Dissecting Avengers: Endgame
Although it's in the subject line, I'll take this opportunity to warn you once more: This newsletter contains Avengers spoilers!! Please come back and read once you've viewed Avengers: Endgame.
Is that good enough? Is everyone who didn't see the movie gone and reading the Required Reading section of the newsletter? I hope so. I'm very easily tempted to read spoilers in advance of seeing movies or watching TV shows. I've even been known to flip ahead to see what happens in a particularly good book. I think my excitement just gets the better of me every time, which is why I'm confessing to you that I attempted to read two article that contained spoilers before going to see Avengers: Endgame in theaters last week. The first time, I read two spoiler warnings at the top of the article and stopped myself, and the second time I was told I'd reached the maximum number of articles I could read on the site that month. Yes, I was stopped by a paywall and the fact that I'm cheap. So despite my own best efforts, I went into the movie spoiler-free, and I'm so glad I did. This has been your final warning and my last attempt to guilt you into saving yourself from spoilers...
An Emotional Start: Endgamewas the perfect conclusion to this era of The Avengers. While the first hour was a little slow, the movie took its time grappling with the reality of what real people would do if half of the world suddenly disappeared. Our heroes are in various stages of grief, Captain America is grimly telling people to keep moving forward, while struggling with his own inability to process his emotions, Black Widow is continuing to lead her team as if nothing has changed, while missing Hawkeye who is lashing out with violence, Thor has turned into a recluse who refuses to leave his home, Iron Man is staying away from everyone and focusing on raising his daughter and Hulk is embracing his alter ego and signing autographs. When Ant Man arrives to try and get everyone to rally together and attempt time travel, our heroes are thrown back into past Marvel movies to attempt to snatch the time stones to reverse the damage Thanos has caused. When the time travel plot was brought up (and when the characters vanished into past movies), I felt myself initially rolling my eyes. Is this how they want to spend the rest of the movie? With jokes and scenarios straight out of Tumblr? But every step of the way the movie impressed me with its balance, thoughtfulness and restraint. The crowd-pleasing jokes felt earned because they were balanced with the weight of the circumstances. Sure Captain America can crack a joke about his butt, but the pain and determination in his eyes when they realize they've let the Tesseract get out of their hands again, demonstrates just how serious this mission is. The stakes are high, because Marvel has already shown that they're willing to let the heroes lose and then grapple with the consequences of that loss. That theme continues throughout the movie, as we lose two of our original Avengers to deaths that cannot be undone. The first is Black Widow. As soon as Hawkeye and Black Widow marched up to Vormir, I knew she was a goner.
A Big Misstep: In my opinion, the biggest mistake of the movie was its flippant treatment of her death. When you look at the history of the franchise, Scarlett Johansson's character has undergone one of the biggest arcs of all, she's introduce inIron Man 2as an undercover agent, learns to become a team player and trust others inAvengersandCaptain America 2, becomes one of the leaders of the whole group inCivil Warand goes into hiding with Captain America inInfinity War. While she's never been given the amount of dialogue or screen time as her male counterparts, Black Widow has been a key member of the team, and inEndgameshe's not only been the driving force keeping everyone together in the aftermath of their loss, she's also the first person to piece together their rescue plan, by realizing that three of the stones are located in New York City at the same time. Without Black Widow, they would still be moping around Avengers HQ. Unfortunately, her death is used as a plot device to move the story along and give a male character (Hawkeye) some emotional development. She doesn't get a funeral. She doesn't get a eulogy. Women have often gotten the short end of the stick in the Marvel universe. While the franchise preaches its commitment to diversity, up until this past year and the release ofBlack PantherandCaptain Marvel, it hasn't placed anyone from the franchise's diverse cast in starring roles. Black Widow is just now getting her own stand-alone movie, and given their decision to kill her off inEndgame, it doesn't feel like this film (which I assume will be a prequel) will be given the same weight as the others because whatever we learn in the prequel can't help shape our future understanding of the character. Her first appearance in the Marvel Universe is full of the male gaze. Men get distracted and stare at her when she walks in a room, Piper warns Tony not to sexually harass her, two men try to mansplain boxing to her, Tony pulls up a picture of her posing in a bikini.. and all of this takes place in just one scene! Later on in the movie, she changes in the backseat of a car and distracts the driver, who can't look away. While Black Widow's character is now written with much more respect and gravitas, it's difficult watching this introduction back with the full context of the series. It further reinforces the fact that Black Widow is often under-appreciated and her character development and actions are often viewed from the male perspective. It's a classic thankless female role, and I just wanted more.
A Perfect Conclusion:After this all happens, the movie goes on to finish perfectly. The final hour of the film was exciting, moving and thoroughly unpredictable. Even though I knew deep in my heart that all the heroes who had been snapped away would come back, I didn't know exactly how this would take place. While I'm usually not a huge fan of giant battle sequences, this one was balanced with so many amazing moments that I loved every second of it. When Black Panther appears to help them fight! When Captain America tells the Avengers to assemble! When Captain America grabs Thor's hammer! When Spider Man meets Captain Marvel! The list goes on and on. In the end, it's Iron Man who has to make the ultimate sacrifice, and I found myself quietly sobbing in the theater as he died and was given a proper sendoff. The journey that Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans took throughout the entire franchise was given the ultimate tribute in this film. These two characters clashed from the very start, went through a dramatic break-up of sorts inCivil Warand eventually reconciled inEndgame. Every step of the way, their tension and love for each other felt earned and well executed. Having Iron Man make the ultimate selfless move to save everyone and contrasting that with Captain America's decision to finally do something selfish and go back in time to find his true love felt so satisfying. And so my tears continued until the end credits rolled. I'm not here to debate the rules of time travel or whether or not Captain America is in a breached timeline. I'm just here to say that it's an amazing feat, by the writers, directors and actors to put this kind of thoughtful and powerful conclusion together for a superhero franchise. I'm excited for the next generation of Marvel movies, and I'm hopeful that as more diverse actors and actresses take the lead in the films that this spirit of inclusion will become the new normal and carry over to those in charge behind the scenes.
Required Reading
Last week, I wrote about how amazing Something Great and screenwriter/director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson are, and this week I've got some additional article recommendations about the woman behind the film. The Cut published a short retrospective of Jennifer, where she goes back to the first place where she taught herself to write scripts. The Los Angeles Times took a deeper look into her creative journey and why Jennifer wanted to write female friendships that were more real than those portrayed in Girls. In other female writer news, Lena Waithe and Gina Prince-Bythewood are talking about their efforts to increase representation in the industry through mentorship. And finally, The Cut published an article that spoke to my soul about using an excessive number of exclamation points in communication to appear friendly and upbeat!!! Enjoy the rest of the week!!!
