The Closer Look

> "Epick!"
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**The Closer Look** is a YouTuber who makes video essays about movies. He is noteworthy for his very distinct Video Essayist Voice, which he described as something he just sort of does. His entire life follows the three-act structure.

## History

### Act 1 - Avengers Endgame's Lack of Epick

EFAP first encountered The Closer Look in EFAP 52, when MauLer, Rags, Fortea, and Drinker took a look at his video "**Avengers Endgame - How To Waste A Climax**". Closer Look argued that the battle against Thanos' army was wasted potential, and that it could have taken some cues from other battles in movies, mainly the Battle of Helm's Deep from *The Lord of the Rings*.

lot of the video him repeat the notion of "this does this, while Endgame didn't" without explanation to the statement and meanders with his points - battle doesn't hold a candle too other army battles, like Lord of the Rings

The Closer Look described the portals scene as bone-chilling, awesome, and epick. what followed after left him profoundly disappointed as it wasn't a "nail-biting climax of epick, celestial proportions," during the first two and half minutes nothing happens, its just fighting that has no highs or rises, there is no beat before they decide to take the gauntlet to the van, there is no goal before that. first 5 minutes was just human characters shooting and punching CGI army, and didn't have dread and was basically just same old fighting as before, just with more people. - the gang pointed out some character moments they liked in the fight - Thor going aaah, Ant-Man punching whale, Drax stabbing a guy, Spider-Man reuniting w Iron Man, MauLer agreed they needed more, Hulk, Thor, and Drax were lacking - it's a fight scene, to say it's nothing new because other movies had fight scenes is a bit unfairww

people may argue that the battle itself doesn't have to be great, as it is a celebration of the characters and their journeys through the series, but it doesn't work for him since there is lot of background to the battle, so its not great enough on its own as it doesn't do anything new.

a fight needs to be a story in and of itself and has to have progression, which the Endgame battle doesn't have, endgame is equivalent of child smacking their toys against teach other with no rhyme or reason, and then the one side does one move to win the battle. its not enough of a emotional roller coaster, there isn't enough despair and hope highs and lows. if there is just win then the drama dies - only real dread in the battle is what Thanos as individual accomplishes

battle mainly centers around few individuals instead of the group victories, which isn't great

captain marvel destroying the ship is one of the few changes in the fights status quo

ask yourself, what did Thanos' army accomplish? they don't accomplich anything during the fight. they could have just been army of mannequins in the field. only reason they are there that the all heroes don't rush Thanos. so the army was there no reason.

the whole battle is just about a game of hot potato. this is not epick, just fight between few people with MacGuffin in the middle. game of hot potato is not epick enough for large franchise climax

if you ask him, the writers should have spend more time learning creative writing, they are good, but they would have to improve themselves. uses this statement to promote Audible

we need to know about the heros' location to foreshadow helpers coming in to protect other as otherwise they can just randomly appear whenever ever

he is just turning the endgame battle into lord of the rings fight

While the gang was watching his video, Closer Look appeared in chat, and was let into the call. He had a chat with the rest of the roster, which went well, after which they finished the rest of his video. It was noted that this was the second time this had happened while Critical Drinker was a guest.

### Act 2 - A Strange Sweater

On EFAP 152, MauLer, Rags, Fringy, and The Meme Repository had Colin Sanders on, after having previously covered his video on *Batman V Superman*. Together they watched Sanders' video on Zack Snyder's films, taking the opportunity to talk about it with the creator himself. Part of this video was dedicated to responding to none other than The Closer Look, whom MauLer and Rags recognized by his trademark style of speaking. Rags couldn't help but wonder what was going on with the sweater he was wearing, since the neck looked stretched out and the sleeves looked like they were perpetually rolled up.

### Act 3 - On *Dune*

MauLer, Rags, Fringy, and Metal finally had their next true encounter with The Closer Look on EFAP 164, where they took a look at his video *"***Dune — The Flaw With Loyal Adaptations***"*. The Closer Look argued that *Dune* was held back by followin the plot of the first half of the book too closely, causing the pacing to not fit a three-act structure. The gang was baffled by this seemingly very absolutist insistence on fitting a three-act structure, down to The Closer Look stating that the inciting incident should happen 12% of the way through the story. Closer Look gave his pitch for what he called a tweaking of the story to fit a three-act structure, which ended up becoming his own fanfiction of events that was markedly different from the plot of the film as is.

## Trivia

* Every morning, The Closer Look wakes up. This is the inciting incident of his day.
* The Closer Look is regularly the victim of acid attacks, since every time he watches a movie in the theater he feels the need to ask out loud whether it follows the three act structure, prompting the rest of the audience to pull out the acid they keep on them to silence people who are annoying in theaters.

## Quotes

"So first we get the portal scene, and it is *bone-chilling*"

"This battle's a disguise" "it's a setting"

"killing enemies, creating hope"

"this seesaw of EPICK proportions"

"the paradox is rendered impossible"