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shadowscast(Four and a half years of nothing, and then two posts in two days! Wild.)
I have some more thoughts to share about Endgame, just for fun. These are not deep thoughts. I want to talk about some stories Endgame didn't tell, or more specifically: times when I thought I saw where the story was going, but I was wrong!
1) The Snap; The End.
Actually this isn't from Endgame, but from the end of Infinity War. When I walked into the theatre to watch IW, I was completely unspoiled (despite the fact that I saw it several days after its opening). And when I say "completely," I mean: I didn't even know that it was part 1 of 2. I thought that Infinity War was the end of the story arc. So I really, really expected the heroes to pull off a last-minute victory.
When the snap happened? When major characters started dissolving into dust? Wow, was I ever shocked. I remember my stunned thoughts running along the lines of: "Oh my gosh, they lost. That went a whole lot darker than I expected. Nicely played, Marvel Movieverse, I didn't think you had the guts. I guess all those actors' contracts were getting awfully expensive!"
And then there was the end-title card, with "The Avengers Will Return" etc., and I understood. But yeah, for a few minutes there I thought that really was the end.
2) A Scrappy Band of Heroes Defeats Thanos, Quickly Reverses the Snap.
For this one, I really have to give kudos to the movie-writers for the deliberate misdirect. Walking into Endgame, I was not unspoiled for the fact that several of the dusted characters had their own movies coming up, and I figured that they couldn't all be prequels, so I expected a snap-reversal of some sort to happen. (Me and everybody else, presumably.) When Natasha, Carol, Rocket, Rhodey, Steve and Thor set off to confront Thanos, I thought "Ah, okay, this is the story this movie is telling." I thought it was an interesting set of characters to toss together, but I felt a little disappointed by how straightforward the adventure seemed to be.
And then the whole thing was over in less than five minutes, and the real story was something else entirely. I was so impressed! Oh man, when we hit that 5 Years Later moment, I was stunned and delighted. Way to pleasantly surprise me, movie-writers!
3) Reset Button vs The Gifts of the Past Five Years.
Five years had passed. Ant-man had popped up with his time travel idea. And we were introduced to Tony and Pepper's adorable less-than-five-year-old daughter, Morgan.
So here's what I thought was being set up: a confrontation between the people who had built new lives and love in the past five years, and the people who had only lost, not gained. I thought that they were proposing to reverse the snap by going back in time and preventing it—which would then undo everything in the five years following, including Morgan's very existence. An unbearable choice, pitting the people who wanted to keep going against the people wanted to hit 'revert to previous save file'. And I guess it would have been Civil War redux, with Cap on one side and Tony on the other.
Anyway, I quickly discovered that I was wrong; this universe's time-travel mechanics (such as they were) were explained, and it turned out that the five years wouldn't be undone. Which made for a very different story, full of madcap adventures instead of gruelling ethical dilemmas. Probably a good choice, movie-writers!
4) Loki Saves and/or Ruins the Day, All Over Space and Time.
After Loki vanished with the Tesseract, I was distracted for the entire rest of the movie, waiting for him to suddenly pop up and save and/or ruin the day. Right through to the end of the credits, I was waiting for it! (I was unspoiled as to the fact that there was no end-of-credits scene. That's okay. I like sitting through the credits. I used to do it even before end-of-credit scenes were a thing! As a result, my friends and I were the only ones in the theatre in 1996 who saw the bonus scene at the end of the credits of James and the Giant Peach.)
I mean, what the heck was that about? You release the God of Mischief, and then there's no payoff at all?
I was sure that Loki's "the sun will shine on us again" line was going to tie in and be significant somehow. Loki wasn't really dead ... Loki only gave Thanos one Tesseract, he still had the spare from the other timeline ... SOMETHING. Argh! Anyway, yeah. So distracting.
What about you? Did you make some wrong guesses that you'd like to share? :-D
I have some more thoughts to share about Endgame, just for fun. These are not deep thoughts. I want to talk about some stories Endgame didn't tell, or more specifically: times when I thought I saw where the story was going, but I was wrong!
1) The Snap; The End.
Actually this isn't from Endgame, but from the end of Infinity War. When I walked into the theatre to watch IW, I was completely unspoiled (despite the fact that I saw it several days after its opening). And when I say "completely," I mean: I didn't even know that it was part 1 of 2. I thought that Infinity War was the end of the story arc. So I really, really expected the heroes to pull off a last-minute victory.
When the snap happened? When major characters started dissolving into dust? Wow, was I ever shocked. I remember my stunned thoughts running along the lines of: "Oh my gosh, they lost. That went a whole lot darker than I expected. Nicely played, Marvel Movieverse, I didn't think you had the guts. I guess all those actors' contracts were getting awfully expensive!"
And then there was the end-title card, with "The Avengers Will Return" etc., and I understood. But yeah, for a few minutes there I thought that really was the end.
2) A Scrappy Band of Heroes Defeats Thanos, Quickly Reverses the Snap.
For this one, I really have to give kudos to the movie-writers for the deliberate misdirect. Walking into Endgame, I was not unspoiled for the fact that several of the dusted characters had their own movies coming up, and I figured that they couldn't all be prequels, so I expected a snap-reversal of some sort to happen. (Me and everybody else, presumably.) When Natasha, Carol, Rocket, Rhodey, Steve and Thor set off to confront Thanos, I thought "Ah, okay, this is the story this movie is telling." I thought it was an interesting set of characters to toss together, but I felt a little disappointed by how straightforward the adventure seemed to be.
And then the whole thing was over in less than five minutes, and the real story was something else entirely. I was so impressed! Oh man, when we hit that 5 Years Later moment, I was stunned and delighted. Way to pleasantly surprise me, movie-writers!
3) Reset Button vs The Gifts of the Past Five Years.
Five years had passed. Ant-man had popped up with his time travel idea. And we were introduced to Tony and Pepper's adorable less-than-five-year-old daughter, Morgan.
So here's what I thought was being set up: a confrontation between the people who had built new lives and love in the past five years, and the people who had only lost, not gained. I thought that they were proposing to reverse the snap by going back in time and preventing it—which would then undo everything in the five years following, including Morgan's very existence. An unbearable choice, pitting the people who wanted to keep going against the people wanted to hit 'revert to previous save file'. And I guess it would have been Civil War redux, with Cap on one side and Tony on the other.
Anyway, I quickly discovered that I was wrong; this universe's time-travel mechanics (such as they were) were explained, and it turned out that the five years wouldn't be undone. Which made for a very different story, full of madcap adventures instead of gruelling ethical dilemmas. Probably a good choice, movie-writers!
4) Loki Saves and/or Ruins the Day, All Over Space and Time.
After Loki vanished with the Tesseract, I was distracted for the entire rest of the movie, waiting for him to suddenly pop up and save and/or ruin the day. Right through to the end of the credits, I was waiting for it! (I was unspoiled as to the fact that there was no end-of-credits scene. That's okay. I like sitting through the credits. I used to do it even before end-of-credit scenes were a thing! As a result, my friends and I were the only ones in the theatre in 1996 who saw the bonus scene at the end of the credits of James and the Giant Peach.)
I mean, what the heck was that about? You release the God of Mischief, and then there's no payoff at all?
I was sure that Loki's "the sun will shine on us again" line was going to tie in and be significant somehow. Loki wasn't really dead ... Loki only gave Thanos one Tesseract, he still had the spare from the other timeline ... SOMETHING. Argh! Anyway, yeah. So distracting.
What about you? Did you make some wrong guesses that you'd like to share? :-D
