[REVIEW] Two Avengers Links

[rfmcdonald]

Hugh Hart's Wired review of The Avengers is perhaps a bit more generous than mine (7 out of 10). The Avengers is a very Whedonesque film, mostly for good not ill.

In an early scene in Joss Wheden’s superhero epic The Avengers, team leader Nick Fury bets a newly thawed Captain America that he won’t believe how insane society has become since the supersoldier was freeze-dried in 1945. An hour into the film, Cap slips Fury a ten-spot.

Small moments like these make The Avengers, opening Friday in the United States, one of the best comic book movies in years, despite the third act’s inevitable CGI explosions and seen-it-all-before fight scenes.

[. . .]

Whedon succeeds in crafting the wittiest superhero movie in years. Instead of cranking out a generic narrative that forces each character to plod through predictable bits of “growth,” Whedon reinvigorates the clutch of Marvel Comics superheroes that first came together in 1963, with a script bristling with sly surprises while remaining true to each character’s essence.

The Avengers also serves as rare proof that every now and then, a master plan actually leads to masterful results. After releasing Iron Man in 2008, Marvel Entertainment peppered a string of standalone superhero flicks with brief appearances by Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury. Those snippets set the table for this all-star smackdown. It was the most meticulously orchestrated tease in Hollywood history, and the payoff for this five-year rollout was well worth the wait.

Over at Forbes, meanwhile, jeff Bercovici's extended interview with Joss Whedon, meanwhile, is interesting for the insight it provides into Whedon's thought processes. I can't say I'm an enthusiastic fan, but he does do what he does well. Most of the time, at least.