Over Mother’s Day weekend, I went to see Avengers -Infinity War. For many Mother’s Days, my family takes me to see the new superhero movie. I like superhero movies, to the joy of my three sons. So even though my youngest son was home from college and had seen the movie, and my older two were not home, I asked my husband to take me. As we left, we discussed the ending of the movie (so if you have not seen Avengers -Infinity War and plan to, STOP reading and come back after seeing the movie).
We enjoyed he humor in the movie and I thought the multiple storylines was interesting. But as I texted my oldest son:
“Not sure how I feel about the movie. I like happier endings.”
My husband is not sure he wants to see the next one (he will). He was upset that some of his favorite heroes were disintegrated (told you to stop reading). Let’s be honest, we don’t go to see superhero movies because they will lose. For me, I like that at the end of a superhero movie, the good guys win and the bad guys don’t. It is nice to suspend everyday life in favor of a comic book life. At least the comic books I read. My youngest is a comic book aficionado and has informed me that comic books are not always happy worlds. And I do know this from watching the Netflix series, Daredevil, as well as others. But to be honest, I still go to superhero movies expecting a happy ending.
Well, that has not been the case lately. Superman died in a recent one, but came back in the next one. In a previous Avengers, the heroes fought each other.
So where is this post going? Well, while I like a typical superhero happy ending, we know life is not that way. Yet, too may of our parents are trying to take out the “difficult” or fix any obstacles for them. So maybe we need less perfect happy endings and more realistic happy endings as models for today’s students.
Our plans for lessons, events, life in general for the most part go well. But they rarely go like planned. So maybe if in the Avengers -Infinity War, the world is saved but some heroes do not make it (again, told you to see the movie then read this), maybe that is a better reflection of life. Things work out, but not always as we planned or hoped. Is this something we should repeat (consistently or constantly)? Should we be setting the example that we try to do our best, fix what we can, and learn that the world is not perfect?
I will go and see the next Avengers movie, my son says it will be out in 2019. I will hope that there is a way for the lost heroes to miraculously return (it is a fantasy movie after all). But I will also keep in mind that maybe my definition of a happy ending needs to be a bit revised.
Share your thoughts. (@edtechease on Twitter and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/edtechease/).
Originally posted on Thursday, 24 May 2018.