Dear Hollywood,
This week I am resisting the urge to type “Cabin in the Woods,” into the internet, paranoid that Google will auto complete the sentence with “OMG the plot twist IS…” and ruin what could be the best year of my life cinematically.
For this is “The Year of the Whedon.”
And the Jennifer Lawrence.
But mostly The Whedon.
The Jossmeister has not one, not two, but THREE films coming out in the next four months and each one ticks one of my favourite specialised genre boxes.
We have (in order of budget and predicted audience figures) The Shakespearean Picture, The Genre Subverting Horror Picture and The Superhero Supergroup Assembly Comedy/Action/Drama Megabuster Picture.
I confidently predict that although each film will differ in terms of subject matter, budget, target audience and linguistics, each will have his trademark quippy, yet emotive style and transform even the most ardent cynic into a Whedon fan. Legions of cinema goers will be converted by his inventive way with language, ability to skilfully cross genres, and talent for creating interesting and believable characters in superheroes and sidekicks alike.
(Apart from the characters on the bottom right, those guys were rubbish. Anyone who thinks Dollhouse is comparable in quality to his other work is blinded by their love of Whedon. It wasn’t good guys. File it away under misfires along with Alien Resurrection.)
So I don’t actually have any bones to pick with you this week Hollywood, instead I would like to thank you for giving a director with a shaky monetary success rate a chance to run free with your most treasured possession, the big budget superhero assemble blockbuster.
The Superhero Event of the Decade.
For those of you ignorant to all that is good in life, The Avengers film teams up various characters from the Marvel Universe to fight off the big bad’s that threaten the planet earth. In Whedon’s case it’s Thor’s troublesome brother, the God of Mischief Loki, who tries to kill all humans.
The team up premise is based on the Marvel comics, and many of the characters have already been introduced to the public consciousness via the big screen with varying success rates. We have Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man, Chris Evans’ Captain America and Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, as well as Mark Ruffolo taking his first shot at playing The Hulk, a character alluded by cinematic success up until now (hopefully).
I can’t imagine how difficult it is creating a film out of well loved characters that have already been defined so fully by directors such as Jon Favreau and Kenneth Brannagh, it seems like a tough challenge to undertake, and he is messing with a lot of other people’s babies.
That sounded wrong, but you get the gist.
Anyway, I have no worries about it sucking, for he is a man well schooled in the art of depicting the heroic as vulnerable and fallible, and in particular depicting female superhero’s as more then a pair of lips/buttocks/breasts in leather onesies.
His forte lies in creating strong female characters, (Buffy, etc) without resorting to lazy short cuts that consist of making a woman feisty by giving her typically male characteristics. He makes their strength, whether it be physical or mental, part of their personality and not a surprising attribute due to their sex and he excels in creating rounded rather then clichéd women. So both Scarlett Johnason and Cobie “awesome” Smulders are in with a chance of being more then female characters in a sausage fest.
I am a bit annoyed Hollywood, that Cabin in the Woods was on the shelf for three years due to the MGM debt crisis, but I am impressed by the users of social media who have been good enough to avoid spilling the twist over their HTML to the UK fans. I guess people take this message seriously.
I would call the Shakespearean project he knocked off in 12 days his bit of thinking work, but we know Whedon well enough to know what seems like simplistic horror or fantasy to the ill educated will not be fluff, and will require thought. But I do feel his take on “Much Ado About Nothing,” will be humorous, smart and a geeky treat for those acquainted with the Whedonverse enough to salivate over the various cameos.
Including our favourite space bound gun slinger Mal Reynolds.
Plus Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof, known for their roles as ill fated lovers Fred and Wesley in Angel, play the central roles of Benedick and Beatrice. It will be like they never met their unfortunate demise, and got to live out the rest of their lives together.
So this is why I shall avoid any reviews or spoilers regarding all three of these films, as I am most excited about the curve of Whedon’s balls.
Whedon’s curve balls.
He does not shy away from the unpredictable and the bleak.
He will create well-rounded characters, force you to love them and then kill them off in horrible ways when you are close enough to really care.
No one is safe.
He is a cuddly masochist.
I don’t predict him changing the bard’s words, but it makes the potential twists in Cabin in the Woods and emotional fallouts in The Avengers something to look forward to.
I am excited Hollywood, and that’s a nice place to be.
Love,
Ellen
