{"id":6819,"date":"2019-05-02T22:14:18","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T22:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog-proxy.atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/?p=6819"},"modified":"2019-05-03T02:03:28","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T02:03:28","slug":"avengers-endgame-and-the-fine-art-of-empathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/avengers-endgame-fine-art-of-empathy\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Avengers: Endgame’ And The Fine Art Of Empathy"},"content":{"rendered":"

WARNING: Before we go any further – well, before we even begin – I\u2019m going to let you know that what lies ahead is completely spoiler-laden. If you haven\u2019t yet seen\u00a0Avengers: Endgame, turn away now. That being said, if you don\u2019t really care about spoilers, go forth and read with impunity!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In 2008, after being delayed by a broken hip, Roger Ebert finally caught\u00a0<\/span>Iron Man<\/span><\/i>. He watched the film, like he had countless before it, and loved it. \u201c<\/span>With many superhero movies,\u201d he said in\u00a0<\/span>his review<\/span><\/a>, \u201call you get is the surface of the illusion. With\u00a0<\/span>Iron Man<\/span><\/i>, you get a glimpse into the depths.\u201d A few years earlier, he wrote, “For me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy.” <\/span><\/p>\n

Twenty-two films later and this still rings true. A<\/span>s a whole, the makers of the MCU have worked tirelessly over 11 years to create something we haven\u2019t seen before: a vast, expansive universe with complex and (eventually) diverse characters that we came to know and love.\u00a0<\/span>Endgame<\/span><\/i>, as a result, was a loving farewell to the first heroes we got to know as people as well as superheroes: Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, and Thor\u00a0Odinson.\u00a0<\/span>We\u2019ve watched them fall in love, suffer terrible losses, risk everything, and struggle with their own demons.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to say that the MCU is\u00a0<\/span>just<\/span><\/i>\u00a0creating comic book movies as if that were something to look down our noses at. Low-art, as it were. Something worthy of the unwashed masses but beneath the intellectual elite. Frankly, this is a nihilistic approach to life and I\u2019m not about that. Instead, I say that\u00a0<\/span>Avengers: Endgame<\/span><\/i>\u00a0is the final domino in a carefully calculated, populist portrayal of human empathy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The MCU Has Conditioned Us To Care<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s start with Natasha \u201cBlack Widow\u201d Romanoff. Once the only Avenger in the MCU, she started out feeling largely ornamental in the worst possible way: as\u00a0<\/span>a sexpot whose fighting abilities<\/span><\/a>\u00a0were almost exclusively used as a comedic counterpoint to men\u2019s fragile egos, she felt like a prop. As the universe grew, her depths were allowed to shine through. In the first\u00a0<\/span>Avengers<\/span><\/i>, we watched her\u00a0suss\u00a0out the truth behind Loki\u2019s deceptions under the guise of bartering for Barton, revealing shades of loyalty. But it was in\u00a0<\/span>Avengers: Age of Ultron<\/span><\/i>\u00a0where she showed true vulnerability and humanity.\u00a0<\/span>\u201cYou still think you\u2019re the only monster on the team?\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0she asks Bruce, talking about her forced sterilization as a young woman in the Red Room. It was arguably the first time we really saw her as something other than a lethal heteronormative male fantasy. She gained autonomy and, suddenly, became one of the MCU\u2019s most empathetic characters.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of the same can be said about Clint \u201cHawkeye\u201d Barton. Another largely ornamental character, he\u2019s barely tertiary in the first\u00a0<\/span>Thor<\/span><\/i>\u00a0and served as more of a plot device than an actual character in the first\u00a0<\/span>Avengers<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span>Age of Ultron<\/span><\/i>\u00a0allowed us to see his family, the heart and soul of his character. From that moment forward, Clint made sense and burrowed into our hearts.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bruce Banner entered the MCU rather clumsily with\u00a0<\/span>The Incredible Hulk<\/span><\/i>. Despite Edward Norton\u2019s best intentions, the Hulk\u2019s standalone entry into the MCU just didn\u2019t work and painted him with a fairly melodramatic brush. Once adopted by Mark Ruffalo, we glimpsed a different Hulk, one that would come to be seen as less pitiful and much more endearing. As with Black Widow, we saw hints of his demons in\u00a0<\/span>Age of Ultron<\/span><\/i>\u00a0and aspects of his fragility in\u00a0<\/span>Thor:\u00a0Ragnarok<\/span><\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Infinity War<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a character, Thor felt one dimensional throughout both\u00a0<\/span>Thor<\/span><\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>The Dark World<\/span><\/i>, so much so that not even Frigga\u2019s\u00a0fridging\u00a0could truly propel his arc forward. It wasn\u2019t until Thor and Loki\u2019s final moments with Odin in\u00a0<\/span>Ragnarok<\/span><\/i>\u00a0that he gained real depth as a character. The start of\u00a0<\/span>Infinity War<\/span><\/i>\u00a0saw him lose the last shreds of what he valued most as his actions became\u00a0fuelled\u00a0by rage and vengeance.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Both Steve and Tony start as polar opposites of one another. In the first\u00a0<\/span>Avengers<\/span><\/i>, just as everything\u2019s about to explode,\u00a0<\/span>they butt heads<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for what would be the first of many heated arguments. \u201cThe only thing you really fight for is yourself,\u201d Cap says. \u201cYou\u2019re not the guy to make the sacrifice play. To lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re a laboratory experiment, Rogers,\u201d Tony snarls back. \u201cEverything special about you came out of a bottle.\u201d At that moment, they were both right. Tony was anything but a hero; he was a self-serving, begrudging savior who still relished the limelight and believed himself invulnerable to both physical and emotional damage. Steve, on the other hand, was the personification of morality to a fault; he judged the hard decisions Fury had to make as if he were somehow above them, able to leap ethical quandaries with a single moral platitude. Over the course of the next several films, they would grow together, split apart, and eventually become the best versions of themselves.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

‘Endgame’ Was The Payoff Of A Decade Of Empathetic Viewing<\/h2>\n

Enter Avengers: Endgame.<\/i><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Natasha\u2019s self-sacrifice hurt. At first, it felt cheap and tawdry, as though it did a huge disservice to her character.\u00a0 But after sitting with it throughout the rest of the film, and long after the credits rolled, it made sense; it hurt and felt unfair because of our attachment to her<\/span>, a credit that can be given entirely to the team that wrote her, and Scarlett Johansson\u2019s portrayal.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The same can be said of Clint. The film opens by forcing us to watch as his entire family, the very reason he didn\u2019t come back for\u00a0<\/span>Infinity War<\/span><\/i>, gets swept away in a puff of dust. His loss feels huge, and it hits with a thunderous force. By the time it comes down to the choice of either his or Nat\u2019s self-sacrifice, it is unequivocally a lose-lose situation. Where Gamora\u2019s death was sad, Nat\u2019s was devastating, and the possibility of losing Clint felt equally tragic.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When Bruce donned the Infinity Gauntlet, prepared to bring back the other half of the universe, the audience waited with bated breath, anxious it would kill him. He spends the rest of the film wounded, a fragment of his former self, and potentially never to be the same again, whether physically or emotionally.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thor\u2019s struggle with PTSD toyed with humor as the ultimate deflection. How many of us who suffer from anxiety and depression have used humor to hide our pain? I know I have, on countless occasions. It\u2019s easier to hide behind silliness than allow yourself to be seen for the raw nerve that you actually are. Thor has been through hell and back; the repeated betrayal by a brother he finally grew to love right before that redeemed brother was murdered in front of him, the inability to save his mother, his father\u2019s lapse into senility and eventual demise, a homicidal sister, the destruction of his home and the slaughter of his people. By\u00a0<\/span>Endgame,\u00a0<\/span><\/i>he\u2019s broken. How much more empathetic can you get than allowing a literal God to sit in his brokenness, and rise to the occasion only in as much as he feels capable?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then there was Cap and Tony.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Boy Scout finally learned the value of selfishness. He spent the last few films losing hope and growing weary while failing to recognize that his happiness and well-being matter.\u00a0<\/span>Endgame<\/span><\/i>\u00a0gave Cap permission to both save the world and be harmlessly selfish, while finally sharing a dance with Peggy and keeping a long-overdue promise.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the guy who\u2019d never make the sacrifice play did just that. He spent the last few films struggling with an inability to reconcile his ego and his conscience.\u00a0<\/span>Endgame\u00a0<\/span><\/i>gave Tony the tools to become the man his father never could; a hero.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the aftermath of\u00a0<\/span>Endgame<\/span><\/i>, not unlike\u00a0<\/span>Infinity War<\/span><\/i>, some have complained that these deaths and tied-up loose ends felt wrong. But the bottom line is that i<\/span>t was never going to feel right, because letting go of people that we love, even fictional characters, is always hard. Pretending it isn\u2019t negates the human capacity for empathy, and closes us off to some of the most touching parts of the human experience.\u00a0<\/span>Endgame<\/span><\/i>\u00a0is the culmination of an 11-year-long exercise in empathy. It brings characters we\u2019ve spent a great deal of time with to their natural conclusions, allowing us to glimpse further into the depths of the MCU, and solidifying this box office behemoth of a franchise as an empathy machine for the masses.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WARNING: Before we go any further – well, before we even begin – I\u2019m going to let you know that what lies ahead is completely spoiler-laden. If you haven\u2019t yet seen\u00a0Avengers: Endgame, turn away now. That being said, if you don\u2019t really care about spoilers, go forth and read with impunity!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In 2008, after being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":6924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60,50],"tags":[40,37],"class_list":["post-6819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avengers-endgame","category-editorial","tag-featuredpage","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6819"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6948,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6819\/revisions\/6948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}