Stark staring
Am I wrong, or have Marvel movies changed what film stars are, changed them back to what they were? These charming, witty,
principled but troubled and surprisingly middle-aged heroes of Marvel
Phases 1, 2 and 3 aren't the kind of blockbuster surefire things I or
even my Dad grew up with. They're Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart, and like those
stars - and unlike the singular Schwarzenegger or Connery - they're
legion. If Disney really is buying all the cinemas and Netflix all the telly then the Studio System might be returning, and I
don't know what to feel about that because I've always loved old movies... That was one thought I had after "Avengers: Everyone". The other's a SPOILER, so anyone who doesn't
mind those, meet me under the table, and everyone else, BYE x"We're not beginning to... to... to mean something?"
Samuel Beckett, Endgame
SPOILERS, REMEMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She lets him die. "We're gonna be okay... You can rest..." The more I think about it the more gutted I am. I've never recorded on this blog before how oddly important Downey's "piping hot mess" has been to me. Iron Man wasn't a comic I knew anything about and I'd always found RD Jr a bit too get-out-of-my-way in previous films, but from "Iron Man 2" onwards Futurism was suddenly a thing again, and curiosity and hope, all served with newly smart grasp of the USA's unique relationship with fantasy, and this excited me. And I loved Tony Stark. So to see him finally diagnosed with a death wish, and to see that wish granted by the person who cared for him most was devastating. There were other reasons he had to die of course narratively speaking: as an idealisation of post-War America, Stark's mini-Hiroshima with the finger-click couldn't go without a reckoning (just as the earlier murder of Thanos had to turn Thor blurry). But I'd hoped for a happy ending with "Endgame", and feel something has been let go, and that it being let go is final proof it was untenable. And I don't want to type the words "Rest In Peace" again either I don't think. At least the alternative "Fare Forward" avoids the idea life's a chore. Ideally I'd just like to say from now on "Sorry you've gone"... Good film though.
Clark staring
I'm still processing my own thoughts about Endgame (loved some bits of it, really didn't love some other bits), but yes, that bit was very moving. Although it did make me wonder whether Pepper would feel slightly relieved in the long run because at last she'd be able to do what she specifically mentioned never being about to do, and stop trying to make him stop. It was never much of an enviable relationship, was it.
ReplyDeleteYes, I guess not. One of my biggest grumbles about these films I adore is the gap in our knowledge of that relationship following "Iron Man 3". Tony quits at the end of that but then is back at the drawing board in "Ultron" and we've no idea what Pepper makes of it. In "Civil War" she's left him, so that makes sense, but then in "Homecoming" she's back with no explanation, and that's the worst. I really cared about these guys.
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