Tell me a story

I mentioned in my review of Cabin in the Woods (here) that I’m a Joss Whedon fan. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are two of my most favorite shows of all time. Nowadays most of his fame comes from having written and directed The Avengers. I wouldn’t say it’s his best work—in fact I would go so far as to say it is definitely not his best work—but for a comic book movie it’s better than most. It showcases what Whedon does best, namely creating fun, multifaceted interpersonal relationships between a group of people with shared goals. He knows how to capture the inherent tensions within a team and then play them for all they’re worth. He also knows how to write funny, witty characters while telling interesting stories. There are story arcs in Angel that make me want to go back and watch entire seasons in one sitting.

I haven’t watched or read many interviews with Whedon, but I recently stumbled across a couple in which he discussed his thought process regarding the sequel to Avengers. You can tell that he’s given it serious thought, that he is dedicated to creating a good story as opposed to cobbling something together that’ll make some fast cash. Read what he told Total Film Magazine:

“The only pressure is the pressure that is there every time I do a new project. Is it going to be good? It is going to be different? Is there even a reason to make another one? Is there a reason for this to be my next thing? Can I pull it off? I am not going to try and match the box office of the first one because that would be bonkers. Yes, there is a certain level of safety because people know about The Avengers and they like the characters so it probably won’t completely crash and burn. But you don’t want to just get by and do something that is merely OK. If I’m going to dedicate three years of my short life to this then I want to do something that I have never done before. So I think of The Avengers 2 as a glorious challenge. It is a sequel, yes, but how can it be different? I was comfortable making the first Avengers, but I didn’t sleep during it.”

Had Michael Bay issued this sentiment regarding his upcoming Transformers 4, I’d have smirked and said, “Yeah right,” but when Joss says it I believe him. He thinks of his work as a “glorious challenge.” How many people think of their job like that? I have a lot of faith that he’ll rise up to meet that challenge too, especially since he got all that setting-of-the-table stuff out of the way with this first film. He’s introduced most of the characters already which allows him to really get to the meat of the story a lot faster in this sequel. It allows him to focus on what he does best: relationships. Buffy and Angel both featured plenty of action. Most episodes contained at least one fight scene. Yet when I think back to the show, it’s not the crazy vampire battles I remember but the characters and the group dynamics. I think we’ll see more of that in The Avengers 2. And there’s a good chance this could be his The Dark Knight of The Avengers series.

But I’m probably getting ahead of myself. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high too soon. That way disappointment lies. Still it’s encouraging to know that he had an idea for the sequel before he had even finished the first one, which is not to imply that he wrote the first just to set up a sequel:

“I didn’t think I was gonna do the second one, but I had an idea for it before I had figured out the first one. You go into a movie not assuming that there’s going to be [another one]. I’ve seen plenty of movies that were the first part of the trilogy that never happened and it’s terrible. You don’t save anything for the trip back. Having said that, though, I did sort of know, ‘Well if they were to come back, I know what’s going to happen… it’s going to be awful.'”

That was from an interview with Entertainment Tonight before the MTV Movie Awards on April 16th. The guys behind The Amazing Spider-man could take a lesson from Joss. This is how you do it. You never save anything for the swim back.

So now we’re left to wait and see what Joss does next with this marvelous franchise. Until then, to hold us over we can catch his retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing which comes out on June 21, 2013. (Fun Fact: Joss shot the film at his home. In secret. In 12 days. While he was working on The Avengers. What?!) 

Also, if you haven’t already seen it—I only just discovered it yesterday!—you can watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog directed by Joss and written by Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, Joss Whedon, and Jack Whedon. It starrs Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day and is very funny but also suprisingly tragic. Watch the whole thing here:

Sources: Fandango.com, ComicBookMovie.com, TotalFilm.com, ETOnline.com