Much Ado About Nothing

In the right context, witty banter can be brilliant.  In other cases, it can be extremely annoying.  What makes one use of a snippy comment endearing as opposed to something that forever ruins a character forever?  Context.  No person seems to walk that fine line between clever dialogue and aggravating self-indulgent smugness better than Joss Whedon.

He honed the skill on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly.  I wasn't really a big fan of Dollhouse, but from the few episodes I saw, it tended to slip a bit into smugness but came back up before I moved on.  He did quite well on Avengers, making a group of superheroes also human in how they spoke to each other.

So, what happens when a man who is almost best known for how he has characters talk takes on a project where he gets nothing to do with the dialogue?

You get a remarkably unique movie experience.