Movie Talk - Avengers: Endgame

Well, we’re right on the eve of a new year. Before the year ends, I want to get back to the superhero genre for a minute. I finally re-watched Avengers: Endgame yesterday. I needed something to be playing while I was doing some work in quarantine, and it was time to revisit it. I’ve been kinda mum on Marvel this year here, so why not end it with the conclusion to Infinity War?

Avengers: Endgame was released during April of 2019. It was the long-awaited sequel to Avengers: Infinity War where Thanos basically wrecked the universe. I saw it solo since I knew Liz wasn’t going to sit through 3 hours at a movie theatre. Thankfully, I wasn’t there alone since pretty much everyone was out to see this movie. The theatre was pack to the teeth, and I almost didn’t find a seat. Since I knew that the movies were loosely following the comics, I didn’t know what to expect, but I did end up seeing a couple of spoilers online.

Endgame takes place right after Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out 50% of the universe. With the help of Nebula, they find the Mad Titan and try to see if they can undo his damage. Let’s just say that things don’t work out because the Stones get destroyed. Yeah, I’m trying to keep this somewhat spoiler-free. 5 years pass, and the world tries to find a new normal with some leftovers like Hawkeye and Thor losing their way. Thanks to the Deus Ex Machina known as Ant-Man, the remaining Avengers realize that they can use time travel to get the Stones and try to fix everything. Can they indeed undo Thanos’s damage? Maybe… maybe not. You gotta watch the thing to find out!

 PROS

While this might not be in the top 5 MCU movies, it’s definitely in the Top 10. This was a good way to cap off this era of the MCU. While we are going to get more (it makes money, y’all), this was something special. Heck, seeing the crowd reactions toward the end made it something special. It reminded me of what I experienced with the first Avengers movie where we saw the team come together. A lot of characters get their time to shine especially ones that got kinda shafted in Infinity War. It especially felt like everyone got a small chance to strut their stuff towards the end.

Great fight... no words

The story was pretty interesting. We got to see the aftermath of Thanos’s genocide and it was pretty depressing. The first act of the movie is just seeing what was lost after the snap. It’s not until the return of Scott Lang where things start to feel hopeful. Even then, you don’t know what to expect. I didn’t expect that time travel would be used here and in a way that I hadn’t really seen before. Even though it got a bit confusing (especially at the end!), seeing the team basically go a greatest hits journey was pretty fun.

As I said above, the remaining Avengers and a few others got to shine pretty well. Since this was a bit of a farewell to most characters, I thought this aspect got handled well. We see some characters change in pretty unexpected ways. While a couple moments were… okay, most of them were good. We all know that Captain America was pretty much the MVP of this movie. If you’re disappointed in his small time in Infinity War, this will make you happy. I also thought that Iron Man, Ant-man, Hawkeye, Nebula, Rocket, and a few others got good time to shine.

Of course, Thanos was still pretty effective as the villain of the piece. Since we’re dealing with time travel, we actually get a less philosophical version of the character, and I still think that works here. Remember that even after all the “I’m doing this to restore balance” B.S., Thanos is still a murderous nutjob. All this movie does is really show us that he’s a murderous nutjob, folks. The action and special effects are still top-notch. The final fights here are pretty phenomenal and had some epic moments. I even felt that things were better on the effects end. Even Tony’s newer suit looked good here. Of course, Alan Silvestri brought it with the music.

 

CONS

I felt these two (and one other) had some questionable things done to them.

While the movie was pretty good, I did have some issues with things here and there. While the movie does move pretty well, it started to drag during the Time Heist section. What we got there was cool,  but it felt like that part didn’t want to end at times. I also felt that the time travel aspect could get a bit confusing and contradictory. I won’t spoil what happens at the end, but a certain character ends up doing something with time travel that was stated couldn’t work. Maybe it’ll get explained one day, I don’t know. While I do love how this character’s story ends, I wish it wasn’t so confusing.

There were some changes to characters I initially wasn’t a big fan of here. Both Thor and Hulk go through some changes and it took a while to get used to them. I have grown to think they’re okay these days, but I still have qualms about them. At least we get a nice arc for Thor even though I feel some of the humor they were going for just didn’t land. As for Hulk, it’s tough. While I like that we get a new version (essentially Professor Hulk from the comics), we get no story or build up to it at all and it feels unearned. He also feels underused in a couple of moments, but I will say that he does make up for it toward the end.

Then, there’s the fate of Black Widow… this was a weird move. While it did take me by surprise and had me pretty sad (I liked Natasha), it did feel weird that they did this to the only female on the team. I ain’t starting anything, but I gotta say it. I also felt that some humor didn’t hit me. While Ant-Man and Rocket had me laughing, some of the other things didn’t get much out of me. Other than these things and probably some small nitpicks (wasn’t a fan of Captain Marvel’s short hair), this was good, y’all.

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In the end, Avengers: Endgame was a cool way to cap off this era of the MCU. While I know we’ll be getting more in coming years, this was pretty special. I’m not sure if Marvel/Disney can pull it off again, but let them try. Well, I’m off to do something to cap off this year. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and be careful in 2021. Also, Merry New Year!