In Joss We Trust

The summer blockbusters seem to come earlier and earlier each year.  It used to be you had to wait until July for a good space opera, now they come in April.  Marvel’s The Age of Ultron comes out next weekend; I don’t know if you’ve heard about it because they’ve been trying to keep it a secret. Shhh.

It is hard to believe that there were those who were uncertain about The Avengers.  It was written and directed by Joss Whedon, who up to that time had 1) written a bad movie about vampires, 2) created a low-rated TV show based on the bad vampire movie, 3) created a low-rated spin off of the vampire TV show; 4) created a space opera that was cancelled after 13 episodes, and 5) created a show about attractive people programmed to be other people that lasted two seasons but didn’t set the ratings world on fire and was basically a star vehicle for Eliza Dushku.  Would he crumble under the pressure of a big budget and big expectations?

As a huge Joss Whedon fan back to the beginning of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the series), I never had a doubt.  Only a genius like Joss Whedon could take all the prequel movies (Iron Man 1 & 2, Hulk, Captain America, Thor 1 & 2), all the disparate plot lines and character personalities, and (pardon the pun) assemble them into an entertaining movie that transcended its comic book origins. One of his recurring themes in Buffy was the notion of family (especially in the episode titled, um, Family), the idea that family is not who you share DNA with, it is who you share your life with.  Only Joss Whedon would realize that The Avenger team was not a group of heroes with super powers, they were a highly dysfunctional family (in spandex).

Any doubts about Whedon’s ability to helm a big budget motion picture were dispelled by Avengers. There are two types of people thinking about Avengers: The Age of Ultron; those who think it will gross $2 billion, and those who think it will gross a lot more than $2 billion.  In an age where even Tom Cruise can churn out a couple of clunkers in a row, Age of Ultron is the surest bet there is.

Why do I have such faith in Joss Whedon?  Listen to the man.  In an interview in Entertainment Weekly he says, “The first rule of making a sequel: take the best moments and do something else.”  No one else in Hollywood thinks that way.  Look at how many sequels have gone the route of “The same, but bigger.” Even successful series like The Dark Knight Trilogy seem to reprocess material.  Only the original Mad Max trilogy seemed to gain creative steam as it went along (we’ll see how the reboot does this summer).

The above quote is similar to something he said about an episode of Angel that ran too long; in the commentary for Waiting in the Wings he said when you need to cut something, take the thing you the writer love the most and toss it. Hollywood is full of artistes who would rather churn out a 3 ½ hour snooze-a-palooza than trim one tiny scene that they created.  Whedon, despite being a genius, is incredibly humble yet self-assured, a rare combination anywhere but almost unheard of in La La Land.

He has the reputation of being the nicest guy in the world.  Actors who work with him will follow him anywhere; Nathan Fillion said he accepted the role in Dr. Horrible’s Sing a Long Blog because when his phone rang and the caller ID was “Joss Whedon” he answered the phone saying, “I accept.”

Andy Hallett, who played the green-skinned horned demon Lorne on Angel commented once that Whedon told him he was making him a regular on Angel after over 100 guest appearances because “it would look better on his resume.”  Hallett was amazed that a guy who was still overseeing Buffy, trying to save Angel from cancellation, and had several other projects in the works would take time out to worry about what Andy Hallet’s resume looked like.

I am also heartened by Whedon’s pledge that Ultron will be his last Marvel/Avengers movie.  I hope he pens an occasional episode of Agents of SHIELD, but I will welcome even more the creation of new characters like Buffy, Angel, Dr. Horrible, and Malcolm Reynolds.  More small projects like his Much Ado About Nothing will be welcomed as well.  Joss has the financial freedom to do whatever he wants; that kind of freedom has destroyed auteurs like Orson Welles, but somehow I don’t see unlimited options being a burden on Joss Whedon.