Thinking ok it, I don’t like what the did to big Lebowski Thor, I don’t mind them making him depressed, but this was just to far, and him stepping way down to a guardian.... no. He was just ready to step up!

Also merged Hulk... yeah nah. Again I see what they were doing, but again, pushed it a bit to far.



Best line: “I am Ironman”

 

I thought they teased Tony’s eventual sacrifice very strongly throughout the film. His initial refusal to work with the rest of the group, citing his new family as the reason, his emphasis on their wellbeing being non-negotiable, his truce and reunion with Cap, and most importantly his two moments with Dr Strange (“If I tell you what will happen it won’t happen” or sth to that effect & Strange raising his finger, indicating that this is the one timeline). I wonder whether there’s going to be some kind of tribute to him in FFH.

Finally, I liked the way they handled Cap’s exit, I was happy for him. That being said, I didn’t like who they replaced him with. A Captain America with technogadgetry as his primary weapon (and let’s be honest, that’s what Sam will need) is going to be a hard sell to many, I fear.

The “Hail Hydra” bit was hilarious, though.

 

There were a few flaws that drop it down from best ever, like some muddiness with the time travel and a few moments that felt calculated to get audience applause (like the "girl power" moment) instead of organically fitting into the movie (like the great moment of Cap getting the Mjolnir). But overall it was really simply a great movie, with a very clever time jump, and a lot of key emotional moments to really drive things home that theme of "failing those you love and how that makes you who are meant to be". Never thought I'd be so connected to Thor the Dark World, but Paul Rudd loving Thor's story of the Dark Elves makes it like it more in retrospect, as does the really great Frigga/Thor scene.

I am disappointed about Nat, but damn was ScarJo luminous and so vital in the movie. Of course there's great acting all around, with a lot of great moments.

A few standouts:

• Rocket: He's pretty good at those, isn't he? Ant-Man: I know, right?
• It is America's ass.
• Stan's 70's cameo
• Natalie Portman getting a small paycheck
• "Oh, so he's an idiot"
• Hiroyuki Sanada from The Wolverine and Westworld as the coolest evil samurai around
• That Mjolnir moment got the biggest shouts from my theater, and the biggest grin from me
• "Assemble" was a close second
• And of course, "I am Iron Man" paralleling the end of the first MCU movie with the same words. That's bloody poetry, Lucas.

 

Audiences here don't really gasp or clap or cheer in movies and this was no exception. It was the quietest I've ever heard a crowd at a movie, especially during Tony's last scene.

Marvel still haven't figured out what to do with Thor and his power levels. His big lebowski thing and essentially abdicating to go to find himself on a road trip are just stupid. We're further away than ever from Rune King Thor.

It was hard to get used to Professor Hulk at first, partly because we're not used to seeing him happy but I do think he should have had slightly more of a temper and at least fought a bit more. No Hulk/Thanos round two is the biggest disappointment.

Everything else was unbelievably awesome. Still trying to digest everything.

 

Re: the big girl power charge during the battle, I thought about it being a little forced and dumb, before I realized that if the exact same thing had happened with all men it wouldn’t have even merited a comment.

Look at most of the big charges and battles over the last years - predominantly men, sometimes only men. Not in some deliberately malicious or misogynist way, obviously - just a byproduct of most superheroes and hired battle extras being men.

Stacked up against that, was the team up charge corny and a little obvious? Sure. But what’s the harm? It was cool looking, and actually pretty neat to see how many MCU female superheroes we have so far all grouped in one place.

 

Actually maybe not an easy example. In that fight 2012-Cap thought he was fighting 2012-Loki, under illusion as Cap, Loki having just escaped. This is foreshadowed in the scene where they take Loki into custody at the top of the tower and Loki flicks his illusion to Cap to mock the real 2012-Cap saying he's off to lead the search and rescue efforts. That fight even begins with 2012-Cap saying he's found Loki.

It can be interpreted that the real Cap remembers fighting himself, but thinking it was Loki in disguise.

Edit: This does nothing to explain the time-fuckery of Old Cap at the end. Perhaps he lived his life with Peggy in an alternate branch of time and then, at the end of that life (she's passed on?) he returned the stones, both setting the timeline right and eliminating the timeline where he got a life with Peggy. Maybe also why he doesn't tell Sam about it when Sam asks - Cap gets to remember, because it only happened for him.

Edit 2: Should also say, 10/10 film for me. Just for the sheer scale of what was pulled off over so many films.

One thing that got me was Thor - him being fat and a drunk got big laughs in my theatre, and I've seen some reviews that think they did his character a disservice. I disagree. What we're laughing at in those scenes is a man hopelessly and horribly depressed - lost his mother/father/brother/sister/most of the people he was sworn to protect and his celestial home all in the space of a few years and then days. Then he failed to save half the life in the universe, and even beheading Thanos after the fact brought him no joy.

I wouldn't have believed a scene where Thor becomes the king he's meant to be again so soon after all that. I do believe a man falling into the drink and masking his immense pain under humour far more. I think Thor heading off with the Guardians is a great move - he needs to heal and find purpose again.

Edit 3: Because it's easy.

 

Yeah, not all the time travel stuff works, but in that case future-Cap uses the scepter with the mind stone to clearly knock him out, and I'd assume, erase his memory of the incident. That's how I read it, anyway, since he used it.

 

I liked the fact that when Thanos realized he truly lost he simply sat down calmly and waited for the end. I found that very in-character and a good subversion of the cliche when the villain screams in anger that it's impossible he lost.

Also, Asgardians of the Galaxy, new favorite team.

 

The shot where it’s just cap alone standing against the darkness was beautifully shot. What a fucking great execution of the “all hope being lost, furthest away from reaching your goal” part of the monomyth that was. He’s internalised fucking up so massively that he saved everyone only to see the world being destroyed, and he’s still ready to take them all on seemingly by himself.this movie really does him justice.

 

I was surprised how quickly they handled Thanos in the beginning, I know there was a rumor of a new villain being the main bad guy and I guess that ended up being sort of true...

Captain Marvel bit was interesting that they didn't keep the post credit scene to introduce her to people who may not have seen Captain Marvel, or how she located Tony. I know that was a big theory she'd be the one to find him, but not that quick.

Cap using the hammer was great, a bit expected by everyone, but still great.

Tony dying was expected from the second he said his family came first, I felt it was kinda sad that he was the only one who really moved on but in the end was the one who died.

Loki being out there somewhere with the space stone is probably what his tv show will be about.

I did like the bits they added into the Avengers plot with SHIELD turning up.

Captain Marvel being one hit knocked out by one stone should please some people who were worried. Although not sure how they notified her of the battle considering she said she'd be uncontactable for a while.

I'm sure people are complaining about that woman superhero bit as we speak.

Overall, the call backs were great, action was great, the time travel I wasn't really sold on to be honest, it all felt mashed together and rushed.

 

I'd say I'm a little disappointed by natasha's death. Cap and Tony got their long closure scenes right near the end but her death was like wham! then moving on. But then again she is getting her own movie so perhaps closure would seem weird?

Something that does annoy me more that a little are the critics who write this movie off because it's "just a superhero movie and not aspiring for anything challenging." I came out of this tiny one cinema, english movie theatre in munich where there were people laughing and cheering and one girl next to me crying into her father's shirt at Tony's funeral and I can't think of a greater movie spectacle I've ever seen.

 

I liked it a lot.

You can't really appreciate too much what Marvel and Kevin Feige did in the past 11 years. I'm pretty sure that when Nick Fury first appeared at the end of Iron Man, nobody expected that it was the beginning of the unpreceded cinematic universe that will have 22 films, mediocre at their worst and just amazing at their best.

Endgame managed to give a proper send-off to all of that. From including many unexpected characters to too many to count fan-service moments and callbacks to probably all of the previous films, using the time travel aspect too its fullest. It does have it all and more. Lesser directors than Russos wouldn't be able to put it in a film a lot longer than 3 hours.

As the previous film, it does have a spectacle, but a lot of emotion too. All main characters get plenty of both.

After missing the first film, Clint has some touching scenes in this one and plenty of action sequences too.

Nat's transformation from the agent to the superhero ends with her final sacrifice. One thing the film lacked was a better goodbye scene from the team for her like Tony had. I get that Scarlett will return in her solo film, but that's the outside information which the film shouldn't take into the account while presenting her arc.

Fat Thor was funny, but a little annoying in some scenes. And it did feel like it undid a lot work done on him by his previous films.

Only thing that lacked in Professor Hulk' case wasn't a rematch with Thanos, but actual presentation of this change in Bruce relationship with his other self.

I really liked how they expanded on Nebula's characters across all films, finally making her a team player in this one. I'm quite surprised how much focus she did have in Endgame, but it worked for the best.

Not sure how they handle Gamora in the next GotG. I'm already disliked how they presented past-Gamora meeting Starlord and I sure doesn't want a film about them starting over from the beginning.

I'm very unsure about Tony's sacrifice. On one hand, it was a fitting end for him. On the other, they gave him a kid to leave behind and I really disliked that. In my opinion, in this case his journey should end with him continuing his efforts to not repeat the mistakes he and his father made in their relationship. Especially after the scene where they met in the past.

As much as I liked Cap having his happy ending, since Tony has a family now, he should be the one to somehow sacrifice himself for him after Tony done his own sacrifice for the rest. I would still end the film with his dance scene, but as 'is it a dream, is it a heaven' scenario.

While the beginning of the film was a fitting ending for the Infinity War Thanos, because of that the final battle didn't have an emotional punch it could have. Sure, past Thanos got all the necessary information, but I would prefer if in a reverse to the previous film, it's Thanos who desperately tries to stop the heroes from undoing his victory and making his sacrifices for nothing. The past-Thanos, without his journey, just wasn't that. Not that he was bad or anything though. I would keep pretty much all of his dialogues and reactions.

It could be because I have yet to watch Captain Marvel, but her character in this film was kind of annoying to me. She sounded somehow arrogant and lacked anything to make her likeable enough for it to be simply a part of her charm.

Even with these complains, this film is easily 9/10 from me. Maybe in few months when it's out on DVD and I will be less impressed about it overall, but for now I'm planning to watch it again.

And the last predictions.

Give it another ten years, maybe even faster, but I will make a bet now that RDJ will be back as Iron Man in at least one more Avengers film that explores the mess they did creating all these alternative universes.

Disney+ Loki is going to be the Loki that escaped with the Space Stone.

 

Kevin Feige stated that Thanos snapped half of ALL life, including plants and animals. So once everyone returns, expect a lot of cows, pigs, and crops to return as well.

 

I assumed the part about getting something to eat is going to be handled somehow. It's the chaos of processing all these people back into the society when it was five minutes for them and five years for the other half is what should be explored in my opinion.

 

Of course, now that I realize it, if truly half of all plantlife was snapped, then it would be the biggest environmental disaster in history. Like, imagine half of all forests and grass disappearing. Imagine what that would do to the Co2 levels.

Also, rare animals that aren't livestock would go extinct as there would be too few of them to sustain the necessary numbers to grow. Even after the other half returns in 5 years it may be too late for many species.

 

Not entirely sure what the point of snapping all life would be. What Thanos' gripe seemed to be were those civilisations that industrialised to such an extent that they threatened the natural ecosystems of planets. Also when Thanos snapped his fingers it wasn't like the trees around the avengers turned to ash. So in my head the intent behind his desires played a role in what was destroyed. But eh is word of Feige a thing?

What I did like that some people didn't was Thanos being a lot less sympathetic this time around. Showing that a psychopath has time for compassion towards those he looks down on when he's winning, but when he's not, the utter contempt for life he has really comes to the foreground. Raining down death on enemy and ally alike, planning to wipe out the entire universe and start anew and the refrain of "I am inevitable" and him actually taking pleasure in destroying earth just some of the examples.

 

I liked sympathetic Thanos more because this put him aside from other villains and made him the star of the previous film. In this they made him more of a generic Marvel bad guy.

 

I would argue that this might have been very much the intent – not the “generic Marvel bad guy”-ness, but driving home the point that the “sympathetic” Thanos died with Thor’s swing of the axe. 2014 Thanos hence had a lot less character development and was a much less refined character than the one from Infinity War.

This film was not about Thanos, it was (on the meta-level) about the OG Avengers going on one last adventure/time heist together.