Disclaimer: There are spoilers here. If you haven’t seen the movie, bookmark this page and come back if you are worried about spoiling anything about the movie.
Verdict
I enjoyed this movie, but I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite Marvel movie ever. I wouldn’t even say that I liked this movie better than Infinity War, which was something different in mood and tone.
This movie, starts slow and in my opinion, takes a weird turn in the middle, and finally wraps up with something great.
If you are looking for action though, you’ll be a little disappointed for most of the movie.
Story
The story had lots to do in a little (3 hours isn’t really that little) bit of time. Unlike every other Marvel movie before it, this Movie picks up just after the last Avengers movie. The heroes that are left are having to deal with a complete and utter loss. The beats here are pretty good and within character. In the past, we did have Tony dealing with the fact that there are aliens in the world and his post-traumatic stress and his fall out with Captain America, but other than that we haven’t really had an actual loss, and never anything on the scale we had in Infinity War.
The first Act is slow, but there are character moments. We start with Tony and Nebula trying to return to Earth after being defeat by Thanos and losing their teammates on Titan.
There’s a moment of Deus Ex Machina, where things just seem to happen just because to move the action forward. And then we are brought to the Avengers as they deal with their loss.
We see Tony dealing with losing. He blames Capt, who is trying to formulate a plan to make things right, but Tony doesn’t think they can fix it. The rift between them continues to spread from Civil War.
The rest of the Avengers, plus Captain Marvel band together to go storm Thanos’s new hideout after he used the Stones again only to find they are gone. Our hope of bringing everyone back has been destroyed, bringing everything screeching to a halt. In a very uncharacteristic move, Thor even kills the weakened Thanos.
Everyone is at a loss and the story jumps 5 years.
From a story standpoint, the audience should be at a loss, and I was. I couldn’t really figure out how they were going to set everything right. This set the pacing down to a crawl as the writers investigate how this hits our heroes. No one is the same afterward, and while I didn’t love how they got there, I did love the character investigation.
The second moment of Deus Ex Machina jumps us into Act 2 – Ant-Man coming out of the quantum realm because of a rat. He comes out with a theory that will help save the day.
Act 2 is going to be hit or miss with many fans I think. Act 2 retreads many of the past moments for our heroes such as the battle for New York and the opening scene of Guardians of the Galaxy. For me, it didn’t really hit well. I didn’t like retreading many of the scenes that we’ve seen before. I would have liked something new.
That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy some of those moments. Those moments where our heroes traveled back to the past do have some great moments for our current characters. My main problem with the travel to the past is that I don’t feel like these moments feel truly earned. I wondered if they were cut from the film, would the narrative be affected? I don’t really think it would.
The Rules are Confusing
While I don’t usually get lost in rules of movies and shows, I think the lack of clarity in this movie hurts it.
The characters mention the time travel rules of Back to the Future and other time travel movies. However, the movie says all those movies were wrong, but from what I can remember they don’t offer up much more of a suggestion.
The best explanation we get actually comes from the Ancient One when the Hulk travels back in time to get the Time Stone from her. She explains that traveling back in time and taking one of the stones would create a different timeline. To which the Hulk says that if they take the stone, do what they need to do, and then bring the stone back to the same point in time then it wouldn’t change the timeline.
That’s the way that I understood it, but that’s not the way the movie plays it. Our Mightiest Heroes fight a Thanos from the past in our current present and win, which I would think would create a new timeline, but then Captain America travels back to replace all the stones, stopping the new timeline. But Thanos from 2014 is dead now, so how could he go on to collect all the Infinity Stones?
The Third Act of this movie is a monster of film. This is the biggest battle in a Super Hero movie ever. Inside the battle, there are some many elements and parts that keep it entertaining for the entire time.
The battle starts off with Thanos versus Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. Each of our heroes seems to get moments to shine. There were fans cheering when Captain America picked up Thor’s hammer and started to beat Thanos with it. When it came down to Captain America vs Thanos all alone, I thought for sure that Capt was a goner. These moments were set up so well by not only this movie but the history of these characters in those films.
It was a moment of pure joy as Capt struggled to get to his feet and we hear Sam, who had been dusted in the last movie, through his earpiece. Which led to the appearance of all heroes that had been snapped away.
We also got the return of Captain Marvel who had been missing from much of the movie, but even then she still wasn’t a match for Thanos. It seemed like she was really just shoehorned into the film to make us go see her movie. Besides coming out of nowhere the beginning, she didn’t really do much, especially the most powerful Avenger.
It was a great balancing act to see all these heroes fighting it out. While not everyone got their moment to shine, they all did get some screen time. The battle lasted a while and didn’t get boring, which can happen in a long battle.
The end to the battle was surprising and satisfying as well. We had to say goodbye to one of our heroes, but his death was meaningful unlike some of the deaths we’ve seen in movies lately (I’m looking at your Luke).
Other Stuff
Fat Thor: I loved Fat Thor at first, but after a while, the audience was just laughing at him every time he showed up on screen. It was a good gag, that was over used. I was expecting him to get hit by lightning sometime before the end and returned to his godlike form, but that never happened. They kept the Fat Thor look the entire movie.
The Hulk: I felt like issues with the Hulk were not resolved well in this movie. In the last movie, Hulk refused to come out, which I thought was because of his loss to Thanos in the opening minutes. Banner fought with Hulk to come out, and I really thought there was going to be a great moment where Hulk and Banner come together and resolve whatever issue there was.
The issue between Hulk and Banner seemed like a major issue during Infinity War, and it was merely swept away with a line in this movie.
One theory is that by bringing out the Hulk full time they have found balance, but that didn’t really seem the case to me. It seemed more like Banner was just living in Hulks body. The moment when they travel to the Battle for New York to me shows how unbalanced they truly are.
Time Travel Issues: I mentioned my issues with the Time Travel rules earlier, and I want to expand on them here. As the movie closes, we are given some clues about the fate of some of our time travelers, but nothing solid to go on. Is Gamora from the past still alive? What about Loki? He seemed to get the Cosmic Cube in the past now, which again changes the future.
Asguardians of the Galaxy: If Thor has really joined the Guardians I think the next movie is going to be great. I love the interplay and power struggle between Thor and Starlord.
Wrap Up
Avengers: Endgame was a fun ride, that pays tribute to the past for fans. It is an enjoyable ride, that does slow down at time, but usually for a purpose.
This movie doesn’t apply the pressure the way that Infinity War did, but it does have deeper and more meaningful moments. Still, the final battle should bring a smile and tear.
It’s been a great ride to even get to this point. Many other companies have tried to lead up to such a big moment like this and none have succeeded. This just goes to show how special this movie is.
I look forward to seeing what comes next for the Marvel Movie world. The hunt for and the response to the Infinity Stones has been a great driving thread for so long, I wonder what’s next.
How did you like Avengers: Endgame? Did the Time travel make you crazy as well? Will Steve Rodgers be erased from the time line like Marty McFly? Let me know in the comment!