Our director: Joss Whedon!

[JB-the-Hunter]

Believe it or not, the thread for the avengers director is buried somewhere around page 8-9 of this forum, so I decided to make a new one. Notice anything in the recent stuff we've gotten that's Whedon-esque? How do you think he's handled everything so far? Are you surprised at how huge the scale of this movie is for such an inexperienced director? What are your thoughts?

Here's the old thread. It's an interesting read:
http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=335628

[BigThor]

I didn't know what to expect from Whedon as I've not well versed in his filmography, but I am suprised as how huge this film's scale is since Joss Whedon's never directed a block buster.

[hopefuldreamer]

I'm just really hoping the film is well recieved. He's totally earned the chance to prove himself and it looks like he's taking the challenge and completely nailing it

[Lord]

I have faith in Joss Whedon, i saw his buffy and Angel shows, and his serenity film, he can do it, and he's great with dialogue.

[Thundercrack85]

I consider Whedon to be incredibly overrated, even comically so. Just bring up Firefly some time. But he's not bad by any stretch of the imagination. I think he could "deliver".

[Shadowlord X]

I had hearsd of JW from Buffy of course but never watched any of his tv shows. Then when Serenity came out I was intrigued by the trailr and went to see it. I absolutely loved it and watched it 2 more times in cinema, bringing friends.

That gave me the confidence that he could pull this off.

[The Morningstar]

I have to admit i was doubting Whedon. I knew he was great at characterisation and plotting, but I was worried if he could deliver that level of spectacle and awe required for a film like this.

After seeing the trailers, my doubts are now squashed.

[irapogi]

Doctor horribles amazing. Love firefly and dollhouse. I know hes great with dialogue and characterization. Wasnt sure about scale and action til i saw the trailers

[hopefuldreamer]

Originally Posted by The Morningstar

I have to admit i was doubting Whedon. I knew he was great at characterisation and plotting, but I was worried if he could deliver that level of spectacle and awe required for a film like this.

After seeing the trailers, my doubts are now squashed.

Definitely had the same worries.

Though in fairness, i'm not sure why... I mean, the first time I saw this scene in the cinema, I thought it was completely epic And that was with a budget of 39 mil.

VIDEO-CLick to Watch!:

[R_Hythlodeus]

I was totally unimpressed by Whedons work. I still am. I'm just no fan of anything he did. But I hope that Avengers will be great. And if ignore Caps butt ugly costume and the fact, that all the trailers have a certain Bay feeling, it looks like I might change my mind about him in 7 weeks.

[Smashlilman]

I grew up on Buffy and Angle so I'm expecting lots from Whedon.

Originally Posted by R_Hythlodeus

I was totally unimpressed by Whedons work. I still am. I'm just no fan of anything he did. But I hope that Avengers will be great. And if ignore Caps butt ugly costume and the fact, that all the trailers have a certain Bay feeling, it looks like I might change my mind about him in 7 weeks.

The trailer has a bay feel to them because Disney's marketing team is trying to recapture the magic that put butts in the seats for Transformers. It doesn't say any thing about the quality of story in the actual movie.

Agree 100% with the cap comment. looks good from some angles in others it looks like crap. Wish they could of hire the people that designed Spider-man's original costume.

[captainrogers]

I hope Whedon will remain on Board for any Avengers sequels.
Even if it's just as the main writer.
This movie looks absolutely grand and would LOVE see what the man has in mind for how the direction of Earths Mightiest Heroes will play out.

[Guerrilla]

I have seen all of whedons work except for dr. Horrible. I am a big fan of all of it. The great thing is that most of it is ensemble work. There are soooo manu avengers references in buffy. Firefly and Serenity are awesome and super rewatchable. I see whedon at least directing avengers 2. If not more. Unless disney and marvel are too intrusive to his vision for the avengers as a whole saga. Which we wont hear about until they announce.."we have a new director" isnt that what happened with favreau and branaugh? Anyway, im fully confident that whedon is about to deliver mine and most of you guys our finest cbm to date!

[eddy]

I'm a big Whedon fan and have been so for the last decade. He's put out alot of good stuff but theres also been the bad with the good which any Buffy fan can tell you. I hope Joss brings out his A game which it looks like he did if the trailer is any indication.

Also I'll add in all the years I've followed Joss' work rarely have I ever been unimpressed by his direction. He does great camera angles without being too showy and isn't afraid to have his heroes look like heroes. He's the king of the power shot.

[Shadowlord X]

Originally Posted by Guerrilla

I have seen all of whedons work except for dr. Horrible. I am a big fan of all of it. The great thing is that most of it is ensemble work. There are soooo manu avengers references in buffy. Firefly and Serenity are awesome and super rewatchable. I see whedon at least directing avengers 2. If not more. Unless disney and marvel are too intrusive to his vision for the avengers as a whole saga. Which we wont hear about until they announce.."we have a new director" isnt that what happened with favreau and branaugh? Anyway, im fully confident that whedon is about to deliver mine and most of you guys our finest cbm to date!

Can you elaborate?

[Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by Shadowlord X

Can you elaborate?

Xander, spike, buffy, willow all say avengers related comments throughout the seasons of the show. I dont have specific quotes, but it does happen. I also vaguely remember an avengers reference in angel. Im pretty sure that xander specifically says " avengers assemble" at one point. Ok just checked, season 4 episode 1 xander does indeed say "avengers assemble"

[Shadowlord X]

Originally Posted by Guerrilla

Xander, spike, buffy, willow all say avengers related comments throughout the seasons of the show. I dont have specific quotes, but it does happen. I also vaguely remember an avengers reference in angel. Im pretty sure that xander specifically says " avengers assemble" at one point

Cool, thanx. So he was subliminally applying for this job for years.

[Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by Shadowlord X

Cool, thanx. So he was subliminally applying for this job for years.

No prob! Yeah, i guess joss showing appreciation for the avengers way back when set him up, at least vaguely, for a chance to be on the short list of possible directors.

[hopefuldreamer]

In 'The Freshman' he says: Then where’s the gang? Avengers assemble! Let’s get going!

Then in 'The Body': You’re right. The avengers gotta get with the assembly. We’ll go. We’ll deal. We’ll help. That’s what we do. We help Buffy.

As far as I know, that's it though.

[Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by hopefulsuicide

In 'The Freshman' he says: Then where’s the gang? Avengers assemble! Let’s get going!

Then in 'The Body': You’re right. The avengers gotta get with the assembly. We’ll go. We’ll deal. We’ll help. That’s what we do. We help Buffy.

As far as I know, that's it though.

Yeah, i could be misremembering the other characters making references. Its been awhile.

[hopefuldreamer]

Originally Posted by Guerrilla

Yeah, i could be misremembering the other characters making references. Its been awhile.

There are so many pop culture references, it's easy done

[eddy]

Originally Posted by Shadowlord X

Can you elaborate?

From Angel 5x17

SPIKE: My first official parley as a very loosely affiliated member of the... what are we? Tell me we're not Scoobies.

ANGEL: We don't have a...

SPIKE: A name? Well, that's probably for the best. You'd want to be Angel's Avengers or something.

ANGEL: (dismissively) Angel's Avengers, that's... (reconsiders)

From Buffy 5x16


WILLOW: I, I wanna be there for Buffy.

XANDER: (OS) You're right. The avengers gotta get with the assembly. We'll go. We'll deal. We'll help. That's what we do. We help Buffy.


Buffy 4x01

UFFY: It's just... there was this vampire, and she took me down, and I just... I don't know how to stop her.

XANDER: Then where's the gang? Avengers assemble! Let's get it going!

Theres also references to Dark Phoenix, Captain America, Hulk, Nick Fury, Spider-Man and of course Batman and Superman. Big comic fan that Whedon.

[Kent]

^ Yeah, I specifically remember a moment in "Angel" where Angel has just swum down to a submarine (and entered through a torpedo tube) during WWII and a few of the guys on board are discussing what exactly Angel is and they basically go (and I'm paraphrasing here):

"I'm telling you, he's some kind of super soldier, like Steve Rogers or Captain America."
"Steve Rogers IS Captain America you idiot!"
"What?"

[Shadowlord X]

Originally Posted by Kent

^ Yeah, I specifically remember a moment in "Angel" where Angel has just swum down to a submarine (and entered through a torpedo tube) during WWII and a few of the guys on board are discussing what exactly Angel is and they basically go (and I'm paraphrasing here):

"I'm telling you, he's some kind of super soldier, like Steve Rogers or Captain America."
"Steve Rogers IS Captain America you idiot!"
"What?"

That's cool. MARVEL got a lot of love in that series apparently. Nice of Joss to do so.

[flickchick85]

I was late to the Whedon train. I didn't give any of his shows a chance until college, because they always seemed cheesy to me whenever I watched an episode here and there (I was generally more into HBO/Showtime fare, Aaron Sorkin, Ron Moore, and J.J. Abrams types of shows). But I was the resident "TV Guru" of my group of friends there (our apartment was practically a TV-on-DVD library for how many people borrowed shows from me, lol), and they said I couldn't be a proper TV Guru without having seen a Joss Whedon show, so they pretty much forced me to watch them. And I'm SO glad they did, because underneath all that campiness was actual storytelling that rivaled all that HBO/Showtime I watched in complexity, ideas and character development. He just wrapped it all in a much more fun, less self-serious package. Over the course of about 3 months, Joss Whedon went from a guy whose work I always scoffed at, to arguably my favorite writer/director on television (while there are several others who have created shows I love at least as much as his, only one or two have created multiple shows on the same level).

And it just so happens that two of his great creations were superhero shows. I feel like a lot of people don't realize that's what Buffy and Angel were. Superhero shows. About super-powered beings who fought super-villains and saved the world a lot. Buffy was basically a Spider-man-like tale: a coming-of-age superhero saga about a relatable, wise-cracking protagonist whose journey is mostly about growing up and learning about life and relationships. Angel was more of a Batman-esque scenario: The tortured, urban superhero that's more about saving the souls of his city while working to salvage his own along the way.

And they aren't just superhero shows, they're the only two live-action superhero shows I've ever seen that were actually great shows. Early on, sure, Heroes had a few moments of being a good show, but they were fleeting moments, and it was never great, imo. Not only did Whedon make a couple of great superhero shows, but every single show he ever created worked magic with their ensembles and their dynamics. That seemed to be one of his main areas of expertise. That's why I jumped for joy when Joss was a announced as the director of Avengers. He's a fantastic storyteller with a knack for iconography, a Marvel comics expert, and has previously created 4 completely different ensembles that were all beautifully handled, with each member being fully fleshed out and getting their time to shine. I'm not sure they could have picked a better person to helm this, tbh (other than Brad Bird, who was otherwise detained.)

I wasn't even worried about the spectacle, because I felt he already worked wonders with Serenity, considering it was a sci-fi adventure made for about half the budget of the last few Reese Witherspoon romantic comedies. So with a budget of over SEVEN times that? Yeah, I was never worried. I have complete faith that Joss Whedon will knock this outta the park.