Post by mikediastavrone96 on May 7, 2019 2:52:49 GMT
Okay, because we need to wheel this back to the main topic, I’ll just copy and paste some thoughts from another thread.
[prefer] Endgame, but there was one thing Infinity War did better, and that’s Thanos.
I had mixed feelings over how Endgame simplified him.
I feel like that was my only real issue with what was otherwise a kickass, spectacular movie.
I had mixed feelings over how Endgame simplified him.
Going back to Infinity War, the reason he was such a great villain was because, for most of the movie, he didn’t *feel* like a “villain” per se. Everything about his motivations, his actions, the genuine pain it causes him to acquire some of these stones, and his respect for those who dare to challenge him are such rich character traits. Obviously you don’t want him to succeed, and you shouldn’t really be rooting for him, but you fully understand *why* he feels he needs to do this, and so it makes sense why he does, because for him at least, it does feel rational. That’s some impartiality I wasn’t expecting out of an MCU villain.
But with Endgame, while he is still an intimidating figure, he’s lost something inbetween films. I get the intention, that it’s the heroes, not him, that make things worse by refusing to let go of the past, and so he feels he needs to go even further. But that’s the problem; in doing so, they rob him of that impartiality, and that overt “villainy” is a big step back from his more nuanced portrayal.
And I think that’s made worse because it’s not even the Thanos that *we* knew, but a pre-Infinity War who has no context whatsoever. Wanda’s face off with him is awesome AF, but without it being the “current present” Thanos, it’s not *as* satisfying as it could be. I’d have preferred if they’d just left current Thanos alive, and he somehow managed to regain strength, and then decided to obliterate everything when he found out what was being done.
But with Endgame, while he is still an intimidating figure, he’s lost something inbetween films. I get the intention, that it’s the heroes, not him, that make things worse by refusing to let go of the past, and so he feels he needs to go even further. But that’s the problem; in doing so, they rob him of that impartiality, and that overt “villainy” is a big step back from his more nuanced portrayal.
And I think that’s made worse because it’s not even the Thanos that *we* knew, but a pre-Infinity War who has no context whatsoever. Wanda’s face off with him is awesome AF, but without it being the “current present” Thanos, it’s not *as* satisfying as it could be. I’d have preferred if they’d just left current Thanos alive, and he somehow managed to regain strength, and then decided to obliterate everything when he found out what was being done.
I feel like that was my only real issue with what was otherwise a kickass, spectacular movie.
It was always more about his ego than some actual noble cause. If he really wanted to do some good, he would have taken the 10 seconds necessary to recognize "kill half of everything" is mindbogglingly stupid and the fact that Infinity War followed his character for an entire film without ever addressing that severely undercut for me any attempt at developing his character when you've got the flimsiest foundation ever and it's handwaved with little more than a couple lines about how his planet failed. Nothing seen, nothing felt, no real insight into his one-track mindset and it's never challenged at all. Endgame offers his first real challenge as he realizes his achievement is inevitable but threatened to be undone, and exposed his true colors as little more than a callous try-hard pretending to be the authoritarian father of the universe.
But then again, the way Thanos was explored in Infinity War as a character was my main issue with that film.