Marvel Studios has undoubtedly made cinematic history with their wildly popular comic book adaptations and even revolutionized the industry. The start with ‘Iron Man’ in 2008 was followed by a series of mega hits that no one would have thought possible.
“Avengers 4: Endgame” is the second most successful title in movie history in terms of box office revenue. Before James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ was re-released in Chinese cinemas in March 2021, Anthony and Joe Russo’s directorial effort was the highest-grossing film of all time in almost two years. The three-hour film grossed almost $2.8 billion worldwide.
Depending on who you ask or where you read, there is talk of production costs of 350 to 400 million. With such dimensions, 50 million more or less doesn’t really matter, right? The fact is: Marvel spent a huge amount of money making the blockbuster. In any case, the 22nd title within the Marvel Cinematic Universe is far from perfect or flawless.
Nobody noticed?!
Works on the scale of “Avengers 4: Endgame” routinely feature so-called re-shoots – additional shoots that are added to fill in any gaps in the story, provide a few extra close-ups, or are only deemed unsuccessful in retrospect. are considered. correctly recognized recordings. As I said, this happens with almost every major project and with “Endgame” it was nothing special. Although actual filming ended in January 2018, there were several filming dates in September and October of the same year.
Also Tony Stark/Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. had to participate again in one of these films. It involved a few more close-ups with or in the helmet before the big confrontation with villain Thanos (Josh Brolin), mentioned in the iconic line of dialogue ends. If you look closely while watching the scene (or compare the screenshots below), you can see it clearly: It’s not just the bleeding wound on the bridge of Iron Man’s nose that slides up and down a bit every now and then. The thickness and density of his mustache also varies from time to time during the passage.
The reason for the latter is that the actor was already busy working on ‘The Fantastic Journey of Dr. Dolittle,” his first post-MCU film. As the titular hero of the fantasy adventure, he was also unshaven for most of the story. However, his beard growth was significantly shorter and more uneven than in “Avengers 4: Endgame”. The hair occupies not only the lower part, but almost the entire upper lip area.
Considering the scale of the project, it’s surprising that no one seems to have noticed this detail on set, but especially during post-production. It certainly wouldn’t have taken too much time and money to digitally thicken and shorten Downey’s mustache and then correct the position of the nose injury by a few millimeters. Also on the 4K/UltraHD Blu-ray*and in the stream on Disney+ this detail has not yet been eliminated. Or maybe it was left there on purpose. There is a certain charm in seeing that even the largest and most expensive productions can and may exhibit minor imperfections.