How Marvel Fills Time in between Infinity War and Endgame
Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Captain Marvel. You have been warned.
Films split into two parts have their own problems and benefits that we could go into, but today I wanted to talk about how Marvel has managed to actually fill time effectively in between these two parts. Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Captain Marvel more recently, had the unenviable job of satisfying the MCU fan base whilst giving almost no ground on the results of Thanos’ actions in Infinity War. Being able to entertain people enough so that they aren’t angry that they are not seeing the results of Infinity War whilst also keeping the film in people’s minds so they are ready for Endgame was a difficult task, but to my mind was done fantastically. I’m going to go through both of the films in between Infinity War and Endgame to show how they were great choices to fill the time.
Starting off with Ant-Man and the Wasp. The snap and its tragic moments directly afterwards were obviously key impactful moments in the MCU timeline, and creating a film to come directly after that without addressing the results of Infinity War is difficult to do. They could have gone with a more serious film in the universe like another Doctor Strange (although the first iteration, like a lot of MCU films, has its own share of comedic moments), but going the comedy route was definitely a better choice. It doesn’t take away from the importance of Infinity War and Endgame whilst providing some much needed laughter. It does this by mirroring some of Infinity War’s themes and moments without repeating them to the point that it becomes a lesser version of the previously mentioned film. One aspect of this is the parent-child relationship represented in Ant-Man and the Wasp by Hope van Dyne and her mother, Janet. Of course, it is by no means on the same level of destructiveness and instability as Thanos and Gamora’s relationship in Infinity War, but it brings about similar plot points between the parent and child. Of what they might think of you after time apart; of whether they will support you in your goals; and most importantly, of losing the other through loss or other circumstances. The relationship between Hope and her mother isn’t the only one used for this mirroring. There is also the relationship between Hope and her father, and, of course, the one between Scott Lang and his daughter. The latter takes a back seat from the limelight compared to the first Ant-Man, which makes sense considering the emphasis on Hope in this second film. The relationship between Hope and her father isn’t really used much during the film. This does make sense as the primary goal of the main characters is to save Hope’s mother from the quantum realm, but it still would’ve been nice to see more development between the two, especially since you have such a prestigious actor in Michael Douglas. However, Hope’s father, Hank Pym, does have a small character arc with Scott as the film slowly resolves the anger between the two after Scott used the Ant-Man suit to help out Captain America in Civil War. Hank acts as Scott’s father: disappointed in his actions, but ultimately still cares for him and embraces him after Scott proved he also cares. The other aspect is the theme of unity against a stronger but more isolated enemy. In Infinity War, the Avengers, Wakanda, Doctor Strange, and the Guardians of the Galaxy all team up to take on the big bad guy that is Thanos and his powerful snap where as Ant-Man and the Wasp, albeit at a smaller scale, has Ant-Man and his X-Con security firm teaming up with Hank and Hope to take on Ghost. There is a slight snag in this comparison, which also happens to be one of my few complaints about the film, in that Ant-Man and the Wasp suffers from having too many villains. Ghost is a perfectly good villain, with a nice arc and a great performance by Hannah John-Kamen, but with the addition of both a side villain (Sonny Burch, played by Walton Goggins) and a surprise villain (Bill Foster, played by Laurence Fishburne), there is no clear villain that the protagonists, as well as the audience, can focus on. To confuse things even more, the primary villains of the film (Ghost and Foster) end up as allies towards the end of the runtime. In isolation, this switch from enemies to friends works as characters arcs quite well. Ghost doing what she does to simply save her own life and Foster helping her due to Ghost’s father, Foster’s friend, dying during the experiment which caused Ghost’s instability makes sense. This switch along with Burch taking a minor role leaves the film with a dysfunctional vision. However, I still think this idea of a group of heroes teaming up to take on the villains of the film mirrors Infinity War reasonably well, especially after the supposed villains of Ghost and Foster joining towards the end. It brings about the sense of unity that Infinity War started and that Endgame will most likely fulfill. A side point I also wanted to talk about was the post-credits scene. It consists of Hope and her parents prepping Scott to go into the quantum realm so they can do some more research. Whilst inside, the snap happens and we see Hope and her parents all dusted as a result. So this contributes to keeping the snap relevant and in people’s minds without detracting from the main part of the film. It also adds a tiny bit of comedy at the end with Scott clueless as to what has happened as he is now stuck in the quantum realm, leaving the audience with no idea how he is going to get out so he can help the Avengers in Endgame.
Moving over to Captain Marvel, this was probably the harder one of the two to get right. In between the two most important films in the franchise so far, they decide to introduce a completely new character. On the surface, this sounds a little stupid, but, considering their plans, it makes sense. She will, firstly, be a major character for Endgame and probably end up being the character that allows them to travel to Thanos, or something similar that will drive the plot forward. And, secondly, as Robert Downey Jr. will most likely be leaving the franchise after Endgame, she is supposedly going to be leading the Avengers from Phase Four onwards. I had heard of these rumours a few days before seeing the film. I initially thought the idea was ludicrous, but after my viewing of the film and discovering who the character was, it makes a lot more sense. The film sets up quite a nice story for our lead, Captain Marvel. The film brings about a lot of themes to do with identity and mentorship/leadership. Captain Marvel’s power just shown in this one film is incredibly powerful already, and that is without the twenty-four year gap where she’ll most likely be training to improve her capabilities. This all supports the idea that she might take over as the Avengers’ leader in place of Iron Man. So introducing this character a film before those in which she takes command makes a lot of sense. However, it still was a big task to craft an origin story just before Endgame. At this point in the MCU, people are already comfortable with their established heroes, simply wanting to see the result for all their patience with the Thanos storyline. You could make the argument that this should have been one of the first films in Phase Four, but the way the film turned out had the right message and pure entertainment value for it to precede Endgame. The identity part of Captain Marvel’s message is to do with being yourself and approaching things in your own way. Captain Marvel throughout most of the film is a hot-headed mess who rushes into everything she does. A regular storyline might have the character change that throughout the course of the film to become a ‘better person’ and they do indeed hint at this with her mentor stating the idea of her developing into a better version of herself. But they take the idea in a different direction that I highly welcome. She does temper herself a little bit, but doesn’t lose what makes her Captain Marvel. At the end of the film, she grows but still approaches the tasks in her own way. Not only is this a good message to send, but also sets up a potential re-emphasis of this theme in Endgame. Defeating someone as devious and determined as Thanos could use a unique and new perspective like that of Captain Marvel. The other side of the film’s message of mentorship/leadership is a theme we will see continue forward into Phase Four if Captain Marvel does indeed take the lead of the Avengers. She is initially mentored in Captain Marvel by Jude Law’s character, Yon-Rogg (who I mentioned earlier), but after learning of the truth surrounding the Kree-Skrull war ends up against him. The ending has a stereotypical line from Yon-Rogg about not using her powers and simply fighting on an even playing field — something repeated from an early training scene with the two characters. She responds in a very unexpected but fantastic way by immediately using her powers to defeat him in combat and replying to his proposal with a simple ‘I have nothing to prove to you’. It’s strange because such a simple line provides not only an addition to the message sent throughout the film but also shows fantastic character growth and something that makes a lot more sense than how the scene could have also gone in a typical Hollywood fashion. The way she already established herself as a competent leader gives me a lot of hope for whatever the MCU has planned for Phase Four onwards. Captain Marvel was simply a fun film, giving a good balance of comedy and fun action throughout. This is what was needed following on from Ant-Man and the Wasp. Two comedy focused films would’ve taken the focus of keeping Infinity War on people’s minds away. But with Captain Marvel, we get a small amount of fun before the tense and destructive three hours that will be Endgame. At the end we get a couple of post-credits scenes. The later scene works quite well and emphasises the fun nature of Captain Marvel. The scene depicts the cat (or flerken) coughing up the Tesseract onto Nick Fury’s desk, pointing out how it ultimately ends up in the possession of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the first Avengers film.
All these points come together to adequately fill the space between the two parter that is Infinity War and Endgame. I would’ve, preferably, not had any films in between the two, but I understand that Marvel wants to space out the two films that will probably make them the most money in the entire franchise and add more films to obtain even more profit. Very excited to see Endgame and how the MCU moves forward with the franchise from Phase Four and onwards.
Higher further faster, baby.
-Boad
