The film everyone is talking about hasn’t even been out for a week here in the states, but director Joss Whedon is already promising more footage on the Blu-Ray.
Joss recently sat down with Collider and talked briefly about scenes that were shot but failed to make the final cut. The only specifics he gave on scenes was a sequence of Captain America that show him struggling to make the transition into the current time period’s way of life. Joss said that his first cut of the film was 3 hours long, so unless that is all made up of shots of a lonely Cap’n expect even more Avengers goodness.
I wouldn’t be expecting the Blu-Ray release for a few months, but this is still something to look forward to.
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I may be trolling here, but the director’s name is Joss not Josh.
The Blu-Ray thing sucks for those of us who still don’t have the proper player yet. I guess I’ll have to buy one now which is probably someone’s master plan all along if you think about it.
The footage is 30 continuous minutes of the Avengers silently chewing on shwarma.
I think there’s more with the waitress considering she reoccurs three times in the film (once as a reaction shot, once rescued by Cap, and at the end thanking the Avengers on air) and Cap loses his mask in front of her and she seems to notice him without his mask after the rescue… which suggests to me that Steve encountered her earlier in his civilian persona, left and impression, made doubly meaningful once she could put that encounter together with him being Captain America. Of course, that’s a lot of guessing and reading into things, but I think I’m closer to the target than Olivia Munn Iron Man 2 speculation.
plus as my wife recognized and I found through yahoo! that actress (Ashley Johnson) was the youngest girl on the TV show Growing Pains in the late eighties-early nineties with Alan Thicke and Kirk Cameron. Looks like she is also going to be in Whedon’s Much Ado about Nothing.
The more you know…
I’m looking forwards to the deleted scenes, for sure, but the marquee extra for me is always well put together making-of documentaries / commentary tracks- ones that really get into the procedure, personalities, and passion (conversely I HATE “making of” docs which more or less marketing puff pieces trying to sell you a movie you already bought with effusive meaningless praise for everything).
With this box office, I hope Disney gets that this deserves extras like a Pixar release or deconstruction of the production like LotR. The pride in creation and enthusiasm of the participants is palpable (a credit sequence that goes over the seams and fine texture of the props and costumes; a cast more than happy to suit up again AFTER the Hollywood premier to put in one more scene; etc) and getting to see that would make the film that much more enjoyable for me. It’s always great to see competent passionate people excel at a thing they love so I hope Disney doesn’t just provide a bare bones disc.
I hope the additional 30 minutes shed some light on the Hulk, and *spoiler* how he was able to control his anger….by being angry?*end spoiler.*
Also, it would be great if there was a little more character development of Captain America. He came into his leadership role out of nowhere by the big finale. Also, how were everyone able to telepathically communicate with one another during the final battle? Maybe they will show that training.
It’s not by being angry, but by being angry all the time. This is grounded in the pop-psychology’s notion of catharsis (since discredited, but still a popular concept). That is, the idea that if you don’t let your emotions out, they get bottled up and you’ll explode unless you “vent” your emotions and experience catharsis. The concept was discredited because emotions aren’t a discrete pool of substance you can let out, pool, bottle up (or whatever other metaphor you want to use). Instead, what researchers found was the pleasure of catharsis would create behavioral modification in the subjects such that they would be MORE prone to emotional explosions because the barriers to such events were diminished with each cathartic event.
Put more directly, if you vent an outburst of anger that you otherwise would have held in and the only real consequence is that you feel cathartic release, you will be more and more prone to vent your anger (rather than less and less likely to explode) pushing the boundaries of acceptable outbursts. The same with crying, laughing, etc. So rather than acting as a vent that stops you from doing it later, you train to do it more…
Anyways… applying this notion to Hulk, the concept is Banner is always indulging his rage so he doesn’t need to explode into a Hulk event (the traditional way to bottle down emotion is to build a callous, but Banner describes himself as a “raw nerve”). Pop-psych would argue he would then have to “save up” for his next Hulk event whereas modern-psych would say he’s turning himself into a hair trigger.
I should be more precise and say “catharsis therapy” not the idea of catharsis itself. A practical example is making someone yell and scream and hit pillows to reduce anger. Modern research suggests it doesn’t – not that the subject won’t experience catharsis, but that their anger won’t be any better… they’re simply now more prone to yelling, screaming, and punching because they’re training themselves to accept that as enjoyable behavior when experiencing anger.
Hmm, I didn’t have the motivation to get into all of that but you did. Kudos.
I think it is also important in an attempt to understand Banner to recognize that, as I stated below, the anger originated from an equally primal but more traumatic emotion. It is so ingrained into his psyche that it is not “curable” only controllable.
So, as that emotional pain is consistent, therefore is the secondary emotion derived from it. Thus, Bruce is indeed “always angry”.
Also, his line of “That’s my secret, Captain. … I’m always angry.” was far and away my favorite line of the film. Not the most fun line but the single statement that best defines a character with whom I feel a connection.
Bruce didn’t control his anger by being angry. Anger is a complex condition for him because it is actually a secondary emotion driven by a deeper trauma borne of pain. I could get into all of that but Bruce isn’t just “Grrrr. I’m mad!”
Cap didn’t just come into his leadership role. He continuously exhibited leadership qualities throughout the film to such a degree that even the normally arrogant Tony Stark deferred to him by the final battle.
There were numerous scenes of SHIELD agents (including Black Widow) wearing earpieces for communication. Although they weren’t shown, I assume they had ear buds in that allowed communication between members (with Iron Man of course relying on his armor). Also, Iron Man showed he could take control of the SHIELD jet’s communication system so he likely hijacked that local system to facilitate communication among his team.
I just hope they do the 30 minutes right by giving us the option to see the Theater version or the Extended version.
If they won’t, then just give them to us as a Bonus Feature.