Avengers: Endgame is Mandatory Watching for Fans (and it is so dense that this might be my worst wri

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Oh boy. This was more of an event than a movie and it was a quick, but very real full hours. Avengers: Endgame may not have been the best movie in the MCU, but it was certainly a triumph. It was the most ambitious movie I have ever seen. Its purpose was clear since Marvel announced the slate of Phase 3 movies; wrap up some of the most beloved characters in 21st century cinema (or at least the highest grossing). I was very impressed with how little the trailers gave away. Most action movies need to draw from the final battle to give the trailer a signature moment that will draw crowds, but Endgame relied on its predecessors to carry that torch and they nailed it. I am going to give a more detailed review below, but in order to do that, I must give some spoilers. Therefore, spoiler-free, I thoroughly enjoyed Endgame. I preferred Infinity War, which had better pacing and cinematography and a worse musical score, but Endgame is mandatory watching for any fan of the MCU. It built on a decade of excellent movies to somehow create a coherent storyline that truly delivered. It may not have ended the way that everyone expected or wanted, but looking back, there was no other right way to do it. I loved Avengers: Endgame and give it full marks, 22 out of 22 MCU movies.

From this point forward, I will be discussing the plot. That was your spoiler alert.

Endgame began by shirking the MCU’s greatest strength: humor in the face of adversity. The start of the movie was quite bleak. It took place shortly after Infinity War, reuniting everyone who was left to pick up the pieces and to bring Captain Marvel into the fold. This led to the movie’s first curveball when they almost immediately kill Thanos. I was taken aback by the scene and loved it. From there it jumped ahead 5 years, and with the time-skip came the humor. Some characters, specifically Black Widow and Hawkeye, were still dour, but the other characters were joking and Thor was fat. While many hated fat Thor, I enjoyed fat Thor until the final battle. As a fat person I found him doing that much battle without passing out or getting sick was the most unrealistic part of the movie, even more unrealistic than the time travel, which was the second curveball. I expected time travel, but I didn’t expect it to be a walk down memory lane. It was nice to revisit some of the old scenes and see them from another perspective. I also enjoyed how the movie used a simple fetch quest to further develop the core Avengers. Only Hulk/Bruce Banner didn’t have a moment of growth or loss on his mission, but hopefully he will get plenty in the future since Marvel finally owns his rights exclusively and can make a new Hulk movie that matters. My favorite part of the time travel mission was how nobody really understands time travel. The characters admit that they were flying by the seat of their pants, which led to bringing Thanos to the future because of coinciding Nebulas, a wrinkly nobody foresaw. Once Thanos came to the future, there was a big battle, which was great, but also not great. It was a very basic fight, bouncing from one character to the next with complete disregard for size, timing, and purpose. It felt as though the Russo brothers wrote everything except that fight and fan letters were used to frame the battle. It was like a child playing with action figures, making as many different team ups as possible, even if they were on completely different parts of the field 10 seconds ago. I also may be sour on this scene because every time I have seen it, people insist on clapping, even though the actors can’t hear your applause so it is just a selfish distraction to everyone else in the theater. Anyway, I enjoyed to dumb aspects of the battle, but they still bothered me. While the battle irked me, the conclusion was perfect. Anybody who follows nerd twitter knew that Robert Downey, Jr.’s and Chris Evans’ contracts were up and that Tony Stark and Steve Rogers were leaving, but nobody knew how. I loved how they said goodbye. Tony had to die a hero. His personality would never allow him to stop being Iron Man, so having him use the Infinity Stones to save everyone was perfect. Captain America, on the other hand, never fit in. He was always a man out of his element, fighting the good fight, but always looking backward. Letting him get his happy ending with Peggy Carter was beautiful and an excellent way to say goodbye to the character. Their endings nearly made me cry, which is very rare for a non-sports movie. Since Avengers: Endgame made me feel almost every emotion, I won’t say that it was perfect, but it was nearly perfect. I am excited to own this movie and to watch it over and over again back to back with Infinity War.

I apologize for how long that review was. At least it wasn’t three hours.