Avengers: Endgame (spoilers)

Well, Hawkeye got his family back, but he wasn't exactly in a good place through this picture. I'd imagine that will provide some tension is a future picture. Black Panther 2 looks to me like the obvious plot device will be repercussions of Wakanda ending its isolation. Capt. Marvel has the most power, so she'll have to fight the strongest villain. Dr. Strange is already set up for a fight with old ally Mordo. If they do Guardians 3 with Thor, that might be where that plot plays out.

 

Saw it today. No previews, so that threw things off a bit. I’ve seen a handful of the Marvel films, so I don’t know all the backstories or minutiae. I enjoyed it, although it was a bit long. It could have had a few minutes trimmed here and there.

Would have laughed my ass off if Yondu had been brought back to life somehow and started killing all of Thanos’ soldiers with the arrow.

 

This was a nearly impossible task and I thought they nailed it. The movie is slow at times, but that is necessary to move all the parts into all the right places. Also, the humor helps carry it through the slow bits.

I thought they set up the time travel rules for this movie just fine. Yes, it does work differently than the Time Stone in Dr. Strange and Infinity War, but that is a minor quibble and I'm not interested in wasting brain power on it. I enjoyed the movie too much and I thought the Russo brothers did an amazing job making so many storylines tie together so well.

Somebody mentioned that the relationship between Hawkeye and Black Widow hadn't really been developed. Someone else suggested that they must have gotten so close between Avengers and Age of Ultron. I think the relationship was already in place for Avengers. The bond between the characters was there. To me, it was developed over years of serving together with SHIELD. It does seem to me that a Black Widow movie has to be a prequel. I would hate to see them undo the Soul Stone deaths. I thought Endgame did a pretty good job following its own roles. I think future MCU movies need to respect that.

I think the crowd in the theaters does add something. I saw it today with good group. Plenty of cheers at the right moments. Sure, there was an outburst for Stan Lee, but the real explosion was for Captain America wielding Mjolnir. I definitely took Thor's line to mean that Cap could have lifted it in Age of Ultron, but chose not to and Thor suspected all along that his friend was sparing his feelings.

They really did a great job weaving in little call-backs, and not just with the time travel. They had little things like Spider-Man turning on instant kill mode, which was set up in his movie, and Dr. Strange signaling to Iron Man by holding up a single finger.

I'm sure I'll consider things that bother me at some point. The only one that comes to mind right now is everybody surviving Thanos's bombardment of Avengers HQ, but at the moment I just don't care. I loved the movie. I enjoyed it so much I don't want to watch Game of Thrones tonight because I don't want to ruin the good mood I'm in.

Oh, and regarding the tears, my daughter cried. That wasn't about attention. That was about a fantastic character meeting a sad, but well-crafted fate. Good stories make us feel something. They make us cheer. They make us laugh. They make us cry. This one did all three and the moments were earned over 10-plus years of stories and the three-plus hours of this one movie.

 

One gripe is I wish the big battle could have been filmed in sunny conditions like the Battle of Wakanda. It’s a nit pick, but seeing everything clearer would have been nice. It’s still gorgeous, but I loved Wakanda.

It does such s great job bringing all the players together. I honestly thought Cap was going to get killed there but as Peter said... Dr. Strange came and did that sparkly thing with his fingers...

Captain Marvel flying in off the top rope was a big moment for my daughter.

 

I saw the movie with my son today with very little knowledge of the MCU. When Captain America went back in time, who was he returning the stones to?

 

Yes, according to the setup. Hulk/Bruce explained that was the last assignment.

 

Not so much who as to where.

So Xandar is still gone?

 

That is correct. They did not undo events leading up to the snap. They simply brought back the beings who were wiped out when Thanos snapped his fingers. (I say beings, not people, because the idea was to return the other half of all life in the universe.)

It really is amazing how many Marvel movies they managed to touch upon, ranging from the first Iron Man to something as obscure as Agent Carter. (For those who never saw it, the human Jarvis was a character on that show. I believe that is the same actor.)

I wonder if that was left over footage of Natalie Portman from Thor: The Dark World, or if they actually got her to shoot something new. I thought I had read that she never wanted anything to do with the MCU again.

I asked my daughter this question and I will put it to you. Which MCU movies do you have to see for Endgame to make sense. My initial list was Iron Man, Avengers, Dr. Strange, Infinity War and Thor: The Dark World. Even though part of the movie goes into events from Guardians of the Galaxy, I think you can get by without it. My daughter said I should drop Thor: The Dark World from my list because she never saw it and had no problem following that part of the story. She told me to add Captain America: First Avenger so we can understand who Peggy is and Age of Ultron because it sets up Captain America's big hero moment. I guess you could do it without Iron Man, too, but that one big moment in the climax would lose something.

Thoughts?

 

Other than Vision and Odin, who were both killed pre-snap, I don't think there was a single noteworthy hero that didn't at least have a cameo in Endgame. Even Loki got to come back for a minute.

As for which ones to see ... yikes. That's a tough one, because so many characters were in this one that you might not have a clue who they are without some backstory on them. When there are 22 movies in the series, every one of them is probably going to have some little piece of the story or at least make you care a little more about the characters we're following in Endgame.

 

Went to see it this morning. I've been an MCU nutswinger for a few years now so I was an easy sell, but god that was great. After going through this thread, a lot of thing to touch on, so here we go.

My two mark-out moments: Cap wielding the hammer (duh!) and soon after hearing "on your left" and the mass emergence of heroes.

Didn't understand why anyone was puzzled about Clint and Natasha's relationship. That was pretty much established in the first 10-15 minutes of the first Avengers movie when Natasha was pissed about being interrupted by Coulson when she was dealing with the Russians in the warehouse, and when Coulson brought up Clint being "compromised" she immediately took care of business and departed to help the cause. There were also small moments in the rest of that film that showed Clint and Natasha were closer than most co-workers (though still just friends, not lovers). I assumed Natasha's bond with the Barton family was established before the events of the first Avengers movie.

Did anybody notice the point where Danvers and the rest of the female characters assembled to make a run at Thanos? It was cool, but I'm guessing someone in the studio really wanted a "female empowerment" moment.

I knew going in there would probably be a time-travel element to the movie, but I promised myself I wasn't going to obsess about logic and just enjoy the ride. I'm sure those smarter than me who really thought about it found more than a few holes.

The continuity and callbacks during the course of the movie was pretty impressive. Thor's "I knew it" when Cap got the hammer, Sam's "on your left" when he and the others made a big entrance, Starks "I am Iron Man" when he wielded the stones, and others that slip my mind at the moment. Hitting on all those is pretty incredible considering you have 21 previous movies to deal with.

OOP, I was wondering about the scenes with Portman myself. I think they very well could have been outtakes from "The Dark World," with a body double shown from the back when they needed it. I don't believe she had any dialogue, did she? I haven't seen anything on the web or in IMDB.com about whether she actually filmed any scenes.

We only had two trailers: The Lion King and The Rise of Skywalker.

I almost made it without a piss break, but I couldn't wait any longer and had to rush to the bathroom just as they were sending Rogers back to return the stones and hammer, and got back in time to see him hand off the shield to Sam. Fortunately, I made it to the bathroom OK; I didn't wet my pants in the theater or anything.

 

That scene with Carol and crew was awesome. It was nice to see them get that moment. Hopefully there are more in the making.

 

Endgame > Thrones this week by a wiiiiiiiiiide margins.