Fandom: Spoiler-free Avengers article

Wired.com has a remarkably even-handed article by Adam Rogers about Joss Whedon's turn on The Avengers film in the context of his career:

With The Avengers, Joss Whedon Masters the Marvel Universe

The money quote, for me, comes near the end, as Rogers winds up a brief disquisition about the difference between working on independent projects and blockbusters:

[M]aybe the truth about Whedon’s work is that the more self-conscious it is, the narrower its audience. The Avengers wouldn’t work as a self-aware, postmodern deconstruction of superhero team gender dynamics. Hulk gotta smash.

Which might explain my own reaction to Whedon's storytelling: I usually enjoy it, having been trained in some of the same analytic techniques as he was, but because I come at his tales from a less existential angle, I can find myself fighting the thematics, which gets tiring. Sometimes I do just want to see the Hulk smash the bad guys and prevail when that's where the high-concept is. (I didn't even try to watch Dollhouse, because the high-concept there was repellent to me.)

Also, the moment in the article where Whedon takes down a previz artist for making a suggestion about the script sounded ... really disrespectful. I'm hoping there's some context missing here: the previz guy had a history of overstepping or Whedon was having trouble keeping control of the script in general (though the article doesn't seem to raise that as a serious problem). Otherwise it comes off as nastily anticollaborative.

Fandom: Spoiler-free Avengers review!

Diane Duane likes The Avengers. Phew. I will not have shelled out for a ticket in vain.