Republic of the Philippines

Region 1
Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College
North Cluster
Sta. Maria Campus

“AVENGERS Endgame”:
A Post-Modernist/Feminist Criticism

Presented by:
CHRISTIAN EA
MSEE Student

Presented to:
APOLO S. FRANCISCO, PhD
VP for Academic Affairs/Professor

May 18, 2019

 Republic of the Philippines
Region 1
Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College
North Cluster
Sta. Maria Campus

I. INTRODUCTION
In this particular paper, I’ll try to dwell into analyzing the film, “Avengers Endgame” using the
post-modern literary theory. This is because I think, that this particular theory suits really to the
analysis of the movie. For, postmodernism can be sensed in three different ways or relatively I can
say, there are three different senses. It can be sensed as a ‘cultural dominant’ defining a distinct
historical era, a philosophical concept marking the end of the ideals of the enlightenment and an art
historical concept defining a style of expression. Thus, I think, this movie actually presents a historical
transformation of visual narrative forms in terms of challenging logic of binary oppositions, features
of such. Further, this paper will also present some sort of feminist approach which is also under post-
structuralist theory.
Intertextuality, fragmentation, irony, pastiche, and recourse to various past forms, genres, and
styles are the most commonly identified characteristics of postmodern film. These features may be
found in a film’s form, story, technical vocabulary, casting or some combination of these.
Postmodernism can even be found in the form of cinematography or directional style of the film or
even some small or minimal senses like hair-styles, costumes, set-designs and many other things that
could be just simple elements of a film.

II. BODY
Let me just present some of the features of the theory:
Intertextuality and Fragmentation
It is an important element of postmodernism with its acknowledgement of early literary works. It
usually refers to meaning something by some other thing – in a very easy word. It could also mean
translation in various segment of visual media. This is widely seen in all movies and “The Avengers
Endgame” is no exception. This movie hinges on intertextual references, meaning it relies on
references to other texts (movies) to make sense and carry meaning. This movie is undoubtedly an
example of intertexuality because it is a sequel or a continuation of the same story, broken up due only
to the constraints of the audience’s attention or filmmaker’s budget. The characters grow in their own
arcs through each movie but fairly linearly across the sequels. The Endgame has many character arcs
that intersect at various points and require the presence of the other characters, who are also in the
midst of their own growth, to come to completion.
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Metafiction
An attempt to make the reader aware of its functionality and sometimes, the presence of the author
in writing, many postmodern authors feature metafiction, which is writing about writing. Authors
sometimes use this technique to allow for flagrant shifts in narrative, impossible jumps in time, or to
maintain emotional distance as a narrator. Thus, the Avengers endgame is really an example of
metafiction because of the time machine. It used or jumped in time to maintain the sequel of events
and to solve their journey towards their search for the stones. The Avengers hunt down Thanos and
try to take the Infinity Stones back to undo the damage. Unfortunately for them, Than os has
already destroyed the Stones. There is nothing they can do.

Fast forward five years. A rat happens to crawl over a machine that allows people to
travel through the Quantum Realm and accidentally releases Ant-Man (Paul Rudd). He’s been
stuck in the Quantum Realm for half a decade, even though it feels to him as if only five minutes
have passed. Ant-Man rushes to Avengers headquarters to tell his fellow superheroes that they
can travel back in time and collect all the Infinity Stones.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) agrees to work on a machine that would allow the
Avengers to time travel — on one condition. He has started a family in the last five years and
thus does not want to alter recent history in any way. Instead of trying to rewind time once they
have the Time Stone and undo everything that has happened in the last five years, they decide
to use the Infinity Stones to bring back everyone who disappeared in this curr ent timeline, five
years later. That way, Tony can preserve his daughter’s life, while saving dusted characters like
Spider-Man (Tom Holland).

Pop Culture

Time travel in pop culture can get rather tricky. Just ask J.K. Rowling, who destroyed all the
Time Turners in Harry Potter just to avoid dealing with time-loop-related plot holes. Avengers:
Endgame tries to side step these problems by establishing certain time travel rules.
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Ant-Man theorizes that because he was able to jump forward five years in what felt like five
minutes, the Avengers could travel back in very little time. They use Pym Particles (created by
his mentor Hank Pym before he disappeared in the snap) to shrink to subatomic size and enter the
Quantum Realm. Tony just has to mess around with some of the technology for a day and ta -da!
He’s solved the problem of how to control where they land in time using tiny little watches.
Anyway, back to the plot.

Irony
For many postmodern authors, using irony in postmodern writing, became the hallmarks of their
style. For example, isn't it ironic that Tony went back to past and said "No amount of money could ever
buy a second of time"? He meant that he can not atay with his father now that he knows that his father
wasn't that bad what extent he always thought of him.

Second time Tony wanted to just make his childhood version understand what his father actually was
and how much he actually cared but he just can't, he would change the whole timeline, that's why he
said, “no money could buy you a second time”.

One thing more is, Isn't it ironic that out of all the Avengers, some being really powerful, that Iron man
made the greatest sacrifices? It's also ironic that Captain America got onto Tony in the first Avengers
saying that Tony only thought about himself and he would never make any type of sacrifice play. Yet
Tony saved New York from getting nuked. In Endgame it was Tony that made time travel possible.
And it was Tony that sacrificed his own life to save the Earth.

Pastiche/Bricolage
Combining or pasting elements of previous genres and style of literature for creating a new
narrative voice or commenting on their contemporary writing, postmodern authors used it. This is
obvious when Hulk was searched and had conversed with the Scott lang and Black Widow, convincing
him to join once again in search for the stones, in a particular restaurant, it was seen that Hulk has
already been wearing t-shirts when in fact it’s not before or he wasn’t used into it before. This
particular scene was supported also when three kids went along with him to take selfies, which I think
creates a more interesting feature for him as a hero also.
Technoculture and hyperreality
Society has moved beyond capitalism into the information age, in which we are constantly
bombarded with advertisements, videos, and product placement. Many postmodern authors reflect this
in their work by inventing products that mirror actual advertisements, or by placing their characters in
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situations in which they cannot escape technology. In this movie, technologies are well used and
became useful in the adventure and journey. From computers used, gadgets, the place f Avengers and
even their costumes down to their costumes are all products of technology and hyper reality. These
technologies have made and have supplemented the very good cinematography and virtual reality of
audiences. In addition, the reinvention of Hulk, who embraces his powerful side to become a smart
and sensitive green guy. Marvel comic book fans already know this incarnation as Professor Hulk, and
in “Endgame,” he is building impressive technology, keeping his temper, and even cracking some
jokes. “I know! It’s crazy,” he can be heard saying in a pivotal scene that reintroduces the character.
“I’m wearing shirts now!”

Essential to making Smart Hulk more of a complex character was the use of cutting-edge
performance capture technology dubbed Anyma. The Anyma system was originally developed at
Disney Research, and productized in partnership with ILM. In fact, ILM had been testing Anyma
since 2012, and the technology is being used for a few other movies that are currently in production
as well. However, “Avengers: Endgame” is the first film to feature an Anyma-captured character to
be released on the big screen.

The key difference between Anyma and previous performance-capture systems is that it is capable
of capturing a lot more information. “It analyzes pixel-level detail,” explained Earl.

Existing performance capture systems largely rely on dots that are glued all over an actor’s face
to capture basic facial expressions. Anyma on the other hand can capture pore-level information,
which can then used by animators to control over 200 individual facial attributes — think subtle eye
muscle movements, or different types of smiles. “It definitely created more of a cohesive face,” Earl
said.

Paranoia
Many postmodern authors write under the assumption that modern society cannot be explained or
understood. Scott Lang tends to discover that he was indeed in a state of trap and like in the state of
paranoia all of his life only to find out he was trapped for almost five years. For without the mouse
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who helped him out from that place, he would not actually help his fellow avengers in their quest for
the stones.
Magical realism
I think magical realism is also important postmodern feature which is the introduction of fantastic
or impossible elements into a narrative that is otherwise normal. Magical realist novels may include
dreams taking place during normal life, the return of previously deceased characters, extremely
complicated plots, wild shifts in time, and myths and fairy tales becoming part of the narrative. The
return of characters during the end game is an example of magical realism and all of their battle against
all the antagonists in the film support that this is an example of magical realism.
Unpredictability
Being uncertain about the whole story or the end of the story – is another main
characteristic of postmodern film. This is also a very famous technique in the current media world to
keep the audience attached to the visual production. This is indeed a key player of many successful
visual production. Truly, the death of Black Widow and Ironman is unprtedictable. It could not be
accepted by audience since they are one of the protagonists, and we have this notion that protagonists
don’t actually die but they survive.
On FEMINISM…
“Endgame fails its female characters by devaluing them and forgets its characters of
color entirely.”

 Black Widow: A loss of “Girl Power”

Speaking of strong females, it is absolutely devastating to see Black Widow, a constant

onscreen member of the Avengers, being killed off in the finale. She is displayed as having
refreshingly stoic qualities, but I doubt it was only because Marvel didn’t want to deflect from the
Endgame narrative to delve into her history. She deserved a stand alone feature film where
audiences would witness her past tribulations to be able to appreciate her magnificent sacrifice in
this film. Even then when her death was gravely felt by the Avengers she didn’t receive a funeral
like Tony Stark, but rather was remembered with a dark realisation that they were her only family.
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Besides Black Widow, the only other female presence in the main cast is Nebula played by Karen
Gillan. She is quite important and is responsible for major plot twists. Because of her part android
physicality, her abusive father and Marvel super villain Thanos is alerted of the Avenger’s plans.

Black Widow was the second Avenger to be introduced onscreen when she made her debut in
2010’s Iron Man 2, and the only woman in the Avengers’ original lineup. For years, she was the only
woman superhero in the Avengers franchise, full stop, until Gamora finally made her appearance in
2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy — and Black Widow doesn’t even have superpowers.

Yet Marvel has consistently wasted Black Widow. It has sidelined her, saddled her with weak
storylines, and failed to give her the kind of star billing it has bestowed on the men of the original Avengers.

 Sister’s Rivalry

Nebula has a strong background of Stockholm syndrome because of Thanos who repeatedly abuses
her regardless of which she still wishes to serve him. This is partly because of her dysfunctional relationship
with her sister, Gamora, who is their father’s favourite. Nebula is competing with her his sister for Thanos’s
approval, but soon realises how wrong she is when the two sisters reconcile.

In a cathartic moment, the Nebula in the present shoots the Nebula from the past who refused to see
that their father kept pitting Gamora and her against each other so that they would not turn on him. In a
learning curve for both sisters, they finally trust each other and fight together against their shared enemy.

On Binarism of Male and Female Centrism

The representation of women in this film is a show, a very small and patronizing show that came
too late. These female characters don’t get reasonable screen time or dialogues that tell us what they’re
thinking. Other than a soft nod to female solidarity in the last bit of the last sequence, the film sticks to its
own “MALE” club agenda. Narratively speaking the story of defeating Thanos was built to exclude
women from the forefront, yet fan service forces writers to include them in this ‘the future is female’ era.

Its broader meaning refers to the frequency with which women in comic books are killed in order
to motivate the men in their life to achieve some grand act of heroism:
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Essentially, has been treated like an object who has less human worth than the men around her.
She is valuable to the extent that her pain can motivate them.

In Endgame, Black Widow sacrifices her life so that Clint Barton, (Hawkeye), can retrieve the
Soul Stone, which will grant the rest of the Avengers the power to bring back everyone who died when
Thanos snapped his fingers during Infinity war.

I can say that the single most egregious thing about Endgame is that it’s a film in which two
members of the original Avengers lineup die but only one death is treated like a major event worthy of
extended onscreen mourning. On rewatch, that’s another thing that makes the battlefield girl power moment
feel even more glaringly patronizing. The film can’t even be bothered to give her a proper funeral.

This lack of representation, while represented on a larger scale in most popular movies-
particularly franchise movies- is especially jarring in this film, which focuses on a superhero team that, in
comics, is filled with women. This sends a message to women and men of all ages, telling them that only
white men can be superheroes, and that women are not valued enough to have starring roles in films, or
skilled and strong enough to fight, protect, and have strength like superheroes.

On Deconstruction of Male vs. Female Centrism

The Endgame is not all bad, from a feminist standpoint. For one, all three of the female
characters are shown as strong, powerful, intelligent women, though they are not all violent, allowing
for not only women who are just as capable as their male peers as superheroes, but women who are just
as capable as their male peers as businesswomen and leaders. This representation of different kinds of
strengths can show young girls that there is not only one option to be strong. Another good point is the
lack of male gaze. Of course, in saying this, it should be recognized that simply not having a negative
aspect of many modern films should not be considered an achievement in itself, however it is a breath of
fresh air that not only is the lead female not simply there for male enjoyment, but in fact, she is arguably
the point of view character of the film, even assigned her own ‘damsel in distress,’ who happens to be
male.

That is not all that is positive about this character, the Black Widow. One of the most enjoyable
and most feminist things about her is how she uses socialized assumptions about women and damsels to
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her advantage, and turns them on their head. Twice in the film she plays to what is expected of her as a
woman, acting weak and frightened and easy to defeat, all the while she is in actuality interrogating the
men who believe they are interrogating her. In both cases, she then proceeds to physically or verbally
defeat her opponents soundly, with the second opponent being the main villain of the entire movie. This
aspect of her character, and the way her strategies are dealt with is incredibly refreshing, giving a clear
example of a female character winning on wit, intelligence, and strategy alone, and showcasing just how
silly the assumptions that led her opponents into her trap are.

III. CONCLUSION

The “Avengers Endgame” is really suitable for post- modern criticism, it dwells on the different features
of postmodernism and of course binarism making it a feminist text also. I think that, the biggest strength of this
film is growth. Every character grows through the events that occur and we rally behind our heroes in their
darkest hour. It ended the game for every character in the story grew and be developed facing their personal
lives.