I'm really starting to like this whole, "hey, let's post on Sunday" thing. Sure, I'll be honest and tell you that it annoyed the heck out of me when Nathaniel first suggested it, mostly because I like having a day of not having to do anything. But that wasn't the only reason.
The proposition of posting on Sundays also made me feel like a bit of a blowhard. I mean, honestly, do Nathaniel and I really need to express our views/opinions/etc seven days a week on the Internet?
How arrogant can two guys be, right?
But I have to say, it's been nice to actually be able to sit down on a Saturday morning--with very little that needs to be done other than to venture out to a comics shop or two--and just write about whatever, and link to whatever, and make a couple of glib comments on whatever news may have caught my eye over the last week.
Mostly because during the week, I don't have much time to surf the Internet. I get most of my comics news on the weekends, either by talking to my buddy Gary, or by doing some early Saturday morning Web browsing. That said, there's one piece of news in particular that has me incredibly excited (and happy to be such a huge dork).
I've meant to post something about the recent announcement that Joss Whedon (yep, that Joss Whedon) has been slated to direct the upcoming Avengers film from Marvel/Disney.
I just haven't had the time to talk about it, but now, with this newfangled Sunday posting dealie, I kind of have time to talk about it. I have to head out the door in a few, but I can say this--obviously, Joss Whedon on anything is a Good Thing.
Joss Whedon on the Avengers? Yeah, I can't find the bad in that.
I was a late convert to the Church of Joss, but since I started watching Buffy a few years back on DVD, I've been a big Whedon fan. Recently, Nathaniel and I have been watching Firefly on DVD, and with every episode, I realize just how good Whedon is.
And not just with character stories and dialogue.
Those are certainly hallmarks of a Whedon project, sure, but he's also astoundingly good at telling "team" stories. Whether it's the crew of Serenity, or The Scooby Gang in Sunnydale, Whedon's shows always manage to give every character enough time to shine on screen.
What's more, though (and certainly more relevant for an Avengers movie), is Whedon's ability to have a group of people shine together on screen.
With something like the Avengers--which is the ultimate team comic book--it's more important that (whatever members of the team he chooses) relate with and play off of each other than for them to shine as individual characters. They'll all have plenty of time to do that in their solo movies.
I think this is great news for comics fans, and I hope that this will be the movie that puts Joss Whedon's name in the same category as, say, a Sam Raimi or a Chris Nolan.
How about you guys? Any thoughts on the selection?
3 comments:
I dunno, I'm still not entirely sure Joss Whedon can pull off a big franchise launch on the silver screen. A lot of people seem to love everything he puts out, but I'm unconvinced that he can actually direct a successful movie on the silver screen. While I liked Serenity, I didn't feel that it was actually a "movie" movie, it felt more like a direct-to-DVD movie a la Farscape's The Peacekeeper Wars...
Of course, the bright side is that if he screws up, Marvel can just do a reboot like they did to the Fantastic Four and Incredible Hulk... and want to do to Spider-Man.
Let's leave out the spoilers for Alex's sake, but I think Serenity felt that way because it was torn between tying up storylines from the show and going with something that Joe Moviegoer could appreciate without having heard of Firefly.
The other issue is that Serenity was an unexpected last gasp that was almost certainly the end of the series--for real, this time--but if the movie did REALLY REALLY well, there was maybe a tiny chance for a sequel. Another balancing issue.
With something like The Avengers, there's nothing to tie up, and it's all but guaranteed to be the start of a long-lasting franchise, not the end, and Firefly leads me to believe that Joss is great at long-term planning.
However, you are absolutely right about Plan B.
I actually watched Serenity without having seen the series. I enjoyed it and thought I was following what was going on, but it really just didn't feel like a silver screen product... I guess, because like you said, he was just trying to tie up loose ends.
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