What I’ve Been Watching: Marvel Avengers Assemble

It is probably fair to say there’s never been a movie like Avengers Assemble before. A ‘sequel’ or continuation of four different series of films (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and The Hulk).

It’s a film whose marketing machine started way back in 2008 when Samuel L. Jackson popped up as Nick Fury to ‘assemble’ Tony Stark as the first member of his Avengers Initiative.

Ever since then, each of the films in the series has made reference to the fact this film has coming creating the kind of hype fanboys love, but could surely only end in disaster.

Then came the hiring of Joss Whedon, a man whose last two TV series (Firefly and Dollhouse) had fairly terrible ratings, and resulted in them both being cancelled within a year of their respective pilots. A cult favourite no doubt, but hardly a director of the type mainstream appeal necessary for such a mammoth project.

The film opens, as so many films do, in a secret military base. Fury and Agent Coulson are trying to harness the power of a mysterious blue substance fans of Captain America will recognise as the Macguffin for that film.

Just as they’re testing it out, Loki (brother of Thor) appears from another dimension to steal it. He turns some of the good guys into his unquestioning minions before escaping and starting a project to take over the world.

So far, so every superhero movie ever. Then Fury says (or at least in my head he says:) “AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!” and the real fun begins.

The first act sees the Avengers getting together, the second them falling out, and the third them working together for the good of mankind. In theory none of this should work. In theory, the plot of the film is tired; in theory, there’s too many characters on screen to start forming any sort of emotional connection; in theory there’s too many set pieces and noise to let the film breathe; in theory…

Thankfully this film is more than just a theory, and I think the real reason it works is, like all of Whedon’s work (Buffy, Firefly, Dr. Horrible, Cabin in the Woods) the characters and world he creates are so enjoyable you’d probably have just as much fun watching them collect stamps together as you would watching them save the world from an alien overlord.

He has such a good ear for dialogue that the best scenes in the film contain the kind of screwball comedy cinephiles associate with rom-coms of the fifties and sixties. Tony Stark and Pepper Potts; The Black Widow and Loki; Thor and Iron Man; Bruce Banner and The Black Widow. If you’ve seen seen the film, you’ll know exactly the scenes I’m talking about, and probably remember lines like “Shakespeare in the Park”; “Just you and me?” and “Phil? Uh, his first name is Agent.”

Fanboys have long been asking the question “Who would win in a fight between Iron Man and Thor?” but Whedon shows us there’s so much more possibility in seeing them argue, tease, and outwit each other than there ever will be in a simple clash of shields, hammers and green muscles.

I think it’s fair to say that literally every classic visual moment in the film is followed up with an equally memorable line. And that, more than anything, makes it a film more than a sum of its individual parts.

The Avengers is not a perfect movie. It’s not a perfect movie because I think (especially in comparison to the rest of Whedon’s work) it does not challenge the viewer to think much beyond the world we are presented with on screen. There’s no underlying challenge or problematic we’re left with as a viewer, beyond the obvious “we work better together than we do apart”.

However, it is a great example of a film which, given exactly the same story and plot elements, could have been completely disposable and even a little mundane. However, the fact the characters all feel so vibrant, fresh, and grounded is testament to a writer who knows how to give audiences both what they want in terms of spectacle and what they need in terms of a team they can truly root for.

Best of all, its spectacular success at the box office means fans of Whedon, like myself, can look forward to plenty of his ideas getting funded for at least the next five years.

What I’ve Been Watching: The Cabin in the Woods

The horror genre has been through something of a rough patch over the past twenty years. The genre which launched the careers of Steven Spielberg (Jaws), Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead), Peter Jackson (Bad Taste, Braindead), David Cronenberg (Shivers). It’s also hard to imagine where Ridley Scott would be today without his second film, Alien.

Every single one of these director’s films showed not just an understanding of how to scare people, but also a creativity in how they did it. A lot of things about these films are iconic, the music from Jaws, the set and character design from Alien, the first person perspective in The Evil Dead (a film from which The Cabin in the Woods purposefully borrows the premise).

However, it’s hard to think of too many American horror films since Scream that have anywhere near the joy, creativity, or scares of so many of the films of the 70s and 80s. The best horror films seem to have come from outside the Hollywood studio system, The Blair Witch Project, Ringu, Battle Royale, Let the Right One Inand Pan’s Labyrinth for example.

In recognition of all this comes The Cabin in the Woods, described by co-writer, Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly) as a “loving hate letter” to the horror genre. He’s teamed up with Drew Goddard (Buffy and Cloverfield) to try and give the genre the shot of adrenaline it needs.

In writing a review of The Cabin in the Woods, it’s important not to give too much away. Although you’ll know from the opening scene, this isn’t a traditional slasher flick. The tagline boldly proclaims “You think you know the story”, and what I can say is that you haven’t seen a horror film quite like Cabin before.

The premise is basically five college students go to a mysterious cabin, inconveniently placed a long way from anything. Surely nothing can go wrong on their innocent break from modern society, right?

Hopefully, it also would not be too much to say that like Funny Games, Scream, and the underrated Drag me to Hell, it is a film which uses the audience’s existing knowledge of the genre to make light of a lot of its character’s actions. As such if you’re not at least passingly familiar with horror films (as I know the genre provokes a marmite reaction) quite simply you will not enjoy the film. In fact I think it’s fair to say that your enjoyment of the film will almost be in direct proportion to your enjoyment of horror.

I’d love to be able to say more about the film, about my favourite moments, lines, and characters but I feel that would be giving too much away. What I can say is that it is a highly enjoyable, brilliantly paced thrill ride which reminds me why I own every single episode, film, and comic Joss Whedon has ever written. Needless to say The Cabin in the Woods will be added to that collection and I look forward to watching it many, many times in the future.

What I’ve Been Watching: Attack the Block

Attack the Block comes from first-time director* Joe Cornish (off of Adam and Joe). Similar in form to Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, it follows the pattern of taking an American premise, and seeing how it would play out in a British setting.

In this case the premise is an alien invasion and the setting is a council estate in Brixton. The protagonists are five teenage boys who open the film by mugging a young nurse called Sam (Jodie Whittaker). In the midst of this, an alien lands next to them, and they decide to chase after and kill it. Unfortunately it isn’t the last alien they’ll be encountering that evening, as more and more land in “The Block”.

The teenagers then take it upon themselves to defend the world from something no one is even aware of. However, soon they realise, as one character puts it, they “should have just stayed at home and played FIFA”.

Joss Whedon’s Avengers – 5 Reasons To Get Excited

This week came the news that Joss Whedon is in final negotiations to direct The Avengers movie. For those of you who don’t know, The Avengers is the name given to Marvel’s flagship team. Originally this was Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Ant-Man, Wasp and Thor. Although part of the success of the series has been its ever-changing roster, so characters like Spiderman and Wolverine have also been Avengers at various points in time.

For those of you who don’t know who Joss Whedon is, he’s the creator of the TV series Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse as well as the internet musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog.

Excited yet?

Here’s Five Reasons I think you should be:

1) Dialogue.

Possibly what fans will most closely associate him with. Whedon is the master at one liners and pop culture references. Expect both of these, as the superheroes make fun of one another abilities and try to balance the importance of what they’re doing (inevitably, saving the world) with the ludicrously of having characters called “Captain America” and “Ant-Man”.

2) It’s an ensemble piece

What do Firefly, Buffy, Angel, and Dollhouse all have in common? People with various skills joining up to keep evil at bay. Well, that’s a coincidence, because that’s exactly who the Avengers are. The joy of his shows for me has always been spending time with characters that get on so well and feel like a family. Hopefully he’ll be able to create that sense of community in the two hours he’ll have for this movie.

3) It’ll be camp one minute then break your heart the next.

If we know anything about Joss Whedon’s stories, it’s that:

a) They can be quite camp: For example, characters breaking into song, characters with names like Buffy, and characters with incredibly tight pants.

b) They’ll break your heart: Whedon shows never end well. I won’t list the characters that have died, but those of us who’ve seen the finales to his shows know that the relationships and characters we treasure most are inevitably the ones he chooses to take away.

For an example of something that does both, look no further than Dr Horrible, although be warned: You may laugh and cry uncontrollably as a result.

So don’t be at all surprised if one of the more minor characters in the Marvel world is dead by the end of the Avengers movie.

4) Joss Whedon knows his comics.

He did a run on Astonishing X-Men which is considered among fans to be one of the best written stories in its forty year history. He’s also a self-confessed comic geek, who has been linked to movies like X-Men and Wonder Woman in the past. This is the chance he’s been waiting his whole career for.

5) It’ll be epic.

This is the first time a movie like this has ever happened on this scale. We’re going to get up to five movies which introduce us to all these characters, then one big one where they join forces to kick ass together. What’s not to love?