Marvel Watch: Infinity War (2018) and Endgame (2019)

Watched:  09/26 and 09/27

Format:  BluRay and Regal Cinemas in 3D

Viewing:  Unknown/ Unknown

Director:  The Russos

I don't know that we've ever truly reckoned with what Marvel pulled off across 22 movies between 2008 and 2019.  Instead, we've spent the post-Endgame years grappling with how Marvel seemed to overproduce Marvel content leading to a lack of cohesiveness as the films and shows became uneven and diluted. 

For the youths who are now young adults, what bugs me the most is that they take what Marvel did between 2008 and 2019 *for granted*.  

Look, in no way was it obvious that one could make almost two dozen movies, each film working independently, but also all building to some capstone movies that had a complete and character driven arc for their lead characters while making more money than the GDP of many countries.  

My guys, when I was coming up, if a sequel to *one* movie was any good, we lost our minds.  And we knew by the third movie, we were usually in trash territory.  The 1980's franchises you think are how it works, like Indiana Jones, are the exception and that's why they're the ones we still talk about.  We do not talk about many, many other series.  

I mean, look, I love me some Superman, but the incredible fall off between Superman: The Movie and Superman IV is well-documented and must have been painful for many involved.  And that's an example of a well-liked franchise!   

That people now make fun of Marvel, like it's somehow embarrassing to have enjoyed what they did?    Yes, Infinity War and Endgame are *insane* movies to try to walk into as stand-alone films, but as I am now arguing:  judging the MCU by any standard movie-measuring rubric just makes you silly.

And that's a problem.  Admittedly.  It's... work.  But so is anything that's long form.  And unlike most long form things (ie: TV series) this had an ending that actually wrapped itself up.

I went ahead and got tickets to see Endgame again as its being re-released in preparation for Doomsday, with all new footage at the end.  Jamie suggested we use our evening before to re-watch Infinity War, which I do feel was necessary.  Yes, I remembered Infinity War pretty well, but a refresher was necessary as its now been several years since I sat down with it.  According to this here blog, it's been since 2019.  

And that's a whole other problem.  

Part of what made Marvel work for the first decade was that there were only 20+ movies and while it was a lot, it was possible to take a month or two and watch everything.  There's now, like 50 movies and TV shows with multiple episodes per show.  And I'm not including Daredevil.  And they've maybe paid off half of the plants for future projects, the rest dead in the water (remember Harry Styles as StarFox?  Eternals post-credits, anybody?  ...anybody?).  

I also don't just sit and watch Marvel movies over and over like I did.  Most of the latest phase ones, I've seen once.  And I don't rewatch TV series, mostly.  So how fresh is any of this in the minds of people who have taken to very casually watching Marvel, knowing a truck will back up shortly with more Marvel than they can handle?

But, yeah, Marvel really pulled it off for a while there.  It wasn't perfect.  There's some odd choices in there.  But Infinity War and Endgame both feel earned in a way that few things in movies ever really seem.  

Infinity War pulls all those threads together from the 18 preceding films, and Endgame revisits key moments, putting new spin on the characters, showing how they've grown and changed, or how they can revisit those old wounds with new eyes.  People may not *like* that this happens with a an array of super-science nerds, aliens, wizards, Hulks and talking woodland animals, and fair enough.  In some ways, that should make it deeply unrelatable and therefore *bad*.  

I don't care.

Infinity War still lands.  It pulls together threads that have been appearing since Avengers, drawing in our wide net of characters, scattered and already in a bad place.

It's a comic book movie that actually does what some of the best comic stories do - takes you to a point where all is lost, despite the best efforts of these gods in brightly colored clothes.  It's worse than the conclusion of Empire Strikes Back, which is mostly a *personal* dark chapter - that movie does not end with the Rebellion in tatters, for example.    Now we have a challenge that isn't just about knocking the right heads to win the day.

Endgame is a monster of a film that drags you back through the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to both make the plot work, but also wrap up character arcs for our first Avengers.  And, really, everyone ends in a pretty satisfying place (RDJ smartly making sure they wouldn't recast him).  

And maybe that's what people haven't liked as much about Marvel since Endgame.  Have any of the characters been given the same ability to grow and change since?  Example: We got one very promising Shang-Chi movie, and then Marvel decided against all reason to put the character on ice.  We could be three movies in right now, headed for Doomsday.

It feels a lot more like shorthand or storylines cut off at the knees.  I *liked* Marvels for what it was, but was it a reasonable sequel to Captain Marvel?  Not really.  Did Sam get a fair shake as Captain America?  I think we can agree - no, he did not.  I didn't hate Thor: Love and Thunder the way the internet did, but I get that it felt goofy after Endgame.

Instead of the stories being about character growth, the movies became about the Marvel U and how many characters we could cram on screen.  And I think, really, that's what I was thinking about as we spent 6 hours and change watching Infinity War and Endgame.

So, was it worth it to see the extra features?

1.  First, we thought we'd seen all of the extras and bailed.  There are three.  Just FYI.  We saw two.

2.  I mean, maybe?  But it also made me realize we're going to be somewhat obviating everything that's happened between Avengers: Endgame and Doomsday except for maybe three movies and one show.  And that is wild when the *mass* of Marvel product has happened since Endgame.  But we'll see.

3.  It was maybe a mistake to actually retire Captain America, Iron Man, etc...  but old 'heads knew that when Marvel tried to move on.  

The other thing I pondered was how incredible these movies still are from an FX perspective.  Rocket still works seamlessly into scenes, maybe better than some other things I've seen in the 7 years since.  The environs are all *designed* in a way things could be but aren't in other movies (cough... Supergirl... cough...).  

Sometimes it's all too much - I still hate the magic disappearing helmets.  People zip-zapping across the cosmos like it's nothing can feel like nothing means anything (why were Tony and Nova stranded?  In every other sequence, it feels like it takes ten minutes to jump across the galaxy).  

But these are stylistic quibbles.  Thanos was so well conceived as a big bad, and structured so well into the Marvel U for so long, repeating it was always going to be hard.  And, to be honest, I was kind of disappointed when they decided to try to go with Kang.  And hadn't we just done timey-wimey type stuff?  Enough of that.  

Hopefully Doomsday will bring an end to the multiversal shenanigans for a minute.  I think we can agree, that's gotten to be overused.  

Anyway, we'll see what happens this Christmas with Doomsday, I suppose.  I do wonder how much tolerance for straight comic book nonsense people have if they aren't invested in the characters as characters first.

On a presentation note:  I accidentally bought tickets to a 3D showing.  I still think 3D is more of a problem than it's worth as I stop noticing the 3D usually 15 minutes into the movie.  Also, until the movie was 1 minute in, we were the only people in the theater.  I am still mad that one guy showed up and we didn't get a private screening we could talk over.

I also apparently have the bladder of a small puppy, as I got up to pee twice.  Working from home has spoiled me.