Avengers: Endgame is a culmination of all 21 Marvel Cinematic Universe films and finishes the Avengers movie saga, or at least phase 3 for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It follows the events right after Avengers: Infinity War. Half of the Universe has been by Thanos’ snap and the Infinity Gauntlet. The remaining Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy must find a way to undo Thanos’ actions, save the Universe and their friends.
***SPOILER WARNING***
The following article contains spoilers from this point on.
After I first saw the film, I didn’t know what to make of it. I was looking forward to the movie that it could have clouded my judgment on whether or not the movie was good or bad. So, I watched the film for the second time. After the second viewing, I did like this movie. It was a great way to end a film series 22 movies long. This movie was supposed to be combined with the previous Avengers: Infinity War to be one movie. There was a decision to split the movie into two parts. Avengers Endgame didn’t suffer like many movies that were initially one film then was divided into two. It may have slowed down at times, but not where the film was going to be bad at any point.
With that said, there is so much to discuss, that the article will be only some of the thoughts that I had with this movie. Otherwise, I could write a novel. However, feel free to contact or leave a comment for me on what you liked about the movie or what you had thought of the film. You can also view my thoughts with some of the other MCU movies that I saw, like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and The Wasp, and Captain Marvel.
I will give them credit as the Avengers did what they set out to do in the first 20-30 minutes of the movie, locate Thanos, get the Infinity Stones and kill him. He moved to a remote planet to live out the rest of his days since his plan was complete. He destroyed the Infinity Stones to prevent the Avengers from undoing his work. I did laugh as I thought that would have been a fun place to end the movie. There was a fade to black for a while before a very slow, Five Years Later text appeared on the screen. If the Avengers: Endgame credit crawl began there, that would have been awesome, and a great way to troll the audience. At least I would have thought.
The film shows the impact from the previous movie had on The Avengers and, after killing a weakened and retired Thanos. Some of these stories were a mixed bag of great to all right, but they were all enjoyable. Tony Stark retired from The Avengers and had a daughter with Pepper Potts. Captain America hosted survivors of the snap support groups and attended to Avenger duties. Black Widow was running operations to find any sign of Infinity Stones around the Universe and bring in Hawkeye, who had turned rogue after his family had disappeared after Thanos snap. Bruce Banner had finally accepted and controlled the Hulk and become a loosely based “Professor Hulk” character. Thor lives on Earth as the New King of New Asgard with the Asgard survivors. He seems who fell the hardest of the group became overweight, out of shape, and an alcoholic. He blamed himself for not stopping Thanos.
The rest of the minor Avenger characters had not seemed impacted by the snap but played a more significant role in this movie. It seemed like everyone had their roles flipped between both films. Everyone that was a minor character in Infinity War had a significant role in this movie, and the major characters of Infinity War reduced to cameo appearances. Scott Lang, who wasn’t even in Infinity War, was pulled from the Quantum Zone following the end credit event in Ant-Man and the Wasp. While I was not too fond of the reasoning of him getting out of the quantum zone by a rat walking on the control panel, I did like the explanation that he was only in there for 5 hours. It also worked when the Quantum Zone was used as a plot device to get the infinity stones back.
This movie pulled off something that I didn’t even consider. Like a promo from Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Everyone (almost) is here. If they were in an MCU, they were in Endgame. Michael Douglas (Hank Pym), Haley Atwell (Peggy Carter), John Slattery (Howard Stark), Natalie Portman (Jane Foster), Tilda Swinton (The Ancient One), Robert Redford (Alexander Pierce) are some of the many Characters that return to the movie. It was a nice touch and great to see these actors reprise their roles.
To get the Infinity Stones, they had to do a “Time Heist.” A few groups were going to different times to retrieve the Infinity Stones. They coincide with various Marvel Movies, which were first Avengers movie, Thor: The Dark World and Guardians of the Galaxy. It was a smart way and a risky payout for a story. Time travel movies don’t seem to pan out too well in terms of an end that doesn’t leave too many plot holes in the story. The movie does acknowledge this when War Machine suggests trying to kill a baby Thanos and why that wouldn’t work. By doing that action would create many alternate timelines and not effect the timeline that they are in. The film was smart to at least find a way around this by saying no matter what they do; they won’t mess up their current timeline that they are in and change certain aspects of the past.
One thing that wasn’t touched on I felt should have had more mention, was that citizens of Earth didn’t seemed to be too impacted by the snap. At least we weren’t shown much of the Impact of the Snap. It was said at the beginning of the movie that world was in chaos following the snap, but in the five years later, everything kind of felt like it mellowed out. There was a scene of what looked to be survivors of the snap getting together. Life was going on as always and Fortnite was still a game being played. I’m not sure if that was product placement or a clever way to sneak the message of Armageddon. I just had this idea that the Avengers would have had to go around and keep peace for a few scenes. Besides one scene with Hawkeye attacking what looked to be a mafia crew in Japan.
This story did bring back Thanos, at least his past self that was trying to get the Infinity Stones from 2014. When going for the Power Stone, Nebula gets captured after connecting through a Network with her younger self and a young Thanos, seeing what his future self had done where he had succeeded and failed. He had altered his plan to wipe out all of the Universe and start it anew. This was a fair way to bring back the threat that the Infinity Stones could cause. You did need Thanos, or at least a Thanos or an enemy threat as the film could be rather dull just watching the heroes pull of the time heist of the Infinity Stones. I’m just, not sure if there was any plot holes or something I was or am missing from the story that could have prevented it, like why did Nebula go to that period, knowing that she would run into her younger self?
The movie can feel like it moves slow at times. I get this because it was initially supposed to be all one film with Avengers: Infinity War. There is a feeling that the film is stretched out to accolade this, but it built to one of the best battles that I have ever seen in a movie. The final battle is where the movie shines like a flash. Starting with the fighting of Thanos’ between Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America. The fight was intense, and I love it. The was a great back and forth of tension and hope that did keep me on edge. It felt like hope was lost after Thanos Shattered Cap’s shield and Captain America was downed. I’ll admit that hearing Falcon calling out to cap and being “on his left” as Doctor Strange’s portal brought every hero back to Earth, was incredible. Everyone is back, and it’s the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Wakandians, and Ravengers vs. Thanos’ army. The last 40 minutes of the film was one of the biggest and best fights I had ever seen, and I said this already, but I meant it. Watching every hero come together to stop the threat of Thanos was incredible and must be seen.
There are two deaths in Endgame of significant characters. Which is going to be the major spoiler part of this article. I mentioned Thanos was killed in the first 30 minutes of the movie. Black Widow is a casualty of the film. She dies fighting with Hawkeye as to who would jump off of the cliff and retrieve the Soul Stone. It makes sense as she had gone could be at peace for all of the “red” that was on her ledger. I feel I still don’t know what that red on her ledger is, but I”m hoping that the prequel movie of Black Widow will answer if anything part of the ‘Red.”
The other major death happens with Tony (Iron Man), and I’m OK this. Iron Man was the start of the MCU with Iron Man and has been a considerable part of the all the films even if he appeared in the movies or he didn’t. In Infinity War and Endgame, this was his big Swan Song. Everything made sense as to way Tony had to live in Infinity war. He was the one that made time heist work by figuring out how to do that. Tony remembered where the Tesseract was when they lost the item to Loki in 2012. The primary reason for Tony needing to survive was that he was the one who would save the Universe. I’m glad that the went this way because it brought a heroic and fitting end to Tony Stark’s story. If you watch his MCU saga in order, you see that he goes from a carefree going partying billionaire to a responsible heroic figure trying to do right with the Universe and save it. He got closure with his dad in the 1970’s while he was getting the Tesseract. Which was another significant part of Tony, showing himself to be more to be a paternal role model. Not only to his daughter but to Peter Parker as well. He also knew the pain of losing a child in Infinity War when Peter was snapped away. He definitely set up Tony as realizing what he had to do keep the people that e loved safe and what it called for, even if it would mean his life.
It also looks like Captain America’s story is over, at least for Steve Rodgers. He volunteers to go back to return the Infinity Stones, but doesn’t come back to the present time. Well he does, but comes back as an older man. Instead, he goes back to what I assume to be the 1945 and lives with Peggy Carter. It’s a nice end as he gives her the dance that he had to take a raincheck on in Captain America. I’ll admit, I didn’t expect him to give the Captian America shield to Falcon, as I thought Bucky (Winter Solider) would get it, but I thought that was a good decision as well.
Where does this franchise go from here, I don’t know. There is no mid or end credit scene, Tony Stark is dead and the Avengers disbanded. Captain America goes and stays back in time after returning the Infinity Stones to the correct periods and reunites with Peggy Carter. He is shown older in the present day handing the shield to Falcon. Thor joins the Guardians of the Galaxy, which looks like he will be a part of the next Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. He also appoints Valkyrie as the new Queen of Asgard. I can’t figure out a decisive path, and maybe it’s for the best right now. I don’t mind if the movies are going to go with solo stories for a bit. I understand that trying to create such a big project with a lot of actors takes time and resources to make it great. I am also aware that there is a fourth phase for the MCU that is coming but is not yet fully revealed. These past 22 movies have been a great accomplishment and through good and bad have created one of the best movie series that I have ever watched.
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