Avengers Abridgeable, on Dispatch from the Razor's Edge

Plus: Dispatch Drought

And - 1st of May

Well, you might (or might not) have noted that the Dispatch tap has gotten turned to Drought again. Same cause – I'm now neck-deep in not one, but two book projects.

The main one is this mad-scientist collaborative work with Glynn James that you may remember me effusing about. Well, we're three weeks in and it's going gangbusters – I'm currently personally on a blistering 2k-word/day pace, and enjoying it immensely. The other project, currently on simmer, is the third D-Boys book (one; two). Very excited about that one, too – when it's three, it's a proper series.

Anyway, the long-form work seems really to be taking the wind out of the sails of the sublime silliness of stuff in this space. But I'll keep trying to squeeze in the odd fatuity – like this one!

Having dashed out, all atremble, to see the Avengers Assemble movie, I'm now able to offer an unwavering judgement and recommendation:

You're much better off watching this (two-and-a-half minute) trailer. It had better writers.

I'm serious. Watch it. And the trailer provides – not just better entertainment value for time and money – but actually superior entertainment, full-stop. Its got a solider narrative arc. It's got a nice little action set-piece (that isn't a bludgeoning 45 minutes long). It's got a number of advantageously cut-down lines of dialogue. It's got much less of the hopelessly fey villain. There's tons more tension and suspense. And that sublime 360° Hero Shot at the end! <swoon>

Mainly, the trailer's not a jumbled mess. In the film, there was way too much to keep track of; and way too little to care about. (You must know that "I don't know what's going on; and it doesn't matter" feeling.) I would have much preferred to see Iron Man 3. (R.D. Jr., and the computer sprite that is Iron Man, provided most of the best moments.)

Don't get me wrong. There were some perfectly entertaining bits. And a number of good lines. But the story just flat did not work. And I knew it wasn't going to work, literally from the second line of dialogue. It's a reminder, if any were needed, of the truth of the old adage that "you can make a bad movie from a good screenplay, but not the other way around." Sorry, Joss. I did adore the (Gen-X-friendly) Galaga and Point Break references.

Oh, yeah, and Scarlett's gained weight (and cut her wig). Please pardon my body fascism, but still – quel dommage.

Oh, yeah, check the date again! (NSFM!)

film writing trailers

Dispatch from the Razor's Edge is owned and operated by novelist, technologist, vegan, exercise junkie, classical liberal, rambler, and Londoner Michael Stephen Fuchs.

Fuchs is the author of the novels The Manuscript and Pandora's Sisters, both published worldwide by Macmillan in hardback, paperback and all e-book formats (and in translation); the D-Boys series of high-tech, high-concept, spec-ops military adventure novels – D-Boys, Counter-Assault, and Close Quarters Battle (coming in 2016); and is co-author, with Glynn James, of the bestselling Arisen series of special-operations military ZA novels. The second nicest thing anyone has ever said about his work was: "Fuchs seems to operate on the narrative principle of 'when in doubt put in a firefight'." (Kirkus Reviews, more here.)

Fuchs was born in New York; schooled in Virginia (UVa); and later emigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lived through the dot-com boom. Subsequently he decamped for an extended period of tramping before finally rocking up in London, where he now makes his home. He does a lot of travel blogging, most recently of some very long walks around the British Isles. He's been writing and developing for the web since 1994 and shows no particularly hopeful signs of stopping.

You can reach him on .

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Dispatch from the Razor's Edge is owned and operated by novelist, technologist, vegan, exercise junkie, classical liberal, rambler, and Londoner Michael Stephen Fuchs.


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