It is a well-established fact that Martin Scorcese, the auteur behind some of cinema’s most memorable entries over the last 50 years, would prefer not to watch Marvel movies.
He’s compared them to amusement park rides, and made it clear that they lack the depth of character necessary to be considered true works of art.
In 99 out of 100 cases, an 80-year-old man saying that he doesn’t want to watch Iron Man would elicit, at worst, a shrug and a begrudging night in spent watching Buck Benny Rides Again. For whatever reason, the internet in general has decided that this isn’t one of those times. That they’d rather drag Martin Scorsese through a never-ending symposium of chiding what-ifs and low-grade bullying until either he says “Star Lord rules” or his head explodes.
In that vein, here are five ways that, if you really think about it, Avengers: Endgame was a lot like The Wolf of Wall Street.
They both have Jon Favreau
As mentioned above, Martin Scorsese says that he doesn’t care for Marvel movies. Alright. Hypothetical question: If that’s the case, why did he hire father of the MCU Jon Favreau, the star and director of Iron Man, to play anti-SEC powerhouse attorney Manny Riskin in his 2013 smash hit The Wolf of Wall Street?
The explanation is as clear as day. Martin Scorsese secretly loves the MCU. He secretly loves it so much he wants to kiss it.
The X-Men didn’t show up in either of them
Ask anyone who was around in the lead up to the release of Avengers: Endgame, and they’ll tell you that the hype was out of hand. Rumors ran rampant – maybe the Fantastic Four would show up. Maybe the Silver Surfer. Maybe, one theory suggested, the radiation from Thanos’ Infinity War snap was what caused mutations to begin to pop up around the world. Maybe this meant that the X-Men would finally be introduced to the MCU, fighting alongside the Avengers during the film’s climactic battle.
The X-Men didn’t show up for the third act of Avengers: Endgame. They didn’t show up in The Wolf of Wall Street, either. They’re basically the same movie.
They both made you think ‘Well, it was better than Shutter Island’
Every movie, no matter how beloved, is going to have its detractors. Some people thought that Avengers: Endgame was too mired in fan service. Some felt that The Wolf of Wall Street lacked a moral center, or that it was unnecessarily crass.
But both movies, when you get right down to it, had audiences walking out of the theater thinking “Man, that was significantly better than the 2010 Martin Scorsese thriller Shutter Island, which was pretty good, but something you don’t want to revisit frequently in the years that follow.” Everybody thought that. It’ll be on the back of the Criterion Collection DVD for Avengers: Endgame, The Wolf of Wall Street, or Shutter Island, if any of them ever makes it into the Criterion Collection.
They’ll both mess up your 10-year-old nephew if you take him to see them in theaters
There’s a possible world out there where you’re watching your 10-year-old nephew, and you promised to take him to the movies, and the only two options available are Avengers: Endgame and The Wolf of Wall Street. It might seem like an easy choice — kids love movies about securities fraud — but consider this:
If you take your 10-year-old nephew to see Avengers: Endgame in theaters, he is not walking out of that AMC the same person that walked in. He is going home fully traumatized, having watched Iron Man get half his face melted off, having watched Captain America age 60 years in five minutes, having seen Thor Odinson, the god of thunder, brought low by depression, alcoholism, and self doubt.
Likewise, if you take your fifth grade nephew to see The Wolf of Wall Street, he is going to go through some troubling new phases afterward, likely leading to a lot of parent teacher conferences regarding his use of adult language and sudden interest in quaaludes.
They both feature the Incredible Hulk traveling back in time to try to save reality
To be 100% honest with you, I fell asleep during The Wolf of Wall Street and I’m pretty sure I dreamed a lot of it. If this wasn’t one of those dreams, though? It’s wild how much these movies had in common.
