Joss Whedon Says AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON Is About Damaged People
Fans are still going crazy over that Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer that Marvel dropped this week. I saw it again last night before a screening of Chappie, and it's even better on the big screen!
SFX just released an interview with writer and director Joss Whedon. It was conducted about a month or so ago, while he was still deep in the process of editing the film.
"We're at the insane-o-stage. I think we're just about to come out of the insane-o-stage and into the 'Hey, this looks like a movie!' stage. I believe that it's starting to come together."
He also used the opportunity to talk about the characters of the film and the challenges they face, saying,
"What drives this story is the idea power and connection, and how the more you have of one the less you have of another. And the idea of heroes and whether or not that's a useful concept. I know it seems like we've heard that before but I feel that this movie makes an argument that is worth listening to. It's about damaged people, because guess what I like to write about! And it's about trying to find some kind of connection, because the Avengers are the most isolated people in the world. They're different to everyone else. They're richer, or stranger, or they're monsters or they're gods. Not one of them is really a part of the world. And this movie kind of drags them back down to Earth a little bit, which is both painful and exciting."
That might be one of the clearest explanations that I've heard regarding the inner challenges that our heroes will have to deal with. It's obviously going to take a huge toll on them and end up tearing them apart. Whedon was then asked if there is a moment in the film where he can ignore fan expectations and just take in the joy of the visuals he's bringing to the big-screen, and this was his response:
"Oh, there's more than one! Honestly, we screened the movie last night, and just to sit down and watch it, which is not something you really get to do at this stage... I was like okay, some of this is the bomb. Some of this is really really lovely. The actors are killing it, the sequences are exciting, the editors are amazing and Ben Davis, who shot it, has made it a work of art. There are some hardcore action sequences in this but what's really grand is how the characters play through those. It's always got to be about the people. Not just the smaller moments, where they're talking alone, but the way they're interacting during the action is really exciting for me. I'm a people person unless I'm in an actual room with people."
Whedon gets it. The guy is just a great filmmaker who knows how important it is to have to have a solid story and characters. Yeah, there's going to be a ton of badass action, but what's the point if everything surrounding it is hollow? Unfortunately, we still see a lot that in a lot of films Hollywood produces today.
Avengers: Age of Ultron hits theaters on May 1st.
Via: CBM