Avengers: The Musical (possible spoiler, but I doubt it)
Okay, not really. But for the Browncoats out there, remember that convention panel where someone suggested that Joss do a Firefly musical and Summer Glau totally lit up before someone else on the panel shot it down? When Max Gladstone pitched Avengers as an opera, that was the very first thing I thought of.
Max's entry compares the use of music in a Mozart opera to the use of combat in a superhero movie with hysterical results. As you can see here:
The battles throughout the movie never pit the same group of characters against one another twice, and are careful to pit all the characters against one another at least once, even when (as in the Iron Man-Thor fight scene) the fight makes little sense in context. We don’t care, watching, because we want to see these characters, with these specific styles, fight-in the same way that even if there’s no real reason for the bass and soprano to be singing together, we won’t frown at an excellently-composed duet. In fact, it’s these duets that show us the true quality of our characters, and illuminate the tensions between them-tensions which simmer under the surface when they’re in the same room and can’t use violence and action to communicate.
If you've not seen Avengers yet (unlike some ungodly proportion of us who saw it opening weekend and sent Joss Whedon skyrocketing into household namedom), you should. It's not a perfect movie, but it is awesomely good fun, and it may be the best superhero movie since The Incredibles (which still tops my chart, followed by Iron Man -- the Dark Knight movies have actually been a little too deep for my full enjoyment and endorsement, though I fully acknowledge that they're quality films). I'll have to see it again to be sure; this time I'll be ready for that quintessential Joss Whedon moment where someone gets impaled (yes, I knew it was going to happen, and I should very well known who it would be who got impaled, because it so perfectly fit Joss's pattern, but I didn't, and I cursed the name of Whedon right there in the theater) and won't be pulled out of the story by its occurrence. But if it's anything like The Muppets, I'll like it more each time I see it.
One quick announcement -- tune in tomorrow for an excerpt from Jennifer Estep! Her new Mythos Academy book is out at the end of the month, and you can read the first in a series of blog tour excerpts right here!
Max's entry compares the use of music in a Mozart opera to the use of combat in a superhero movie with hysterical results. As you can see here:
The battles throughout the movie never pit the same group of characters against one another twice, and are careful to pit all the characters against one another at least once, even when (as in the Iron Man-Thor fight scene) the fight makes little sense in context. We don’t care, watching, because we want to see these characters, with these specific styles, fight-in the same way that even if there’s no real reason for the bass and soprano to be singing together, we won’t frown at an excellently-composed duet. In fact, it’s these duets that show us the true quality of our characters, and illuminate the tensions between them-tensions which simmer under the surface when they’re in the same room and can’t use violence and action to communicate.
If you've not seen Avengers yet (unlike some ungodly proportion of us who saw it opening weekend and sent Joss Whedon skyrocketing into household namedom), you should. It's not a perfect movie, but it is awesomely good fun, and it may be the best superhero movie since The Incredibles (which still tops my chart, followed by Iron Man -- the Dark Knight movies have actually been a little too deep for my full enjoyment and endorsement, though I fully acknowledge that they're quality films). I'll have to see it again to be sure; this time I'll be ready for that quintessential Joss Whedon moment where someone gets impaled (yes, I knew it was going to happen, and I should very well known who it would be who got impaled, because it so perfectly fit Joss's pattern, but I didn't, and I cursed the name of Whedon right there in the theater) and won't be pulled out of the story by its occurrence. But if it's anything like The Muppets, I'll like it more each time I see it.
One quick announcement -- tune in tomorrow for an excerpt from Jennifer Estep! Her new Mythos Academy book is out at the end of the month, and you can read the first in a series of blog tour excerpts right here!