The Avengers Endgame Mega Review · 6:58pm Jun 15th, 2019

Spoiler Warning: This is the Endgame portion of the review, this is your only chance to leave the review before it’s too late. Again, I will be spoiling the movie as much as I possibly can and gushing about how much I enjoyed it, as well as what I didn’t like about the film. If you progress any further you will be spoiled. That being said, lets dive on into the Avengers Endgame portion of the review.

Part of the journey is the end

As with the Infinity War portion of the review, I’m going to try and cover the technical side as best as I can while avoiding re-telling the entire three hour plot of the movie. Seriously, three hours, I sat in a chair for three hours watching super heroes duke it out. Honestly if you had told me I would be so interested in heroes that I’d sit through a three hour movie, I’d have called you crazy and sent you off with the Vikings from How To Train Your Dragon.

First, I’d like to say that this movie is the equivalent to My Little Pony’s “Slice of Life” episode, which means we as MCU fans were going to get a love letter from the filmmakers for sticking with this franchise for eleven years. So for anyone that didn’t enjoy this movie, well I’m sorry you didn’t like it, but we were never going to get a full movie where Thanos’ beliefs are challenged and proven wrong. That being said, I’m going to talk a lot about what the film did best at, I do have a few issues I’ll list every so often, but most of this is a positive review so let's dive right in.

Second, does anyone else find it weird how the original Avengers survived the snap? The Russo’s said they used a spinning dart board to decide who lived, but I don’t know it just seems kind of convenient. Alright that was a joke, yes they planned for the original team to stay alive, otherwise we wouldn’t have another movie.

The opening scene was great, I loved seeing Hawkeye spending time with his family only to have them brutally dusted from his life. Watch that scene again in the real-time snap video above, notice how the filmmakers position each family member just outside of Clint’s peripheral vision before the camera pans over enough for the audience to see the dust blowing away. And as one of the directors put it, it’s more sad watching characters react to sad things. Not to mention one of the directors still cries seeing this scene, though that might be because his daughter was playing Clint's daughter.

This film’s greatest strength comes from its character moments, depiction of grief, and the realistic view that sometimes the villains of our life win the battle. Some people might not agree with that, but great storytelling comes from putting your characters through hardships and seeing them grow, or collapse, because of it.

The interaction between Tony and Nebula was touching, but served as a reminder that Nebula was abused emotionally and physically as a child. Remember that Thanos kept adding mechanical parts to her to help create the perfect daughter that could beat Gamora, so much so that Nebula doesn’t even know how to play a game of Paper Football without trying to nab the paper, or that she seems bewildered when she actually wins the game. It’s moments like these I’ve come to truly appreciate in film and in storytelling as these little moments really show the audience what these characters have been through.

Tony’s message to Pepper broke my heart, which was broken so many times throughout this film, because it really felt like this was the end for Stark. Not to mention the music score playing in the background was foreshadowing Tony’s eventual death as this same theme plays during his funeral scene. I almost cried during that scene because there’s something very saddening about seeing a character cope and reflect after they did everything they could to achieve a goal, but failed in the end.

Okay, I have very mixed feelings on Captain Marvel, who I often call Captain Glow Stick on account that she looks like a glowing candle, but all criticisms aside I have to admit she looked like an angel when she was floating in front of the ship. I’ll explain more about why I think Captain Marvel should have been saved for the next phase of films instead of being featured now, but for now let's keep talking about character interactions.

One disappointment I have about this film is that we never get to see Tony and Cap make amends after the events of Civil War. The closest we get, which was still a great moment was when they meet each other in the Avengers HQ yard and the first thing they say to each other is, “I couldn’t stop him,” “Neither could I,” to which all Tony can say afterwards is, “I lost the kid.” That right there hit me hard, because even after almost a month of being in deep space all Tony can think of and feel is the weight of that moment. Sometimes I think the cataclysm of the snap, and seeing one another again, was enough for them to realize they were fighting over nothing and that there was no need to talk about the events of Civil War. My other disappointment was not seeing a conversation between Bruce and Natasha after the rejection she got in Age of Ultron. Though it should be worth noting that a scene was filmed between them but was cut during the editing process.

Then in the following scene, Tony lashes out at Cap, which wasn’t just frustration at him, but anger and depression mixed together with the fact that they all failed. And this leads to my issue with Captain Marvel in the film, she needs to fill Captain America’s shoes as the moral leader after this film, but her attitude just isn’t sitting right with me. Honestly just a few line changes and she would be a great character, no really, just look at my next example. Her original line is, “Because before you didn’t have me,” this comes off as arrogant, but change this line to, “Because before we weren’t fighting together,” and suddenly this becomes someone I can look to for leadership. Not to mention even Tony points out that they need young blood like Carol because the original Avengers are basically done at this point.

I’m going to cut my issues with Captain Glow Stick to a minimum and just use this video link here to show how she can be improved into an outstanding character.

That being said, the Avengers next goal is a clear and simple one.

Lets go get that son of a bitch.

Also, Cap, language! Do you kiss your mother with that mouth? All jokes aside, I really like the mission to stop Thanos as it serves a multitude of purposes that a lot of people aren’t aware of or acknowledge. The first being that it addresses what happens when the villain does truly win the battle, as well as why the characters fall into depression after this mission. A lot of people say it wasn’t within Thanos’ character to destroy the stones, which is true of comic Thanos, however MCU Thanos is right in what he says. The infinity stones served their purpose and if they stayed in the universe or with Thanos they would cause temptation. Anyone that tries to argue this only proves his point, which is that powerful MacGuffin’s like those need not to exist after they have served their purpose.

Also this scene serves as a way to break the mold of traditional hero stories, which usually end when the bad guy is beaten, killed, or turned over to the good side. This movie rejects that and shows the audience that even when Thanos is killed in the first twenty minutes of the movie, nothing is resolved. Listen to what Thor says, “I went for the head.” At first I laughed at that line, but then immediately stopped when I thought I heard a crack in his voice. That little crack in his voice is the moment Thor broke as a character because the notion that killing the bad guy will fix everything was rejected because Thanos destroyed the stones. And Thor puts all that blame on himself since this takes place just a month after he lost half his people, his brother, his best friend, all of Asgard, half the universe, and now can’t fix any of it. So to any one that says Thor was a wuss in this movie, he has every right to be, because people can only take so much before they break and Thor has suffered more than enough to warrant his depression setting in.

Lets go over the rule of having a cost for power again. This scene also reinforced that using the stones all at once a second time will kill someone that isn’t built for the job. Thanos must be made of strong stuff to be able to take two seperate blows from the infinity gauntlets backlash of power, as well as being impaled by Stormbreaker in the previous film. Just look at Thanos’ face, it shows that having so much power at one's disposal does come at a price, and I can only imagine how hard it was for him to hold onto the power of all six stones for nearly a month before he blew them to ashes. And this rule puts into perspective why it’s important to have things like this for your powerful artifacts, without it, Thanos could do whatever he wanted to, which would then lead to him being corrupt. Huh, you know now that I think about it that’s why he destroyed the stones in the first place. Good on Thanos to realize, “Yeah, I’m probably going to do something stupid with these.”

Also this scene just further proves how great of an antagonist Thanos is. Think about it, he's a murderer, but he doesn’t lie, he’s introspective, very pragmatic, but he also believes in his words enough to try and fix the problem where most people would sit and argue about how to go about a population issue. The one thing I find truly scary about Thanos is that underneath the genocide and deep pit of evil, there is nothing truly mustache twirlingly evil about this character. Just look at a few of the MLP antagonist that are just evil for evil’s sake, Thanos isn’t like that, and it makes him all the more scary. Also I realized this after my second viewing, but Thanos had to exempt himself from the snap, otherwise someone would have picked up the stones and reversed the action, so this realization lead him to the reason why he needed to destroy the stones after he was done.

Five. Years. Later

Now two part finales are nothing new to storytelling, we’ve seen them in movies, cartoons, and even comics, but for a movie to skip five years with our heroes not having even a single hint on how to fix things had me say, “Oh my God,” when I saw those words flash across the screen.

Seeing Tony, Cap, Natasha, Bruce, Thor, and Clint all tackling their new reality in their own way was interesting as well heart breaking. Honestly I was very sad seeing Natasha trying to keep herself together after taking over Nick Fury’s position as leader of S.H.I.E.L.D, or at least what’s left of it. Seeing Cap helping people the best he could, which meant having a support group for those dealing with the aftermath of the snap puts a smile on my face. Also that support group had a cameo from Thanos’ original creator, Jim Starlin, as well as one of the directors, I thought that was a nice touch and didn’t catch the cameo from Thanos’ creator until after hearing about it in an interview before my second viewing.

Also, shoutout to Natasha for keeping herself together all those years. Seriously, Scarlet Johansson did a great job with her performance and I can’t wait to see the Black Widow movie that she signed on to do.

On my first viewing, I noticed that the Avengers all embodied the five stages of grief. Tony Stark embodies the stage of Denial, as he wants nothing more to do with Thanos once he has his daughter, Morgan, and has settled down with Mrs. Pepper Stark. Clint was the manifestation of the stage Anger, this lead him to becoming Ronin and taking the lives of all the wicked people that Thanos didn’t snap away as he deemed it unfair that his loving family was taken but not the jerks that actual did bad things. Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff were the personification of the Bargaining stage, this is because we see them jump at the opportunity, a very risky one at that, that might bring back the ones they loved that were dusted. Keep in mind they were set on doing this even after the smartest person left on the planet dismissed time travel as nonsense. Thor, who was arguably the worst one of the bunch, fell deep into the Depression stage and went on a drinking binge. Thor isolated himself from everyone aside from Korg and his pal, he only seemed to care about playing Fornite or that the cable wasn’t working, and after all those years still blamed himself for the snap. And finally, Bruce is the stage of Acceptance, because he made peace with what happened and found a way to move forward with his life by becoming Professor Hulk after accepting what was irreversible.

And this paragraph above is where I’d like to address most fans who said, “Thor sucked,” or, “I hate what they did with Hulk.” Look, I wanted to see Hulk use a World Breaker punch against Thanos and his gauntlet, but this is the reality of how things would unfold, and unfortunately reality is often disappointing for most people. I don’t care how strong you think you are or how strong you think your character is, the truth is that we as humans, whether we be characters on a page or real people, can only take so much stress, pressure, and heartache before we collapse from it all. No matter how strong willed someone may be, at some point we break. And that right there, that paragraph above, shows how subtle the stages of grief were woven into the story and why Endgame is fantastic writing.

Time Heist

Six Stones. Three Teams. One Shot.

Now let’s move onto the next subject of the film, time travel! Alright, I’ll be honest, I really don’t care much for time travel movies, don’t get me wrong they’re fun, but the whole sci-fi stuff has never been my biggest interest aside from maybe the Iron-man armor and Hiro’s nanobots from Big Hero Six. So I was bummed that this was the route the directors took, but then I saw the possibilities that it opened up. As a love letter to all the fans of the MCU this plot line allows for the writers to take us to all of our favorite parts of the timeline as well as get much needed closure for most of the characters.

And lets go ahead and get this out of the way, go ahead and watch these links first before complaining about time travel, it’ll help save me a lot of words. If for some reason anyone reading this doesn’t understand the first video, watch the second.

Time travel is a big science fiction topic that writers and directors love to discuss as it has lots of possibilities in how it can be handled. For starters, and this is for everyone that said, “They broke the rules of time travel,” the Avengers are using very different time travel rules than what is presented in the Back to the Future movies, or any of the movies they listed in Endgame. A physicist was brought in to help the writers figure out how time travel might actually work, and so far the time travel methods used in Endgame, which is the multiverse theory, is how most scientists agree time travel would work if it were even possible. One of the best things about time travel, and this was stated by James Cameron at one point as well, because time travel has yet to be done in real life the writer is free to make up their own rules. Now there are a few time travel theories out there, such as the dynamic model shown in Back to the Future, as well as the multiverse theory shown here in Endgame as well as in the videos I added above.

I’ll go ahead and point this out now, most of the “plot holes” around this movie stem from the time travel aspect. A lot of people will ask questions like, “Well, what happens when Thor takes his hammer from his past self? Wouldn’t that mess up the events of that movie?” The answer is, no, it wouldn’t due to the multiverse theory. Listen to what Hulk says to the Ancient One carefully, he says that chronologically the items taken during the time heist would be returned at the exact moment they were taken, so they technically are never missing in the first place. To put it simply, if Thor takes the hammer at noon, even if he spends a lifetime with it in the present day, he can return it at noon at the exact moment he took it and the Thor from the Dark World movie will still use it during the events of that movie. It’s confusing, but the point is that if they return it a second after they take the items they need, they can return them as if they never took them in the first place. If there are still problems just watch the video below. And if anyone still wants to argue that they can’t do this or that, well I refer you to the videos I linked above and below, if there’s still a problem, well, watch them again.

I’d like to point out that the Russo brothers, and their writers, did a fantastic job setting this up. Both movies are essentially the same due to the symmetry they share, but play out very differently. Notice how Thanos does a smash-and-grab heist mission throughout the entire Infinity War film, then in this film the Avengers team up to pull a smash-and-grab time heist through, well, time itself. The funny part was while the Avengers were talking about the stones, just before Natasha had her realization, I pointed out to my friend if they pick their targets right they can nab three stones in a single area, which is essential to a smash-and-grab heist where the people attempting the job only get one shot at it.

Before we continue on with the brilliantness that is the time heist, I’d like to point out their is a reason Infinity War’s pacing was different from this movie. Infinity War’s plot was tied to Thanos’ ability to move faster than the heroes, with that aspect lost in this film, Endgame is focused around the Avengers’ attempt to grab all the stones without an antagonist to stop them. In this situation, there’s no need for the movie to feel like the heroes are being rushed, because they aren’t. They have as much time as they need to fix their time machine, pick their targets, and then get the job done. The antagonist of the film doesn’t even show up until something inevitably goes wrong with the time heist, as anything with time travel can and will go wrong so long as Murphy’s law exists. Also in true heist movie fashion, and this movie is technically a heist movie, the protagonist often doesn’t meet problems until the heist begins, and this movie follows that formula just like that of an Ocean’s movie. Once again, great job to Russo’s and their writers, you guys really know your stuff.

One more thing I’d like to point out is how well the Russo’s blend genres together, and they have even said that they enjoy being able to blend genres together to get different feels throughout a movie. Movies get stale after we as an audience see the same stories being told over, over, and over again. Blending genres together can help not only keep things feeling fresh, original, and interesting, but it also opens up to allow for dramatic atmosphere changes when needed. Notice how in the beginning of Infinity War, we get a disaster movie atmosphere at the beginning, then by the end we get a conclusion to the hero's journey storyline. And here in Endgame we have a disaster movie opening, combined with heist movie for our midpoint, combined with the ending of a superhero movie. Not to mention the movies both end on a snap. Which brings me to something else the directors said, “if you can learn to view things from a different character’s perspective, you can learn a lot about life,” and these two movies embody that philosophy.

No amount of money ever bought a second of time.

Here's a list of the meetings that happen in the heist:

Tony meets his father.
Cap sees Peggy.
Thor talks with his mother.

Another reason this movie is fantastic is due to the amount of closure each character gets as well as how well each character’s arc is closed out after being built up for twenty two movies. Some people will disagree with me on that statement, but hear me out on this one. Due to the fact time travel is used during this movie our heroes are given the chance to speak with the people that they need to speak with to help bring closure to their arcs.

Tony Stark has said a lot of ill things about his father, such as, “he was cold, he was calculating, he never told me he loved me, he never even told me he liked me. So it’s a little tough for me to digest when you’re telling me the future is riding on me.” This quote from Iron Man 2 shows us that Tony never really had a loving father growing up. Even during the opening scenes of Civil War, Tony opens up about how he never grieved properly when his parents died and showed little sadness when his mother brought up the fact that the moment they were spending together might be the last time they were all together.

That all comes full circle when we get to Tony’s meeting with Howard. They swapped parenting jitters as well as how raising a child often feels for most parents, but the part I loved the most about this scene was what Tony says about what he thought about his father, “I thought my dad was tough on me, but now looking back on it, I just remember the good stuff.” And it’s through this interaction that Tony realizes that his father did the best he could, even leaving behind the key to solving the issue with his heart, and gets to hug his father one last time. This moment brings Tony’s arc closer to its end and is such a touching moment that wouldn’t be possible without time travel.

At the same time, Steve gets to see Peggy Carter again through her office window. It’s not a long scene, but it goes a long way in showing the audience that Peggy missed Steve, which is shown through her having a picture of him on her desk. It also does more than one thing, showing everyone that Steve still wonders about the life he missed out on.

Further down the timeline, Thor gets the chance to meet with his mother on the day that she died. This scene is also a brief one, but shows something really important, and that is Thor’s mother knows her son very well. I didn’t catch this on my first viewing, but Frigga points out that something isn’t right with Thor’s eye. I forgot that Thor got a new eye in Infinity War so her pointing this out was a really nice small detail. This entire scene between them is just so great as Thor gets the counseling he needs from his mother when she says, “A failure, absolutely. But you know what that makes you? Just like everyone else.” Going back to what I said about Thor being fat and depressed, this line right here says it all. A few fans don’t realize that Thor, while a god of thunder, is just like us and suffers from the same kind of negative emotions we all do. The only difference is he has bounced back more times the most of us have, but in this movie he stays down after he gets beaten. Once again this is real human reaction to a traumatizing event.

Your depression doesn’t make you any less worthy.

While these three moments for these three characters are brief, like Frigga, the wisest person in Asgard says, these moments are gifts. Not to mention that Thor’s greatest gift was receiving his hammer and realizing that even at his lowest most depressing point, he was still worthy of using Mjolnir.

The brief moment between Natasha and Clint was really bittersweet. Forcing two of the best assassin’s around to fight over who should sacrifice themselves was a cool scene, but one that I didn’t want to see a winner. Now my friend Meme Lord tries to do what an old teacher of mine called “Meta Gaming the Game” or in this case the story. My friend tried to say that he knew Natasha would die because her character arc was over, and that’s just not the case, as a person that enjoys storytelling I’ve found that a person can’t use character arcs to know if someone will die or not. As the writers have pointed out the reason Natasha wins this is because in previous movies it’s been shown that she is better at close range combat than Clint is, thus we can conclude that she would make the sacrifice.

Now I’d like to talk a little bit about Natasha. See going off of what my friend says isn’t a good way to figure out who would die, because the writers had several drafts written up that would end her character arc differently than how we saw it in the movie. Also a writer can easily change how a character lives or dies if they know their reader might piece it together that way. The Infamous video game kills off a character just before the climax of the game no matter what ending the player picks, so the writer can force a situation into their favor if they want to, which is why going off of character arcs isn’t a good way to “Metagame the Story.” In one draft, Natasha took over looking after orphans who lost their parents to the snap, and was still doing her best to keep it together. In that draft, Clint died instead of Natasha, and I believe she would have more than likely looked after Clint’s family once the orphan’s parents returned.

The reason Natasha doesn’t get a funeral scene like Tony does later on is because this is a more fitting way for her character to go out. Tony was a celebrity, everyone knew who he was, but Natasha was different, her whole life is the embodiment of being a cipher. She’s a spy at her core and when she passes it makes sense that only her core family, the Avengers, remember her in a private funeral. Though I do wish we could have seen her name floating next to Tony’s in the funeral scene, or at least maybe have Clint set something on the water later.

Some fans have an issue with Tony building a gauntlet that allows the user to wield the infinity stones, however I’d like to point out that he doesn’t actually forge a gauntlet that works. The gauntlet that Thanos was using took the force of the stones when he snapped, but when Hulk snapped the amount of energy permanently damaged his arm unlike Thanos who could still use his arm just fine despite having still been damaged. And when Tony uses the gauntlet he dies. So the reasoning behind this is that Tony is the smartest person on Earth alongside Professor Hulk, and even Rocket who understands space artifacts, all three of them working together should be able to put their heads together in order to craft a gauntlet that will give them at least one snap to bring everyone back. Going back to what I said earlier, they have all the time in the world to get things right, so they more than likely spent a few days figuring everything out as there’s no point in getting the stones if they can’t be used. And once again I’d like to point out that all that power comes at a price, Hulk can barely hold the gauntlet up when he tries to snap, also don’t forget he says he tries to bring everyone back that was affected by the snap along with Natasha, but can’t bring her back because she was part of the everlasting exchange.

To help save time, I’ve moved any remaining plot holes to the Plot Holes section of the Endgame review as well as my remaining thoughts on Captain Marvel to the Weird Math section of the review. I want to keep talking about Endgame’s positives so we’ll move on to just after Hulk puts on the gauntlet.

Lets kill him properly this time.

The amount of chills I got when the three Avengers were talking about confronting Thanos was a great scene put together. Also due to the fact time travel was involved it allowed for one of the most badass moments in the entire series, Thor summoning both his weapons at once. And it’s a moment like this where all three characters are at their peak, and let’s really think about this, after five years of depression this is the best our heroes are going to be at post-trauma.

And despite being at their best, the three main Avengers left to fight Thanos can only hold their own. Never once during this fight did it feel like they had an advantage, and this is coming from the person that honestly thought Thor dual wielding his weapons would be enough to tip the scales once mixed with Cap’s shield and Tony’s nanotech. The best part of this battle between these four is the numerous callbacks to other films. It was super badass seeing Thor’s lightning strike charge up Stark’s suit to deliver a massive energy blast to the Mad Titan. Another great win for this movie is the sheer amount of teamwork these three are putting in against Thanos, combination moves like the lighting strike and the suit is even more insane to watch when it’s a callback to the first Avengers film. In my humble opinion, a fight between the protagonists and antagonist gets even better when callback moves are used, it just makes me feel like our heroes are going the extra mile to take a big threat down and are still being pushed back.

And speaking of callbacks, one moment I predicted was one I didn’t think I would have a big reaction to since this would be a certain actors last film for the MCU. Not to mention that the tease in Age of Ultron was something I’ve been waiting to be paid of for so long now and one of only two moments that have ever made me cheer in a theater with the audience...

Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.

Yes, there were many, “Hell Yeah!” and “Holy Shit!” comments in my theater when I saw it opening night. And when I saw it again that following Sunday there were still many cheers to be had. Although now that I think about it, I’m surprised I forgot about Thor losing his hammer during Ragnarok, now I’m questioning why I even expected Cap to lift the hammer in the last movie at all. I think I just assumed Cap would use one of Thor’s weapons at some point, that might have been it.

Captain America using Thor’s hammer against Thanos had me in tears despite knowing a big moment like this was likely to happen, and a reaction like that only happens when the audience grows attached to the characters. Not to mention seeing Cap use the hammer and shield gong-bash just to knock Thanos off balance long enough to get within range to keep beating the tar out of him was an epic callback to the first and second Avengers film. Once again a moment like this is only capable of happening when used with characters the audience grows attached to over the course of several films.

The cherry on top for this part of the fight was the fact that Cap really did get to use Thor’s power, and did so in the best possible way, he calls down a powerful lightning strike the likes of which would put any other antagonist they fought down for the count. But not Thanos, he takes it like a champ and precedes to beat Cap’s shield until it’s broken in half. The only thing that would have made this scene better was knowing whether or not Thanos dual-bladed glaive was made out of adamantium, which is the only thing outside of vibranium that can harm it. But once again, the Russo didn’t dumb down the characters, odds are with Thanos being the Genghis Khan of the universe he would more than likely have armor and a weapon made up of the strongest material he can get his hands on.

Despite Cap’s best efforts, even with Mjolnir in hand, he only slows down Thanos before the titan calls upon his large army. I won’t lie, I thought it was over for Cap, Thor, and Stark when the army rallied together after they had already been beaten down. In true Captain America fashion, he doesn’t give up, and stands ready to fight until his last breath. In all honesty, I want a poster of this scene below.

Indomitable spirit is having the courage and bravery to fight until your last breath, even when the odds are stacked against you.

This entire fight had me forget that Hulk snapped his fingers and brought everyone back, so the moment Black Panther, Shuri, and Okoye walk through the portal I was in tears. Once again Endgame making characters look like angels sent to help gets a win from me. The moment only gets better when everyone returns to join the fight, and they all rally together with Black Panther’s war chants just before we are subject to one of the best, and most delayed, moments in cinematic history…

Avengers...ASSEMBLE!

I have had such a hard time finding the best way to describe my feelings for this scene. The only thing I can really say is that I understand why some of the producers of the MCU were in tears when they were airing the trailer for Infinity War. This moment right here was what they were leading up to and it’s a tremendous accomplishment, one that everyone working to make the MCU what it became has worked their butts off for. For me, seeing Tony and Pepper team up for a brief moment was something I was hoping to see for a long time, and everything else mixed with that was just even more fanservice that I’m happy to have gotten. Everyone has a big part in this battle and I just don’t have the words to describe how fantastic it was.

The only negative I had about this battle came from Captain Marvel’s participation. The video above can better explain my thoughts on how the finale could have been changed, it’s long, but give it a watch when you get the chance. And, yes, I did have a problem with Captain Marvel blowing through Thanos’ ship, mostly because after she did that it made the heroine team up scene feel pointless because Captain Marvel is far above a few dozen goons charging her. Like I said the video above helps re-write this scene so that the heroine moment makes more sense.

I. Am. Ironman.

This was very heartbreaking to see. The thing that brought me to tears was when Pepper says, “Tony, we’re going to be okay, you can rest now,” before the arc reactor fades out. I’d like to point out that the funeral scene where the camera pans past everyone Tony Stark has affected throughout his life was done with all the actors their on set aside from Spider-man’s actor who had to film re-shoots on another film. For any one that doesn't know the random teenager near the end is that kid from Iron Man 3. For this scene the directors used a fake script to make sure the secrecy of this film was top notch, and this scene in the fake script was called The Wedding rather than The Funeral, and only Robert Downey Jr. got to read the full script.

There haven’t been many interviews with the directors about this film, at least not enough to get a variety of answers like when I was writing the Infinity War portion of this review, but the directors did say that Robert Downey Jr. had a hard time wrapping up his last line for this movie.

I’d like to go ahead and point out that the reason why old Cap gave Sam the shield is because Bucky is still affected by his trigger words that make him go crazy. As the directors and writers put it, Bucky can be corrupted still and that is something that will stay with him for a long time, but Sam has been through thick and thin with Cap and has earned the shield. I couldn’t agree more, and I look forward to seeing both of them in the movie.

So if I’m going to wrap this review up, put a nice bow on it, I’d say that ending this movie with Cap dancing with Peggy was a sweet way to go. He finally made his date and got his dance, there isn’t a better note to end on. I also find it weird to say one of the three films I’ve teared up at is a superhero movie. Keep in mind, these movies started in 2008, we are all walking into a new decade, these movies are a generation’s childhood, children who were ten years old back when these movies started are now going to college. This is the modern day Star Wars for some people, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe has no doubt inspired a new generation of filmmakers.

My final rating for this movie as a standalone film is: 9.5 out of 10 stars
As a single story I would rate Infinity War and Endgame at a 9.8 out of 10.
This was satisfying, spectacular, and amazing, it’s not perfect but it never could have been. This is Marvel’s swansong for the original Avengers, and it was wonderful.

Plot Holes:

Double resources - There’s a big reason for this, he was told no to his idea on his home world, then bad things happened, and his use of the stones is a way to force the universe to get it right a second time without mistakes. Also Thanos is a very callous being, so when he manifests his righteous idea it becomes extremely callous. Keep in mind, he isn’t right, and doesn’t have to be right, his logic just like anyone else’s can and will be flawed.

Time Travel Issues - as far as I’m concerned, there are no time travel issues. People will say that they didn’t follow the rules of time travel, this is false. Back to the Future as well as other time travel movies can follow whatever rules they want to establish for navigating time, however this does not mean they are the end all be all when it comes to this concept. Endgame features the multiverse theory as its form of time travel, where as Back to the Future depicts dynamic time travel theory.

Captain Marvel Error in Endgame - A few people I talked to were confused on how Tony was saved by Captain Marvel at the beginning of Endgame and why her post-credits scene wasn’t in the movie. This is most likely because she arrived on Earth first during the post-credits scene, and then was told by Rocket where his ship was in space, she then went to find Tony just in time.

Carol Danvers the First Avenger - This isn’t really an Infinity War or Endgame plot hole, just one I saw floating around leading into Endgame. Some people out there think that Carol Danvers is the first Avenger, this is not true. Her movie takes place in 1989 where her story begins and goes into the mid 1990’s. Captain America’s first movie takes place during World War 2, and if we use the end date of that war it would put Cap’s story wrapping up on September 2, 1945.

How Does Thanos Travel To The Present Day - This is actually a good point that takes a bit of thinking to figure out. People often forget that Thanos is a genius, as well as one of his four generals, Ebony Maw. It stands to reason that two geniuses can reverse engineer the one Pym particle that was taken from Nebula so that they can mass produce it and bring the entire army with them to the present day.

Tony Stark, a genius, could disprove Thanos' point of view with counter arguements- That is a very good point, Tony could do that, but that doesn't matter. Thanos is a mad titan, his personal experience is biased towards what he thinks is the right thing to do, and even if he does agree with Stark, Thanos' way of getting things done is manifested in a callus way, not a righteous one. Content Warning: This link contains a clip from AMC's The Walking Dead, viewer discretion is advised due to a violent death on screen. In the Walking Dead, a man named Spencer goes to convince Negan that Rick isn't right to lead the town, then Negan turns around and kills him. This is probably what would happen to any one trying to win a theoretical argument with Thanos, so again, it doesn't matter if you are right or wrong, Thanos will continue to do what is right in his mind even if everyone around him says it is wrong. And Dr. Strange already tried reasoning with him, but found he would get nowhere with Thanos, which then goes on to lead into the last fight of the film.

The Ancient One said that the stones couldn't be removed or it would mess up time, but Thanos destroyed them- That's a great point. However Thanos said they were reduced to atoms, so technically speaking they are still around just not in a manifested form that they previously had.

The Russo's wrote themselves into a corner- Okay, I could believe this if the Russo's were posting this story on Fim where we get stories that are written as the author makes it up quite often. However they had a few years, and two writers, to go through every possibility the story could take. They know how to plan their stories out, which is why these two films are very symmetrical to one another. Remember that they also wanted to make a movie that literally felt like a comic book story and they did it.

How did Tony handle all six stones, but Star Lord, a celestial, couldn't handle one?- Another good question, but there's a simple answer. Tony had the gauntlet on, Star Lord did not, and if we see Thanos using the power stone to knock Captain Marvel out we can see the stone damaging Thanos' hand right away. And Tony died from using the stones, so he really didn't handle them well at all.

Why didn't Captain Marvel snap Thanos away?- This one actually took me a bit of thinking to work through. Going by what Hulk says, the stones emit gamma radiation when using a snap, so Captain Marvel would most likely be killed due to not being a celestial like Star Lord or being made of gamma radiation like Hulk.

Why didn't character X just fly the gauntlet into space- Dr. Strange saw well over fourteen million possible ways the Infinity War would finish, odds are they would have still lost in this scenario. Also to save time, any other question like this, or involving the rat that saved Ant-man, can all be put underneath this answer here.

Does Steve bringing back the shield from another universe mess anything up- That's a really good question. Unless we hear other wise, Steve could have returned the stones and then that reality would be erased so it wouldn't matter. However not all of these branch realities could have been erased so it's possible something happened and this might cause a future movie to take place. I hear that in Far From Home, Mysterio is from an alternate reality, so the next phase of movies could focus on fixing the multiverse.

Why didn't Ant-man go up Thanos' th-anus?-Okay this isn't really a plot hole, but I found an answer from one of the writers about this very topic. I had to include this some where. Here's the quote from the writer:

“Thanos could take a punch from the Hulk, we’ve seen that. And it stands to reason his whole body is at least as strong as that,” Markus explains. “If Ant-Man expanded, he would be simply crushed against the immovable walls of Thanos’ mighty rectum.”

Weird Mathematics:

Okay, please bear with me on this one and hear me out. Captain Marvel powers don’t add up and I can prove it. Wanda Maximoff is a child of an infinity stone, meaning her powers were born from a stone, this gives her the ability to hold off Thanos while he has five stones in his possession, this doesn’t mean she can overpower him. We can assume that Hydra did heavy experiments on Wanda and her brother to give them those powers while they had Loki’s staff. It can be debatable as to whether or not they were in direct contact with the stone as it wasn't shown until Age of Ultron.

Stay with me on this, because this is where things get interesting. Captain Marvel was near an exploding engine that had the space stone’s energy embedded in it. Now she was never directly in contact with the stone until much later in the film long after she got her power, but her powers were born from the energy that came from the stone and that’s the important part. So we as the audience can assume she is on par with Wanda Maximoff in terms of raw power as they are children of the infinity stones. However, Captain Marvel clearly shows she is far more powerful than MCU Wanda that it doesn’t even seem fair, it’s like she got jacked up to an 11 on the power scale, now remember, Captain Marvel was only exposed to the energy that the engine had from the space stone and was never in direct contact with the stone. Since Wanda was given powers from the mind stone via its energy, and not direct contact, why is it that Captain Marvel’s overall power output is so much higher than Wanda’s? Shouldn’t they be near equal?

Wanda + Mind Stone Energy = Hold Back Thanos (Five stones in possession)
Carol Danvers + Space Stone Energy = Takes a head-butt from Thanos unphased (all stones in possession)

Does anyone else here see where the math isn’t adding up?

An explanation that gets thrown around is that Carol was absorbing the stone's energy, the problem with that explanation is that the filmmakers already established that the gauntlet possesses to much energy that even Hulk could barley hold it up. I doubt Carol's powers can absorb enough energy that Thanos couldn't just knock her out with his head-butt.

Now I can’t stress this enough, I’m not saying she shouldn’t have been in Endgame, but if she was going to have this level of power right out of the gate of her intro movie, it might have been best to have waited until the next phase of movies before introducing her. The filmmakers had to add a weakness to the infinity gauntlet in the movie, in the comics Thanos doesn’t need to close his fist to activate each stone, however in the movie the only way to even make the fight fair as well as possible was to include closing Thanos’ fist as a weakness. It doesn’t make sense to include Captain Marvel with such a high power level, go toe to toe with Thanos, and have a snowball's chance in hell of beating him with a fully powered gauntlet. At that point, it feels more like power fantasy, which is fine, just not for this specific film.

The X-men and Fantastic 4 are said to be joining the MCU in about five years, and while I’m looking forward to seeing how they’re integrated I’m hoping that my opinion of Captain Marvel will change before then so I can root for her to. Mostly because…there are bigger threats on the horizon and the heroes will need the strongest allies they’ve got to take on what’s coming next.

Other Issues or Concerns

Would Captain America fight Red Skull when he goes to Vormir to deliver the soul stone- No, the reason being is that one of the writers said that Red Skull's former consciousness is pretty much gone at this point, so he wouldn't remember who Cap was or there problems. While I don't agree with that statement, I'd like to point out that the conflict between the two happened a very long time ago, even if they did remember each other it's not like Red Skull can use the stone because he guides people to a treasure he cannot possess. In all honesty they have no reason to fight one another, though I have to admit Cap's reaction would be fun to see.

Why did Falcon, Sam Wilson, get the shield and not Bucky- There's actually a very sad answer for this. Bucky still has his trigger words installed in his psyche, no one from Wakanda was able to cure him so this means if Bucky was the next Cap, he could potentially be corrupted by those words if someone knows them. Sam on the other hand is not corrupted and has followed his heart when doing the right thing, and he is a fine fit for the shield.

This didn't happen like the Infinity Gauntlet comic- Of course it wouldn't, the Russo don't want to give you a movie that's a shot-for-shot remake of a comic book panel-for-panel. That would be boring.

Infinity War was better than Endgame - Yes, and no. Infinity War was a fantastic movie with great pacing, however that pacing was only achieved because Thanos was moving to fast. It was because of him that a tight pacing was even possible, but when we as the audience get to Endgame there is no big bad guy to beat because he is axed off within the first twenty minutes of the movie. Our heroes won, right? They beat the big bad guy right away, just like in the previous movies, except this time things don’t work out in the end. Now we as the audience, as well as our favorite heroes, are forced to do one of the hardest things in life, we all have to move on. With the way Endgame is structured, there isn’t a big bad guy until the third act, so the big threat looming over everyone’s head is the fact that time travel is a one shot deal that could work. Endgame is about trying to move on, not being able to, and using a last ditch effort to save the world when the bad guy already won even after he’s be slain.

Now I get some audience members wanted a big war against Thanos, and while it wasn’t as big as some of us were hoping for, I have to remind everyone that our heroes already won that battle in the first twenty minutes and still lost.

A notable issue with Endgame, at least for some, is that there wasn’t enough action. There’s a reason for that, remember that Infinity War and Endgame are two movies that tell a single story that spans both films. Realistically speaking these movies needed to be shown side by side, this is because Infinity War was the brawn with most of the action, and Endgame is the second half with the brains to show the aftermath, the fallout, of our heroes failure. So I don’t think either film is truly better than the other, hence the reason both films get roughly the same score for me. In fact the only reason Endgame got a lower score is because it didn’t wrap up a few plot threads of previous movies, only glossed over them.

This movie isn’t good because it’s built up on 22 other films, it doesn’t work as a stand-alone movie- Once again, yes, and no. Look, I don’t want to be rude about this, but if this is really your first, maybe even second, Marvel movie then you aren’t going to enjoy it. Just like the Game of Thrones final season memes point out, you don’t get to have that satisfying conclusion that the rest of the fans get because you jumped onto the bandwagon at the last minute. Arguably, we as the audience needed to see at least a few movies before this one came out, and at the very least have seen Infinity War like my co-worker did. Now my two co-workers aren’t big Marvel fans, in fact if I were to talk about it with them they would vaguely understand what I was talking about. But they both saw at least one or two other movies before Infinity War, knew a little bit about Thor’s hammer, and when they saw Endgame they loved it. So, no, we as an audience don’t need to see every other film to enjoy this movie, maybe just a few. However when I went into the lore of the heroes a bit more, at least as far as the MCU is concerned, one of them wished they had seen the earlier movies to help get the big impact of certain moments like when Captain America wields Thor’s enchanted hammer.

It was nice hearing my coworker want to go see the movie again with her significant other after I explained a bit more about Thor’s hammer and how most people can’t pick it up. If I remember right, both my co-workers said they enjoyed the film even more the second time around once they understood a bit more of what was going on.

My next point with this issue stems from nitpicking, see most people don’t use this argument if a trilogy is wrapping up, this argument only comes up when series are coming to a close such as Harry Potter and Endgame. If this is any one’s reason for why this film might be bad, please look for another reason to criticize it. I don’t much care for James Cameron’s Avatar, however I can list more reasons than just saying something like, “It only made that much money because it was a big 3D experience and released near Christmas.”

Also, why do so many people have a problem with how big the MCU is? Yes, a stand alone movie with no sequels is good, but the MCU is the other side of the spectrum that shows the world a cinematic universe done right can make lots of money. I don’t see either of these two storytelling methods as superior to one another, just a unique way to tell a good tale. And once again, this film isn’t bad just because some people decided to jump on the bandwagon at the last minute.

I’d like to also point out that this movie has made so many funny videos and memes. I can’t find my favorite meme about Steve smiling about there being a hammer no one can lift, so have this video instead.

Endgame versus the Box Office

And check out this larger review in case I missed something.

Conclusion

The only other tidbit of info I can give on this movie is that the Russo’s said that when they were putting the final touches together on the script they had roughly one page to outline each of the three acts in this movie.

As I’m sure anyone reading this can tell, I loved both of these movies and am happy I could see both films in theaters with a crowd that made the experience feel like I was at a rock concert. The writing was great, even if I didn’t agree with every decision made, and I can honestly say that the build up to these two movies made them even more enjoyable. Thanks for checking out the review, and I hope you all go see the next Spider Man movie when it hits theaters as it will be the epilogue to Endgame as well as the ending to this phase.

To Mr. Stan “The Man” Lee, thank you, your comics helped me learn more about storytelling and have entertained me for many years. It’s a shame you didn’t get to see Endgame before your passing, you would have loved it.

To the Russo brothers and to the writers, thank you for your fantastic work, and I’ll see you guys when you return for Secret Wars!

Report OConnerGT-R · 390 views ·

Comments ( 2 )