Oscar Outlook/Summer Preview 2012: The Avengers

You also had to make out with Tom Cruise
during your Mission: Impossible audition?

Joss Whedon, the man behind such beloved shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse, and one of the many cowriters recognized for the original Toy Story, is set to have a sizable year.  Not only did he cowrite the highly anticipated horror thriller The Cabin in the Woods, but he directed and cowrote the upcoming The Avengers.  He has taken on the task that few have ever done before, if any (no examples immediately spring to mind), by corralling several different characters from an assortment of previous films into one feature length movie.  And, having been in the business for decades, he has a pretty selective nature.  When it comes to comic book adaptations, I prefer the less is more approach.  But, considering his talent and this his first directing effort on the big screen unrelated to any of his TV franchises, The Avengers stands to please his widest audience yet, or at least give his fan-base something to shout about.

Hell hath no Fury like Nick scorned

Last year brought us the first film incarnations of both Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Steve Rogers aka Captain America (Chris Evans) from the Marvel franchise.  In recent years Robert Downey Jr. has given us two installments of Tony Stark aka Iron Man.  Marvel has gone a couple of unsuccessful rounds already with The Hulk (the first starring Eric Bana and the second Ed Norton).  With the returning Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and cronies in tow, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) will bring the justice fighters altogether, along with Professor Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård), Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow).  New superhero addition will be Clint Barton aka Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner).

Try beating this alliance, Katniss

The characters come from incongruent worlds, so it will be interesting to see how they tie altogether.  While a good chunk of last year's Thor took place on Earth, the title character came from a fantastical universal where they operate through magical forces not based in reality.  In Captain America: The First Avenger, our hero is subjected to time-travel in order to leave the 1940s era which created him.  Iron Man's world is mostly reality-based, but incumbent upon incredible leaps in technology.  From what I understand of Hawkeye and Black Widow, they exist within the Iron Man landscape, yet have abilities that aren't as obvious and powerful.  The Hulk operates in a similar environment, only he's a product of advances in science we have yet to witness.

TS: "I can see Russia from my house."
BB: "Yeah, but we're looking through an industrial size telescope,
what do you expect?"

For the actors, this strikes me as a win/win endeavor.  If the film fails, they don't have to carry the burden of individual blame and if it succeeds, it's a feather in their cap (which, I guess, archer Hawkeye doesn't have).  Renner, enjoying a nice career upswing since two back-to-back Oscar nominations (The Hurt Locker, The Town), has been hitching his star to every franchise in sight.  Unlike the latest Mission: Impossible (which was a hit) and his role of Hawkeye, he'll be assuming the lead responsibilities as Aaron Cross, the new protagonist of The Bourne series.  Next year, he'll also appear in Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, which is part of the new onslaught of fairy tale-themed films and he managed to throw in a prestige endeavor in his busy schedule with an Untitled James Gray Project.  Scarlett Johansson hasn't had the luck in the last couple of years she enjoyed in the early-to-mid 2000s, where she collected one Golden Globe nomination after another.  Her continuing presence with Marvel has helped her recuperate commercially so that she might be able to build upon her original promise.  The biggest card belongs to Mark Ruffalo.  After a decade of solid work in a great deal of projects, he may be setting himself up for an amazing next two years, with an Oscar bait role in The Normal Heart, among other scripts. Chris Evans, having had previous Marvel experience with the Fantastic Four, hasn't quite caught on yet outside of Captain America, but still manages to sign onto intriguing projects with reputable directors.  Chris Hemsworth hasn't been in the limelight as long as Evans has and is currently working with Ron Howard in race car drama Rush.

Okay, so the The Island and The Spirit were bad ideas

Along with Whedon, cowriter Zak Penn penned several of the X-Men features.  Editor Lisa Lassek has worked on Whedon projects before, as well as Pushing Daisies.  Coeditor Jeffrey Ford has Captain America to his credit.  Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey's recent work includes We Need to Talk About Kevin and has reunited with Joe Wright in the upcoming Anna Karenina.  Their previous collaboration (Atonement) resulted in McGarvey's only AMPAS nod.  Production Designer James Chinlund provided his services for Darren Aronofsky twice.  Set Decorator Victor J. Zolfo won an Oscar for his work on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  Costume Designer Alexandra Byrne has been nominated four times (winning for Elizabeth: The Golden Age) and worked on Thor.  Composer Alan Silvestri has a long list of credits and has been nominated for Oscar twice.  He's connected to the franchise through his work on Captain America.  The visual effects team is huge.  And there are enough producers on this Marvel Studio affair to choke a horse.

The Avengers filmed on a whopping $220M budget during the Spring and Summer of 2011 in various parts of the US with a concentration in the state of Ohio.  Walt Disney will release it in the US on the 4th of May after a week-long international roll out.  Oscar chances seem pretty slim outside of Visual Effects, Sound Effects Editing and Sound Effects Mixing.  The box-office expectations are naturally high.  Will this be the perfect amalgam of previous movie characters released shrewdly before any other Summer blockbuster?  Or will too many cooks spoil Whedon's broth?  The franchise has proven to do as high as around $315M (the Iron Man movies) or as low as $180M (Thor, Captain America) or $130M (the Hulk movies),  Perhaps the expectation is that the studio is shooting for the sum of all three of those averages, but somehow I doubt they'll reach that domestically.  If audiences take to it, $300M-something sounds about right, but if they don't, yeesh.

With The Amazing Spider-man opening in July, audiences will be on Marvel overload.  Considering Chris Nolan will be delivering his final Batman this Summer, I can't imagine a year you could call more prevalent in comic-book output than 2012.  If Armageddon is arriving this year, we're going to need all of the superheroes we can get.  I guess.

Also on the Radar:

Anna Karenina     Beasts of the Southern Wild     The Dark Knight Rises     Dark Shadows     Great Expectations     The Great Gatsby     Hope Springs     The Hunger Games     Hyde Park on the Hudson     Lawless     Lola Versus     Lovelace     Low Life     Prometheus     Ruby Sparks     Smashed     The Surrogate     Won't Back Down 


The Avengers     The Amazing Spider-Man     Men in Black III