I concur.
I feel like too many times people look at deleted scenes and instantly think that because they were deleted they must have been good (even though that’s exactly the opposite of the truth).
I’ve been seeing a lot of people say the kneeling scene is more impactful than the funeral scene, but it really offers nothing that the funeral scene already doesn’t. Sure, it’s right there in the moment and everyone is in costume, but the funeral is so much more nuanced and well-crafted. We get everyone there, not as superheroes, but as actual people, and we get everyone we’ve ever met along the entire 10 year journey that Tony started, all the way back to Nick Fury.
We even get people like Harley that Tony affected through his life showing up that wouldn’t be possible in the kneeling scene. It’s much less corny than the kneeling as well, and we actually get to mourn along with the characters while contemplating what has actually just occurred, in a moment where there is no ambiguity that he’s actually dead and won’t just pop back up.
The kneeling scene feels cheap and show-offish. It feels like we’re saying goodbye to Iron Man, the superhero. But who we’re really saying goodbye to is the man inside the suit, Tony Stark, the man who was once a selfish warmonger and who was now, finally, at rest as a selfless hero. And that all culminates with the image of the original arc reactor at the end of the funeral scene.
So yea, the kneeling scene was an interesting, okay idea. But it was cut for a reason, and it should stay cut.
