The Avengers Age of Ultron Director Joss Whedon Comments on State of Superhero Movies

Joss Whedon has the unenviable task of following up The Avengers, one of the most commercially successful movies in history and one beloved by most fans and critics alike, with a sequel, The Avengers: Age of Ultron. His second entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes at a time when superhero movies are everywhere, and the writer/director has some thoughts about that.

One of the complaints about superhero movies is "destruction porn," in which entire cities or even planets are destroyed for the sake of cool special effects or to give the movie a more "epic" feel.

"People have made it very clear that they are fed up with movies where entire cities are destroyed and then we celebrate," Whedon said to The Huffington Post as he acknowledged that he used this same clichéd ending sequence for The Avengers.

He also commented on Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, which many consider to be the greatest superhero movie ever made:

"Now, I watched The Dark Knight and I thought of that as riffing on the genre. That was a superhero movie as The Godfather. And I was like, 'But I just still want to see a superhero movie!' We had just gotten the technology to make it awesome, and I wasn't ready to be post-modern about it yet."

Finally, Whedon talked a bit about his approach in filming his works:

"People come in with a certain amount of emotional baggage," he said, "So, whether we're in our larvae stage or our decadent stage, I can't really say, but I try to make my superhero movies as if there's either never been one or there's only ever been them. I work with the idea that it's just a natural way for people to be, so that you still make a movie about people."

Do you agree with Whedon's assessment? Let us know in the comments below.