Category Archives: MCU

Captain America: Was He Always Worthy?

This post will have spoilers for Marvel’s Avengers movies.

I recently started a re-watch of the MCU’s Avengers and Captain Americafilms. This has coincided with the one-year anniversary of the release of Avengers: Endgame and people are sharing videos of crowd reactions to key moment from that movie. A popular moment to share is when Captain America in the climatic battles against Thanos wield Mjolnir. It is a moment when the audience reacts wildly and enthusiastically and even after having seen the movie several times both in the theaters and at home one that still stirs my own blood.

Earlier in the cycle of MCU movies, specifically in Avengers: Age of Ultron, at a celebratory party various characters attempt to lift Mjolnir but the enchantment upon the weapon specifies only one who is worthy can wield the hammer and with it the powers of Thor. Character after character make the attempt and Thor’s hammer remains utterly immobile. When Steve Roger, Captain America and in many ways the moral compass of the MCU, tries the hammer rocks and Thor immediately reacts with apprehension but Cap doesn’t lift it and Thor relaxes.

The question becomes; When did Cap become worthy? Or Was he always worthy and chose not to lift the hammer at the party?

It can be argued that he was always worthy and felt the hammer rock under his grip and did not lift it to save his friend embarrassment. (Not to mention that Cap lifting it early in the movie would have undercut Vision’s wielding of Mjolnir and proving his worthiness to the Avengers when they doubted him.) Steve is a decent fellow and would be very considerate of Thor’s pride but I am not persuaded by this line of argument. I think at the time of Age of Ultron Cap was nearly worthy but not yet there.

In Captain America: Civil War Steve paternalistically keeps the truth of the murder of Tony Stark’s parents secret from Tony and this lie ruptures the Avengers. At the end of the film in his letter to Tony he confesses that really he wasn’t protecting Tony but himself. Steve too scared to confront the hard truth with Tony. It is this moment of self-realization that clears that last of the moral clutter away from Steve’s nature and I think allowed him to be worthy for that amazing moment in Endgame.

 

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The Two Visions of The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Recently I have been watching video essays from the YouTube channel Implicitly Pretentious about the thematic nature of the MCU and its characters which inspired a re-watch of the Avengers cycle of films. My original intention had been to, over an extended period, watch just the four Avengers films but that fell apart once I completed The Avengers and decided to include the Captain America films as part of this cycle making the list of movies: The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Solider, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and finishing the series with Avengers: Endgame. Since I have seen all of these movies, I am not committed to watching any single film in a single seating but rather breaking the individual films up over two or more nights. I am currently in the midst of Civil War.

What has been fascinating to watch is the different tones struck by the different guiding visions of the MCU. While the entire project is under the hand of Kevin Feige the MCU has been under the influence of two principle visions and they are contrasted in this series of films.

Joss Whedon wrote and directed the first two Avengers films while the Captain America movies and the final two Avengers films were directed by Joe and Anthony Russo and written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely. (Side note: when you see the ‘&’ symbol in an American film’s writing credits it means those people worked as a team on the script and where the word ‘and’ connects writers it mean one wrote and then another came in and rewrote the screenplay.)

Implicitly Pretentious suggested in one of his essays that Joss Whedon’s view of humanity is one of cynicism and I think that he is not far off with the assessment. Ultron’s assertion that everyone creates what they fear and their own destruction even including children as something to be feared and something that is a threat is an inherently cynical philosophy. Whedon often coasts his cynicism with a heavy icing of snark and humor. His dialog is snappy, witty, and quotable but underneath it lies a dark view of the world and humanity’s place in it.

With the Russo brothers, Markus, and McFeely there is a much more positive interpretation of humanity. There is a nobility that fights in the face of evil and this is a theme returned to several times in their cycle of films. Consider Captain America’s effect on non-enhanced characters in two scenes by the two teams of filmmakers.

In The Avengers Captain America needs a local police officer to follow Cap’s direction to safeguard trapped civilians and set a parameter to limit the immediate damage. The cop incredulously asks why should he listen to Cap? At that moment alien warriors attack Cap and with an impressive display of strength and skill Cap dispatches the several opponents. The police office reverses his opinion and implements Cap’s orders. The most charitable interpretation is that officer is impressed with Cap’s skills as a warrior and follows the order of the stronger fighter. A less forgiving view would be that the officer is intimidated by Captain America but in neither case is the officer inspired.

Captain America: The Winter Solider presents us with a different view on Cap and his effect on others. Cap and his small team infiltrates S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ to prevent the launching of HYDRA’s plan to subjugate the world. Cap has no idea how many of the SHIELD agents are actually ones loyal to HYDRA, but he makes an impassioned plea over the loudspeakers for people to rally to his fight, to stand for freedom and against the coming tyranny. Throughout the base people unlimber arms and take up Cap’s fight but the most emotional moment is when an unnamed character who is not a fighter sits with a gun literally at the back of his head and under the threat of his immediate murder refuses to comply with a HYDRA agent’s command. He is terrified but holds fast to what is right because he has been inspired. The unnamed character returns in Avengers: Age of Ultron but Whedon’s script and direction treats the him most unfairly.

There is a clear and distinct difference between these two visions of the MCU and there is no doubt I prefer the one presented by the Russo brother and Markus & McFeely.

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Movie Review: Spider-Man: Far From Home

The first post-Avengers: Endgame  Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Spider-Man: Far From Home  opened this weekend and reviewing it will requires spoilers for Endgame,  though I will refrain from spoilers for Far From Home  as much as possible.

Set five years after the events in Infinity War  and shortly after the return of the ‘snapped’ and after Iron Man’s sacrifice ending Thanos’ threat Far From Home opens with Peter Parker trying to resume his abnormal life as a high school student, he and all his emotionally relevant friends lost five years due to the Snapture (thanks to NPR’s Glen Weldon), while trying to cope with the loss of Tony Stark.

A new threat appears on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar when monstrous forces called elementals begin appearing around the world and the sole survivor from a parallel universe Quentin beck where these forces destroyed the Earth is recruited to save this version of Earth. With the major former Avengers either dead, aged out, crippled, or unavailable, Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. conscripts Peter Parker to help Beck save the world.

Peter wants nothing more than to leave the world saving to others, enjoy his high school class’ European Vacation, and possibly get closer to his crush Mary Jane Watson, but the continuing and escalating threat upset Peter’s plans and being the heir apparent to Stark’s mantle carries with it a level of guilt and responsibility that test’s Peter’s character.

Spider-Man: Far From Home  has exciting action set pieces, fine acting, deft, quirky, and often funny dialog but it lacks a strong story leaving it in the midlist of MCU movies. Unlike the last outing for Spider-Man where a padded plot dragged down the pacing this time the flaw is the central conceit of Peter’s motivation as character. As a protagonist Peter is simply far too passive.

In the Western tradition stories are constructed around a protagonist who desires a goal, something the protagonist much work to achieve, and the obstacles that the character most circumvent, defeat, or overcome to achieve their objectives. What your character wants and why they cannot simply have it is the core of a story’s plot. In this movie Peter wants to be left alone. He wants to go his vacation, not be ‘Spider-Man,’ and explore his relationship with M.J. Peter’s objective is not to do the thing the audience is here to see him do and as such the plot must repeatedly intervene and force Peter back onto the track that leads to dashing heroics and exciting action. In short he is pushed and pulled by the plot rather than driving the plot himself with his actins, choices, and needs for an objective. When the script makes the turn from Act 2 to Act 3 it finally creates enough pressure that Peter can no longer hide from his responsibilities and his objectives changes and for the final act he is driving the story, but this transformation comes too late to prevent the majority of the movie from being subjected to rudderless piloting.

How much this passive protagonist bothers someone will be a matter of individual taste. As I have mentioned this time the film’s running time doesn’t feel padded and each action set piece has a strong narrative purpose. There are plenty of humor and character moments to carry a viewer along but for me the lack of a plot driven by Peter’s needs drags the final product down into the mid-tier range of MCU movies.

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Avengers: Endgame – The Second Viewing

Because I had a routine eye exam slated for Tuesday it made sense to take a day off from the day-job and that allowed me to go se a later night showing of Avengers: Endgame.

The movie works just as well on a second viewing as it did on my first. Though I did have a free large soda and popcorn, due to this being my birthday month and that’s an additional perk from the AMC A-List subscription, I still did not leave the sheening for a restroom break.

The timing of the screenings Monday night meant I attended a 3-D showing of the movie. While the 3-d effect was for the most part well done it was not effective. The Russo brothers shot the film for 2D and nothing in the framing or shot set-ups made the 3D effect any more important to the narrative. As it was shot on 2D that also means that the 3D version is a retro scan created by digital means and while it did not suffer from the sort of glaring errors other movies had presented, yes I am looking at you Clash of the Titans where an actors hair was in a different focal plane than the actor, not all of the 3D shot in Endgamewere flawless. In a number of shots actors in deeper focal planes looked as though they had been composted into the scene. There is absolutely no need to see this film in 3D.

Overall though I had a great time, even if I did get back home around one a.m.

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Movie Review: Avengers: Endgame

This review will be spoiler free using only information that viewers of previous Marvel Cinematic Universe films, particularly Avengers: Infinity War  are aware of.

When I reviewed Infinity War  I said that I had to withhold final judgment on that film as it presented only the first half of a story and it would not be until the next film presented a conclusion that I could have an informed opinion about its artistic merits. Taken together the two movies give us a five hour plus ending chapter for the first decade of the gran experiment, the MCU, that started with Iron Man   and surprisingly it pays off.

Endgame  opens shortly after the Avengers shattering defeat at the fingers of Thanos that resulted in the sudden obliteration of half of all life in the universe. Faced with their failure and wracked with the guilt both as heroes who were unable to stop the mass slaughter and as survivors the Avengers and the other surviving superheroes deal with, and in some cases in manners that are quite unhealthy, the various phases, stages, and, manifestations of grief. Eventually a plan is hatched and the second act of the film launches out beloved characters into action that is meaningful to each character on a personal level, advances their goal of trying to salvage something from the wreckage of the universe, and pays services to nearly every previous movie in this amazing franchise. This complicated, and at times emotionally devastating act takes it time deepening character and giving us even more to grieve and to love in their journeys before opening on a third act and massive set piece battle — it is not a spoiler to say that a *superhero* film ends with a third act battle — that dwarfs anything achieved by any MCU feature. Endgame   concludes with denouement that provides closure on the storyline that require it and revealing the path forward for the massive cinematic juggernaut.

Leading up to the film’s release much ink and discussion revolved around the feature’s three hour running time but in my opinion the writers and directors earned their massive size. Endgame  does not suffer from bloat, it juggles a dizzying number of plot lines each with several characters to manage and that’s before you reach the third act that features the intersection and conclusion of all those narrative arcs and plots. A massive project unlikely to be equaled for another decade Avengers: Endgame  delivers the good to a fan base that Marvel Studios have been building ever since that rolled the dice on a B-level hero with an actor that many had thought had ruined his career to create not only a wildly successful franchise but a culture defining series of stories and characters that will be with us and inspire us for decades to come. If you are fan of this experiment in long form saga storytelling that Marvel has given us do not miss Endgame, this is not one to wait for home video.

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Nailing the Ending

For me endings are where the meaning and themes of the story come together into a synergistic whole. The point if the story, be it a film or prose, usually lies in how that tale concludes and this places an especially important weight on getting your endings correct.

Here I am not talking about how the plot resolves, but rather the character beat that wraps up the transformation, for good or for ill, that was the protagonist’s journey.

In 1987’s Robocop  the film originally ended with one final news break segment that let the audience know that Murphy’s partner, Lewis, not only survived the film but had not been transform into a cyborg as Murphy had but once the filmmakers watched the final confrontation and it’s final line ‘Murphy’ they knew that beat ended the movie, there was no story after he reclaimed his humanity.

2008’s Iron Man  went through a similar edit. The script ended with Tony Stark coming home and having his meeting with Nick Fury and the hint of further adventures to come with ‘the Avengers’ imitative. However just as with Robocop  the director found that his story had ended with the line ‘I am Iron Man.’ Unlike Robocop  Iron Mancarried the weight of teasing the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Nick Fury scene could not be discarded and the Marvel Post Credit Sequence tradition was born. Marvel did not invent this, before Iron Mancame along these were called buttons and the occasional film make tossed them in a treat for audiences that sat through the entire end credit sequence. (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearlhad on with the monkey Jack grabbing a curse coin.)

I know that when I was editing my novel that comes out next year I discovered that I had done a similar thing. From the start I had a particular line that I wanted to end the book on and yet as I edited I discovered my story ended half a page ahead of my beautiful sentence. I killed my darling and the book ends where it needs to, or at least how it looks to me.

It is reported that Avengers: Endgame has no post credit sequence because the movie acts as the thematic end for the current cycle of the MCU films. I will see Endgame  this Sunday morning, the traditional times that my sweetie-wife and I go together to the movies, and I hope hoping that not only do they give me a satisfying ending to the Infinity War saga but also to the unique 22 film experiment that is the birth of the MCU.

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