Why Thanos is a villain – / Movie

(Welcome to The unpopular opinion, a series in which a writer defends a much-maligned film or is interested in a film apparently loved by all. In this edition: the big villain of the Marvel film universe is a bit nil.)

"I'm inevitable," sings the terrifying Thanos, an alien, at different times in Avengers: End of the game. He declares this both as a provocation for the Avengers, who try to prevent it from destroying humanity in two or in whole. But Thanos also claims that heroes can not always save everyone. The inevitability of Thanos or a large-scale villain who wants to destroy all that is dear to us is counterintuitive to his presence. Thanos is indeed inevitable, but within the Marvel film universe, he is not a villain who excites at a distance.

Major Spoilers for Avengers: End of the game to follow.

A relentless but boring baddie

Before I lose you completely, I will happily clarify some points: although I am not a superfan of Marvel (I have not read the many decades of comics leading to the MCU), I have seen all Marvel movies and enjoyed a lot of them. Few movies in the MCU are downright bad (although I'm watching you, The dark world and The incredible Hulk), and a handful of them are really delicious, funny and exciting. Avengers: End of the gamefor me is not so good, even if it's a) better than War of Infinity and b) the second best result Avengers movie, including the 2016 Captain America: Civil War, in which the Avengers all appear even without their name in the title.

One of the reasons why End of Game For me, it's as simple, and as destructive, as understanding why the Avengers heal their wounds in the beginning: Thanos. The promise or threat of Thanos has been part of the MCU since its origins Avengers film in 2012, when the post-credit scene revealed that he was the orchestrator of Loki's enslaving humanity plan that went wrong. The inevitability of Thanos began at that moment – it was not a question of if he would get his hands on all Infinity stones, just a matter of when. And for almost six years, the breadcrumbs continued, short cameos in movies like Guardians of the Galaxy to more post-credit appearances. Thanos was coming. As he says, he was inevitable.

And in War of Infinityhe has completely arrived, even going so far as to kill Loki in the opening scene. (Let's not talk about the fact that the opening scene of War of Infinity everything but cheerfully erases the emotional catharsis and the climax of Thor: Ragnarok. But that's the case.) At first glance, Thanos is the most terrifying villain of all. He is implacable, he is too big for a hero to do, and he refuses to listen to reason. Thanos did not literally stop War of Infinityas he acquires the six Infinity stones, he places them in the brilliant gold Infinity gauntlet and slams his fingers, eliminating half of humanity, as he said. There is no doubt: Thanos is a bad guy. It's a genocidal monster! He is hard! He is formidable! He is … boring! A kind of snooze!

A villain looking for a personality

It's not necessary for every villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be as charming as it is evil. Of course, the first Big Bad of the franchise, Thor's foster brother, Loki, managed to be both, largely because Tom Hiddleston brought a rude and mischievous charisma to the role. (Of course, Loki is the god of malice, so he'd better go out that way.) But just last year, the excellent Black Panther Erik "Killmonger" Stevens featured a villain as complex as anything the series has imagined. As described by Michael B. Jordan, Killmonger is a murderer, but he has also gained weight and does not have the same size as most villains in the series. He is not cruel, despite his anger, and he is not devoid of humor, although he wants to inflict great pain on millions of innocent people.

Thanos, on the other hand, is exceptionally Dour and without humor. By design, it's in a lot less of End of Game than War of Infinity, a film that makes the villain the protagonist. (Is it a coincidence that War of Infinity is, at least for this writer, much less pleasant than End of Game? No!) ​​But Thanos, as it is written and designed, never feels remote as a character with the depth and personality required to work. He's terrifying, of course, but he's also a very bland villain who leads a team of nasty villains to destroy the entire Avengers. War of Infinity and the climax of End of Game.

A casting triumph

The Marvel film universe has flourished over the past decade, not because of its villains, many of which are largely harmless. He flourished thanks to his heroes, especially thanks to the way these heroes were chosen. Now, can you imagine anyone other than Robert Downey, Jr. or Chris Evans or Chris Hemsworth or Mark Ruffalo in the role of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the Hulk? (Fair is fair, of course: Edward Norton played the first iteration of the Hulk in the MCU, Ruffalo was a very smart correction, if necessary, of course.) In almost all cases, the way Marvel selected the actors to play her heroes in these movies have been enormously successful. And much of what works in these great team films concerns less global issues and more the characters who work there.

The inevitability of Thanos is honestly a problem. In any comic adaptation, of course, there is a certain degree of inevitability. If there is a hero, there will always be a villain to stop and lives to save. And if there is a villain, there will always be a bad plot to hatch. But in this level of inevitability (or, frankly, predictability), you can have some charm or personality.

What we learn about Thanos in War of Infinity, such as Why he might want to decimate the universe or if we should find his goals understandable in the least, lacking in the best. He is concerned about overcrowding, to the point that killing only half of the universe will suffice. And Thanos is ready to do anything to get what he wants, even sacrificing Gamora, the adoptive girl he loves the most. (Let's not admit the adoptive girl that he adopted after killing his current family.) Thanos' writing makes the idea that he likes someone who or something like a real fight – it seems to kill Gamora less because he considers it a necessary sacrifice. of a true love that he has, and even more so, because he just wants this stone of soul.

An opaque character

End of Game do not give any more history to Thanos – we see it first when the Avengers and Captain Marvel arrive in his quiet little garden, hoping to re-acquire the Infinity Stones. When they realize that the stones were "reduced to atoms" after using the Stones, Thor cut off his head. Now, considering that this ax blow comes after about 30 minutes in a 3 hour movie, it's a bit of a surprise.

It is also an exception welcome surprise, because Thanos is talking in a deeply fictitious way about how he treated his other adopted daughter, Nebula. Thanos has a lot of moments like these in End of Game, where he pontifies (or, in the language of Pixar The Incredibles, he monologues) about his projects or his goals. And whenever that happened, I desperately wanted Thor's ax to swing again. Or, at the very least, I felt like Philip Seymour Hoffman in that moment Punch-Drunk Love, wanting to repeatedly cry to Thanos just for Shut up.

To be fair, it's hard to blame Josh Brolin. Although his portrayal of the character may not be as vivid as one might hope, the scenario that he gave does not allow for much improvisation. The inevitability of Thanos exists from macro to micro; even at the beginning of War of Infinityhe can not have a sense of humor because we are supposed to think that he has thought about the serious consequences of his actions. (We are supposed to think this without the script clearly clarifying these consequences or the opinion of Thanos about them.) Part of the problem is entirely visual: the CGI used to give life to Thanos makes the villain largely literally colorless. , like his other extraterrestrials. This gives it a slightly caricatural look, but as Thanos has no sense of humor (and the movie does not seem to have any sense of humor about it either), the effect is almost pretentious.

The last time Thanos announced that it was inevitable End of Gameit's when he thinks he slams his fingers again with the Gauntlet Infinity. This time he plans to undo all of humanity, not only half. But to his surprise, he no longer has the Stones – it's Tony Stark who has them and responds fiercely: "And I'm Iron Man." In the blink of an eye, he creates the servants of Thanos, then Thanos evaporates into dust.

The moment is satisfying enough because it means that Thanos will stop talking. But this is not exhilarating, as was the case when Captain America brandishes Thor's hammer or the other heroes return from their state of disappearance. Thanos simply sits, imitating his own action at the end of War of Infinityexcept this time he is frustrated and silent. This is a very strange send for a character whose presence hovered above the MCU like a black cloud, a bandage that the franchise had to rip off. Now he's gone, thank God, and in his absence, let's never talk about Thanos again.

Cool messages from anywhere on the web: