The Avengers, Joss Whedon, and Comic Books

*no spoilers in case you're worried*

I am a huge superhero movie fan. I've already seen the Avengers twice in theaters and it's been out less than twenty four hours. I don't know what it is, but superheros get me all choked up. Watching them save lives and risk their own, push their bodies beyond limits that we can push ours, is really neat.

I also love Joss Whedon. I watched the full series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in a week. I randomly sing songs from Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog to my dogs while they wag their tails at me. Firefly is on my to watch list, since I enjoyed the movie Serenity. It's no wonder that I love the Avengers since he directed it and wrote the screenplay. I know people make lists of who they would like as an actor cast for their books if they were made into movies, but in my dream world, one of my books would be made into a movie directed and written by Joss Whedon. I wouldn't even care who the cast was. He'd probably find a better cast then I ever could. I wish I had even half the talent he does.

Anyway, that got me thinking about other movies that have been popular lately like the Hunger Games. While it was a movie that I enjoyed, there was still so much missing from the book in the movie, that I was a bit disappointed. I think comic books make better movies than novels do. They have less internal dialogue, which never translates correctly onto the big screen.

I was at a book club last night and me and a few other women were discussing how we felt like the Hunger Games movie didn't capture the full essence of the story. We still enjoyed it and I'm probably going to go to the midnight showing again when the second movie comes out, but we were still complaining about the ways it lacked in comparison to the book for a good twenty minutes.

And that got me thinking, too. I absolutely love discussing the good and bad of movies I see and books I read. It's very rare that I actually see or read one that I hate, I think I've only given two one-star reviews for books in my life (and ironically, they were both paranormal romance novels.) But I usually have a lot to say when I discuss them with friends both positively and negative.

Is it really so bad to have our books get critiqued by the public? Should I be so hurt if someone says something negative about it? Because maybe they are only commenting on it because they care. Wouldn't they not bother commenting at all if they didn't feel for the book in some way?

That's why I discuss the Avengers and the Hunger games with other people after all. I care about them and what they had to say.

I just hope I remember all this when I get published someday (self-published or otherwise.) It's a good way of looking at things. Bad reviews don't have to feel so badly after all.

(P.S. Sorry if this post was too all over the place. I saw the midnight showing last night and the first showing this morning and because of it, I lost a lot of sleep. Now time to take a nap!)