As expected, The Artist grabbed most of the attention during the 84th Academy Awards, winning five Oscars for best picture, best actor, best director, best costume design and for best original score. Being a silent film and French didn’t stop it from becoming an instant hit with the critics, even probably because of those “vices.”
The movie was first screened back in May 2011 at the Cannes Film Festival, and for a wider release in France on October 11, 2011. On exactly the same day, Marvel released the first trailer for their ambitious summer blockbuster (hopefully), The Avengers.
Years of releasing separate films for separate heroes – Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), Captain America (Chris Evans), Hulk (Murk Ruffalo instead of Edward Norton) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) with Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, who was involved, mostly by cameos, with the series of films. Finally, after all of the characters were more or less hits, some more than others, the ground was set for a $220 million budget under the hands of Joss Whedon.
It didn’t take long for someone to make a silent-film version or homage for this Avengers trailer. It actually came out last October, but for some reason hasn’t become quite an internet sprawling sensation.
The Avengers isn’t the most anticipated movie of the upcoming summer, at least not for me. The Dark Knight Rises, Prometheus and the Spider Man reboot are higher on my list, but you have to appreciate Marvel for taking such a huge gamble on characters that were never as popular among non-comic book fans like Wolverine or Spider-Man, creating a hit with most of them, with Iron Man becoming quite a pleasing Bingo, and then putting it all together in such and ambitious gamble.
It’ll make money, of that I’m sure. But lets hope that it’s actually worth the price we pay for the tickets. I’m not expecting some critique wonder like The Artist (overrated), but lets hope this isn’t Green Lantern.
