Now that the box office results has given the #1 spot to Avengers: Endgame, toppling Avatar (to #2), it confirms that film culture as we used to know it has toppled as well.
Avatar held sway as the “Greatest Film Of All Time” for so long that a lot of people began to believe it (and some resent it). James Cameron's 2009 feature 3D spectacle had often crowned awards ceremonies and took over box office records until now which just announced the aberrant new results.
Avatar was never my favorite, yet it was a beautiful, dynamic choice. It had been a convenient winner due to technological pedigree. Generations of film-lovers agreed that Avatar was “the #1 movie of all time that changed cinema forever".
But Marvel has inspired few filmmakers to make movies. (Try finding its visual extravagance among Indies!) And it’s doubtful if Marvel roused many film critics (camp-followers of said impoverished Indies and Hollywood blockbusters) to write more insightfully about cinema than did their dismissive predecessors. Most critics remain absolutely hostile to the sumptuous influence MCU had on Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, & Justice League.
So Marvel doesn’t herald a revolution in cinematic appreciation; rather, it represents warped consensus. Its choice merely replaces Avatar to show a new era’s unoriginal taste and obsessive interest in commercialism and soullessness that’s been building in certain film cliques at least since 2008's Iron Man. The herd mentality rules. (A John Wick III victory might convince me that a blockbuster renaissance was afoot.)
Avengers: Endgame is a 21st century favorite–and perfectly titled for that.
