Cabin Full of Spandex

So Joss Whedon is riding the success train once again, after a few derailments that were in no way his fault (damn you FOX I still want more Firefly).

The first of these successes was in partnership with Drew Goddard, making his directorial début, with the horror/comedy The Cabin in the Woods. Drew and Joss co-wrote this movie which almost succumbed to the minor curse that has followed Joss since the end of Buffy. For more info on this check here but don't scroll up unless you want spoilers.

Luckily for us Lionsgate got a hold of this movie for general release and now we can all enjoy it.

I will try to keep this as spoiler free as possible because it's a movie that you really need see without any preconceptions.

In fact that's my review, go watch it, you'll thank me later.

The other Joss Whedon movie that I saw was a bit higher in budget, I am of course talking about Marvels biggest movie ever The Avengers.

Being a fan of the previous build up movies, Iron Man 1 and 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America, I was looking forward to seeing them come together in The Avengers. We'd already seen a bit of Nick Fury and mentions of his Avengers initiative in the above mentioned film, but now he takes a bigger role, along with the cameo characters BlackWidow and Hawkeye.

I was unsure how you could fit all the characters into one movie and give them the appropriate screen time. Joss Whedon managed it with ease as he introduces the characters one by one in a way that fit with how they were portrayed in their individual releases. Even the extra characters get good screen time so that every one that makes up the team feels like an equal, which for me was great to see. Thinking about it, Iron Man/Tony Stark may have had a touch more screen time but I'm not gonna complain about that as I love Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of him and the sharp dialogue he got.

Being a fan of Joss's previous work meant that I was also glad to see lots of funny, and more importantly, appropriate comedy moments. One of my friends was literally crying with laughter after a double hit of Hulk brilliance.

The story for the movie was clever. I mean how do you offer up something that would require the culmination of heroes of this calibre. *SPOILER* Alien Invasion.

It meant that the heroes could go all out and work as a team and better yet blow our minds with awesomeness. If you suffer from a weak heart the nerdgasms could kill you.

I forget to mention but we also get to see the obligatory hero on hero fights that happen when many of them meet each other, which are just a ton of fun to watch.

I will remind people to stay a bit into the credits, as has been the standard for the Marvel films, as we get a brief glimpse of something cool.

However not all the fights were great, as even Whedon falls foul of the new Hollywood way of doing things. Lots of short cuts/edits, close-in shots and shaky cam. These moments were few as most of the battles were on a grander scale and let you feel and see the action.

I'm not a fan of 3D movies as they never feel 3D enough (apart from Avatar and the Universal Studios rides), so I watched Avengers in 2D, also because I'm not filthy rich, but you could still tell in a few places that 3D wanted to invade my space. Arrows, shields, hammers, iron suits and green fists did come towards the camera on occasion but luckily not enough to get annoying.

Overall I'm glad I paid to go see these now instead of waiting for them to hit my Lovefilm account, Cabin in the Woods because it was fresh and not what I expected and The Avengers  (I refuse to add assemble) because it needed the big screen.

Both are on my recommended list and will be watched again. Now to IMDB to see what Joss has planned next, please be Dr Horrible 2.