This first clip from The Avengers arrived online today courtesy of Marvel UK (where the film is referred to as Avengers Assemble) featuring Scarlett Johnasson as Natasha Romanoff (aka Black Widow) in an interrogation scene where she gets a phone call from Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) and learns Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) is in some kind of trouble.
The dialogue, the cut back to Gregg listening to the fight on the other end of the line, the confusion on the faces of the villains when she says they are giving her everything and the mere fact she’s on the phone in the first place is all Joss Whedon.
What I can’t help but wonder, though, is how much this will feel like a big budget feature film or if it will play like an episode of a television show, which is where Whedon has largely made his name. Don’t get me wrong, I like what Whedon offers, he’s got some smart and witty dialogue and keeps his stories moving, but these Avengers franchise films are all starting to feel so small and contained as if they are merely extended episodes in a long-running television series. I’d like for one of them to break out of the box and be truly epic and I wonder if The Avengers can be that film.
The Avengers hits theaters on May 4.
