Monday, June 18, 2012

Avengers the Media Empire

So let me start out by admitting a couple of things. One I've been updating a lot of stuff through different outlets. So passport, resume, medical info and all that real life stuff. The online life of games, forums, even signing up for goodreads to get my book reading in order. Even not keeping up with my blogging duties is something I admit too. But my biggest admittance is... I thought the Avengers movie was going to suck! Not fall short of expectations just suck. I can admit, I was wrong.

Why did I think the Avengers was going to suck? Besides it being the first time multiple movie franchises were brought together into one franchise. Besides one character having two films which achieved a rather large amount of success. While one character had two movies, two actors, and now a third actor playing the role for the first time. Not to mention all of the other supporting cast of super soldiers and gods who just and movies released one year earlier. My biggest question mark was the director.

I'm not a Joss Whedon guy, another thing I admit. Serenity/Firefly is a live action Outlaw Star, so the story doesn't impress me. Dollhouse was a Ghost in the Shell imitator. The zombie space monsters from the Firefly movie were too just that space zombies. The Flood from Halo were more scary than those things. And no, I did not watch Buffy, I only saw some parts of Angel, so I don't have anything bad to say about them. The point is he hadn't done anything that would make me think that he could do a good Avengers movie. And don't get me started on his Astonishing X-Men run, space bullet is all I'll say about that.

There were other things working against him so when he was chosen to direct Avengers my expectations fell through the floor. There would be the eventual casting of Eliza Dushku is some capacity probably as the Wasp. The story would devolve into bad comic book cliches which would have reversed all the work done by the Incredibles to destroy most of those cliches. Every corny trick in the book would have been brought to the screen. Which would have been just what the naysayers would need as another nail in the coffin for the comic movie. Instead the Avengers pleased the critics, amazed the fans, silenced all the doubters (myself included) and has now sealed the Avengers as a new mega franchise for Marvel films and its parent company Disney.

This has been a long term plan on the part of Marvel comics. Relaunching the Avengers comics with the Disassembled line now almost a decade ago. To the movies Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America, and Thor all laying down the ground work for the actors involved. With the expected budget surpassing $100 million dollars this could have been a disaster beyond John Carter. Having the right person at the helm was extremely crucial. Joss Whedon had two films in his director credits and they weren't commercial successes. This needed to be a grand slam of championship winning proportions, and it was.

So now the world can expect more Marvel comics. More movies starring characters from Marvel comics. Joss Whedon now has crossed over from geek icon to sought after A-list writer/director. The actors can expect steady work for the next number of years in sequels and other movies. And Disney will look to expand the other properties in it's library by somehow attaching them to the Avengers. And of course more Avengers movies until it's time for a reboot preferably Ultimates style. So I was wrong, I admit it. Now we all have to wait hear the battle cry, "Avengers Assemble", but we won't have to wait for long.

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