Avengers: Endgame

Hello everyone!

Now that Endgame has been out for a couple weeks and I’ve had a chance to see it again, I’m ready to write my full on spoiler review. This review will be entirely spoiler filled, so please don’t read it until you’ve seen the movie. This film is especially sensitive because of how many surprises happen, as well as all of the foreshadowed elements which it fulfills.

Without further ado, let’s dive in.

 

Final spoiler warning.

 

 

I can’t believe they killed Thanos in like 5 minutes!

Yes! that actually happens!

Oh my goodness. This movie. I really cannot say enough good things about it. I’m going to try and keep this organised, but it might get a little disjointed. It would take too long to list everything I loved, so I’ll just discuss my favorite bits.

The character’s stories:

Something this movie does so admirably is it completes the stories of the departing cast. Iron Man, Black Widow, and Captain America all get such perfect ends to their character’s arcs.

Iron Man started the series as the billionaire who only cared about himself and money. In the first Iron Man he starts to learn to care about things and people other than himself. As the MCU continues Tony shifts from being selfish, to being overly cautious. In Age of Ultron he tries to create a suit around the world, and he fails. He tries again to protect the world in Civil War, and fails again. He tries again by using Peter in Homecoming, and even though Peter tries his hardest, Tony still fails to protect the world through his efforts. And finally in Infinity War Tony fails to stop Thanos before he reaches earth.

And in this movie, he finally succeeds in protecting everyone he’s learned to care about. Not through suits, or money, but through the sacrifice of his own body and life.

Captain America starts his story wanting to stop bullies. He doesn’t want to fight Nazis, but he sure does want to stop injustice, and he’ll sacrifice himself over and over again in order to protect the greater good. He ends The First Avenger by sacrificing himself yet again to stop the Red Skull’s bomber. As the MCU continues, Steve steps up to lead the team. Not because it’s what Fury wants, but because it’s what the world needs him to do. He learns that he can’t always trust the people running the show, but he can trust his friends, and his own choices. In Winter Soldier he continues to pursue this. When HYDRA takes over SHIELD he really has his world turned upside down because the establishments where he put his trust failed him. However, once again his friends, even brainwashed Bucky, didn’t. In Civil War Steve knows he can’t blindly put his trust in the government any more, and now he can’t trust some of his friends. In the end of that film, his friendship with Tony is rent asunder and Steve is left with few friends, and even fewer people he’ll out his trust in. In Infinity War this comes into fruition because it doesn’t matter who Cap trusts because they’re out of options. Infinity War brings back his self sacrifice too, because in the end sacrificing himself isn’t enough. He gives everything he has to stop Thanos, but it’s still not enough.

In Endgame, Steve learns that his sacrifices alone aren’t ever going to be enough, and that he’ll always have to trust in his friends to get the job done. He does his absolute best, but he can’t do it alone. And then, when all is said and done, he’s given the world everything time and time again, and he’s never once asked for something for himself. so when he knows the world is safe, and he can trust the people who are sworn to protect it now, he sees a chance to finally have some peace, and he takes it.

Black Widow starts in Iron Man 2 as someone who is there to do a job. In Avengers we learn that’s all she’s ever done because that’s who she was raised to be. She never became anyone because there was always the mission. And now that she has the opportunity to be someone, she’s afraid to because if she’s a person now, will all the things she’s done come back to haunt her? It’s easy to leave it all in the past when she’s solely focused on her mission, but if she stops to make a life, when will her past come to call? How could she ever wipe out that much red in her ledger? We see her struggle with this in Winter Soldier and in Age of Ultron as she realizes that maybe she does want to be someone after all, but doesn’t know if she can face the past.

In Endgame, Natasha has one chance. Once chance to give something. To wipe out the red. It’s not just a chance too, because if she doesn’t do it, her best friend will. She dies in the knowledge that she’s saved him, and that she’s given everything she can to save everyone else.

So yeah, I’m a fan of how those three departed.

Thor’s character work is also awesome, so admittedly a bit of a regression. Thor spends Ragnorok learning to be the king of Asgard. He learns to deal with losing everything he knows because it means the protection of his people.

In Endgame Thor does not take the loss well at all. It’s both hilarious and pitiful. But he ends this film leaving Asgard to Valkyrie and heading off with the Guardians, which is a bit of a step back from taking charge and leading his people. However, given the circumstances, and how well it’s handled in the movie, I think it’s pretty easy to forgive that he didn’t exactly have progress in this film.

I’m really happy we got to see so much from Nebula. She’s a character that’s actually had a lot of work in both the Guardians films, but she never got a spotlight on it. In this film we get to see her literally kill her past self, and fully embrace who she’s become. So much so that she convinces past-Gamora to join her.

Admittedly, Bruce, Scott, and Rhody don’t really get full on stories in this movie, but that’s okay. We’re going to have them around for more, so while it was important to have them here, it didn’t bother me at all that they weren’t front and center.

Moving to the plot, every since Janet’s hint in Ant Man and The Wasp I was expecting Endgame would be a time travel film, but I could never have predicted how interesting it would be, and how well the Russo’s would handle it. Endgame does such a good job setting out how time travel is going to work in the MCU, and then proceeds to deliver such a well rounded, really entertaining time travel filled second act. It was really neat to go back and see several of the prior films, and it was really rewarding for me especially since I had a made a point to rewatch all of the MCU before Endgame.

I’m going to talk about the time travel briefly. First of all, I don’t have all the answers. Was Steve Peggy’s husband all along? Maybe. Does the entire theory of time travel basically hinge on the acceptance of creating parallel universes? Yeah, it does. Is there a way to explain how Nebula can literally kill herself and that all makes sense? I’m sure there is but I don’t have it. What it comes down to is it does raise a lot of questions, but I think the film does an admirable job trying to quickly and easily tell you how it works and why, before moving on, and it worked for the story they wanted to tell. So I had no problems with the time traveling. And as I mentioned, I suspect that there are explanations for how it all works out without a bunch of paradoxes and plot holes, but I don’t have them.

This movie had so many fulfilling moments. From Giant Man punching a Chitauri whale thingy to Captain America wielding Mjolnir, as far as action goes, I got everything I was hoping for and more. The scene where all of the because who’ve been brought back enter through portals is so satisfying. The fight between Thor, Cap, and Iron Man against Thanos is really awesome. The enormous battle on the plains of New York between all of the superheroes and Thanos’ forces was incredible. I think too that the action in the final fight is really well shot. I’ve praised the Russos for this ever since Winter Soldier, but I think they handle action so well. It’s really easy to watch, but it’s also always really interesting. Now that doesn’t mean you can see every single thin going on in the frames of Endgame’s fight, but I do think that no matter where you’re looking as the camera sweeps across the battlefield, you can see what is going on, and appreciate it.

I think part of why the fight is so good at the end is because it’s not just those sweeping Lord of the Rings style shots, but it’s filled with character moments while they’re fighting. Spider-man’s fight scenes are great because he’s quipping while it happens. We get to see Scarlet Witch fight (and almost beat) Thanos as she mourns her love. We get to see Falcon stab a troll looking thing through the chest with his wings. It’s all so well handled, I really cannot praise it enough. This also really lends well to rewatching the movie, because there is so much to see, you can always find something new to look at on your next go around.

Another quick note: I loved the soundtrack for this film. Alan Silvestry uses his Avengers theme a whole lot, but he also has portions of the Captain America theme, and the Ant Man theme (and maybe others, but that’s all I’ve heard so far). I really appreciated that we finally got some musical continuity though.

I could go on and on, but the moral of the story is that I loved a lot of things in this movie. I have a very brief list of things I was less than a fan of, but before I get to that, I’ve got to talk about my favorite scene.

Let me set the stage. Thanos has been fighting Cap, Tony, and Thor for a bit now. He’s knocked the latter two aside, and he’s called down his army. His minions are pouring out of ships and lining up, and all we see is despair in front of us.

Cut to Captain America. He’s on the ground, and he stands up. He tightens his shattered shield, and he stands up. He looks out at the army. Then we get this beautiful shot of Cap overlooking the battlefield. He stands there ready to take it all on. Because he has to. Because it doesn’t matter if the whole world is telling you to move. It is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye and say no, you move. This moment in the film. This calm before the storm is the very epitome of who Captain America is. In one shot it so perfectly captures everything about him.

But even with such a noble figure standing in Thanos’ way, the audience knows that this is it. It’s all over from here. Cap is great, but even he can’t stand against what’s coming.

And then we hear “Steve, can you hear me? On your left”.

And the portals open. We see everyone coming through who was lost. Because of course, Hulk’s snap did work. But we’d forgotten about that because of the oncoming doom. And there they are. Spider-man, the Guardians, Falcon, Wasp, Black Panther and Shuri, Scarlet Witch, and Dr. Strange.

And even though Cap would have fought the whole army by himself, now he doesn’t have to. And in that moment, when he knows his friends have his back, he knows they can win this, he utters the words which comic book fans have been waiting for for 10 years “Avengers. Assemble.”

And that ladies and gentlemen is how you make Mark cry in a movie.

Anyway, I have two very small complaints about the film. Well, one complaint that I feel very strongly about that’s not that big a deal, and one that I don’t really care too much about, but is kind of a big plot hole.

First off, the “women’s scene” for lack of a better term for it. I think this scene has great intentions. I think this scene could have been really important to the movie. But this scene is just ridiculous. It’s handled so clumsily, I literally sighed when it happened. Here’s the deal, it’s not that hard to orchestrate a battle where a certain group of people (for example, all of the women) end up in the same spot. Look at the first Avengers film. There’s this super spread out battle for a long time, and slowly and carefully the action works its way to the point at which the team is all together and we get the super cool group shot. It wasn’t clumsy, it wasn’t out of place, and it didn’t pull people who were in the middle of doing something else to come be in the scene because they happened to be needed.

In Endgame this scene happens and Captain Marvel is there with the gauntlet. Valkyrie and Pepper both follow her and land next to her. Totally fine, they were following her as the gauntlet had been tossed around, so that makes sense. Okoye is also there. Okay, I can accept that they just happened to land next to one of the other ladies on the field. But you’re telling me that Okoye, Nebula, Gamora, Shuri, and MANTIS all of whom can’t  fly or anything by they way, and up to this point were no where near here all just suddenly walk up? And THEN Hope who was busy working on the quantum tunnel with Scott (which let’s remember is in the middle of Thanos’ forces) flew all the way over there too? I mean come on. It’s nonsense. Utter nonsense.

It is even more nonsensical because We’re talking about Captain Marvel here. She’s quite clearly the most powerful person on this field right now (with the exception of perhaps Scarlet Witch but that’s a discussion for another day). She doesn’t need help from anyone. And when she does start heading toward Thanos she just blows through everything anyway. Okoye, you’re cool and all, but you have a spear. Carol just destroyed Thanos’ entire ship, I think she can handle it.

The second complaint I have which is a much bigger plot issue, but I can easily let go, is Thanos’ power level. In Infinity War Iron Man, the Guardians, Strange, and Spider-Man were almost able to beat him, and he had four infinity stones in the gauntlet. Here has zero stones and yet Thor, Cap and, Tony can’t beat him? Scarlet Witch held Thanos off by herself when he had five stones, but she can’t totally whoop him in two seconds when he’s got none? However, the film had to have a cool climax, so they kind of needed to overpower Thanos, so I can let it go, no big deal.

 

That’s it. That’s really it. I loved this movie so so much. It has successfully dethroned Civil War as my favorite marvel film, and just ended things so perfectly. I know we’re getting more movies, but this is truly the end of an era, and it ended so perfectly. I could not have asked for more.

Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts (though with this film in particular, I think discussion is better in person).

~SH