Scarlet Black

            On Christmas morning after yoga I didn’t jump straight into song practice. First I shaved and showered and then I changed the A string on my guitar. I didn’t do my regular selection of songs but rather certain ones that I don’t usually play all the way through. I also finished playing “Le complainte du progrès by Boris Vian and now it’s ready to post on Christian’s Translations.

            I got caught up on my journal.

            I had a late breakfast of organic bacon with and egg and a toasted bagel while watching “Avengers Endgame”.

            Spoiler alert!

            It starts off right after Infinity War at the moment when Thanos turns half the people in the universe to dust. We see Hawkeye enjoying a picnic with his wife and kids. He turns around and when he looks back his family are gone. I thought that was a very effective beginning. Iron Man and Nebula are on a space ship far away from Earth and trying to get back here but their situation is hopeless because their oxygen will run out in less than a day. Suddenly Captain Marvel appears and rescues them. The surviving Avengers along with Captain Marvel learn Thanos’s probable location from his daughter, Nebula. They find him in a weakened state. They demand the Infinity Stones in order to bring everyone back but Thanos tells them he destroyed the Infinity Stones. Nebula confirms that of all the things her father is, he is not a liar. Enraged, Thor beheads Thanos. Five years later Ant Man emerges from the quantum realm. Even though he had been there for five years, for him it was only five hours. He contacts Black Widow and Captain America and theorizes that the quantum realm could be used for time travel. If that’s the case they could get the Infinity Stones before Thanos does and save the universe. They try to enlist Tony Stark but he has married Pepper and they have a daughter. He doesn’t want to change anything. They talk to Bruce Banner, who has figured out a way to be the Hulk permanently and yet still maintain Banner’s mind. Time travel is outside his field but he begins some time travel experiments by sending Scott into the Quantum realm. There are comical results as at one point Scott comes back as a baby. Stark finally gives in and figures out a way to make time travel work. They need to assemble the surviving Avengers in order to split up and go after the stones in separate teams. They find Thor depressed and ridiculously overweight, doing nothing but drinking beer and watching TV. He reluctantly joins them and they go back in time. The Hulk is able to convince the Ancient One to give him the Time stone when she learns that Dr Strange gave it away in the future. She trusts he knew what he was doing. But Stark and Scott fail to get the space stone when the 2012 Loki uses it to escape custody. Stark and Captain America must go back to 1970 to get an earlier version of the Space stone. Thor and Rocket go to Asgard where Thor gets a pep talk from his mother and urges him to eat a salad. Rocket extracts the Reality stone from Jane Foster. War Machine and Nebula go to the planet Morag to get the Power stone. Nebula retrieves it and gives it to Rhodes and he goes back to the present but something goes wrong with Nebula’s cybernetic implants. She is sharing the same network as her former self, who is still a dedicated slave of Thanos. The past Nebula [picks up signals from the future and Thanos learns that the Avengers are gathering the stones. Thanos captures the future Nebula.  Meanwhile the Black Widow and Hawkeye go to get the Soul Stone on Vermir. They learn, as Thanos did in the previous film, that a soul must be sacrificed to achieve the stone. Widow and Hawkeye fight over who gets to die to save the universe. Natasha wins. All of the Avengers return from the past, except that the past Nebula is impersonating the present one. The stones are placed on a gauntlet and Hulk puts it on. He snaps his fingers and everyone is brought back to life. But the past Nebula has opened a portal to bring Thanos to the future. He attacks with his army. The present Nebula and the past Gamora agree to fight Thanos together. Present Nebula kills past Nebula. All of the returned Avengers and the Black Panther and his army fight Thanos and his army. Captain Marvel returns to help turn the tables. Thanos gets the gauntlet but Iron Man takes the stones. He puts them on his glove and snaps his fingers, this dissolving Thanos and his army. This is too much for Stark’s heart and he dies. Captain America takes the stones back to their places in the past. He is supposed to return in five seconds but he doesn’t. Sam Wilson finds an old man sitting in the park. Captain America had decided to stay in the past and live his life. He passes his shield to Sam and appoints him the new Captain America.

            This was a great film. It made me cry and it made me laugh frequently. It was also an exciting action film, although it gets a bit busy with so many characters. I’m also still annoyed with Spiderman having too much Stark tech in his costume, especially the cybernetic spider legs that pop out.

            The death of the Black Widow in our time means that the upcoming Black Widow movie has to take place in the past. In terms of the films she is one of the most interesting Avengers. 

            It was such a long movie that by the time it was done it was too late for lunch and so I just took a siesta.

            When I got up I started making stuffing for my turkey. I removed the round loaf of raisin, cranberry and nut bread from the freezer, thawed it in the oven, cut it up into small chunks and sautéed them in garlic butter. I put the bread in a bowl, added some more garlic butter to the pan and then sautéed the hot Italian sausage that I’d also frozen. I mixed the sausage with the bread, but more garlic butter in the pan and then put the dressing back on the heat. After eight minutes or so I put the dressing back in the bowl, added chicken broth, thyme and sage, mixed it up and then got the turkey ready to stuff. I put the turkey in the oven. I expected it to take five hours but it only took four.

            While I was cooking I saw a cockroach for the first time in at least six months. I killed it. Hopefully it was just a scout but it was pretty young though not a baby.

            I drank a beer while I was cooking and had another afterwards.

            I had three potatoes, some steamed frozen shredded squash, a drumstick, dressing, cranberry sauce and gravy for dinner with another beer while watching, “Spiderman, Far From Home”.

            Spoiler alert!

            The story begins with lots of references to the fact that half the people in the universe had been disintegrated for five years. At Peter Parker’s high school they are calling it “The Blip" and it has created complications in that some students that were gone are now five years behind their friends that hadn't been turned to dust. Peter’s Aunt May says that when she rematerialized in her apartment there were already new tenants living. The woman living there thought that May was her husband’s mistress.

            Peter’s class is going on a tour of Europe and Peter’s plan is to buy a black dahlia pendant for Mary Jane and then to give it to her at the top of the Eiffel Tower after telling her how much he likes her.

            Happy Hogan seems to be trying to get close to May but he also has work to do involving Spiderman. Nick Fury keeps trying to get in touch with Peter but after what he’s been through lately and because of his plans with Mary Jane, he avoids answering the phone. The class arrives in Venice. On the first day a gigantic water monster rises. Peter asks his friend Ned to run to their room and get his costume. Meanwhile Peter grabs a discarded carnival mask tries to tackle the monster in his street clothes. Suddenly a costumed figure appears in the air who I recognize as Mysterio from the comics (I’m pretty sure I had Spiderman 13 in 1964 when Mysterio first appears). Mysterio is fighting the monster quite effectively with green energy blasts from his hands. It seems odd to see Mysterio being a hero, since I know him to be a conman and a master of special effects. Peter is able to help Mysterio by stopping a building from collapsing long enough for the people inside to run to safety. When Peter gets back to his room a very grumpy Nick Fury is waiting for him. This is the first time they've met and Fury is not impressed. He presents Peter with a final gift from the late Tony Stark. It’s a pair of high tech glasses that connects Peter to a satellite system called EDITH (Even Dead I’m The Hero). Fury takes Peter to the Venice headquarters of SHIELD where he meets Quentin Beck, alias Mysterio. Mysterio says he's from an alternate Earth and he's here to fight the Elementals that destroyed his world. He says the fire monster is going to attack Prague. But Prague is not part of Peter’s school trip and he says he can’t go. Fury, with a tense smile says, “Okay” and Peter leaves. The next day Peter's chaperones announce that their tour has been upgraded and they are going to Prague. They are even provided with a private bus and Peter recognizes the driver as a very serious SHIELD agent named Dmitri. At a rest stop Peter as everyone goes to the washroom Dmitri directs him to a small bar, inside of which is a very dominant blonde female SHIELD agent who demands that he take off his clothes. She explains tersely that she has an alternative costume for him. But while he is disrobing his classmate Brad and rival for the affections of Mary Jane walks in. He sees Peter with his pants down next to this strange woman and he takes a picture with his phone. Peter goes after Brad and Brad says he is definitely going to show the photo to Mary Jane. On the bus Peter puts on the glasses and begins to mention Brad Davis. EDITH asks if Brad is a target. Peter says yes without understanding before EDITH initiates a drone strike on Brad. Peter is about to tell EDITH to stop when Flash takes his glasses. Peter quickly knocks him out. EDITH asks Peter if he wants the drone strike cancelled just as a fellow student asks, “Did you just punch Flash?" Peter says, "No!" and the drone approaches. Peter has to distract everyone while he goes to the top of the bus and destroys the drone. Finally Peter gets EDITH to simply delete the photo from Brad’s phone. In Prague there is a carnival going on when the fire monster attacks. Peter helps Mysterio take it on while wearing his new black costume. People begin calling him Night Monkey. They are having little effect on the monster until Mysterio flies directly into the monster. It is destroyed and Mysterio seems like he almost died as well. Fury arrives to praise Mysterio and to angrily criticize Peter for not stepping up. Mysterio takes Peter to a bar and Peter has lemonade while he makes a decision that Mysterio is the hero that really deserves EDITH. He gives him the glasses and leaves. After Peter is gone a lot of the people in the bar disappear because they were holographic projections and the members of Beck's team begin to celebrate. Finally we see Mysterio the con artist that I remember from the comics. It turns out that Beck is a former Stark employee as were some members of Beck’s team. They are the ones behind the illusions. The holograms of the monsters are combined with weaponized drones to create real destruction. But now that Beck has access to EDITH they can create worldwide threats for Mysterio to defeat and become the greatest hero on the planet. Peter goes for a walk with Mary Jane and she says she thinks he’s Spiderman. She shows Peter something she picked up while the fire monster was attacking and Peter realizes it’s a holographic projector. Peter confesses he is Spiderman. At the same time Beck learns that one of his projectors is missing. He uses EDITH to find out that Mary Jane found it. He decides he will have to kill her. Peter goes to Berlin to try to warn Fury. Fury picks him up and takes him to SHIELD headquarters but as Peter is telling him about Beck suddenly a drone shoots Fury. But it all seems to be a complex hologram as Mysterio messes with Peter’s mind with one illusion after another. Finally Fury appears and takes out Mysterio. Fury asks Peter who he told about Beck and he says, Ned, Mary Jane and maybe Ned told Betty. Suddenly Fury is revealed to be Mysterio and he tells Peter his friends have to die. Peter escapes on a train and winds up in the Netherlands where he calls Happy to pick him up. Happy arrives on a Stark plane. One the plane is a laser printer with which Peter makes a Spiderman costume. Happy puts on some music and Peter says, “I love Led Zeppelin!” but it’s ACDC. The class goes to London where Mysterio stages a citywide monster attack. Spiderman jumps from Happy’s plane into the monster and this time relies entirely on his Spider sense in order to be unaffected by the illusions. All he has to do is fight hundreds of weaponized drones. He defeats Mysterio and Beck hands him the glasses but it’s another illusion and Spiderman stops the real Beck from shooting him just in time. EDITH asks Peter if he wants drone termination executed. He says execute them all. From some cause that I couldn't discern, Beck seems to be dying. Days later everything seems to be going fine. Peter is romantically involved with Mary Jane. Suddenly a screen in Times Square broadcasts a news report by Jonah Jameson saying that Spiderman killed Quentin Beck and showing manipulated footage of the scene where Spiderman says, “Execute them all!” Just before "dying" Beck reveals to the camera that Spiderman is Peter Parker.

            The end credit scene shows that all through the movie Nick Fury was the Skrull from Captain Marvel. He’s now working for SHIELD and Nick Fury is on vacation on the ship orbiting the Earth where the Skrulls have made their home. He looks kind of fat and old in a bathrobe.

            This was a very engaging film. I still don’t like all the tech Peter has access to and I still think Aunt May should be old but other that that it was handled well.