Tag Archives: Avengers

Natasha Romanoff Is Better Than You

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There’s a scene in The Avengers where Black Widow is fighting Hawkeye. He’s being mindcontrolled by Loki and is trying to kill her; she just wants to incapacitate him. A few minutes before this fight scene, she hurt her ankle and was visibly limping when she was fleeing the Hulk. She volunteered to go after Hawkeye, despite being understandably shaken by her encounter, and the fact that she and Hawkeye clearly have an emotional bond.

Oh, and the fight? She won. And she didn’t win because Hawkeye was distracted or something happened that got his attention or he was wounded from a previous scuffle. She won because she’s better. There was no reason for her not to—Hawkeye is an archer, not a hand-to-hand expert. If it had been a contest of marksmanship, he would have won, and rightly so. But it wasn’t, and she won by simply being a better fighter.

The best part, though, was probably when he looked up at her, after being hit in the head, and said “Tasha?” A lot of people would have stopped fighting then—I probably would have done—but Natasha Romanoff is a trained spy, and she just clocks him in the head again. It’s the choice of someone whose job is to be suspicious of other people, regardless of what they might mean to her.

This sums up a huge part of why I love Black Widow—Natasha Romanoff—so much: she is a professional and she acts like one.

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Avengers Sinks Universal’s Battleship

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(Shane insisted we use that title)

Marvel’s The Avengers is still flying high at the box office, claiming the top spot for a third straight week and smashing all challengers into a fine pulp. This week, it seems, it didn’t have to work very hard.

Rotten buzz and superheroic competition sunk Universal’s “Battleship” over the weekend. Costing over $300 million to make and market, Peter Berg’s “Battleship” managed to sell about $25.4 million in tickets in its first weekend in North American theaters – a second-place finish behind “Marvel’s The Avengers” (Disney), which took in an estimated $55 million for a three-week domestic total of $457 million.

While it’s been a year of incredible blockbuster successes (Hunger Games, Avengers), it’s also been a year of embarrassing flops. Battleship joins John Carter as an expensive film that has not only stumbled, but faceplanted and rolled straight off a cliff in its domestic opening. At least John Carter can claim horrific marketing as part of its problem, though it was still a mediocre film. Battleship was marketed heavily to court the summer popcorn crowd. Unfortunately, moviegoers decided that they would rather see the eye-popping and well-written Avengers for a second or third time rather than another critically panned film based off of a Hasbro product.

Joss Whedon Sits Down With Fansite, Thanks Fans and Answers Questions

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It’s been a long road for Joss Whedon, but with the Avengers blowing up the box office, it seems like he’s finally achieved the mainstream recognition fans have long thought he’s deserved. To thank his long-time fans, he did a Q&A with fansite Whedonesque and opened it with a letter.

Dear Friends,

Well, it’s been quite a weekend. Someday, long from now, I will even have an emotional reaction to it, like a person would. I can’t wait! But before I become blinded by this “emotion” experience, there’s a few things I’d like to say. Well, type.

People have told me that this matters, that my life is about to change. I am sure that is true. And change is good — change is exciting. I think — not to jinx it — that I may finally be recognized at Comiccon. Imagine! Also, with my percentage of “the Avengers” gross, I can afford to buy… [gets call from agent. Weeps manfully. Resumes typing.] …a fine meal. But REALLY fine, with truffles and s#!+. And I can get a studio to finance my dream project, the reboot of “Air Bud” that we all feel is so long overdue. (He could play Jai Alai! Think of the emotional ramifications of JAI ALAI!!!!)

What doesn’t change is anything that matters. What doesn’t change is that I’ve had the smartest, most loyal, most passionate, most articulate group of — I’m not even gonna say fans. I’m going with “peeps” — that any cult oddity such as my bad self could have dreamt of. When almost no one was watching, when people probably should have STOPPED watching, I’ve had three constants: my family and friends, my collaborators (often the same), and y’all. A lot of stories have come out about my “dark years”, and how I’m “unrecognized”… I love these stories, because they make me seem super-important, but I have never felt the darkness (and I’m ALL about my darkness) that they described. Because I have so much. I have people, in my life, on this site, in places I’ve yet to discover, that always made me feel the truth of success: an artist and an audience communicating. Communicating to the point of collaborating. I’ve thought, “maybe I’m over; maybe I’ve said my piece”. But never with fear. Never with rancor. Because of y’all. Because you knew me when. If you think topping a box office record compares with someone telling you your work helped them through a rough time, you’re probably new here. (For the record, and despite my inhuman distance from the joy-joy of it: topping a box office record is super-dope. I’m an alien, not a robot.) So this is me, saying thank you. All of you. You’ve taken as much guff for loving my work as I have for over-writing it, and you deserve, in this our time of streaming into the main, to crow. To glow. To crow and go “I told you so”, to those Joe Blows not in the know. (LAST time I hire Dr. Seuss to punch my posts up. Yeesh!) Point being, you deserve some honor, AND you deserves some FAQs answered. So please welcome my old friend and certainly not-on-my-payroll reporter/flunky, Rutherford D. Actualperson!

For the Q&A, head on over to Whedonesque.

Moviefone Posts Condescending Article, Pisses Off Fandom

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Who likes antiquated gender stereotypes? Moviefone does! Staff writer Jessie Heyman thought it would be a good idea to post a horribly condescending article that reads like it’s from 1972.

As your boyfriend probably told you, “The Avengers” is hitting theaters this Friday. And you, dutiful girlfriend, are attending. But you hate action movies and you’ve never even read a comic book. (Of course, that’s not a slight against the girls who actually do read comic books — i.e. real fans, actual people with varied interests — but for this, let’s just go with the stock view of ladies, ladies!)

Still, there’s no need to fret. Beyond the fact that Joss Whedon’s action film is Awesome (note the capital A), we’ve created a streamlined girl’s guide to ward off any confusion or mid-movie what’s-going-on whisperings.

Including cocktail introductions a la “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and boyfriend impressing tidbits, below is everything you need to know about “The Avengers.”

They’re now hiding behind a hastily thrown up “satire” shield in a later edit, but we all know this was a terribly written, horribly executed article. This piece was so awful I’m not even going to link to it and inadvertently give them traffic. You can find it yourself if you want your eyes to bleed or if you want a trigger to Hulk out.

Now, I’m not a woman, but I imagine most women would object to sticking with the “stock view of ladies.” I imagine many would object to the contrived list of things to say to your manly action loving significant others while watching the movie. I imagine most women are going to object to this frakking awful article as a whole.

The truly hilarious thing is that this just perpetuates the tired and sexist stereotype that comics are for guys  and that women should stay out of that domain. Hell to that. Most of my Marvel-savvy friends are women, one of which introduced me to the world of comics. She’s one of the most passionate, genre savvy fans you will ever find.

So shame on you Moviefone. You’ve got some apologies to dish out.

The Avengers Have Finally Assembled!

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(In England, anyway.)

The following review, while spoiler-free, has explicit spoilers for Thor as well as potential implied ones for Iron Man 2 and Captain America. That said, if you’re reading this review and haven’t seen those yet, go watch them and then come back here.

The thing about The Avengers—or Avengers Assemble, which only about ten people actually call it—is that it was pretty much guaranteed to be at least decently good. Obviously, until it came out, there was no gauge of exactly how good it was, but like macaroni and cheese or chocolate, for it to actually be bad, something would need to have gone pretty spectacularly wrong.

(And it’s not, strictly speaking, a sequel to anything, so I’m going to avoiding pointing out that, often, things do go spectacularly wrong for sequels.)

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CBS Interviews Joss Whedon

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We’re less than a week away from one of the most hotly anticipated films of the year, Marvel’s The Avengers. Ahead of the release, CBS sat down with director and writer Joss Whedon to discuss the film, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Much Ado About Nothing, and his writing career. Oh, and his wife pokes fun at his sheer geek factor.

As superhero movies go, “The Avengers” is super-sized – Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye brought together to save the world.

The cast is filled with big names: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson, to name but a few.

More stars than there are in the firmament, says writer-director Joss Whedon. “It’s the most stars I can remember seeing since, like, one of those ’70s disaster movies.”

So why on Earth did Disney and Marvel Comics put this rumored $220 million movie in the hands of Whedon? He does not, said Blackstone, have a reputation as a “big movie” director.

To watch the interview, head on over to CBS’ Sunday Morning site.