"But wait!" the rock-living cavemen/women cry. "What is a Marvel Cinematic Universe?" Long story short, When Disney bought the film rights to just about every Marvel character ever (the exceptions being the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and Deadpool, all of whom are owned by 20th Century Fox), they put a life long Marvel super-nerd in charge. That super-nerd is Kevin Feige, who came up with the concept of creating several self-contained films, each focusing on a different character or groups of characters, that subtly built up a larger, interconnected narrative and ending it over a decade later with one big film that not only ties up every loose end, but rewards the fandom for their patience and dedication with one last hurrah specifically designed to satisfy the fans. Because of the whimsical charm of the MCU, amazing production quality, and managing to somehow turn some of the most obscure characters into breakout mainstays, the MCU not only picked up the comic book fans that were already on board, but also recruited hundreds, possibly thousands of newcomers to the True Believer cause. That's a Stan Lee joke. Now I'm sad.
Now I'm not going to do a recap of the entire MCU. There's currently 20+ films, each of which about 2 and a half hours long. And Endgame is a movie that's pretty much impossible to watch unless you have seen at least most of the MCU films already, since the film kind of assumes you at least know the basic plot of these films. Personally, the only films I have not watched yet are Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Thor: Ragnarok. However, I have done research on these films in the event that major plot points from any of them are brought up here. But for those willing to see Endgame despite having no experience with the films before it, basically, it's a science fantasy super-hero series starring a very large and surprisingly deep cast of colorful characters who devote their lives to protecting the innocent and punishing the evil. Classic good and evil stuff here. There really isn't anything that would be considered "moral ambiguity" except for Thanos the Mad Titan, the main antagonist and Greater-Scope Villain of the series. Thanos is a well intended extremist who believes that, since the universe is on the verge of overpopulation, that if he erased one half of all life from the universe, the survivors would thrive. Of course, this basically boils down to him committing mass genocide on a galactic scale, and no goal, however idealistic, is worth that many casualties. Which is why Thanos is the villain.
Avengers: Endgame takes place right after the events of Avengers: Infinity War. Thanos collects all six Infinity Stones and pulls off his plan to wipe out exactly one half of all life in the universe. After that we're treated to a heartbreaking intro where Hawkeye (who was on vacation with his wife and children at the time of Infinity War) is teaching his daughter how to use a bow and arrow, turns around to grab some lunch, and his entire family gets Snapped out of existence while he's not looking. We then see Iron Man and Nebula are stranded in the middle of space, having pretty much accepted that they'll die of starvation eventually, leading Iron Man to make an equally heart-breaking recording to his fiance Pepper Potts. Of course, seeing as how Iron Man is a member of the Big Three (the other two being Captain America and Thor), which are pretty much the mascots of the MCU, there is no way they would give Iron Man such an anticlimactic death. So the space ship he and Nebula are trapped gets discovered by Captain Marvel, who decides out of the kind of her heart to drag the space ship back to Earth. And I just want to get my harshest critique of the film out of the way.
What is up with Captain Marvel? Now I never watched Captain Marvel, because while the film itself was considered to be good by the majority of fans, if somewhat more average than the usual quality of the MCU, it also drowned in social-political controversy since critics who pointed out valid flaws of the film, some of which have nothing to do with the character herself, were harassed by dozens of social-justice warriors on social media, being frequently called "sexist" or "misogynistic" (even if the critic in question was a woman), in addition to the film getting review-bombed by bitter Wonder Woman fans who felt that when the DCEU finally produced a good movie, Marvel went out of their way to make a female-focused film specifically to steal their thunder (they didn't, Marvel planned the release dates for all of these films a decade in advance. It was only bad timing on DC's part that Wonder Woman released right before Captain Marvel) That same controversy was a turn-off from me, personally. Which is a shame, because I do like the character, or at least the costume. But because I skipped out on her movie, I didn't know anything about the character's origins or personality, and this film, is not a good way to get introduced to Captain Marvel. First of all, she's barely in the film, with most of her screen-time being in the prologue, and towards the end, where she serves as the 11th Hour Ranger for the rest of the heroes. Second of all, she doesn't get a whole lot of interaction with the rest of the cast, the most she gets is getting into a friendly rivalry-style dynamic with Rocket Raccoon. The bits of personality that she does have remind me of how Iron Man acted before his character development, namely the attitude and ego, only she doesn't come across as charming as Iron Man did. That could be attributed to Robert Downey Jr. being (arguably) a better actor than Brie Larson, but I have a feeling the fault lies with the writing itself rather than the acting.
On a positive note; The next scene where the surviving heroes track down Thanos to his cottage on the corner of the universe (Thanos was planning to live out his days as a humble hermit once he erased half of all life) and then proceed to curb-stomp him is immensely satisfying. But once they got him pinned down, Thanos reveals that he destroyed the Infinity Stones (which grant godlike power to whoever has all six) to prevent himself (and others) from being tempted to use them for "less than noble" purposes. So even though our heroes manage to defeat a villain in record time, it ultimately was for nothing. There is, as far as they know, no way to reverse the damage Thanos inflicted. No way to heal the lives ruined by a society literally cut in half across the universe. No way to undo the horrors of the now infamous Snap. And one of the best things about this film is that each hero spends the next five years coping with the fact that they failed to stop Thanos, and they each cope with that failure in different ways. Did I mention that all of this happens in the prologue?
| "Don't. Stop. Don't give me hope." -Hawkeye, 2019 |
We're then treated to a time skip, and pretty much the rest of Act One is devoted to showing us the state of the world. Tony Stark lucked out, his wife survived the erasure and now Tony has the kid he's been wanting to have since Iron Man 3. So he's pretty content with life. Hawkeye takes it the worst. The dude lost his entire family to the Snap. And since the survivors were chosen at random, there are plenty of criminals and gangsters that lucked out. Hawkeye decides to fix that. So he becomes a samurai version of the Punisher and starts brutally murdering crime syndicates and entire gangs. Which leads to an amazing and surprisingly violent scene where Hawkeye tears through the Yakuza, culminating in a duel between him and the leader, which ends with the leader choking on his own blood as Hawkeye slices his throat.
Thor handles it better than Hawkeye, but not by much. Thor is now an overweight alcoholic who lazes around drinking beer and playing Fortnite. Yes, you read that right. Thor, the literal Norse God of Thunder and Lightning, Viking War Hero, and King of Asgard, is so depressed that he (and his friends Miek and Korg) started playing Fortnite. Which becomes doubly hilarious when you realize that the only way Fortnite could last this long is if the entire staff at Epic Games was spared from the erasure, and that the majority of the game's fandom also survived. But anyway, Thor is once again my favorite character in the film, and his arc across all the films might make him my favorite overall. From his funny quips to his character growth, Thor is definitely the most dynamic of the heroes.
Bruce Banner/the Hulk handles the situation in a rather unusual fashion. Upon realizing that his Hulk form is no match for Thanos, Bruce Banner decides to finally embrace the primal beast within and thanks to absorbing even more gamma radiation, he is now Smart Hulk. What's a Smart Hulk? Simple! It's the brains of Bruce Banner, but in the body of the Hulk. So now the canonically most powerful creature in the MCU (that is not enhanced by Infinity Stones) now has the intelligence to properly control that power. Also, everything that Smart Hulk says has been turned into a meme. From giving people tacos to "seeing this as an absolute win", every other bit of dialogue involving Smart Hulk has been used for fandom in-jokes. Basically, Smart Hulk is a goldmine for comedy, and he seems to get most of the best jokes.
Captain America handles this by becoming a therapist, helping others adjust to the tragedy they live in, and trying his best to look on the bright side. Black Widow is basically head of damage control/cleanup, along with Okoye, Rocket Raccoon, War Machine, and Captain Marvel. Ant-Man, whose arrival kicks the plot into motion, was actually unaware of everything that happened in the last five years due to being stuck in Quantum Realm (go watch Ant-Man & The Wasp for context) since the beginning of Infinity War. Which leads to Ant-Man waking up in a garage in the middle of no man's land, and after stumbling around, sees the mile-long monument dedicated to everyone erased by the Snap. This scene doesn't have much to do with the plot of the film, but Paul Rudd's acting in this scene is perfect. Ant-Man has for years been relegated to the role of the goofy comic-relief. But in this one scene Paul Rudd captured the panic of suddenly learning half the universe is dead, and the fear and anxiety that your loved ones might have perished without you even realizing it, along with the relief once you find your daughter is still in one piece. It was such a small moment, but it was easily one of my favorite moments of the film.
Anyway, Ant-Man has only aged five hours instead of five years due to Quantum Realm being chaos incarnate and not obeying traditional laws of physics. So he has a eureka moment. What if Ant-Man had Iron Man and Smart Hulk reverse engineer the Ant-Man suit and turn it into a makeshift time machine? So now, with the help of Iron Man and Smart Hulk's combined intellect, all the surviving Avengers (except for Captain Marvel, who sits out the entire second act) are ready to travel through time and undo the Snap. Also, Ant-Man is now the true MVP of the MCU, had he not have gotten stuck in the Quantum Realm for five years the whole plot from this point on would have never happened. And before anyone asks, "Hey, if they time travel they can just kill Thanos before he gets the Infinity Stones!" the time travel in Endgame is based on Multiverse theory. For context, the Multiverse Theory states for every situation, a new timeline is created for each possible outcome of that situation. And time travel via Multiverse theory means that you aren't travelling to an earlier (or future) point in your own timeline, your moving to brand new, near identical timeline that exists independently of the original timeline. Because of this, any change you make to the past of one timeline will not affect the future of your own. So the Avengers' plan is to do a Mission Impossible style heist to get the Infinity Stones in the past, bring them back to the original timeline, use them to bring everyone erased by the Snap back to life, and then put the Infinity Stones back where they found them to minimize the damage done to the Multiverse.
Which leads to the Avengers revisiting iconic moments from the previous films (such as Star-Lord's dance at the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy) but from different angles. Hilarity and pleasant fandom nods ensue as Captain America literally beats himself up to get the Mind Stone, Iron Man and Ant-Man give Past!Iron Man a literal heart attack, and Smart Hulk gets an Out-of-Body Experience courtesy of the Ancient One. Also, Thor and Rocket wind up derailing literally the entire plot of Thor: The Dark World by managing to remove the Reality Stone from Jane (Thor's ex-lover), when the entire plot of that film occurred because nobody, not even the Asgardians, who are so technologically and magically advanced that everyone else literally worships them as gods, could find a way to remove the Stone without killing her. Considering that Thor: The Dark World is considered the weakest MCU film, I feel this is the Russo Brothers' (the co-directors of Endgame) way of poking fun at the worst performing Marvel movie ever.
But as with any time travel story, something goes horribly wrong. And that something is, Past!Thanos manages to follow the Avengers back to the original timeline, and now Thanos is ticked off that his plan to "save" the universe failed (all it did was bring mayhem and anarchy), but instead of taking responsibility for it, Thanos merely decides that since "as long as there are those who remember what was, there will be those who cannot accept what can be" and decides to use the Infinity Stones to COMPLETELY erase the universe and build a new one from scratch, one that is, by Thanos' definition, perfect, and teeming with life. Now in Infinity War Thanos was portrayed as the most morally grey character in the MCU, what with him only wanting the best for the universe even if he does more harm than good. But his portrayal here is unambiguously evil, showing that he really is nothing more than a madman who was off his rocker. The latter portrayal is actually more accurate to how Thanos is portrayed in the comics these films are based on. In the Comics, Thanos was, and always was, a madman, who is hopelessly in love with Lady Death (the Marvel Comics version of the Grim Reaper), and his entire goal in the comics was to cause enough chaos and misery to impress her and win her affections. While the whole "trying to court the anthropomorphic concept of Death itself" part was left out, because that is admittedly a little silly, the rest of the comics portrayal translates surprisingly well to a villain who previously was a sympathetic extremist.
What follows is Act Three, an epic, large scale brawl between EVERY Avenger (including the Unsnapped Avengers) and Thanos' army of eldritch horrors from the deepest corners of space. The scope of the battle looks and honestly feels like something pulled straight out of Lord of the Rings, and there is nothing more awesome than the heroes, with an army of brave soldiers behind them, charging down at the endless hordes of the villain's dark forces. What makes it especially amazing is how each Avenger gets a time to shine. You got max-size Ant-Man punching a space dragon thing in the face. You got Black Panther using his shock waves to clear a path for everyone else. You got Iron Man and Pepper (clad in the Rescue armor from the Comics!) back-to-back, raining death from above. You have Drax the Destroyer stabbing a brutish troll-like monster in the back while Korg beats it over the head with a baseball bat. You have Rocket and the Winter Soldier mowing down mooks by the dozens with their guns. You got Spider-Man trying to make casual small talk with everyone despite everything going on around him. You have Thor and Captain America side by side on the front lines, taking the fight straight to Thanos himself. And I kid you not, there's a sequence in this scene where the Avengers essentially play keep-away with the Infinity Stones. The whole scene was pure awesomeness and really captures how big a deal it is having 40+(!) superheroes working together.
| Tony Stark? More like, Tony STUCK!!! ...I'll see myself out now. |
The only criticism of the final battle I have is when Spider-Man gets cornered by a horde of monsters. He's saved by Captain Marvel, who after getting hit with Spider-Man's signature habit for casual small talk, responds with "Hey Peter Parker. Got something for me?". She was referring to the Infinity Stones, but the word choice, and her somewhat flirty tone, makes the line sound a whole lot more... Suggestive than intended. Which wraps around to being hilarious retroactively when you remember that in the comics, Spider-Man and Captain Marvel actually were dating during a comic book saga from the 80's (before anyone asks, Comics!Spider-Man is a walking chick magnet and has more love interests than any other super-hero. No, I am not making that up). But my biggest criticism of this scene in particular is when moments later, Thanos' army brings in reinforcements. Spider-Man says "I don't know how you're gonna get us through that." "Don't worry, she's not alone." Shuri says as all the female Avengers drop in for what feels like a contractually obligated Girl-Power Moment (t.m.). It was, to put it rather bluntly, corny and on-the-nose. But there isn't a double-standard at play here. If in another universe we got Spider-Woman (that actually exists, by the way. Look her up!) and all the Avengers here were men, it still would have been corny. And even in-universe it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Captain Marvel is canonically one of the most powerful heroes in the MCU (in the Comics, she was considered mid-tier; Much stronger and more powerful than average, but nowhere near the levels of Thor or the Hulk. She had her power-set buffed up to be on par with both for the MCU). Among the lady heroes that join her in fighting back the extra mobs are; Shuri, who has no powers but gets by on her intelligence and gadgets, Valkyrie, who rides around on a Pegasus and fights with a Sword, but otherwise is a relatively normal Asgardian, And Mantis. You know, Mantis? The one female hero who is actively a noncombatant in almost every appearance she makes due to have a cripplingly specific skill-set and no battle training? Ironically the one female hero that could believably fight alongside Captain Marvel for this scene without being overshadowed by her raw power, Scarlet Witch, is absent, because at the time this is going on she's beating the crab-cakes out of Thanos, and that's going on at the exact opposite side of the battle. Which was a great moment and ironically was a better "Girl Power Moment" than the actual Girl Power Moment. Again, just reiterating that I have nothing against all-female teams of lady heroes kicking butt and taking names but for goodness sake, don't make so blatant and on the nose.
After a long fought battle, Thanos is defeated in the most deliciously ironic way possible. From this point onward there will be spoilers, though I guess you could say that this whole movie is technically a spoiler for the entire MCU. After a struggle between Captain Marvel, Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man, Thanos gets his hands on the Infinity Stones, but before he could do the Snap again, Iron Man grapples him. Thanos, being, well, Thanos, tosses him aside effortlessly and delivers his signature one-liner; "I am Inevitable." Snap. But nothing happens. And what might be the greatest sleight-of-hand in the history of cinema, we see that Iron Man managed to pull out the Infinity Stones from Thanos' gauntlet while he was grappling Thanos, and he says a line he hasn't said since the very first MCU film. "And I... am... Iron Man." Snap. Thanos looks around and sees his entire army Snap out of existence. Thanos immediately realizes what's happening, and sits down, his head hung low as he accepts his erasure.
Of course, seeing as how Iron Man is just a normal human (a hyper-intelligent human, but human nonetheless), his body can't handle the raw energy of the Infinity Stones (The Hulk, who has hyper-healing, spent the whole battle crippled because even he couldn't handle the energy), and the act of erasing the greatest threat to the universe burns his body up, and we're treated to a scene that might be even sadder than the infamous "Mr. Stark? I don't feel so good..." scene in Infinity War. Iron Man, barely conscience and dying, is comforted in his last moments by Pepper, his wife, War Machine, his best friend, and Spider-Man, his pupil. The three most important people in Iron Man's life (besides his daughter Morgan) all here to send off the Marvel Legend that essentially started the Marvel Cinematic Universe as he passes on. It was one of the most emotional moments in the history of superhero films. Here's hoping that they keep the character resurrection in line, because several comics (not just Marvel, but almost every comic has this problem) suffer from this issue of beloved characters having heroic and meaningful deaths only to be brought back to life no matter how contrived the method may be, and this winds up happening so often that it kills the narrative tension.
The last scene of the film is a long, beautiful, and melancholic funeral attended by pretty much the entire cast of the MCU. And we see Iron Man made a recording for his family right before the Time Heist in Act 2, revealing that he fully anticipated that he might die, and telling his family to remember the good times, and try to move on from the bad. We then get to Smart Hulk, the Falcon, and the Winter Soldier prepare to send Captain America back in time to return the Infinity Stones back to where they found them. But when they try to bring Cap back to the present, he doesn't show up. We then see an elderly man sitting on a bench nearby. It doesn't take long for the Falcon to realize this old man is actually Captain America himself. As it turns out when Cap traveled back in time, he decided to stay in the past so he can finally settle down with the love of his life. Cap then gives his signature shield to Falcon, and basically tells him to carry on the legacy, now that he's too old to be doing superhero work. Now, depending on who you ask, this is either a perfect way to send-off Captain America, as he finally gets his happy ending, or a terrible way to send him off, since his entire character arc revolved around accepting that he can't be with the woman he loved, or return to his old life, and that he must move on from his past, not to mention the implications that Cap intentionally ignored revelations that would greatly impact the timeline if he spilled the beans, such as S.H.I.E.L.D. getting infiltrated by HYDRA, or how his best friend is doomed to be tortured and brainwashed, and Cap just ignoring stuff like that doesn't seem like a thing he would do. Me personally, I feel that in regards to how they should have handled it, as great and emotional as Iron Man's death/funeral is, I feel like the roles should have been reversed, with Cap dying among the people closest to him, and Iron Man retiring and passing the Iron Man persona onto a younger character. I feel it would have the same emotional weight, and make just a little bit more sense character-wise. That said, I do respect the way they did do it, and I had a feeling that if they were to kill off or retire the Big Three, Iron Man would be the first to go no matter how they handled it. Not because he was the least popular of the Big Three, but ironically because he is the MOST popular.
Okay, the spoilers are over. In terms of presentation, we got great set-pieces, fan-favorite moments from past films recreated and shown from different angles, amazing fight choreography (as per usual), and some really good CGI. Special mention to Smart Hulk. He's fully CGI, expressive, and and blends surprisingly well with the live action actors. Like when Smart Hulk and Rocket go to recruit Thor for the Time Heist, when Smart Hulk mentions Thanos, Thor grabs Hulk by the shirt and tells him to not say Thanos' name. When Thor grabs Hulk, he looks so realistic (in a good way) that it's easy to forget he's just a CGI mo-cap creature and not a real person. The only negative thing about the visuals are War Machine's new armor, which he dons for the final battle. The shoulders of the armor are a tad bit too large compared to the rest of the armor, and while it looks fine when War Machine is in combat, when he unmasks, it becomes obvious the armor is way too big for him.
Now for the music and acting. The music in the film is fantastic, plain and simple. Want a reprise of every solo hero's personal theme? You got that. Crave the 70's soft-rock tunes from Guardians of the Galaxy? You got that. Need more of that sweet, sweet Avengers fanfare? Not only is the now-iconic Avengers theme back, but it's been given a triumphant, awe-inspiring remix to remind everyone that yes, this is the grand finale of the greatest, most ambitious film project ever. The acting/voice acting is also great. Robert Downey Jr. is of course a treat, and while the character's ego has been toned down via character development, he's still snarky, laid-back and rather nonchalant about everything, which makes his malnourished breakdown in the prologue especially painful to watch. Chris Hemsworth carries the energy from Thor: Ragnarok into this film, and despite portraying Thor at his lowest (he's a bumbling, drunken oaf throughout most of the film), he still manages to have that charm shine through. It's hard to believe that the only thing memorable about Thor during the early days of the MCU were his power and quoting Shakespeare. Mark Ruffalo is a walking goldmine of funny moments, for reasons explained when I covered Smart Hulk. But most importantly, Scarlet Witch's accent still sounds perfect. That is all that matters.
In conclusion, Avengers: Endgame is a must-watch film for any Marvel fan. It's a fantastic film whose only real flaw is that the story is so reliant on the viewers seeing, or at least knowing, the story from the previous films that if you are not familiar with this film, you're going to get incredibly confused (and maybe the way Captain America's retirement was handled can be considered a flaw). All my other grievances are merely nitpicks that only apply to me personally. And I'll just say it right now. Marvel cannot top the scale and scope of Endgame anytime soon. The only way they could do so is if they get the legal rights to X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Deadpool, and bring in some more oddball superheroes from the comics. Seriously. Where is Kamala Khan? Or Moon Knight? Actually, they may be making a Moon Knight movie. I don't know. But anyway, for everyone who has stuck around through the MCU, I give Avengers: Endgame a solid 9/10. For everyone else, Endgame drops to a 6/10, because as good as a film this is, by it's nature, Endgame cannot stand on it's own. It needs the rest of the MCU in order to tell it's story. Otherwise you get a incoherent mess of talking raccoons mourning their dead tree-son, Viking deities becoming drunken dorks, and a green-skinned, buff scientist turning a shrinking suit into a time machine.
P.S. Before anyone asks, I know that the form of Hulk we see throughout the film, with Bruce Banner's brains in Hulk's body, is officially called Professor Hulk. But Smart Hulk is shorter, funnier, and fulfills the same purpose grammatically, so I like calling Professor Hulk Smart Hulk jokingly.
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