I think I can safely say we all agree. Do your straw men help you move the goal posts?



On that subject, how much screen time did each Avenger get?

That's the case in point. Avengers couldn't fail, because of the five-year marketing plan. That's why Whedon glommed onto it.

I thought she magically resembled a couple of other Johansson characters, and maybe a little bit of Alice from Resident Evil, but do please elucidate.



Apart from introducing and establishing the film version of the character, you mean?

...that a guy whose claim to fame is one mildly successful (yet now defunct) television series was not allowed to veer from the prescribed formula of a five-year hyped tentpole? Thank you for finally admitting that.

He didn't establish the film version of the character. Again, she stood mostly silent or kicked things in IM2.

So Marvel has this plan in place of which the culmination is the Avengers and so far everything is going swimmingly so they just give the Avengers to Whedon because what could possibly go wrong. Any idiot could have directed it and it would have still been successful.

1. Really? Avengers couldn't fail? You do realize that if it had ONLY made, say, 300 million at the box office, that would have actually qualified as failure, given the film's huge budget? Wait, look who I'm talking to.

2. Putting aside the fact that you have no idea why Whedon wanted the job in the first place, it ultimately doesn't matter what his motivations were. Somebody had to give him the job and that person, I can pretty much guarantee, didn't give a damn why Whedon did or did not want to do The Avengers.

Mike

Whedon got the Avengers job pretty much the same way Jon Favreau, a guy with even less stroke than Whedon at the time, got the Iron Man job. It's pretty much the same way Raimi got the Spider-Man job. They went in and sold themselves and their ideas to the producers.

Though I would appreciate it if you could explain why, in your willful ingornance, you think Justin Theroux would have more creative input to The Avengers than Whedon. Why wasn't he subject to the same demands and requirements?

Mike

I fixed it for you.

Although Buffy ran for 7 seasons, I'm not quite sure how you figure that to be a "mild" success.

That,and they were probably cheap to get. With Marvel a well known penny pinching type company, it makes me think they looked at directors who were making a name for themselves in a smaller venue and gave them a shot at the big time in exchange for a lowball offer. An opportunity for both sides.