And Archangel as Nick Fury.

EXOMAN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0KSqelmgN8

thanks!

You are welcome to go there. I had the misfortune of catching a few episodes of Angel one morning before I left work (wee hours of the graveyard shift) and how anyone took that show with a straight face is beyond me. Such utter crap.

Shut up, Firefly was good and I don't give a shit that I'm apparently not supposed to like it any more.

firefly was not good

True. It was QUITE good.

I liked Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog.

In fact, I liked it a lot.

Whedon's work is basically what would happen if you rewarded an incredibly self-satisfied SA goon or TvTroper with an overblown sense of their own cleverness a job writing screenplays. The "snarky" dialouge, the not-so-clever winks at the audience that stop just short of having characters say directly to the fourth wall "BOY WE SURE MADE FUN OF THAT OLD CLICHE, HUH? WE SURE PULLED A SWITCHEROO. DID YOU SEE WHAT WE DID THERE?!?", he's a hack who happens to pander to the sort of people who take phrases like "Geek Pride" way too seriously.


So in short, I do not care for him. No sir.

As much as I dislike Whedon and his output, he is really good at transmuting sacred nerd conventions into forms just wacky and clever enough for the vast legions of non-nerds to enjoy. Most internet nerds would have just turned into someone like Eli Roth, capable of maybe one semi-clever turnaround before whimpering into obscurity

I think you're overstating what Whedon does. He simply "doesn't fuck it up." A lot of comic book (and other) properties have easily identifiable qualities that make them appealing: For example, Spider-Man is about an insecure young man with real-world problems in addition to being a wisecracking superhero, and his decisions in both lives sometimes hurt those closest to him. It's pretty simple, really.

It's just that most directors are given properties they have no familiarity with and they kind of ignore the character stuff and then decide to go nuts with everything else, making plain ol' bad movies. It's nothing to do with comics or nerd stuff per se. It's more often than not a bad decision that leads to someone working with unfamiliar material. It's like greenlighting a romantic comedy directed by Michael Bay.

I don't see anything wrong with Whedon per-se, he made a significant contribution to nerd culture in the 90's with Buffy. My problem is just that though: he hasn't changed since the 90's. I can pretty much equate every character, in every one of his projects since, to the extended cast of Buffy. Even whatever character Arnold Schwarzenegger was playing in End of Days is a bit Angel-esque. This would be fine, if there were more talent working in the genres of sci-fi and horror, but when Joss Whedon is regarded as being anything more than nerdier Quintin Tarantino (and that's stretching it) there's a problem.

on a side note, it is a shame Firefly didn't continue, he probably would be loads better today if he'd have been able to finish.

@Candyheadrobot: What are you talking about? Whedon had nothing to do with End of Days.

eww, I just looked it up and you're apparently right, now I have to explain that I learned that on a Buffy forum in 9th grade. another downside to hanging out with nerds: they fanfic real life too. Still doesn't make Whedon any less bad though, let's go to Astonishing X-Men:

Cyclops - Angel
Kitty Pryde - Buffy (I know he says it's the other way around, but I find it funny that interview takes place when he's writing X-Men)
Beast - Giles
Wolverine - Spike/Jane
Emma Frost - Zoe (but 'evil')
Colossus - Gunn/any one of Buffy's boyfriend's whom he attached a plot device to make significant to be included.

even if you disagree, there's still Alien Resurrection.

He shares a writing credit with two other people on that steaming pile, plus he didn't direct. I thought the movie was awful apart from the Ripley-clone scene and the fact that the midget didn't die as expected. Much like how directors will remove their names from a film, I'd like to know which parts Whedon was responsible for and which were "fixed" by the other writers and/or the director as the movie was made.

And I haven't read an X-book in years, not since they put holograms on the covers as a marketing gimmick. I tried picking them up again recently, but anime and Twilight seem to have caused all mutant books to be angst dramas about who's sleeping with who.

googled, dunno if it's the real thing, but in skimming it, doesn't look like much is missing:

http://www.horrorlair.com/scripts/alienresurrection_early.html

also, you're dead right about X-Men except for Morrison's run in the early 00's. most comics from the big two are bad (there are a few exceptions depending on the writer though), but Marvel in particular has fallen a great height. their event of the year is Avengers vs X-Men if that tells you anything, just to lemon my own wound though, the first five pages of the first issue feature the Avengers saving an airplane from crashing.

"I liked Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog.

In fact, I liked it a lot."

It is well-received at Schloss Bort as well; it gets a watching every so often. Shame you can see it for the first time only once.

Big McLargeHuge!

Even in small doses, John Saxon is too much man for some viewers.