Avengers: Endgame
Marvel fans in Hong Kong almost booked many seats before this week's theatrical release of Avengers: Endgame (2019) which series made the biggest box office hit in the history of Hong Kong film since 1897 (some archive source referred 1896 which same with Japan). The recent local box record was US$20,585,253. (1) In fact, its franchise film box office records exceeded the box office giant Avator (2009) due to top 2 films ranked on the list.
READ MORE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films_in_Hong_Kong
''After half of all life in the universe was killed due to the actions of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, the remaining Avengers and their allies must reassemble to revert those actions in one last stand.''(2)
In fictional story tales, the good always win over the evil. And the justice side is the winner. However this Marvel franchise untraditionally broke the general principle of narrative stories successfully in 2018 with Avengers: Infinity War (2018). That was a surprise when we saw Thanos turns Marvel heroes into dust in the infinity war.
Hitchcock said that the stronger the antagonist is, the more engaging the audience in the film.
He believed that his antagonists should be attractive and complex in order to awaken curiosity. The more flaws and insecurities a villain has, more the spectator will recognize his humanity and, as humans themselves, be aware of how malevolent he can be. This will incite vulnerability in the viewer, who usually has ambiguous impressions of these villains.
However Thanos is too strong like multi corporation billionaires, C.E.O.s who earn 312 times more money of average workers.
CEOs for the 350 largest US companies earned an average pay of $18.9 million in 2017, a sharp 17 percent increase from the previous year, according to a new study by the left leaning Economic Policy Institute. These estimates include salaries, bonuses, restricted stock grants, cashed-in company stock, and other forms of compensation for chief executives at those firms. Meanwhile, wages for the average US worker grew a paltry 0.2 percent during that time. (3)
The growing power gap among Thanos and Marvel heroes are cinematic equivalence of growing gap of inequality among CEOs and average workers. This is why we feel some kind of reality and apocalyptic atmosphere in this film. Supremacy of individual power is at the maximum level in this film. Thanos is the representative of all antagonists. We can say that the true protagonist is the antagonist who is more powerful than the protagonist. Thus, the antagonist becomes the protagonist in this film. It is dialectically new and meaningful.
Thanos is the ultimate antagonist in film history.
Notes
(1)https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&country=HK&id=marvel0518.htm Accessed on 4/16/2019
(2)https://www.disney.com.au/movies/avengers-endgame Accessed on 4/19/2019
(3) https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/16/17693198/ceo-pay-gap-income-inequality Accessed on 4/16/2019
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