Aim at the Right Target

Leave Anthony Mackie alone. He is WARNING YOU.

Okay, let’s start with what I would deem the relatively obvious fact that people need to stop attacking Anthony Mackie for his comments about the upcoming debacle known as Captain America: Brave New World. The man is NOT doing a one-eighty and biting the hand that feeds him. He is warning us that the movie will be utter garbage.

Now some of us (raises hand) do not necessarily need that warning. I figured out every Marvel project post-Endgame was going to be worthless after seeing clips from Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s first episode. To say it was a disappointment is an understatement, as I enjoyed both characters, both actors’ work as those characters, and I was hoping for a decent series as a “last hurrah” for them.

I hoped for a lot of things in 2021. I had to learn the hard way that they weren’t going to be forthcoming.

Mackie works in the compromised Hollywood system and is under contract. That means he has a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) which he cannot explicitly violate. That would mean he cannot give spoilers for the film he is in since Marvel, Disney, and others are trying to keep a lid on whatever it is they are going to be putting on screen these days. If he violates the NDA then not only will he lose the contract, he might never be able to make a movie again, and there are plenty of reasons for him to want to remain in the film industry.

If by now you have inferred that I do not hold his comments about Captain America against him, you would be correct. I do not. Because he is not commenting about Captain America, Steve Rogers, nor at this point about Sam Wilson. He is not assaulting the characters and what they stand for.

He is telling you that Marvel broke all of these characters as well as their universe in this “film,” do not give money to the studio, and for the love of God avoid the movie. It is trash. He knows it is because he was stuck making it and had no way to stop it from being turned into a hate project.

How do I know this, Mr. John A. Douglas might ask? While I generally do not look up actors, I will listen to them speak when they are interviewed. It helps me decide whether or not they are worth my attention or that I should just enjoy projects in which they happen to take part. I can enjoy a movie starring an actor whom I dislike; see Alec Baldwin, among others. Even before the shooting on Rust’s set, the fact that he cussed out his eleven-year-old daughter meant I didn’t like him much.

I would watch a movie with Alec Baldwin in it, if it was a good movie. But I wouldn’t like it for him. Nor would I go to an event featuring him alone, either.

Mackie earned my appreciation first for his acting work. He is a good actor and he brought Sam Wilson - the Falcon, thank you - to life on the silver screen beautifully. I can understand why he begged to be cast as T’Challa, since I do love the Black Panther, but frankly he is the only man I can see playing the Falcon. He brought a lot to the role and I was certainly under the impression he genuinely loved it.

What made me like Anthony Mackie as a person, however, was this clip:

And this one:

The man in these clips, who I saw more than once having a great time at the premieres for the Marvel films he was in and enjoying the franchise, is NOT the same man I saw in Falcon and the Winter Soldier. He is not the same man I have seen in the last four years, in or out of his onscreen roles. The man I have seen for the last four years is a man who is extremely unhappy with where he is and what he is under contract to do.

Frankly, I worry about him. He is clearly not happy with the way that Marvel/Disney has treated him and the other cast members, the way they have treated their audience, and the way they have treated their characters and their universe. His comments are aimed at the audience to warn them that “Cap 4” is Crap, Times Four. Do not go to the theaters, do not let Disney/Marvel collect two hundred. No “get out of jail free” card for Disney/Marvel. Anyone who says otherwise has paid no attention to Mackie outside the hype surrounding every movie he is in.

Before The Last Jedi hit theaters, fans - particularly in hindsight - noticed that Mark Hamill’s face would fall every time he was asked what Luke had learned since Return of the Jedi. He would then obfuscate and/or dodge the question in a way that suggested he was not talking about Luke Skywalker. As they noted afterward, he was warning Star Wars fans that TLJ was a dumpster fire. But no one really picked up on his warning in time.

Mackie’s comment about Captain America not representing America is the exact same thing. Since roughly 2016 we have seen Marvel/Disney do their best to destroy Steve Rogers and Captain America - anyone else remember Hydra Cap? Yes, fan backlash was such that Marvel had to backpedal on that, but we’ve seen them backpedal briefly just to go back to the same old trash more than once in recent years. Why on earth should this be any different? Did you think that Hydra Cap would be the last of it? Even I wasn’t that naive. My greatest naivete was thinking the movies would end before they could be infected by the same poison that was killing the comics’ stories.

So, if I could only say one thing to Anthony Mackie, I would say, “Thank you.” Thank you for the warning. Thank you for giving me a great onscreen version of the Falcon, the first black American superhero in comics ever. You were always fun to watch and I rooted for you the whole way, not only from Winter Soldier to Endgame but every time I heard you were in a film. Thank you for confirming my instincts that this movie is garbage. I truly appreciate knowing “it’s not just me.”

I have avoided the trailers for Brave New World and intend to keep doing so. I gave Falcon and the Winter Soldier a chance in part for the actors’ sakes, because I like them both - and I saw them both break character in clips of the first episode at Marvel’s and Disney’s behest.

Before anyone insinuates otherwise, no, actors do not get to break character onscreen and have it sold to the masses UNLESS the studio explicitly tells them to do so. Acting is a job. If the actor becomes too difficult, he gets fired and replaced. Ask Terence Howard and hundreds of others. If the hypothetical actor becomes irreplaceable to the studio somehow, then he gets tied up in a legal contract that limits his movements and what he can say. Which is why we have “malicious compliance” even in Hollywood - what is Mackie saying that Marvel has not been telling us for years that they believe about Captain America? He’s maliciously complying with Marvel and Disney to warn us away from this movie.

I’ve been a Marvel fan my whole life. Mackie wrote to Marvel hoping to land the part of the Black Panther - this is a matter of record. There is no way he would break with the character he is playing if the studio was not forcing him to do so. The same goes for Evans, RDJ, and all the rest. And I know it hurts them all, because I have seen them do their absolute best for the fans…and Marvel has forced them to break that tacit contract with their audience. More than once.

Now Marvel’s gone crawling back to the actors they threw out (Evans, RDJ) to try and recoup their monetary losses. They have gone crawling back to the Russo brothers in the hopes of revitalizing the franchise that Disney/Marvel purposely killed. Good luck: It was not solely the actors who made the films so popular, it was the actors’ adherence to the characters that Marvel was charged with protecting and promoting. Marvel doesn’t get to have their cake and eat it, too. They don’t get to destroy the characters - and thereby the actors playing them - and get us ALL back in theaters to pay their debts.

Marvel made this bed. For what they have done to the actors and their audience alone, I would be on good footing to despise them. You do not do that to the people who have given you YEARS of their lives, who have inspired thousands of people, and who have learned to love the property you have them working on. It is beyond dishonorable; it is practically criminal, and that is if you do it once. Marvel has been doing it multiple times for years.

Do not spend your ire on Anthony Mackie. That is what the studio wants. If you are picking on Mackie, then you are letting them off the hook by default.

Not happening, Marvel. I hope you fail so hard you have to either get bought back by Ike Perlmutter or bought out by someone with equivalent money who can turn you into the powerhouse that you once were. Given these signs seem unlikely to be altered in the future, I should invest in popcorn just to watch Marvel and Disney burn.

I will save my respect for the people who earned it - like Anthony Mackie, who is making the best of an awful situation he is prohibited by contract and contract law from escaping. You want to throw stones in the culture war?

• Leave a comment on Kevin Feige’s Twitter feed asking him why Cap 4 doesn’t represent America.

• Leave a comment on Bob Iger’s Twitter page asking him why he fired Ike Perlmutter - Marvel’s president - at Feige’s behest, first from Marvel Studios in 2015 and then from the company entirely just a few short years ago.

• Leave a comment on Marvel’s Twitter page asking how they like bleeding out from the movies as well as the comics.

• And leave a comment asking Disney why they think anyone will watch a movie with “Captain America” in the title when it doesn’t represent America.

Then go out and purchase or find a movie you think you’ll like that stars Mackie and watch it. Even if it is only background noise, buy it and watch it. I believe it was Chris Hemsworth who noted that actors make their money on the bad lines, not the good ones.

Let’s pay Mackie by watching the good ones, and then leave comments telling him so, as a thanks for the warning. But more importantly, let’s do it so he knows he is not shouting into a void, and as a salute to let him know we have his back. They can make him say bad lines…but we won’t let that make us forget the good ones he got to give earlier:

Here’s to Anthony Mackie - one of the psychologically toughest actors I have ever had the pleasure of watching. I look forward to seeing him on screen in a good movie again in the future. Because there will be good movies forthcoming. Even people in Hollywood are getting tired of playing these games, if only due to the bite in their pocketbooks.

Time to take on the real HYDRA. Hollywood? Go jump in a lake. We’re done taking your crap. Boycotting Crap 4 is just the start. We can live without you. You, Hollywood, cannot live without us.

And Anthony Mackie knows it just as well as we do.