Fender LiveBlogs The Avengers...

[fenderlove]

I got to see it thanks to a friend for free, so no money went to anyone I don't like. I wish I could give all the actors, like, $5 apiece though for being so damned perfect. Should I clap because Whedon didn't royally fuck this up? Nah, I can just wallow in my bitterness that if he put half the effort into Season 7, 8, and 9 of BtVS that he put

Comments

[velvetwhip]

Not being of the superhero-fan bent, I won't be seeing this one.

Gabrielle (who still hates Season 7 so much)

[fenderlove]

*hugs!* There needs to be a support group for those who have survived Season Seven.

[velvetwhip]

There truly does.

Also, based on what I know, I would hate Seasons 8 & 9 as well, I simply have no access to the comics and thus have been spared their assault on my psyche.

Gabrielle

[fenderlove]

You have indeed been spared. I stayed away from S8 until I was "forced" to read them (people kept telling me that my opinions on the spoilers didn't matter because I wasn't reading them, so I read them... and still had the same opinions about how stupid everything was). I've stayed away from S9, but the spoilers keep me fairly disgusted.

[sockmonkeyhere]

I've never seen this movie and don't really have any plans to, but I enjoyed the HELL out of your review! I also laughed my ass off in many appropriate places, and I fully agree with you that Whedon is a blatant recycler of his own works and that it's a damn shame he didn't put as much effort into the later BtVS/AtS seasons and that his whining about faults being everyone's but his means that someone -- hell, anyone -- but him should be given credit for everything in this movie that's good. (I also hope that his new movie career will keep him the hell out of the Buffy comics. They're shitty enough without his input.)

[fenderlove]

The Loki vs. Black Widow talk-off was perfectly on beat with the Buffy/Faith/Angel scene in Season 3. It was uncanny. Also, when will Whedon learn that people who know his work will predict a death leading into the third act in which sudden dies with a sudden jump-cut out of nowhere and a spray of blood from a big chest wound-- Penny from Dr. Horrible, that guy on Firefly, Tara, Anya... It just goes on and on.
There's also this:
Tony: "Loki is a full-tilt diva" *realizes that he's just described himself* Son of a bitch!
Spike: You've been made the right cuckhold you have! *realizes he's been made a cuckhold too* Son of a bitch!

It actually takes away a lot of enjoyment that might have been had because I was constantly reminded of something that I once loved that got destroyed by Whedon's own unwillingness to let go and let other people play with his toys.

[sockmonkeyhere]

You know who was even worse than Whedon about recycling old works? Michael Landon. He used music, plots, dialogue, and sometimes even entire scripts from "Bonanza" episodes in his TV shows "Little House on the Prairie" and "Father Murphy." I guess he thought that enough years had passed that viewers wouldn't recognize it, but he forgot about how often Bonanza was being rerun and that many of us viewers had seen the Bonanza episodes multiple times. I remember watching a Father Murphy ep in which Murphy and his pal traveled to a new town and got mistaken for famous outlaws -- it was the first time this Murphy episode had aired, but I found myself reciting the dialogue with the characters word-for-word, because I had seen the Bonanza version, with Hoss and Candy in the roles, so many times that I'd memorized it!

[fenderlove]

Oh... that's very sad... and weird.

[ericadawn16]

Interesting...I'm glad my Buffy memory is rusty. I just sort of smiled and enjoyed what I recognized since it's what writers do. Shakespeare cannibalized his stuff all the time

[fenderlove]

I just sort of smiled and enjoyed what I recognized since it's what writers do. Shakespeare cannibalized his stuff all the time. Unfortunately, I cannot enjoy it when Joss does it. Anyone else, it might have been cute, but with as much contempt he's shown for his own creations as of late (Season Eight and Nine), I can't find it enjoyable. There was just too much of it for me

[lilithbint]

I did enjoy the movie although it reeked of Whedonisms.
Afterwards however I started considering race fail, gender fail and the fact that Coulson's death was so unexpected I couldn't even get sad and had to just look back on the epic bromances going on (I can't decide if I ship Tony/Cappy Tony/Bruce or just want to moosh all three together in a big old Loki/Thor sandwich)
and Jeremy Renner deserves so much better than that add on character who only seemed to be there to advance Black widow story angst *sigh*Spike*sigh*

[fenderlove]

SHIP ALL THE AVENGERS! Seriously, they need to get into one big cuddle-puddle. I have to admit that I'm a Domestic Avengers SuperHusbands type (Steve/Tony), but I adore SCIENCE BROS too (Bruce/Tony... and sometimes it's Bruce/Tony/Reed Richards because of EPIC SCIENCE). I need to write actual Thor/Loki though. They are too cute sometimes with their squishy Norse faces.

Jeremy Renner definitely deserved much better. He's a capable actor, and hearing that he was disappointed about how the script changed from the time he signed on to the start of filming makes me sad. :(

[lilithbint]

Have you seen the blooper reel? Sueworld just linked to it.
Much Tom giggling.

[fenderlove]

Oh, yes! His giggle is made of sunshine and rainbows. It also doesn't help that he did this...

[sueworld2003]

It is very much a case of 'Whedon by numbers' isn't it. *g* I enjoyed it a great deal, but it did seem to go on for too long, and I think they could have at least cut the running time down by 20 or so.

[fenderlove]

It did lag in there, didn't it? Normally, I don't even notice similarities like this upon first viewing, but these all jumped out screaming at me. Has BtVS entered my brain that much, or was it just that obvious?

I can't wait for Kenneth Branagh's Thor 2. At least that's popcorn good that I can get behind! Plus, I get the adorableness of Papa Ken directing Chris and Thomas. They are like a big ball of cute when put together. :D