Last night was opening night for Avengers: Endgame here in the states. The film is based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers and is the sequel to 2012’s The Avengers, 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron (review here) and 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. It is also the 22nd (!) film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) but you already knew all of that because you haven’t been living under a rock for the last 11 years.
For the one or two of you that is running across this post that aren’t familiar with the MCU (I can’t really imagine there are any) here’s a listing of the films thus far:
Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One
Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), The Avengers (2012)
Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase Two
Iron Man 3 (2013), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Ant-Man (2015)
MCU Phase Three
Captain America: Civil War (2016), Doctor Strange (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Spoiler Alert: I’m not going to bother with a plot summary. Either you have already seen it and are coming here for my thoughts or you can find far better resources out there on the web to give you a summary. That said, I will speak openly about plot points and character fates so consider this a spoiler filled discussion. If you don’t want to know plot points, skip this post until after you’ve seen the film.
Still here? Seriously, I’m about to start with some seriously spoiler filled thoughts. I wrote an entire post about not wanting to give spoilers away for this film. Ready? Still with me? I’m not quite sure how I’m going to get through this. Might just start typing and see what comes out. OK, here goes…
Avengers: Endgame Thoughts
Wow. Where to begin. There’s really so much to talk about here that it’s really difficult to even put sense to this. I think I’m just going to do some bullets.
Thor – He’s my new favorite. He’s rocking a dad bod here like no other and it’s absolutely hilarious. He’s become the comic relief of the series which for me is totally fine, though I can see where it might piss off some hard core Thor fans from the comics. He’s still a complete badass and gets a TREMENDOUS kill on Thanos early in the film when he takes Thanos’ advice from Infinity War and ‘goes for the head’.
Time jumps and time travel are really sort of confusing here. I’ve only seen it once so far, so perhaps it’ll be a little easier to keep track on subsequent viewings but there’s all sorts of time jumps going on here that make it really difficult to figure out whos who and when they are. I’ll leave it at that, but suffice to say it’s not nearly as easy to figure out as say Back to the Future… which they point out for you.
Captain America with Mjolnir. Oh… my… GOD. This was amazing. For my fellow wrestling fans out there you’ll totally get this reference. The pop in the theater was deafening when this happened. He’s most definitely worthy.
The treatment of the Hulk sort of sucks here IMO. I love when Hulk goes Hulk and smashes. When we left Banner in Infinity War he’d been trying to get Hulk to come out and play the entire movie to no avail. This time Banner and Hulk have become one and we get a kinder, gentler Hulk who is intelligent and never really transforms from one to the other. Perhaps personal preference but just not my Hulk.
Tony Stark’s arc. It’s heartbreaking. We knew we were going to lose people but the way Stark goes out and what he leaves behind it really tragic. When you go back to that first film, the film that started it all, and see how far the character has come it really is something to behold. I love you 3,000.
The Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos used it in the last flick. Banner uses it here and then Stark uses it. I was a little fuzzy as to how things worked. Why when Iron Man snapped did only the bad guys get affected. I guess we’re to assume that it’s up to the wielder how things happen. That makes sense I spose, but I don’t think we’re ever explicitly told that.
Cap’s Endgame. Right in the feels here. After the final battle Captain America returns the Infinity Stones and Mjolnir to their original places in time and then rather than coming home chooses to remain in the past to be with the love of his life Peggy Carter. The film end with old man Cap passing his shield to Sam Wilson, presumably taking up the mantle of Captain America.
The Final Battle. Speaking of this battle. To say it gave me goosebumps is an understatement. I’m talking goosebumps for like 30 seconds straight. It’s amazing. I can’t do it justice so I’m not going to bother trying.
I’m sure there’s a ton more that I’m leaving out and forgetting about after just one viewing but that’s my ‘off the top’ review and thoughts.
Recommendation
If you’re a fan of the MCU you need to see this movie. Honestly you’ve probably already seen this movie. But this movie if FOR you. Its an homage to the fans. It pays off 11 years and 22 movies worth of content in a story that really is something to behold.
Can you enjoy Endgame without seeing everything before it? I think it’s safe to say YES you can. That said, the more of those previous 21 films you’ve seen, the more you’re going to enjoy this one. The only one I hadn’t seen was Captain Marvel but I was very familiar with her story and had read a plot summary. Everything else I’d either seen or at the very least had seen nearly all of it through the power of YouTube. This film references nearly every single film in the MCU to date and regardless of which character is your favorite (with the exception of Vision) there’s something here for you.
The time travel stuff is a little clunky and the treatment of the Hulk I didn’t care for but other than that it’s tough to find fault here. There’s SO much going on in the third act that you better have hit the bathroom before hand… if you didn’t you’re going to miss a lot.
Have you seen Avengers: Endgame? Let me know what you thought in the comments below!
I enjoyed it, and am also heart broken by it. Tony, Cap, Nat ?
The ending also gives me a time travel headache.
The cameos and references to past movies were great.