Monday, April 29, 2019

Greetings from the MCU

On Sunday, Paul and I met Cheryl at the Silver Diner in Potomac Mills, which now has vegan "eggs" benedict with tempeh "bacon"! Then we went to see Avengers: Endgame. With a few points of aggravation, I really loved it.

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I would have considered it worth the price of admission just to see Steve Rogers wielding Mjolnir and the girl power fight with Carol, Okoye, Shuri, Hope, Valkyrie, and whatever Pepper's name in the suit is. Also Thor's scene with Freya, though I got tired of Comic Relief Thor particularly when it was mostly fat-shaming and treating PTSD like a joke, so I really hope we're actually getting an Asgardians of the Galaxy movie in which he gets more to do. It's kind of sad that a rat stepping on the quantum equipment contributes more to saving half the galaxy than some of its mightiest heroes.

I loved so much Tony stuff. Tony and Steve and all the apologies. Tony and Peter Parker. Tony and his dad. And the extended Science Bros (since Scott must be added in with Tony and Bruce despite having far fewer PhDs) -- I just liked the emphasis on science as crucial to salvation, as opposed to faith. I still want to know exactly what was up with Hulk in Infinity War but I approve of Professor Hulk. I loved most of the Steve stuff too, though really not the ending -- the dance, sure, and Sam getting to be Captain America, awesome, but Steve staying hidden in domestic bliss in the past (under a fake name? How did Peggy cover up his identity even or especially if she was working for SHIELD?) while HYDRA digs in and Bucky gets tortured...that seems as unlikely to me as Tony choosing his lake house over coming back, making peace with Steve, and trying to save the world again. Using "Hail Hydra" against Hydra in SHIELD is both funny and fair, but the romantic ending feels contrived to me.

And I am really, really sad about Natasha, but I did not (as the internet apparently did) feel that her death was a referendum on broken women or women with low self-esteem or anything like that. She died almost exactly as Bruce Willis did in Armageddon, leaving someone who loved her sobbing and begging to change places, so that she could save the world. In Age of Ultron, she looks out from an elevating Sokovia and says that there would be worse ways to die than saving the world with such a view. She doesn't have superpowers, she isn't going to survive the same things as Hulk, Thor, or even Tony in the suit. Someone had to die on Vormir and it seemed very in character for her -- not because she feels broken but because she feels so determined that she can out-fight Clint for the privilege.

Things that just made me happy: the whole theater bursting into applause when Spider-Man reappeared, when the Wakandan army came to the fight, Stan Lee's cameo, Young Hank Pym's cameo. Also so very happy to see Jane Foster even for one minute, and Alexander Pierce, and Janet, and Jarvis (though if that makes Agent Carter canon then I need a map of the timeline with Steve vis a vis the events of the show), and Peggy herself in the 1970s, and the Ancient One astral projecting Bruce out of Hulk, and Korg and Meek though I wish they'd been better for Thor. I wanted a bit more substantial Captain Marvel -- she was all strength here, not planning, and she got to the crucial fight almost too late -- and I would have liked a bit more T'Challa, but I assume they're both getting more movies so I understand why this one was more about the Original Six plus Rhodey, Pepper, and the surviving Guardians.

And of course I wanted more Loki, but I assume the TV series will tell us what happens when his timeline split after the Battle of New York. And I'm sure there is more, but it's late, so more tomorrow! We got home in time for Supergirl, which could not help but feel super-anticlimactic after Endgame, then the second episode of Les Miserables, which was a nice shift and so well-acted. Then we watched the end of the Battle of Winterfell, which was so dark and had so little dialogue that it was impossible for dilettantes like us to follow, but it did not make me want to go binge all the episodes we've missed!

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