Well, it’s been a few days now. Many fans are still recovering from the emotional onslaught that is Avengers: Endgame. For many, the film was the perfect (or at least near-perfect) culmination of eleven years’ worth of MCU storytelling. What began with Jon Favreau’s Iron Man in 2008 came to an effectively satisfying conclusion with Endgame. Notwithstanding, some fans still took issue with the film, and one scene in particular.
[WARNING: The remainder of this article contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame. Read on at your own risk.]
In order to survive and stop Thanos for good, the Avengers and all their allies must play the most epic game of keep-away ever. The Infinity Stones are embedded in what’s being called the Stark Gauntlet. Thanos is desperate to get his hands on (in?) it to this time snap all of earth’s life out of existence. The Stark Gauntlet ends up in Captain Marvel’s hands, and she must fight through a horde of Chitauri in order to try and destroy the stones. Joining her in the Avengers: Endgame ultimate “girl power” moment are Nebula, Scarlet Witch, Shuri and other women of the MCU. And people are upset. And by “people”, I generally mean men. The question is why?
Fans take issue with Endgame’s girl power
Here are just a few of the representative comments men are making on Twitter. Some are relative innocuous, being general complaints that the scene was “forced”, or notations that the scene was possibly politically motivated, like this:
or this:
Then there’s this guy who said the scene “bugged him”:
Some commenters went to more vulgar extremes, like this gem of a human being who called the scene bullsh*t:
All of this begs the question: What’s the big deal with a little girl power in Avengers: Endgame?
For eleven years testosterone has dominated the MCU. In fact, the franchise even made fun of itself for that fact, in a scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron. (Maria Hill pokes fun at Thor and Tony Stark’s “my girlfriend is better than your girlfriend” comparison.) With few exceptions, the majority of the MCU has focused on male accomplishment. So why do people have an issue with this one scene of Avengers: Endgame? Watching the strong women of the MCU band together is really that bothersome? There were other flaws with the film, certainly. I don’t particularly see how this scene is one of them.
Even if the scene was pandering, as the film’s writers seem to admit, so what? Why is it okay for Cap, Thor, Iron Man, Falcon, and the other guys to team up and kick some ass, but not the women? We’re talking one scene, out of a three hour movie, out of more than twenty films.
What are your thoughts on this subject? Were you okay with the girl power scene in Avengers: Endgame? And if not, why not? And how do you feel about the possibility of more diversity in the MCU going forward? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Vulture; Twitter
JJ Some people find fault like three us a reward for it!
Are these the same fanboys that said nobody would like Wonder Woman because… it’s a woman or all the bad publicity and discontent they tried to give Captain America from their mother’s basement because the captain was… a woman…
The dam film is not meant to cure cancer it’s entertainment it’s fantasy I understand the concept because I just go to eat some popcorn absent junior mints probly a cold beer and enjoy the escapism
And I use voice to text and it always doesn’t come out great , I’m really getting tired of it shirt.
I’m an exceptional proof reader right after I hit send
I thought the movie was awesome and perfect the it was. I have a fan of Marvel way before the movies and probably till I die. The so called women’s power scene was great and people need to get a life and stop nit picking everything!!!
I thought the movie was awesome and perfect the it I have been a fan of Marvel way before the movies and probably till I die. The so called women’s power scene was great and people need to get a life and stop nit picking everything!!!
People are so finicky nowadays. That scene, 10 years ago, would have never been a problem. It would have been seen as just heroes on a battlefield, finding time to meet up and fight. I don’t get people. And what’s sad is that it’s nothing Marvel is doing. It’s mostly just in people’s own heads all this agenda and pandering nonsense.
You’re an idiot. The point is that the scene was forced without any particular reason. It would have been just as bad if it had been all male. It was absurdly executed.
Agreed.
Even my daughter rolled her eyes at that scene.
If it had centered around Scarlet Witch, who has earned it, I don’t think anyone would have had issue with it.
It was centered around Captain Marvel. That in itself would have been kind of iffy as she’s a brand new character and hasn’t earned her place yet, however couple that with all the snarky comments that Brie Larson has made in interviews and her general unlikableness (yeah, probably just made up a word there) it felt forced.
Further, ignoring all of that, Cap Marvel *literally* had to wait for all of them to get out of her way so she could just force her way through the crowd and ships. The scene was forced, unnecessary and it felt more like a political commentary than an A-Force Easter egg, which is what it was apparently intended to be.
The point was that it was forced. It was never about women being super heroes, hell, it was awesome when Wanda kicked Thanos’ ass, one of my favourite parts. The women and men fighting together was natural, there was never any gendered thought towards it, and it was awesome. Seeing Potts in her own iron man suit was a surprising but good addition, and was still natural, she fits in, just like any other hero. But the all girls scene was forced. It could have been pulled off so much better.
That was one of my favorite scenes too (without the addtional U, ha!).
What is surprising me is that no one is talking about how Wanda *actually broke Thanos’s sword*, the very same sword that destroyed Cap’s nigh indestructible shield.
Wanda is insanely powerful, she really doesn’t even know how powerful she is. It’s like every movie she’s in her power doubles. Keep it going.
No one seemed to notice Wanda broke the sword, but when he actually throws it into the van, it’s a full sword, not broken. It even appears broken in the split second before he throws it.
You don’t see the problem? Yeah, tell us another one. You know the problem, and you’re purposefully and maliciously declaring the contrary.
The poblem is not political. The problem is artistic and logic. It just makes no sense at all, even in the incredible world of Marvel, that those women that DON’T EVEN KNOW EACH OTHER, would team up for absolutely no reason, being free all at the same time and place to do just that. It’s absolutely impossible, even in a world where time-travel is possible. It’s a moment where the film stops, a different one starts, like a commercial break, and then it resumes. And that exactly what happens to immersion of the viewers. Even women magazines are criticizing it. It’s insulting to women in Hollywood and at large. So be ashamed of this article.
The message itself wasn’t the problem, or at least to me it wasn’t; it was just the way that they inserted it. It felt silly and instantly ruined the immersion for me. I have nothing against girl power scenes or messages in movies but it just felt so random. It would’ve worked much better if there had been a scene where they all gathered prior to going into battle in a meeting to discuss a gameplan and one by one, each woman steps in to give their input and the scene ends with them all being in agreement or offering words of encouragement or something like that, but having them just randomly and conveniently popped up at that very moment just for that scene after we literally JUST saw them all scattered and fighting separately in the middle of a MAJOR battle, made me cringe.
It was an A-Force reference from the comics. I didn’t see anything more “political” than any of the other comics references in the movie.
Given that they’ve come out and said so, yeah.
Given all that Brie Larson has been talking about in the meantime, snark and all, especially with her being centered, it felt very political.
My daughter even rolled her eyes at that scene and she has barely kept up with the real world drama concerning Larson.
There’s nothing wrong with the scene fundamentally. But it certainly seemed forced. Wasp, Wanda, Danvers, Mantis, Okoye, Pepper , Valkyrie and others are all part of different teams & they do not know each other. It would have made more sense if they were still shown fighting as part of their own team. For example Okoye left her King for this girl power scene which seems kinda deviation from the story set in Black Panther. Same goes fro Mantis leaving Drax, Peter & Nebula for the sake of this girl power scene.
It was simply illogical for ONLY the female characters to randomly come right next to each other. They also did not even know who each other were. The message was great but execution was absolutely horrendous.
Seems to me that men are ‘threatened’ by the fact that women are just as strong as them. I’ve heard it all since the movie and I LOVED that scene, I cheered in the theater over it. The men snickered and I just laughed. Captain Marvel is the strongest of them all and they hated that too. The fact is that men have preconceived notions and are stuck in the 1920’s. Fun Fact: Girls are pretty damn strong, we bring life into the world and men just cry when they have a cold. Girl’s can kick butt, and most can kick a man’s butt too.
Yup. Forced. Chuckled when many is lined up. She looked lost. And why would Gwyneth paltrow open her helmet so we could see how angry she was, and someone could shoot her in the head? Wtf? Silly that. No prob with lady heroines, Wanda kicking Thanos’s butt was ace, but they should have kept captain marvel male. He was far more popular in the comics too, and would have made for a better cap marvel film. Brie Larson cap wasn’t even popular in the comics! Saw x men dark Phoenix today. Actors brilliant, film crap but it was still better than captain marvel.
Yup. Forced. Chuckled when mantis is lined up. She looked lost. And why would Gwyneth paltrow open her helmet so we could see how angry she was, and someone could shoot her in the head? Wtf? Silly that. No prob with lady heroines, Wanda kicking Thanos’s butt was ace, but they should have kept captain marvel male. He was far more popular in the comics too, and would have made for a better cap marvel film. Brie Larson cap wasn’t even popular in the comics! Saw x men dark Phoenix today. Actors brilliant, film crap but it was still better than captain marvel.
It’s a little late for a post but the scene was stupid.
If your whole goal is to demonstrate that women are powerful, then integrate them better into the movie doing powerful things instead of condensing it all into 1 out of place, stupid scene. Any one of half of those women could have flown that guantlet right to the other side without an issue. There’s nothing wrong with displaying women with power; shoehorning into into something so obvious though takes away from the immersion of the movie. Have them fighting everything right along with the men doing just as well or better or whatever instead of ALL of them abandoning whatever they were doing in the middle of a BATTLEFIELD to have a girl’s fight out that defies logic and basic storytelling principles.