Movie Review – Avengers: Endgame (2019)

100% Spoilers! Please do not read this unless you want to be spoiled. We’ll keep it all to a minimum but it’s impossible to discuss Avengers: Endgame without giving some of it away. So, let’s go!

The timeline before the end

In its entirety, the Marvel Universe has brought something in the last 11 years to a ready-made audience they’ve wanted their whole lives. 21 movies and several storylines which eventually led to one crucial moment: that snap! So, to take it all back, we’d have to look at 2008’s Iron Man which successfully launched Robert Downey, Jr. into the pivotal role of Tony Stark. The genius of starting with that was the huge payoff for Marvel. Slowly, they built a universe from that last moment in that movie which had Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury character confront Tony Stark to join in a project he was working on: The Avenger’s Initiative.

The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger wrapped up the bulk of the characters who would be featured in the assembly of heroes including Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johanssen) for 2012’s “The Avengers” which was a fight over the Tesseract and Thor’s brother, Loki, the God of Mischief. By now, the team needed to save earth from Loki who was looking for dominance but he was working with someone stronger the entire time: Thanos, who is seen in the end credits.

The developing storylines

By now, the story is evolving and we are introduced into another phase before the next Avengers movie, “Avengers: Age of Ultron”. These movies brought in Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Vision (Paul Bettany), Guardians of the Galaxy, The Winter Soldier, and a much more complicated storyline which would play into the Endgame theme. By now, we’ve been introduced to the Tesseract (Space stone), Aether (Reality stone), Power stone, and the Mind stone. Thanks to the Guardians of the Galaxy, we received a full-sized Thanos in his floating chair and the developing relationship between Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Star Lord (Chris Pratt) as well as Nebula (Karen Gillan). These didn’t flesh out completely until Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2. Nebula’s existence is probably the most important to Endgame for several reasons. Of course, we were also introduced to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and Chad Bosewick’s Black Panther – fan favorites.

Phase 3

By the time 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War came around, comic fans old and new had been introduced to dozens of characters and the main characters had become a part of their lives. It’s simple to put in any Marvel movie and watch it from front to end. The humor, stories in itself and connected universe were always fun to watch – especially when noticing an Easter egg that connects to an entirely different movie. Dr. Strange brought in the Time stone and the only missing element was the Soul stone. Ant-Man brought us into the Quantum Realm and it’s reality of entering and exiting at will was due to Ant-Man and the Wasp (Evangeline Lilly). And this year’s solo woman-led adventure of Captain Marvel showed her cosmic power and planet traveling ability. All which ties in.

After so much fun for 20 years and an introduction to every character they’ve collected thus far, Marvel made the decision in Infinity War to do something unprecedented – they killed off half of the characters. Thanos was able to achieve his mission, to purify the universe by eliminating half of its population with one snap by his fingers using a gauntlet comprised of his collected Infinity stones. The end of the movie left people sobbing and wondering what the hell had just happened? All of their heroes were just gone, …vanished! What could they do? Thanks to Marvel, they only made you wait a single year to find out. In that time, unfortunately, the face of Marvel Comics and creator of most of these characters along with Jack Kirby had died. Stan Lee made a cameo in almost every movie and this next film was no different.

Infinity War continues

It begins with Hawkeye on house arrest with his family at their home about to eat a picnic. The snap happened at that moment and we catch what wasn’t shown in Infinity War. Tony Stark and Nebula had been left alone on a planet in another galaxy. Captain America (Chris Evans), Rhodes (Don Cheadle), Black Widow, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Okoye (Danai Gurira), Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and others were left in the wake on earth. Tony and Nebula formed a bond and were running out of air and food. Just when it looked like all hope was gone as they floated in space, a bright light came in the form of Captain Marvel who flew their plane back to earth. Tony was reunited for the first time with Captain America since their Civil War fight. He was dehydrated, skinny, malnourished and still injured from Thanos killing him. His frustration and anger at Cap was apparent due to an earlier decision from Age of Ultron. The screen fades and shows “Five Years Later”.

The team, scattered all over the world, has exhausted all methods. Hawkeye has gone rogue and is now and assassin out of grief. Thor has gone through a depression period shown in Thor: Ragnarok and even more succinctly through Infinity War when revealing all he has lost – even tearing up. His anger toward Thanos is so great in Endgame, people aren’t allowed to say his name around him. But his depression has taken on a physical toll. Although used as a slight humorous approach due to him being the God of Thunder and in such great shape in all of the movies, it’s apparent how much the snap and death of loved ones by Thanos and others had taken a toll on poor Thor. He sits around playing video games with Miek and Korg and is a raging alcoholic. Bruce who is now Professor Hulk, has to convince him to get with the fight to bring them all back. Rocket suggests beer which works.

Thor has gone through a depression period shown in Thor: Ragnarok and even more succinctly through Infinity War when revealing all he has lost – even tearing up.

About Thor in avengers: endgame

Ant-Man? Savior?

The huge surprise to everyone is when Ant-Man arrives. Understand that the snap occurred when Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) was in the Quantum Realm. He discovers the time slows down there. What seems like five hours to him was actually five years to everyone else. He discovers everyone is gone and seeks out his daughter who looks completely different (obviously). He seeks out the Avengers to tell them what he experienced. Trying to approach Tony now was a risk as he now has a daughter with Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow). But like Tony, he knows there’s an answer to a problem and must find out if it’s possible. He does and it is. Pepper convinces him to try to bring everyone back via time travel after they’ve already faced Thanos on a planet early on to find the stones are destroyed.

The entire war is now dependent on a few characters to try to go back in time to collect the stone and come back to make the snap to reverse everything. Without going in to so much detail as to how that happens, just know that every bit of the 3 hours was worth it. There was no need to get up and go to the bathroom. Time flew as they time traveled. The relationships were evident as now old Nebula faced new Nebula. The change in the new and how she is affected by Thanos and Gamora is incredible to see. Thanos understanding a plan is in play in the past is how he’ll circumvent all of that and bring it into the future. It’s a trip to see how everything comes together and as Dr. Strange stated in Infinity War, only one outcome would work. And it was a sacrifice.

Emotions were running rampant!

People around me were sobbing like babies in happiness and sadness. The movie was a roller coaster of emotions and a great culmination of what happened since the first Iron Man movie. Who knew what was about to happen from that one scene of Tony Stark showing the “Jericho” off in the mountains? So, we expect for life to move forward. There will be a Captain Marvel 2, Black Panther 2, Spider-Man 2, and more. There will be a whole new phase to come but as for now, this one comes to an end. We hope they wind up keeping some of the old characters as they’ve become a part of our lives as well. Endgame is a movie for the ages and Marvel did it correctly. They took their time and energy to develop something that would take over a decade to be told. And considering the box office numbers, it was a great payoff as well as so much fun as audience members.

Now, it’s time to snap my way to watch the first Iron Man and start all over again! Don’t you love the fact we can do that? Thanks for this entire series, Marvel! Endgame is exactly what the soul needed. #ripstanlee

Extra: Fun with Thanos

Extra fun! Search Google and type in “thanos” (without quotes). Then, click the Infinity Gauntlet. ?

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