anybody feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like in the States he's considered clever and genre-savvy and gets praise for his action, snappy dialogue, and sense of irony, while in the UK that same dialogue is considered smug, juvenile drollery and his irony is considered blitheringly unsubtle, a bit like a bad pun. That's not my point of view, personally, that's just the impression I keep getting.

 

[CultistRat]

A friend of a friend of mine claims that Nathan Fillion will be playing Ant Man.
Best. Movie. Ever.