Avengers:
Endgame
has come at last, and its accolades and success are fairly won. This series deserves nothing short of
absolute praise.
For
11 years they've not only entertained us, but they've surprised us. They could have just told cliché stories of
superheroes and fed the comic book fandom with what they'd already seen; but
they determined to do more. They had an
ongoing story that broke into multiple paths of films and TV shows, and each
one had its own unique feel to it. You
had the obvious action stories, like the first Avengers movie, you had dramas
like Jessica Jones, you had wild comedies like Thor: Ragnarok, you had team
stories, like Agents of Shield, you had political intrigue in Captain America, you
had social commentary in Luke Cage, and on and on and on. And through it all, they had an ongoing
story-line that everything led toward in addition to their own individual
story-lines and character arcs.
There
were also more subtle unique elements to each story, as well as subtle
references to one another. Some might
call this nostalgic fan service, but in my view, these references were like
glue holding it all together and reminding us that this was one large universe
where everything connected.
Others
have been trying to emulate Marvel, but like Hollywood so often does, they
missed the one most important aspect: Marvel succeeded because it took a risk
on treading new ground. One cannot, by
definition, follow this formula. The
only way to emulate the Marvel formula to success is by taking those same risks
in a new direction. It was that
originality that we've all respected. To
be clear, yes, these were based off of comic books with a fan base and a long
history. However, the filmmakers
researched these books thoroughly to have a complete understanding of them, and
they took the characters and stories in new directions.
I
watched many of the MCU movies with a comic book crowd, the ones at Emerald
Knights. They knew the stories, but they
were still surprised and pleased with the way these stories were altered
because it was respectful to the source material, and it added to it rather
than rebuilt it. The new Star Wars films
have completely missed this concept, with Force Awakens being a copy of the
originals, and Last Jedi being empty undermining of expectations without
reason.
The
MUC movies were daring in the way they portrayed these characters and situations
in ways that honored the source material, but still found new ways to tell
them. THAT'S how they were original.
I
personally watched all the movies and shows as they came out. I've never been much of a superhero fan;
definitely not of these characters. But
they did such a great job of making us care about them that I had to see how
their journeys weaved through each other.
The characters altered as they went.
The filmmakers weren't afraid to change them from their iconic looks and
make massive changes to their environments.
And they weren't afraid to swap the characters in and out of the stories
of other characters, thus making the world more complete.
But
the accomplishment is even more than that.
Anyone who has tried to get a film made knows how espically difficult it
is. Most films never get made. In this case, they made 22 films over 11
years... with a new company. That
accomplishment is unheard of. I'm sure
the Academy Awards and other awards shows will ignore this while honoring other
films that accomplished far, far less. But
those who realize what they did, and how difficult it was to do it successfully,
will always know how monumental this achievement was. They deserve every penny of what they've
made.
#Endgame #Avengers #AvengersEndgame #TheAvengers #Marvel #MCU #MarvelCinematicUniverse
