In "The Avengers," Jeremy Renner portrays Hawkeye, the world's best archer. However, don't tell that to Wired writer and archery instructor Jim MacQuarrie. According to him, the actor "shoots like a rank amateur."
In a lengthy post over on Wired's GeekDad blog, MacQuarrie has visual evidence as to why Renner is terrible with a bow and arrow. Using the above green screen photo of Jeremy, he shows exactly how the "Avengers" star is going about it all wrong.
In a few interviews last year, Renner said he was taking archery lessons in preparation for the role, but from what I see here, it looks like he (a) had no coach and was entirely self-taught; (b) had an incompetent coach (there are many out there); or (c) is a terrible student and refused to do what his coach told him. The simple fact is, I see these exact same mistakes with first-time students all the time.
Oh boy, that's not going to go over well with Marvel fanboys.
Although MacQuarrie nitpicks -- something he himself admits to doing in his post -- he does make a pretty compelling argument as to why Renner is using a bow-and-arrow in a very un-Hawkeye-like manner. (Poor posture, incorrect feet placement, bad elbow motion, etc.)
Another downside of Renner's technique? The shooting-while-jumping-out-of-a-building stunt the actor attempts to pull off in the trailer. As MacQuarrie states, "I am really not looking forward to all the kids who will show up on the range wanting to shoot like Hawkeye... I will get to climb the hillside and pick arrows out of the bushes."
"The Avengers," starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Liam Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson and Renner, hits theaters on May 4 -- bad archery and all.