Do you like Superhero stories? It seems like a dumb question to ask when the context is that we're all watching the works of Marvel Studios. I was never one for the tights-and-capes genre as a kid, but starting around Winter Soldier, I found myself really drawn to the MCU. It's some of the best popcorn entertainment that's ever been made, and it's also, arguably, a whole new medium of storytelling disguised as discrete films (and now television shows.)
Wandavision began as a pure ontological mystery. The first two episodes showed almost nothing of an outside world, only giving us this filtered text of what appeared to be a sitcom inexplicably starring two superheros, but firmly outside of the superhero genre. The interruptions to that text: the Lynchian scene in which Vision's boss is choking and the odd beekeeper scene that Wanda "rewinds," suggest a beyond-the-sitcom reality but in a way that is richer in questions than answers.
My sister is a superhero skeptic. She's just not into the genre. But she was drawn to Wandavision because of the formal experimentation. As the show has answered more questions, she has expressed some disappointment in how everything is tying together so neatly. And while we haven't discussed the finale (the episode is titled "The Series Finale") I suspect she will have found it to be a culmination of that disappointment.
Let's get that spoiler cut up.
While I let myself get swept up in some of the red herring meta questions (like why Evan Peters was playing her brother) I think I kept my expectations within the format (some might say formula) of the Marvel movies. There was always going to be some kind of action-packed climax.
I think you can compare this a bit to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. That film's elevator pitch (no pun intended) would be Captain America in a 1970s conspiracy thriller. They even had Robert Redford, star of Three Days of the Condor and All the President's Men, in a prominent role within the movie to reinforce this genre connection.
But while Winter Soldier does concern a massive conspiracy and uncomfortable questions about what we like to think America represents versus what it actually does, it too does eventually culminate in a massive battle on giant flying aircraft carriers with a super-soldier battling it out against a cyborg (who happens to be his brainwashed best friend.)
Wandavision begins with this ontological mystery - a post-modern formal experiment based around a piece of Americana (the sitcom) and does also end with flying robots flying around as well as two witches hurling magical energy at one another.
The question is whether you can accept those trappings of the superhero genre and accept the depth of the characterization within.
Ultimately, though, I think that the show manages to keep things about Wanda and her journey. Yes, Agatha Harkness (who in the MCU seems more overtly villainous, a power-hungry leech on other spellcasters' powers) plays the role of the most dangerous antagonist. Hayward (who I think I miswrote as Haywood in earlier posts) is kind of just an annoyance but becomes a threat when he essentially uses Wanda to resurrect a version of Vision that is now a threat to her (though... let's get back to him.)
Still, the Hex and the entire transformation of the town is all on Wanda. Even if she didn't do it consciously, she kept them in a terrible state. Dottie's pleas to let her daughter at least come out of her room are heartbreaking, showing that Wanda's "precautions" to keep the town safe were actually torturous.
Ultimately, Wanda is forced to sacrifice her sons and this version fo Vision in order to free the town. Of all the people affected by her, only Monica seems ready to forgive. I mean, she did get superpowers out of all of this, so maybe she's in a better position to be magnanimous.
At the end of the story, the two "villains" are both neutralized (though not killed - this has got to be one of the few MCU things in which nobody dies. I think Ant Man and the Wasp might be the only other, not counting the post-credits snap scene?) with Agatha transformed back into Agnes, the nosy neighbor, and Hayward's illegal work on Project Cataract exposed, putting him under arrest.
White Vision, though, is an open end. While the version of Vision from this false reality was a sentient manifestation of Wanda's memory of him, he does manage to share the memories he contained with White Vision, who is the physical body that had been Vision previously. With memory and body combined, is this Vision actually the real one resurrected now? At the very least, Paul Bettany seems to still potentially have a job in the MCU.
When Wanda says goodbye to Vision as she allows the Hex to collapse and free all those people, he points out that they've said final goodbyes before, and so there might be a chance for another hello in the future.
On one hand, this leaves the door open for White Vision to return, and for that relationship to evolve. On the other hand, it does somewhat allow her out of the true letting go that has been her struggle this whole series.
At the very least, though, Wanda has discovered that her power is magical, and she demonstrates her willingness to learn about that art in her final battle with Agatha, "missing" the other witch intentionally to carve runes into the walls of the Hex itself, thus denying Agatha the power to act against her. With the Darkhold in hand (and yes, that's what the book is,) Wanda can now go on a journey to understand her power better and stop causing so much pain for others, one hopes.
There are two post-credits scenes. The first, in classic MCU fashion, sets up Monica's role in Captain Marvel 2, when an FBI agent reveals herself to be a Skrull sent, presumably, by Talos to ask for Monica's assistance out in space.
The second sees Wanda now living in a secluded cabin way out in some remote mountains. While we see her outside on the porch, as we enter the building, we find that her astral self is busy reading the Darkhold, much as Doctor Strange would study in his sleep at Kamar Taj.
However, while reading it, she hears one of her children call out - the same children who ought to have been erased once the Hex ceased.
Naturally, this seems to set up her role in the next Doctor Strange movie, but again, I do wonder if this undercuts some of the lessons she's learned in Wandavision.
Was this a show about her learning to control her powers, or to process her grief by accepting reality? I'll need a bit of time to digest, but it does feel a bit like the meaning of the show changed abruptly when the concept of magic, as opposed to vaguely-sci-fi superpowers, came up.
Still, flaws and all, I liked the show, and it demonstrates new potential for the MCU working in a somewhat different (but similar) medium.
No comments:
Post a Comment