We’re In The Endgame Now (Review of Avengers: Endgame. SPOILER WARNING)
SPOILER WARNING - SPOILER WARNING - SPOILER WARNING - SPOILER WARNING -
The following review is going to contain heavy spoilers for Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame. My opinion, without spoilers, is that this movie is as good as people are claiming it to be. It is a must watch if you are a fan of the franchise or super hero movies in general. I, personally, have not seen every Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movie and still heavily enjoyed it. I believe you should watch Avengers: Infinity War before hand, but if you’re fine with just watching some super powered people beat the snot out of each other then you’ll have a fun time. So, yeah, go watch this movie.
So let’s get into the meat of this film. I loved it. My experience with the MCU is less that of a die hard fan. I remember watching Iron Man, feeling it was okay but not for me. I’m sure that’s an issue with my then child brain not really being able to see the complex nature of it. And then I saw the first Avengers movie. Yep. I saw most of Iron Man, barely any of the sequels, and that is it. I did not, and still have not, seen Thor, Hulk, or Captain America. I’m sure I’ll see them when the Infinity Saga Blu-Ray collection comes out. But for now, my knowledge of this universe does not go much further then the Avengers movies. I believe the ones I’ve seen are:
1. Iron Man
2. Guardians of the Galaxy 1+2
3. Thor: Ragnarok
4. Doctor Strange
5. Avengers
6. Avengers: Age of Ultron
7. Captain America: Cival War
8. Avengers: Infinity War
9. Avengers: Endgame
So clearly I’m missing a few and trust me, they’re on the To Watch list. I feel the need to point out that not seeing Captain Marvel did not affect my viewing of Endgame. Really all you need to know is that she is related to aliens - not one herself - and can probably defeat Thanos, the big bad of the series, on her own. Other then that, you don’t need to know much about her to enjoy Endgame.
So the film opens with a happy scene that almost immediately turns depressing. We see Hawkeye at home with his family. His boys are playing. His wife is cooking. And the hero himself is teaching his daughter how to use a bow. Which, I want to give props to whoever added in legitimate archery instructions. I wrote a scene where a character teaches another and it was nice to see my research was accurate. So the scene plays out a bit and it seems rather positive... but those who saw Infinity War almost immediately know what’s going to happen. I remember turning to my girlfriend and saying “Oh, so we’re gonna start with this gut punch.” This scene is occurring before Thanos snapped away half the population of the universe. Hawkeye turns away, which I think it was to find a glove for one of the boys - but my memory is a little fuzzy on that, and turns back to see his family disappeared. We see the remains of his daughter floating away in the air. He breaks down and the title fades in.
I enjoy this opening sequence. I think it sets the sorrowful tone the movie has for almost it’s entire length and it shows us why Hawkeye changes later on. We switch focus to Iron Man and Nebula flying in a beat up ship trying to return to Earth after falling to stop Thanos on his home planet.Tony Stark is worse for wear. He records a message for his wife, Pepper Potts, and tells her that he has run out of food and, in a few hours, oxygen. He has a few nice bonding scenes with Nebula, who truly becomes one of my favorite characters by film’s end, before slowly drifting off to sleep. We watch one of our strongest and most headstrong heroes just give up and accept death. A flashing light approaches the ship and we see Captain Marvel arrive and bring the two survivors back to Earth. Tony survives but is malnourished and in horrible shape. He’s in no condition to join the surviving heroes as they leave with Captain Marvel to go kill Thanos. Thanks to a McGuf- I mean, clever device that can track the energy the stones leave behind once activated, they are able to find the “garden”, as Nebula calls it, where Thanos is hiding.
Once arriving on this planet the heroes find a Thanos that is beaten and broken. After using the gauntlet for a second time to destroy the stones, foiling the team’s plan to use it to undo the snap, Thanos is left near death. He walks with a limp and his arm is nearly lost to radiation. Seeing that they have truly, undeniably failed - Thor chops off Thanos’s head, killing the purple Titan.
Time skips 5 years in the future. Black Widow is desperately trying to command the remaining heroes consisting of Captain Marvel, Rocket Raccoon, Nebula and War Machine. Tony Stark is off raising his family, Pepper having given birth to a daughter. (Quick tangent - how dark would it have been if Tony’s unborn daughter got aborted by Thanos’s snap.) Steve Rogers is leading a support group for people affected by the Infinity War, and Thor returned to New Asgard and became a fat, drunken loser. Steve visits Natasha to give her condolences and check up on her. They are interrupted by Ant Man, who just came out of the quantum realm. (Again, didn’t see Ant Man and the Wasp so no idea what that’s about.) He had been stuck outside of time for five years, or to Scott Lang, 5 hours. This launches the majority of the plot going forward. Scott thinks it might be possible to time travel and retrieve the stones before Thanos does.
Needing a big brain, they of course go see Iron Man. He refuses, not thinking the science is possible and not wanting to risk the family he now has. They then seek out Bruce Banner, the second biggest brain.They find him in a state that is honestly my favorite joke of the film. Bruce somehow reconciles with the Hulk and they now coexist as one mind and body. It was funny and surreal to see the Hulk have such a high intellect and well learned speech. Unfortunately, the only bad scene in the film plays out next. They are with the Hulk at a restaurant and a group of kids walk up. They ask for a picture with Bruce and Ant Man gets jealous. There’s a small back and forth between the two heroes that just drags on and isn’t particularly funny. Harmless enough but still a smudge on a great film.
The heroes proceed to try and get the gang back to together, reaching out to Thor. The Asgardian is, as previously stated, a shadow of his former self. He has gained weight and is now an alcoholic. The heroes first meet Valkyrie and she informs them that Thor is only ever seen when he comes to get more booze. He is held up in his home with two friends from Thor: Ragnarok. We get a funny scene where he defends Korg from a rude teenager over a game of Fortnite. It is clear that Thor is suffering heavily from PTSD and he is drinking and eating to try and numb the pain. When Thanos's name gets dropped the God of Thunder becomes incredibly emotional. They eventually convince him to join up with them, though Thor never loses his incredible beard or beer belly. Some people took issue with what has been dubbed Fat Thor. I see no problem with it and even YouTuber Boogie2988 has defended the movie's decision, pointing out how it is realistic for Thor to be trying to cope in this fashion. Fat Thor is played for a few laughs, though never to malicious effect and the scenes never play out too long.
So Bruce Banner attempts to make a time machine out of the quantum realm portal inside Scott's truck. (Again, no idea. Haven't watched Ant Man and the Wasp but it's pretty easy to just rule with it). We see him try to send Scott back in time but only managing to make him younger and older. The scene plays out and many laughs were had. Obviously, Hulk is unable to make time travel work with the portal in the truck. Luckily, Tony Stark just is unable to say no to be hero and does the science, finding that time travel is very much possible. He agrees to help the team build a machine but insisting that they have to do it in a very particular way. Everything must be tied up in a neat bow. The movie then pokes fun at a few famous time travel movies like Back to the Future and claims that this is not like that. It's important to keep this mind when talking about the film's climax.
In the meantime, Black Widow finally gets a lead on where Hawkeye is. We learn that he is a brutal assassin, killing off any and all evil that exists with little to no care for his own well being. After losing his family, Clint has become a broken man, wanting nothing more then to kill all the evil or to die trying. Natasha convinces him to come back with her and he joins up with the heroes.
The remaining Avengers split up into teams, figuring out where all the stones would be along the timeline of the previous movies. Stark, Lang, Rogers and Banner travel back to Avengers one to retrieve the time stone and the tesseract. Hulk has an interesting scene with the Ancient One about the Time Stone. There's a clever line about Dr. Strange and Hulk asks for the stone. He threatens to take it by force and she knocks Banner into the Mirror Dimension. She explains that the stone is necessary for her universe's survival - which those have seen Doctor Strange know that is. Hulk eventually convinces her when he explains how Strange gave the stone to Thanos. Once again, the movie makes a point that the stones must be returned or else horrible things will ensue.
Meanwhile. the other three are trying to retrieve the tesseract and fail to do so. Loki, who was being capture at the time, manages to escape with the cube - leaving the team to consider alternate possibilities. They travel further back in time to the 1950s when the American Army first got a hold of the tesseract. They steal it from the army, along with the fuel that lets their time travel possible, and Tony Stark gets a touching scene with his father while Steve has one with Peggy Carter. These scenes, while they do foreshadow some later events, are easy to over look at the time.
Hawkeye and Black Widow form a team and go to retrieve the Soul Stone from Red Skull. Those who have seen Infinity War know that the only way to get the Soul Stone is to offer a soul - to kill someone at the shrine the stone is being held at. We get an intense scene of Clint and Natasha trying to be the first to kill themselves. Ultimately, Black Widow gets the upper hand and tells Clint that it is okay to let her go - to let her die. Hawkeye being the family man, of course has to survive so that he can be reunited with his loved ones. Natasha had no one, other then the family she found in the Avengers. Black Widow falls to her death and Hawkeye gets the stone.
Many people dislike this death scene. The fan favorite was obviously Black Widow. There is actually, and kind of surprisingly, a lot of hate towards Hawkeye's character. Not only am I fan of Jeremy Renner but I do legitimately like Hawkeye. He gets some wonderful quips and is a great hero in his own right. Now that being said, I do like Black Widow more - and that's not just because I have a celebrity crush on Scarlett Johansson. However, I don't think this scene takes away from the film - at least, not in the way you may think. I think the death, while kind of irrelevant in regards to the other big bomb in the film, is perfectly fine and fits well.
Thor and Rocket Raccoon travel to an old Asgard where Jane is recuperating because of the ether infecting her body. The two plan to remove it from her and to reform the reality stone from it. Thor gets wet feet though, still having confidence issues and thinking he can not let Jane see him like this. Rocket is forced to retrieve the ether on his own while Thor has a very touching scene with his mother. His mother, who was raised by witches, knows that Thor is from a different point in time. She gives him a nice pep talk and Thor attempts to summon his hammer, finding that it does fly to him and that he is still worthy. He leaves with Rocket, taking the hammer with him.
This leaves War Machine and Nebula to retrieve the power stone. This leads to a plot convenient scene where the Nebula from Timeline B gets her memory spliced with Nebula from Timeline A... somehow. The film never explains how their memories are spliced together or why it happens to them. We don't see the other characters experience this phenomenon but Nebula does have mechanical parts so maybe that has some play in it. It's not a huge deal to the movie, and certainly doesn't subtract from anything but it's a little bothersome not to know why it happens. Anyways, Thanos is able to see pass Nebula and Rhodie getting the power stone and getting ready to leave. He orders Nebula B to be tied up and examined while they plot a coarse for where the Avengers are at. War Machine travels back to his own time while Nebula A has a splice with Nebula B's memories. She sees Thanos is coming and she tries to warn the others. Failing to do so, she gets capture and taken aboard Thanos's ship. Nebula B makes changes her appearance to look like Nebula A and travels back to be a spy.
With all the stones now assembled, Tony Stark builds his version of the Infinity Gauntlet and they debate who should be the one to snap. They determine it should be Hulk since the stones give off mostly gamma radiation, so he would be the most likely to survive. Though he desperately wants to revive Natasha, Banner snaps back everyone into existence, but receives some heavy damage to his arm. Iron Man heals him up with some magic spray while Scott leaves to see if the snap worked. He looks out the window and sees birds have returned. Meanwhile, Nebula brings Thanos's ship into Timeline A and it bombards the Avengers HQ, starting the final climax of the film.
All the Avengers survive, though they are separated from each other. Ant Man, Rocket Racoon, and Hulk are trapped under rubble and taking on water quickly. It is clear that they will drown at some point. Hawkeye ends up with the gauntlet but is quickly chased by Thanos's lap dogs sent to retrieve it. This leaves Thor, Captain America and Iron Man to confront Thanos. This leads to an amazing battle scene and starts the final fight against the big bad. Several amazing moments happen, most of which are wonderful fan service. We get a great scene where Steve wields Thor's hammer, proving that he was worthy of it all along. The trio is unfortunately unable to defeat the purple Titan and things start to look grim. Thanos summons his army... somehow. Thinking back on it, Thanos shouldn't be able to summon his army. He had the power cell that made time travel possible but only the one - which it is established early on that these things are a one use item, which is why Steve and Tony had to steal more of them. Again, it's hard in the moment to think of this little plot hole, and perhaps I am remembering wrong, but in retrospect it seems like a little bit of a problem. But before all is lost we hear Falcon call over a radio to Captain America saying, "Hey, Cap. On your left," a call back to a previous film. Then with the help of the magicians and Doctor Strange, an army from Wakanda and Asgard appear, along with all our revived heroes. Captain America says the famous line "Avengers, Assemble," and the war begins.
I won't go too much further into the actual battle, other then saying it was a blast to watch. Everything you could want to happen does happen. This is easily the best moment of the film, in my opinion. The fighting was great, the set design was wonderful and the fan service was perfection. So instead of giving you a play by play, let's jump ahead to the biggest spoiler of the film.
All seems for naught as Thanos gains control over the glove again. Captain Marvel is able to stop him for a few moments but not forever as he manages to get the upper hand. Iron Man looks to Doctor Strange who holds up a single finger, telling Tony that this is the one outcome he saw where they win. Iron Man rushes Thanos but is beaten back instantly. The Titan taunts him, saying "I am inevitable," and snaps his fingers... but to no effect. He looks at the gauntlet to see all the stones are missing. He looks back to Tony and sees that he stole the stones from him and merged them with his own glove. He gives his final quip and says his famous line "I am Iron Man," and snaps his fingers, dusting Thanos and his entire army and winning the battle. Tony Stark then lays in the rubble, slowly dying from using the stones. He has a touching scene with Spider Man and Pepper, who tells him that he can rest. She lets him know that "we are alright now. We are going to be okay. You can rest now." With that, Iron Man passes away - giving the ultimate sacrifice.
First time watching this scene I was not happy with it. I saw it almost as gratuitous. It is becoming a cliche at this point for some protagonist to give his life in order to save the day. It is becoming tired and overused, in my opinion. The happy ending, while itself is a cliche, does seem to be the better choice in this scenario. But perhaps that is just my opinion. I certainly don't believe this hurts the film in anyway, I just would have preferred everyone, excluding Black Widow who did not get revived, managed to survive.
Thus begins the wrap up. We immediately get Tony's funeral, which I think should have been put last but it coming first certainly doesn't hurt the film. The other major even is that Captain America travels back in time to return Thor's hammer and the Infinity Stones. It is obvious at this point that Steve is not going to be returning to this timeline. Hulk is unable to bring him back and instead Bucky and Sam see an old Steve sitting on a bench not far away. He tells them about how he lived a good life and he passes on his shield to Falcon, naming him the next Captain America. The scene cuts to moment in the past where Steve and Peggy are dancing and the film ends.
Time travel is risky. It is a dangerous thing to include in a story and not many can do it right. Unfortunately, I don't think this movie does it right. Throughout the film they are repeatedly mention the importance of how everything needs to be return exactly how it was - especially the stones. Presumably Captain America does this - though how he does this is unknown. How did he get the Soul Stone back to Red Skull? Furthermore, how did that interaction play out? It would've been fun to see how Steve reacted to seeing his old foe again. How did he return the power stone? Did Steve hijack a space ship? Did he take a miniature one with him like Rocket did previously? How did he return the reality stone? Did he inject it back into Jane? There are a lot of questions that aren't answered, though, these ones don't really need addressed. The problem arises when you think about Thanos and how Tony Stark killed him, thus causing a grandfather paradox. Steve Rogers being able to age and show up in the exact same spot with our versions of the Avengers suggests this all occurs on the same timeline. Perhaps a split occurs once they remove the stones and it is undone when they return them. Problem is: Thanos is still dead, as is Nebula. Meaning, that the Nebula we know should have ceased to be once she murdered her other self and Thanos does not live long enough to cause the snap. No snap, means no time travel to undo the snap or return the stones, which means that Steve Rogers would never have had the chance to travel back in time and age. Now if Captain America did not show up as an old man, that would have open up to the suggestion that there are two universes - and Captain America is now in Universe B. But because he is at the same spot where he time traveled with the exact same characters we have been watching - we know that this occurs only in Universe A.
By killing Thanos, Tony Stark undoes all the events of Endgame and Infinity War, thus creating a time paradox. Now a weak argument against this could be that Iron Man didn't kill the bad guys, just returned them to their own time - even though we see them dust away like when Thanos did it. Perhaps a rewatch of the movie would help better explain the time travel portion - they keep it frustratingly vague, though. I remember Tony looking at a mobius strip diagram, so perhaps they found a way where killing Thanos doesn't result in any paradoxes. But then why was it gravely important to return the stones the moment they were stolen? Maybe a bigger brain then mine can see this without any plot holes but.... I unfortunately cannot unsee this issue. This, coupled with the awkward scene with Hulk and Ant Man leads me to give this movie a 9/10. It's nearly perfect, but I think it has enough issues that keep it from being a 10/10. That being said, this film is still very much a must watch. You should see this movie, it's the best I've seen in a good long while. Full of entertainment and fan service, you'll certainly have a great time viewing it.
Thanks for taking the time to read my review of Endgame. Let me know how I did covering this beast of a movie and if I got anything wrong or left anything out. It's a long movie and I only watched it once several days ago, so I feel like I can be given some slack.
And as always, Good Night and Joy be with you all.
The following review is going to contain heavy spoilers for Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame. My opinion, without spoilers, is that this movie is as good as people are claiming it to be. It is a must watch if you are a fan of the franchise or super hero movies in general. I, personally, have not seen every Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movie and still heavily enjoyed it. I believe you should watch Avengers: Infinity War before hand, but if you’re fine with just watching some super powered people beat the snot out of each other then you’ll have a fun time. So, yeah, go watch this movie.
So let’s get into the meat of this film. I loved it. My experience with the MCU is less that of a die hard fan. I remember watching Iron Man, feeling it was okay but not for me. I’m sure that’s an issue with my then child brain not really being able to see the complex nature of it. And then I saw the first Avengers movie. Yep. I saw most of Iron Man, barely any of the sequels, and that is it. I did not, and still have not, seen Thor, Hulk, or Captain America. I’m sure I’ll see them when the Infinity Saga Blu-Ray collection comes out. But for now, my knowledge of this universe does not go much further then the Avengers movies. I believe the ones I’ve seen are:
1. Iron Man
2. Guardians of the Galaxy 1+2
3. Thor: Ragnarok
4. Doctor Strange
5. Avengers
6. Avengers: Age of Ultron
7. Captain America: Cival War
8. Avengers: Infinity War
9. Avengers: Endgame
So clearly I’m missing a few and trust me, they’re on the To Watch list. I feel the need to point out that not seeing Captain Marvel did not affect my viewing of Endgame. Really all you need to know is that she is related to aliens - not one herself - and can probably defeat Thanos, the big bad of the series, on her own. Other then that, you don’t need to know much about her to enjoy Endgame.
So the film opens with a happy scene that almost immediately turns depressing. We see Hawkeye at home with his family. His boys are playing. His wife is cooking. And the hero himself is teaching his daughter how to use a bow. Which, I want to give props to whoever added in legitimate archery instructions. I wrote a scene where a character teaches another and it was nice to see my research was accurate. So the scene plays out a bit and it seems rather positive... but those who saw Infinity War almost immediately know what’s going to happen. I remember turning to my girlfriend and saying “Oh, so we’re gonna start with this gut punch.” This scene is occurring before Thanos snapped away half the population of the universe. Hawkeye turns away, which I think it was to find a glove for one of the boys - but my memory is a little fuzzy on that, and turns back to see his family disappeared. We see the remains of his daughter floating away in the air. He breaks down and the title fades in.
I enjoy this opening sequence. I think it sets the sorrowful tone the movie has for almost it’s entire length and it shows us why Hawkeye changes later on. We switch focus to Iron Man and Nebula flying in a beat up ship trying to return to Earth after falling to stop Thanos on his home planet.Tony Stark is worse for wear. He records a message for his wife, Pepper Potts, and tells her that he has run out of food and, in a few hours, oxygen. He has a few nice bonding scenes with Nebula, who truly becomes one of my favorite characters by film’s end, before slowly drifting off to sleep. We watch one of our strongest and most headstrong heroes just give up and accept death. A flashing light approaches the ship and we see Captain Marvel arrive and bring the two survivors back to Earth. Tony survives but is malnourished and in horrible shape. He’s in no condition to join the surviving heroes as they leave with Captain Marvel to go kill Thanos. Thanks to a McGuf- I mean, clever device that can track the energy the stones leave behind once activated, they are able to find the “garden”, as Nebula calls it, where Thanos is hiding.
Once arriving on this planet the heroes find a Thanos that is beaten and broken. After using the gauntlet for a second time to destroy the stones, foiling the team’s plan to use it to undo the snap, Thanos is left near death. He walks with a limp and his arm is nearly lost to radiation. Seeing that they have truly, undeniably failed - Thor chops off Thanos’s head, killing the purple Titan.
Time skips 5 years in the future. Black Widow is desperately trying to command the remaining heroes consisting of Captain Marvel, Rocket Raccoon, Nebula and War Machine. Tony Stark is off raising his family, Pepper having given birth to a daughter. (Quick tangent - how dark would it have been if Tony’s unborn daughter got aborted by Thanos’s snap.) Steve Rogers is leading a support group for people affected by the Infinity War, and Thor returned to New Asgard and became a fat, drunken loser. Steve visits Natasha to give her condolences and check up on her. They are interrupted by Ant Man, who just came out of the quantum realm. (Again, didn’t see Ant Man and the Wasp so no idea what that’s about.) He had been stuck outside of time for five years, or to Scott Lang, 5 hours. This launches the majority of the plot going forward. Scott thinks it might be possible to time travel and retrieve the stones before Thanos does.
Needing a big brain, they of course go see Iron Man. He refuses, not thinking the science is possible and not wanting to risk the family he now has. They then seek out Bruce Banner, the second biggest brain.They find him in a state that is honestly my favorite joke of the film. Bruce somehow reconciles with the Hulk and they now coexist as one mind and body. It was funny and surreal to see the Hulk have such a high intellect and well learned speech. Unfortunately, the only bad scene in the film plays out next. They are with the Hulk at a restaurant and a group of kids walk up. They ask for a picture with Bruce and Ant Man gets jealous. There’s a small back and forth between the two heroes that just drags on and isn’t particularly funny. Harmless enough but still a smudge on a great film.
The heroes proceed to try and get the gang back to together, reaching out to Thor. The Asgardian is, as previously stated, a shadow of his former self. He has gained weight and is now an alcoholic. The heroes first meet Valkyrie and she informs them that Thor is only ever seen when he comes to get more booze. He is held up in his home with two friends from Thor: Ragnarok. We get a funny scene where he defends Korg from a rude teenager over a game of Fortnite. It is clear that Thor is suffering heavily from PTSD and he is drinking and eating to try and numb the pain. When Thanos's name gets dropped the God of Thunder becomes incredibly emotional. They eventually convince him to join up with them, though Thor never loses his incredible beard or beer belly. Some people took issue with what has been dubbed Fat Thor. I see no problem with it and even YouTuber Boogie2988 has defended the movie's decision, pointing out how it is realistic for Thor to be trying to cope in this fashion. Fat Thor is played for a few laughs, though never to malicious effect and the scenes never play out too long.
So Bruce Banner attempts to make a time machine out of the quantum realm portal inside Scott's truck. (Again, no idea. Haven't watched Ant Man and the Wasp but it's pretty easy to just rule with it). We see him try to send Scott back in time but only managing to make him younger and older. The scene plays out and many laughs were had. Obviously, Hulk is unable to make time travel work with the portal in the truck. Luckily, Tony Stark just is unable to say no to be hero and does the science, finding that time travel is very much possible. He agrees to help the team build a machine but insisting that they have to do it in a very particular way. Everything must be tied up in a neat bow. The movie then pokes fun at a few famous time travel movies like Back to the Future and claims that this is not like that. It's important to keep this mind when talking about the film's climax.
In the meantime, Black Widow finally gets a lead on where Hawkeye is. We learn that he is a brutal assassin, killing off any and all evil that exists with little to no care for his own well being. After losing his family, Clint has become a broken man, wanting nothing more then to kill all the evil or to die trying. Natasha convinces him to come back with her and he joins up with the heroes.
The remaining Avengers split up into teams, figuring out where all the stones would be along the timeline of the previous movies. Stark, Lang, Rogers and Banner travel back to Avengers one to retrieve the time stone and the tesseract. Hulk has an interesting scene with the Ancient One about the Time Stone. There's a clever line about Dr. Strange and Hulk asks for the stone. He threatens to take it by force and she knocks Banner into the Mirror Dimension. She explains that the stone is necessary for her universe's survival - which those have seen Doctor Strange know that is. Hulk eventually convinces her when he explains how Strange gave the stone to Thanos. Once again, the movie makes a point that the stones must be returned or else horrible things will ensue.
Meanwhile. the other three are trying to retrieve the tesseract and fail to do so. Loki, who was being capture at the time, manages to escape with the cube - leaving the team to consider alternate possibilities. They travel further back in time to the 1950s when the American Army first got a hold of the tesseract. They steal it from the army, along with the fuel that lets their time travel possible, and Tony Stark gets a touching scene with his father while Steve has one with Peggy Carter. These scenes, while they do foreshadow some later events, are easy to over look at the time.
Hawkeye and Black Widow form a team and go to retrieve the Soul Stone from Red Skull. Those who have seen Infinity War know that the only way to get the Soul Stone is to offer a soul - to kill someone at the shrine the stone is being held at. We get an intense scene of Clint and Natasha trying to be the first to kill themselves. Ultimately, Black Widow gets the upper hand and tells Clint that it is okay to let her go - to let her die. Hawkeye being the family man, of course has to survive so that he can be reunited with his loved ones. Natasha had no one, other then the family she found in the Avengers. Black Widow falls to her death and Hawkeye gets the stone.
Many people dislike this death scene. The fan favorite was obviously Black Widow. There is actually, and kind of surprisingly, a lot of hate towards Hawkeye's character. Not only am I fan of Jeremy Renner but I do legitimately like Hawkeye. He gets some wonderful quips and is a great hero in his own right. Now that being said, I do like Black Widow more - and that's not just because I have a celebrity crush on Scarlett Johansson. However, I don't think this scene takes away from the film - at least, not in the way you may think. I think the death, while kind of irrelevant in regards to the other big bomb in the film, is perfectly fine and fits well.
Thor and Rocket Raccoon travel to an old Asgard where Jane is recuperating because of the ether infecting her body. The two plan to remove it from her and to reform the reality stone from it. Thor gets wet feet though, still having confidence issues and thinking he can not let Jane see him like this. Rocket is forced to retrieve the ether on his own while Thor has a very touching scene with his mother. His mother, who was raised by witches, knows that Thor is from a different point in time. She gives him a nice pep talk and Thor attempts to summon his hammer, finding that it does fly to him and that he is still worthy. He leaves with Rocket, taking the hammer with him.
This leaves War Machine and Nebula to retrieve the power stone. This leads to a plot convenient scene where the Nebula from Timeline B gets her memory spliced with Nebula from Timeline A... somehow. The film never explains how their memories are spliced together or why it happens to them. We don't see the other characters experience this phenomenon but Nebula does have mechanical parts so maybe that has some play in it. It's not a huge deal to the movie, and certainly doesn't subtract from anything but it's a little bothersome not to know why it happens. Anyways, Thanos is able to see pass Nebula and Rhodie getting the power stone and getting ready to leave. He orders Nebula B to be tied up and examined while they plot a coarse for where the Avengers are at. War Machine travels back to his own time while Nebula A has a splice with Nebula B's memories. She sees Thanos is coming and she tries to warn the others. Failing to do so, she gets capture and taken aboard Thanos's ship. Nebula B makes changes her appearance to look like Nebula A and travels back to be a spy.
With all the stones now assembled, Tony Stark builds his version of the Infinity Gauntlet and they debate who should be the one to snap. They determine it should be Hulk since the stones give off mostly gamma radiation, so he would be the most likely to survive. Though he desperately wants to revive Natasha, Banner snaps back everyone into existence, but receives some heavy damage to his arm. Iron Man heals him up with some magic spray while Scott leaves to see if the snap worked. He looks out the window and sees birds have returned. Meanwhile, Nebula brings Thanos's ship into Timeline A and it bombards the Avengers HQ, starting the final climax of the film.
All the Avengers survive, though they are separated from each other. Ant Man, Rocket Racoon, and Hulk are trapped under rubble and taking on water quickly. It is clear that they will drown at some point. Hawkeye ends up with the gauntlet but is quickly chased by Thanos's lap dogs sent to retrieve it. This leaves Thor, Captain America and Iron Man to confront Thanos. This leads to an amazing battle scene and starts the final fight against the big bad. Several amazing moments happen, most of which are wonderful fan service. We get a great scene where Steve wields Thor's hammer, proving that he was worthy of it all along. The trio is unfortunately unable to defeat the purple Titan and things start to look grim. Thanos summons his army... somehow. Thinking back on it, Thanos shouldn't be able to summon his army. He had the power cell that made time travel possible but only the one - which it is established early on that these things are a one use item, which is why Steve and Tony had to steal more of them. Again, it's hard in the moment to think of this little plot hole, and perhaps I am remembering wrong, but in retrospect it seems like a little bit of a problem. But before all is lost we hear Falcon call over a radio to Captain America saying, "Hey, Cap. On your left," a call back to a previous film. Then with the help of the magicians and Doctor Strange, an army from Wakanda and Asgard appear, along with all our revived heroes. Captain America says the famous line "Avengers, Assemble," and the war begins.
I won't go too much further into the actual battle, other then saying it was a blast to watch. Everything you could want to happen does happen. This is easily the best moment of the film, in my opinion. The fighting was great, the set design was wonderful and the fan service was perfection. So instead of giving you a play by play, let's jump ahead to the biggest spoiler of the film.
All seems for naught as Thanos gains control over the glove again. Captain Marvel is able to stop him for a few moments but not forever as he manages to get the upper hand. Iron Man looks to Doctor Strange who holds up a single finger, telling Tony that this is the one outcome he saw where they win. Iron Man rushes Thanos but is beaten back instantly. The Titan taunts him, saying "I am inevitable," and snaps his fingers... but to no effect. He looks at the gauntlet to see all the stones are missing. He looks back to Tony and sees that he stole the stones from him and merged them with his own glove. He gives his final quip and says his famous line "I am Iron Man," and snaps his fingers, dusting Thanos and his entire army and winning the battle. Tony Stark then lays in the rubble, slowly dying from using the stones. He has a touching scene with Spider Man and Pepper, who tells him that he can rest. She lets him know that "we are alright now. We are going to be okay. You can rest now." With that, Iron Man passes away - giving the ultimate sacrifice.
First time watching this scene I was not happy with it. I saw it almost as gratuitous. It is becoming a cliche at this point for some protagonist to give his life in order to save the day. It is becoming tired and overused, in my opinion. The happy ending, while itself is a cliche, does seem to be the better choice in this scenario. But perhaps that is just my opinion. I certainly don't believe this hurts the film in anyway, I just would have preferred everyone, excluding Black Widow who did not get revived, managed to survive.
Thus begins the wrap up. We immediately get Tony's funeral, which I think should have been put last but it coming first certainly doesn't hurt the film. The other major even is that Captain America travels back in time to return Thor's hammer and the Infinity Stones. It is obvious at this point that Steve is not going to be returning to this timeline. Hulk is unable to bring him back and instead Bucky and Sam see an old Steve sitting on a bench not far away. He tells them about how he lived a good life and he passes on his shield to Falcon, naming him the next Captain America. The scene cuts to moment in the past where Steve and Peggy are dancing and the film ends.
Time travel is risky. It is a dangerous thing to include in a story and not many can do it right. Unfortunately, I don't think this movie does it right. Throughout the film they are repeatedly mention the importance of how everything needs to be return exactly how it was - especially the stones. Presumably Captain America does this - though how he does this is unknown. How did he get the Soul Stone back to Red Skull? Furthermore, how did that interaction play out? It would've been fun to see how Steve reacted to seeing his old foe again. How did he return the power stone? Did Steve hijack a space ship? Did he take a miniature one with him like Rocket did previously? How did he return the reality stone? Did he inject it back into Jane? There are a lot of questions that aren't answered, though, these ones don't really need addressed. The problem arises when you think about Thanos and how Tony Stark killed him, thus causing a grandfather paradox. Steve Rogers being able to age and show up in the exact same spot with our versions of the Avengers suggests this all occurs on the same timeline. Perhaps a split occurs once they remove the stones and it is undone when they return them. Problem is: Thanos is still dead, as is Nebula. Meaning, that the Nebula we know should have ceased to be once she murdered her other self and Thanos does not live long enough to cause the snap. No snap, means no time travel to undo the snap or return the stones, which means that Steve Rogers would never have had the chance to travel back in time and age. Now if Captain America did not show up as an old man, that would have open up to the suggestion that there are two universes - and Captain America is now in Universe B. But because he is at the same spot where he time traveled with the exact same characters we have been watching - we know that this occurs only in Universe A.
By killing Thanos, Tony Stark undoes all the events of Endgame and Infinity War, thus creating a time paradox. Now a weak argument against this could be that Iron Man didn't kill the bad guys, just returned them to their own time - even though we see them dust away like when Thanos did it. Perhaps a rewatch of the movie would help better explain the time travel portion - they keep it frustratingly vague, though. I remember Tony looking at a mobius strip diagram, so perhaps they found a way where killing Thanos doesn't result in any paradoxes. But then why was it gravely important to return the stones the moment they were stolen? Maybe a bigger brain then mine can see this without any plot holes but.... I unfortunately cannot unsee this issue. This, coupled with the awkward scene with Hulk and Ant Man leads me to give this movie a 9/10. It's nearly perfect, but I think it has enough issues that keep it from being a 10/10. That being said, this film is still very much a must watch. You should see this movie, it's the best I've seen in a good long while. Full of entertainment and fan service, you'll certainly have a great time viewing it.
Thanks for taking the time to read my review of Endgame. Let me know how I did covering this beast of a movie and if I got anything wrong or left anything out. It's a long movie and I only watched it once several days ago, so I feel like I can be given some slack.
And as always, Good Night and Joy be with you all.
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