The Avengers Whedonisms in TA

[Dark Raven]

I wonder though how much influence RDJ had on some of Stark's lines. Obviously the scenes were a lot more scripted than the Iron Man films, but we all know how RDJ likes to come up with stuff and try it out.

I was wondering myself. There seems to be a bit of a blurred line between Downeyisms and Whedonisms in this movie. A lot of the lines sound like something RDJ could've come up with himself. Yet, it's almost as if the two balance each other out. Nothing is too Whedonish or Downeyish in this movie.

 

[mclay18]

I was wondering myself. There seems to be a bit of a blurred line between Downeyisms and Whedonisms in this movie. A lot of the lines sound like something RDJ could've come up with himself.

Whedon talked to all the previous directors (Favreau, Johnston, Branagh) about working with the different actors before filming started. So I'm sure he was aware of RDJ wanting to do ad-libs, and I think RDJ understood Whedon's approach of mostly sticking to the script.

But that line "Please tell me no one kissed me" was ad-libbed by RDJ, and that was kept in the film. But Whedon also wrote like a dozen alternate lines for RDJ to do during that scene. So they were collaborative on that end.

I think ScarJo's comments in an interview she did shows that Whedon ran a tight ship during production, script-wise. She and Renner confirmed that the script was pretty much done and polished, unlike IM-2 where they got new pages and rewrites during shooting.

 

[DACrowe]

Considering the skilled construction of the banter and the interdependency between characters, The Avengers was, at least spiritually, the sequel to Serenity.

I like the the crew of the Serenity better.

I like Avengers and am glad Joss made it, but I'd still love to see those characters one more time.

 

[Tony Stark]

I like the the crew of the Serenity better.

I like Avengers and am glad Joss made it, but I'd still love to see those characters one more time.

Won't happen. Serenity was Joss' thank you to the fans and a way to close the story on probably the most popular cult driven TV series of all time.

I can't think of another example where a show cancelled in it's first season gathered that much fan support.

 

[DACrowe]

If Serenity had been a hit, we would have seen a Serenity 2. Alas, it's been too long by now.

 

[Dark Raven]

Joss' attractive girl foot fetish continued by making Natasha barefoot in her interrogation fight scene and I'm pretty sure Pepper was barefoot in her scenes.

Is that really one of Whedon's typical traits? I thought that was Quentin Tarantino's thing. When have there been other instances of this with Whedon? I thought this was just mainly for the purpose of having Gwyneth appear shorter than RDJ, and I thought Scarlett was wearing shoes in her interrogation scene. It's not like Tarantino who usually films closeups of this.

 

[DACrowe]

River Tam (Summer Glau) throughout the series Firefly and the movie Serenity is barefoot. When Whedon directed episodes and the movie itself, he'd often have a close-up of her feet. Even when she was kicking ass, she'd wear intentionally oversized boots without socks and kept on her sun dresses. She's supposed to be a very "innocent" character despite all the terrible things she's done and have ben done to her.

***

Another Whedonism:

BANNER: Where are his flying monkeys?
THOR: What are these monkeys?
CAP: I got that...flying monkeys....I understood that.

Or something like that.

 

[jaymes_e06]

Another Whedonism:

BANNER: Where are his flying monkeys?
THOR: What are these monkeys?
CAP: I got that...flying monkeys....I understood that.

Or something like that.

Agreed. Great moment.t:

 

[flickchick85]

Is that really one of Whedon's typical traits? I thought that was Quentin Tarantino's thing. When have there been other instances of this with Whedon? I thought this was just mainly for the purpose of having Gwyneth appear shorter than RDJ, and I thought Scarlett was wearing shoes in her interrogation scene. It's not like Tarantino who usually films closeups of this.

Scarlett wasn't wearing shoes in that scene. She picked up her shoes at the end of it. Like DA pointed out, there was a lot of River Tam barefooted-ness in Firefly. And in one of the more famous Buffy episodes Joss directed, Restless, there was a conspicuously long close-up of SMG's bare feet as well. I've never heard about Joss having that particular fetish in his work, but now that it's been brought up, I think there's a fairly solid argument to be made for it.

 

[Dark Raven]

Scarlett wasn't wearing shoes in that scene. She picked up her shoes at the end of it. Like DA pointed out, there was a lot of River Tam barefooted-ness in Firefly. And in one of the more famous Buffy episodes Joss directed, Restless, there was a conspicuously long close-up of SMG's bare feet as well. I've never heard about Joss having that particular fetish in his work, but now that it's been brought up, I think there's a fairly solid argument to be made for it.

I saw she picked up her shoes at the end, but I thought that maybe she got out of them somehow when she began fighting her interrogators.

I have honestly never noticed this particular fetish of Whedon's before in his work. Maybe I wasn't paying attention, or rather maybe I didn't think anything of it, and it's only if someone points it out that one might start interpreting it that way.

 

[DACrowe]

Speaking of Whedon-esque twists. For people who liked the Hulk beating Loki, here is another twist on a cliché from Firefly. It's only 37 seconds.



And it is hilarious. In my opinion.

 

[Avenger]

Such a great scene.

Man, I miss that show so much.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Speaking of Whedon-esque twists. For people who liked the Hulk beating Loki, here is another twist on a cliché from Firefly. It's only 37 seconds.



And it is hilarious. In my opinion.

Since not a lot of people watched Firefly, they should re-do that scene in a future Avengers movie with Hawkeye for Mal and Widow for Zoey.

 

[Still Wynning]

I saw The Avengers yesterday for the second time, and Thor saying "YOU WANT ME TO PUT THE HAMMER DOWN?!?" and leaping into the air to smash Captain America with the hammer seems so much like something Whedon would do.

 

[PyroChamber]

During the final battle there were a few of those far/zoom shots that were in Firefly and Senerity.

With everyone that was put in this movie, I'm surprised Summer Glau didn't have a cameo.

 

[Angry Sentinel]

My girlfriend can't stand Buffy, Angel, or Firefly, for instance, and tends to hate Whedon's stylized dialogue (she was more positive, but still very mixed, on Serenity, Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible, and Cabin).

And yet, she LOVED the Avengers. Like, probably more than I did even. She really wants to go see it again.

It's weird though, because she keeps saying stuff like "I love how strong Black Widow was! I love how you thought Loki was going to break her down but she was just tricking him! That was so cool!" And I want to be like "Joss does that stuff ALL THE TIME. Why do you like this but not Buffy?"

Maybe, your GF has a mad-on for you-know-who and doesnt want you to know about her "LES" side, lol... just joking. With women, its always impossible to know what's really going on in that big bag of crazy cats they call their heads.

 

[Angry Sentinel]

I saw she picked up her shoes at the end, but I thought that maybe she got out of them somehow when she began fighting her interrogators.

I have honestly never noticed this particular fetish of Whedon's before in his work. Maybe I wasn't paying attention, or rather maybe I didn't think anything of it, and it's only if someone points it out that one might start interpreting it that way.

I think there is something real there. Whedon did an interview one time or back monologue or something I saw, and he was talking about River Tam being barfoot. He loved the "natural" feel it added to her character. Which is an very peculiar thing since most women would hate the idea because it may remind some of the "Barefoot and Pregnant" stereotypes of older times. Whedon often uses things that most people have derived as negative connotations and shows them as STRONG or STRENGTHS.. This is actually one of my favorite Whedonisms.

Sorry for the double post, didn't realize I did that

 

[pyromaniac]

'You can smell crazy on him' sounds like a Whedonism too. Funnily enough, I don't think Bruce Banner normally would say that, but Whedon makes it sound so natural coming from Banner. That's what I like about his dialogue: stylised yet always unique and cleverly spoken.

 

[jaymes_e06]

^Exactly. If he was directing Halle during her infamous "do you know what happens to a toad when it's struck by lightning" quip it would have turned out very different.

 

[The Question]

Maybe, your GF has a mad-on for you-know-who and doesnt want you to know about her "LES" side, lol... just joking. With women, its always impossible to know what's really going on in that big bag of crazy cats they call their heads.

That's oddly sexist for a thread about Joss Whedon's writing style.

 

[eddy]

Is that really one of Whedon's typical traits? I thought that was Quentin Tarantino's thing. When have there been other instances of this with Whedon? I thought this was just mainly for the purpose of having Gwyneth appear shorter than RDJ, and I thought Scarlett was wearing shoes in her interrogation scene. It's not like Tarantino who usually films closeups of this.

I was wondering where they got this idea myself but then I remembered River is always barefoot and on Dollhouse the girls are barefoot alot too and in the Angel season 5 premiere where they take over Wolfram and Hart was written and directed by Whedon and featured 2 cheesecake shots of Fred's bare feet.

http://buffyworld.com/angel/screencaps/A089/index.php?id=631

http://buffyworld.com/angel/screencaps/A089/index.php?id=653

For the record, foot fetishers creep me out so I'm hoping this is just a coincidence cause I've never noticed or seen anyone point this out about Whedon before. If anything, his love for waifish powerful girls is alot more talked about.

 

[Raiden]

^Exactly. If he was directing Halle during her infamous "do you know what happens to a toad when it's struck by lightning" quip it would have turned out very different.

Yeah, Bryan Singer really dropped the ball directing that scene. Even though Singer wasn't the one who wrote the script or that particular scene, the fact that he'd let Halle spoke those lines without irony while everyone saw how awkward it was shown me that at times Singer didn't get a feel for the script before he shoots the scene.

 

[Dark Raven]

I think there is something real there. Whedon did an interview one time or back monologue or something I saw, and he was talking about River Tam being barfoot. He loved the "natural" feel it added to her character. Which is an very peculiar thing since most women would hate the idea because it may remind some of the "Barefoot and Pregnant" stereotypes of older times. Whedon often uses things that most people have derived as negative connotations and shows them as STRONG or STRENGTHS.. This is actually one of my favorite Whedonisms.

Sorry for the double post, didn't realize I did that

Whedon ought to write a She-Hulk movie then. Not only will he always be able to have her barefoot (and it will be perfectly natural for her) but he would actually be able to give her the witty dialogue she needs. Plus she is a strong female, so it would be right up his street. Given how well he wrote Hulk, imagine what he could do with She-Hulk!

 

[Dark Raven]

Double post!

 

[Angry Sentinel]

That's oddly sexist for a thread about Joss Whedon's writing style.

First
If you take time to notice, the post you are referencing is supposed to be the first part of a 2-part post. In which, the 2-part (which is posted directly under this one also by me the Angry Sentinel) I specifically spoke about a Whedonism that not only had not been mentioned in this thread, but is often not talked about at all.

Second
I also noted, that I was joking about my inferences to the poster's girlfriend's sexual preferences.

Third
And although there is no way for you to know this, I have had MULTIPLE conversations about "Why more women did not like Buffy, or other strong female shows ala Joss Whedon" on multiple Browncoat boards. Ironically, it was the FEMALE posters who initially made the comment about women's heads being a big bag of crazy cats....to which I have chosen to agree and now share... which is my right