It comes off as pandering. I'm not white, but goddamn... shit like personal politics come across as annoying to me. I also don't go out of my way to get offended for things that I don't agree with, but when people try to "represent" me or my background on film, it comes across as pandering 99% of the time. I doubt there'll be a movie that fucks with both sides just for the hell of it.
As for Endgame, it's a good matinee movie. 3/5, not nearly as good as Infinity War. The movie thankfully stops its use of humor to lighten the dramatic mood during one key part.
It's unfortunate but I think just a product of the times we live in.
I think you could look back on this movie and reflect on how Fat Thor was popular with the audience but also consider if they had made "she's fat now" the butt of the joke for one of the female leads people would probably express some extreme displeasure online.
Same with Star Lord taking a boot to the balls. Of course "man gets kicked in the balls by a woman" is a tried and tested way to raise a laugh but nowadays you feel like there's people waiting to get upset about the "misandry" on display there. On the other side I cannot imagine that Marvel could show something like Gamora kicking StarLord in the nuts and then she turns round to walk way but Drax gives her an almighty boot in the vag and not be met with some very harsh criticism.
They have to pander to some extent since a big part of any movie like this is going to involve playing to the audience.
They also have to navigate the various "outrage mobs" online, unfortunately.
This is basically how you end up with a double standard but they want to please their audience so here we are, for now.
I think the superhero genre is largely seen as the domain of the white straight male and as a direct consequence of that any character that bucks the trend tends to be defined by they race, gender or sexuality. It's interesting to note that Marvel hasn't gone there yet regarding sexuality.
So "it's a superhero movie but this one is a woman" kind of probably misses the point about how these things have become popular in the first place.
I was really struck by the video of those dudes standing beside the Black Panther movie shouting "this is what white people feel all the time".
I'm sitting there thinking "wait, you think I only like these movies because the characters are white?"
It doesn't help to much that people have managed to spin this narrative that white dudes are enraged because they saw an action movie that stars a woman or a person of color. I'd really like to think that there aren't too many people who are all that upset because Marvel decided to make a Black Panther movie.
And, of course, that narrative attracts trolls because such things offer fantastic trolling opportunities.
Like, I think you can see the one scene with all the women in the last act of Endgame and roll your eyes at the obviousness of it but not be angry or upset that the directors decided to do this. It was a cringey moment for sure but really it was only a moment and these movies are already full of cringey or cheesy stuff so... meh.
Problem is that people have turned it into a battleground and so you feel like you have to watch what you say even though your "complaints" are at least partially valid.
