In 2019, Martin Scorsese described the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in a way that the finale of “WandaVision” turned out to be true. “The closest I can think of to them, as good as they are, with actors doing their best under the circumstances, are the theme parks,” the filmmaker told Empire. “This is not the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional and psychological experiences to another human being.”
In the end, “WandaVision” proved that much of Scorsese’s synthesis was true – but not all of it. About 30 of the 50 minutes of the final were part of these rides. This diversion happened to star witches throwing energy balls at each other while floating in the sky. Nosy neighbor Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), revealed to be witch Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), gives up her glamor to face Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) while Wanda’s Vision (Paul Bettany) confronts her resurrected pewter twin as the government weapon.
Cars fly through houses; the heroes are pounded on the asphalt. A newly overpowered Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) has defeated a possessed mysterious man posing as Wanda’s brother, Pietro, but who turns out to be an anonymous guy whose last name sounds like “boner.” And, spoiler alert, Wanda wins by losing everything. She created a sitcom version of Westview, and her most loving version of Vision, to escape her grief. The only way it could end was painfully – not the kind of bruises or blood. The kind that tears your heart apart.
It doesn’t matter. This being an MCU creation, it all ends up breaking down. . . and explosions, screams and flames. The amusement park is exciting, as the man said, and not a particularly thrilling version of it.
However, once the fights are over, the finale contradicts Scorsese’s assumptions about superhero titles and reverts to the attributes that make “WandaVision” such a marvel. To save the people of Westview, she puts an end to her perfect little world and locks Agatha into her role of “curious neighbor” as Agnes. And in her last heartbreaking moments with Visoin, Wanda does her best to convey the emotional and psychological experience of her humanity to the synthetic being she loves.
“Wanda, I know we can’t stay like this,” Vision says quietly as her disappearance draws closer. “Before I leave, I feel like I need to know: What am I?”
“You, Vision, are the piece of the spirit stone that lives in me. You are a body of threads, blood and bones that I created,” she told him. “You are my sadness and my hope. But most of all, you are my love.”
He sheds a tear, kisses her hand and observes: “I have been a voice without a body. A body, but not human. And now, a memory made real. Who knows what I could be next? .. We have said goodbye before, so it stands to reason – “
She ends, “- we’ll say hello again.”
It was not a simplistic roller coaster dialogue. It was the magic of romantic cinema as Scorsese defines it in a later article published in the New York Times. If, as he puts it, cinema expresses “the complexity of people and their contradictory and sometimes paradoxical natures, the way they can hurt and love each other and suddenly come face to face with themselves”, then “WandaVision” is the first MCU title that meets Scorsese’s qualification.
And the only way to do it was as a TV series.
“WandaVision” should not be dismissed for straying from the standard genre canvas of violence to work through her feelings in creative ways, not to mention in a way that clarifies who Wanda is and, not just, who Vision is. and who Monica Rambeau has always been at the heart.
Granted, Wanda’s excursion has the miserable effect of torturing a town full of innocent passers-by, leaving us with the feeling that her desperation has done lasting damage to their psyche and reputation. None of the more interesting Supers are fully standing all the time. Comic book fans understand this, as do people who enjoy daytime and prime-time soaps.
That’s why Marvel put the Wanda Maximoff story on TV, a medium whose larger networks have historically biased women – certainly on ABC for most of recent history. Presumably Disney, a brand founded on princesses and brides, still has it.
Since “WandaVision” is a bridge between Disney + and theaters, and between television and movies, why not build this bridge with the story of a woman who is also a witch, a wife and a mother, and whose the only job is to keep the world running and happy and stable? The best TV versions of superhero stories were about women, after all. This was true for “Wonder Woman” and certainly for “Agent Carter”. Even “Legends of Tomorrow” became a necessary vision once the woman took over as team leader.
This woman is simply asking us to step away from the roller coaster of deadly lasers and fist-fighting, allowing us to better appreciate the beautiful anguish in thoughts like, “What is grief, if not to love to persevere?”
Bettany delivered this line with all the contemplative softness she deserved and in a calm setting free from threats or even loud noises.
“WandaVision” has launched a lot of think pieces because there are countless ways to think about it. But its ending proves that someone at Marvel took to heart what the great filmmaker said.
The frustrating part for moviegoers may be that the result was a beautiful, thought-provoking TV series, as opposed to a revealing but concise superhero feature film. But all of the artistic dimensions dear to the filmmaker come down to one concept, intimacy, that no action franchise movie can channel with any depth.
TV can. Therefore, “WandaVision” worked best when battles were psychological and emotional rather than relying on a heavy VFX approximation of raw conflict. This is also why such a story could only play out and tell about a woman who does not have superhuman strength, exceptional combat skills, or bulletproof skin, and who was not entirely a hero or villain. Wanda is simply a person crippled with grief.
Whether that benefits the series or its detriment depends on what you expect from a Marvel title, DC title, or any other comic book imprint.
Common complaints among people who dislike “WandaVision” often boil down to its lack of fight scenes. My husband, who only watched it because he didn’t want to miss any repeatable narrative threads in future films, wrote it like a soap opera.
But all comic book hero stories are soap operas. What are soaps if not stories illuminated by loss, psychological trauma, despair, tortured loves and revenge? If you mourned Iron Man’s death at the end of “Avengers: Endgame,” it’s probably because the MCU spent nine feature films building the emotional profile of Tony Stark, including three “Iron Man” films. “, building the simplest bones of a romantic relationship between Stark. and Pepper Potts along the way.
His great love has been threatened, kidnapped, seems to die and is reborn. Sorry to pop your bubbles, but it is premium foaming material.
And on TV, using playful imagery and gutted dialogue instead of putting amplified savagery front and center, we’re given a sense of that human complexity and paradoxical nature that Scorsese was talking about. In its quietude, the show provided us with a backstory on these two people while bringing us face to face with a part of ourselves.
Sadly, there won’t be a sequel to “WandaVision”, only the next chapters of the stories born there and made within the plot of another character – specifically “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and Spider-Man’s next movie, each guaranteed to be stuck with stunning visuals and digital destruction.
Equally unfortunate, at least from a filmmaker’s point of view, does not mean neither her nor the other Marvel series to follow, the next one being “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”, are likely to influence their releases. in theaters to target the level of psychology or emotional complexity that Olsen, Bettany and Parris bring to their performances here. Instead, they will further blur the line between TV and movies, between the need for streaming services and the uniqueness of the theatrical experience.
If we’re lucky, we’ll have more shows like “WandaVision” in the market, stories that ruffle that emotional danger that Scorsese hails instead of finding new ways to show amazingly muscular beings breaking bones. Stories of heart and heartache are interwoven in our memories more permanently than a thousand artificial fireballs and bursts of rage, and there are many more we could use.
TV and comics share something else that theme parks don’t have, which is that success stories can end, but the stories that give birth to them aren’t completely dead. So, the finale of “WandaVision” may not be a farewell to all she has strived to accomplish. Maybe it’s just “so long, honey.”
All episodes of “WandaVision” are broadcast on Disney +.