Support NeoGAF

[pramod]

So I was rewatching Endgame the other day and I realized something really strange about Rhodey/War Machine's scenes/role in the movie.

Despite being one of the "Avengers" who personally went back in time to retrieve one of the Infinity Gems, and having some funny lines, he wasn't in any scene of real relevance, and almost completely invisible in the final battle. The weirdest thing was, being Tony's "best friend", he didn't have a single scene where he interacted with Tony. We didn't even get a reaction shot from him after Tony died.

I wonder what happened, did Don Cheadle have a schedule conflict with the rest of the cast so his scenes were shot separately and edited in later? It's the only good explanation I can think of why his scenes were so weird. It's like he's in the movie, but also not really in the movie. Seems to me Rhodey should be asking himself, "why am I here"?

The sad thing is that after Iron Man 3, they pretty much made Rhodey more irrelevant than even Ant-Man. That's why it seems weird to me that they are actually planning a Rhodey-only Disney+ show (Armor Wars). He just seemed like a character they didn't care about at all.

 

[Ownage]

Possibly filmed but cut in the editing room for timing. It happens.

 

[West Texas CEO]

 

[dr_octagon]

Terrence Howard should have stayed the role. Instead, he did the show with Juicy Smooyay.

 

[kunonabi]

I mean that's pretty much what happened to everybody and consider how disastrous things went for the people that did get screen time it's probably for the best that he didn't end up a joke or having his character assassinated.

 

[Futaleufu]

War Machine, Hulk, Vision

 

[March Climber]

This is why the Snyder cut was a 4 hour movie.

 

[Dural]

Terrence Howard should have stayed the role. Instead, he did the show with Juicy Smooyay.

This so much! Rhodey was killed after the first Iron Man.

 

[DKehoe]

There’s a lot of characters and he’s a pretty minor one.

 

[Deleted member 1159]

I fell asleep for half that movie and it still felt too long, you wanted more?

 

[GymWolf]

The fact that shitty falcon, a weaker warrior\actor has a better role and more screentime always puzzled me.

 

[March Climber]

The fact that shitty falcon, a weaker warrior\actor has a better role and more screentime always puzzled me.

That's not the character's fault. The Russo's simply did a way better job at making him and Bucky look like good friends to Cap by fleshing out their screen time, relationships, and personal motivations in the Cap movies while still doing a balancing act of screen time with Rodgers himself.

Imagine you're the Russos and you're asking the directors and writers of the previous 3 Iron Man movies how MCU Rhodey is supposed to be depicted, and all they can give you to draw from as examples are those three films...

 

[GymWolf]

That's not the character's fault. The Russo's simply did a way better job at making him and Bucky look like good friends to Cap by fleshing out their screen time, relationships, and personal motivations in the Cap movies while still doing a balancing act of screen time with Rodgers himself.

Imagine you're the Russos and you're asking the directors and writers of the previous 3 Iron Man movies how MCU Rhodey is supposed to be depicted, and all they can give you to draw from as examples are those three films...

Don't care who has fault, i was just stating my feeling about fucking falcon being more prominent than a way superior\charming actor.

 

[SafeOrAlone]

Terrence Howard should have stayed the role. Instead, he did the show with Juicy Smooyay.

Weirdly, I just consider Iron Man 1 to take place in a different part of the multi-verse now, where everything was essentially the same, except Rhodey looked different.

 

[jason10mm]

As a proxy for the US government, I'm not sure the MCU had a place for Rhodey. They can't really demonize SHIELD and then go right back to using the US military as back-up. In those early films there was at least an IDEA that government militaries, primarily the US, could respond to the threat of supers. But once we get to Avengers 2 I feel like that all dropped away to a hero only response. They had this massive roster to use and no time for any of it.

Guess there is still that big prison though.

 

[AJUMP23]

He attended the funeral.

 

[Punished Miku]

I fell asleep for half that movie and it still felt too long, you wanted more?

I wanted the extended cut where Ant Man loses even more tacos. Shit's hilarious. Imagine trying to eat a taco and consistently failing. Comedy gold I tell you. What if he only had one taco left at the end, but then made it a huge taco? That's amazing is what.

 

[pramod]

He attended the funeral.

So did almost every minor hero in the entire MCU. It's not really saying much. Being Tony's "best friend" and character Tony spent the most time with in the 3 Iron Man movies, he didn't even get to say a single line regarding his passing. It was mostly Happy and Pepper.

 

[Deleted member 1159]

I wanted the extended cut where Ant Man loses even more tacos. Shit's hilarious. Imagine trying to eat a taco and consistently failing. Comedy gold I tell you. What if he only had one taco left at the end, but then made it a huge taco? That's amazing is what.

My knees still haven't recovered from the slapping they got the last time I watched a Marvel film.

 

[AJUMP23]

So did almost every minor hero in the entire MCU. It's not really saying much. Being Tony's "best friend" and character Tony spent the most time with in the 3 Iron Man movies, he didn't even get to say a single line regarding his passing. It was mostly Happy and Pepper.

Spiderman got a whole movie about Iron Man dying. Iron man was really a groomer, grooming Spidey to ignore Rhodey and lead the Avengers.

 

[sol_bad]

They could have given Rhodey and Pepper more time with Tony at the end, maybe they did, maybe it was cut for pacing reasons.
Sam gets a few minutes with Steve at the end because it's his send off and passing of the flag. It'd be weird if Sam wasn't in that scene.

 

[Doom85]

grooming Spidey to ignore Rhodey and lead the Avengers.

LOL, that isn’t happening anytime soon. Never mind that Sam is Cap now; Peter’s only 18, it would look dumb as hell to see a bunch of people in their 30’s and 40’s, quite a few of them ex-military, taking orders from someone who can’t even legally drink yet.

Hell, barely any of the existing Avengers know him that well, Tony was the only one that close to him, the Nick Fury that he interacted with was actually Talos in disguise, and a good deal of his interaction with Strange has been removed from Strange‘s mind due to the memory spell. Spidey is basically one of the least known Avengers on the team in terms of their relationships with one another, no way is he getting elected leader anytime soon.

Honestly, its a good thing. Spidey leading the Avengers always felt like a weird concept to me in the comics too. Just because someone is the most iconic character of a universe doesn’t necessarily make them leader material.

 

[KrakenIPA]

War Machine, Hulk, Vision

Yeah speaking of Vision, couldn't he just cut through Thanos' main ship instead of Cpt. Marvel? Where was he when the portals opened?

 

[Doom85]

Yeah speaking of Vision, couldn't he just cut through Thanos' main ship instead of Cpt. Marvel? Where was he when the portals opened?

 

[AJUMP23]

LOL, that isn’t happening anytime soon. Never mind that Sam is Cap now; Peter’s only 18, it would look dumb as hell to see a bunch of people in their 30’s and 40’s, quite a few of them ex-military, taking orders from someone who can’t even legally drink yet.

Hell, barely any of the existing Avengers know him that well, Tony was the only one that close to him, the Nick Fury that he interacted with was actually Talos in disguise, and a good deal of his interaction with Strange has been removed from Strange‘s mind due to the memory spell. Spidey is basically one of the least known Avengers on the team in terms of their relationships with one another, no way is he getting elected leader anytime soon.

Honestly, its a good thing. Spidey leading the Avengers always felt like a weird concept to me in the comics too. Just because someone is the most iconic character of a universe doesn’t necessarily make them leader material.

Spidey could lead Batman and the ninja turtles as the new avengers.

 

[Trunx81]

Best part was him coming on screen and stating “It’s Rhodeyng time”, the whole cinema went batshit.
He’s just not that important, aside from Tony Stank jokes.

 

[Labolas]

Yeah, true but Rhodey in general is treated like an afterthought.

 

[pramod]

That's not the character's fault. The Russo's simply did a way better job at making him and Bucky look like good friends to Cap by fleshing out their screen time, relationships, and personal motivations in the Cap movies while still doing a balancing act of screen time with Rodgers himself.

Imagine you're the Russos and you're asking the directors and writers of the previous 3 Iron Man movies how MCU Rhodey is supposed to be depicted, and all they can give you to draw from as examples are those three films...

Yeah overall the Russos and the Cap movies did a much better job in setting up compelling characters. Unlike the Iron Man movie in which the best sub characters were Ho Yinsen and Justin Hammer and theyre both one and done.

 

[Soltype]

Terrence Howard should have stayed the role. Instead, he did the show with Juicy Smooyay.

Miss him in the role, he was such a good fit. Never bought cheadle as being military.

 

[poppabk]

He was always a comic relief character in the movies - maybe just to answer the question of why is iron man special if you can just make hundreds of suits and stick actual soldiers in them. He kind of has to be ineffectual and thus not very prominent.

 

[gioGAF]

Most male characters were done dirty in Endgame, so they could get their "girls get it done" bullshit in there. Hulk and Thor were particularly bad, especially since they were core characters. I originally thought Endgame was a step back from Infinity War upon first watching it, now I view it as the beginning of the end (endgame?) for Marvel unless they manage to turn things around. Lol at the thread here that says it is "underrated", quite the opposite really.

I bet RDJ was probably the reason for the movie not being total garbage, I'm guessing Iron Man was not willing to get turned into a second stringer like the rest of the cast. The string of turds since Endgame have only solidified matters, with No Way Home being the lone exception.

To answer your question, yes, Rhodey was done dirty, but so was almost every single male character save for one or two.

 

[kunonabi]

Most male characters were done dirty in Endgame, so they could get their "girls get it done" bullshit in there. Hulk and Thor were particularly bad, especially since they were core characters. I originally thought Endgame was a step back from Infinity War upon first watching it, now I view it as the beginning of the end (endgame?) for Marvel unless they manage to turn things around. Lol at the thread here that says it is "underrated", quite the opposite really.

I bet RDJ was probably the reason for the movie not being total garbage, I'm guessing Iron Man was not willing to get turned into a second stringer like the rest of the cast. The string of turds since Endgame have only solidified matters, with No Way Home being the lone exception.

To answer your question, yes, Rhodey was done dirty, but so was almost every single male character save for one or two.

No way home isn't much of an exception. It's an awful movie that gets a boost from Garfield and Dafoe carrying it on their backs.

 

[sol_bad]

Most male characters were done dirty in Endgame, so they could get their "girls get it done" bullshit in there. Hulk and Thor were particularly bad, especially since they were core characters. I originally thought Endgame was a step back from Infinity War upon first watching it, now I view it as the beginning of the end (endgame?) for Marvel unless they manage to turn things around. Lol at the thread here that says it is "underrated", quite the opposite really.

I bet RDJ was probably the reason for the movie not being total garbage, I'm guessing Iron Man was not willing to get turned into a second stringer like the rest of the cast. The string of turds since Endgame have only solidified matters, with No Way Home being the lone exception.

To answer your question, yes, Rhodey was done dirty, but so was almost every single male character save for one or two.

The main characters were Steve, Tony, Scott, Clint, Bruce, Natasha, Thor, Nebula and Rocket.
How were Steve, Tony, Scott, Bruce, Clint and Rocket done dirty?

I can understand an unhappiness with Thor but for me I think he has had some of his best scenes in Endgame. They did Frigga dirty in Dark World, they killed her off with absolutely no emotional beat because we didn't know her character. Seeing Thor get to talk and say goodbye to his mum is one of the sweetest moments the MCU. Thor is a jokey character but he never comes across as dumb, he always knows exactly what he needs to do in any situation.

 

[BadBurger]

I never noticed that they didn't cut to him during Tony's death. Could be that it was filmed but the editor cut it for whatever reason.

However, earlier in the film Rhodey did have a pretty significant scene, the one in which he rebukes Thunderbolt Ross and pretty much serves as the connective tissue between the two groups of Avengers.

 

[Kenpachii]

Always found him pointless in the series. Felt like a ultra budget tony stark.

 

[Kenpachii]

Terrence Howard should have stayed the role. Instead, he did the show with Juicy Smooyay.

Totally agree with that, just rewatched iron man and he's far better then the current one.

 

[GymWolf]

Always found him pointless in the series. Felt like a ultra budget tony stark.

If he is reduntand, what about falcon? An even lower budget ironman with weaker weapons and that can be killed by a 5 years old with an headshot?

 

[Kenpachii]

If he is reduntand, what about falcon? An even lower budget ironman with weaker weapons and that can be killed by a 5 years old with an headshot?

haha, yea it always makes me laugh when he shows up.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Yeah speaking of Vision, couldn't he just cut through Thanos' main ship instead of Cpt. Marvel? Where was he when the portals opened?

Were you asleep during Infinity War?

 

[Yoboman]

He was boring

 

[DevilMayFlyForAWhiteGuy]

Probably not enough time or maybe Cheadle got tired of doing the role and only cared about having enough screen time to get a check. Who knows.

 

[AlteredForms]

I remember Terrence Howard absolutely shitting on Robert Downey Jr. for taking his money and being a greedy prick. I supposed that loving relationship they had in the movie was absolute bullshit lol.

 

[sol_bad]

Probably not enough time or maybe Cheadle got tired of doing the role and only cared about having enough screen time to get a check. Who knows.

Yeah, so sick of the role he'll be in the lead for the Armor Wars show.

 

[Bragr]

He was always a comic relief character in the movies

You can say that about every fucking character at this point. Everyone is just there to deliver sarcastic quips and be the comedic superhero idiot.

 

[DevilMayFlyForAWhiteGuy]

Yeah, so sick of the role he'll be in the lead for the Armor Wars show.

I honestly haven’t paid attention to anything marvel related after endgame, so I was unaware.

 

[dr_octagon]

The guy is called Road-y but uses flying as a means to travel.

 

[jason10mm]

The guy is called Road-y but uses flying as a means to travel.

He's in the Air Force, they dumb like that

 

[Celcius]

Honestly War Machine could be the new Iron Man (kinda) going forward. He won't be rich or have the same personality obviously but he could fill a similar type of leadership role and has a similar suit.

 

[BadBurger]

I am watching the latest cut of Endgame now, and when Tony dies Rhodey is now the first to caress him, and can now be seen in the background when Pepper approaches.

No voice. And rough. So it suggests reshoot. And good IMO - this is an awesome fix by Marvel.