Avengers….Assemble!
(THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS: ENDGAME! IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE MY SPOILER FREE REVIEW IS HERE. FOR THE REST OF YOU, LETS JUST JUMP IN!) Avengers: Endgame Review
Avengers: Endgame was amazing, absolutely stunning, and everything I could have ever wanted. After seeing the movie twice, I feel even strongly at giving the movie a 10/10 in my initial review. Sure the movie is not flawless, and I will get into some of the more divisive moments of the film, but overall I enjoyed this experience a lot and it’s something that I will remember for years to come.
What makes the movie so good is that it is truly an EVENT more than it is a movie. This has been 11 years in the making over the span of 22 movies. You have paid a lot of money and time to see something of this scale, and the movie pays off and rewards you in the best way possible!
Let’s just take the film beat by beat here as there is a lot to unpack given the three hour runtime!
First off, I had no idea that everything shown from the trailers essentially was just the first 20 minutes of the film. The marketing did a great job of building anticipation while also keeping the movie relatively secret!
They kill Thanos within the first few moments of the film and that really surprised me. I thought the whole movie would be them trying to locate Thanos and find rally everyone together for one last battle against him at the garden he was stationed at. I did not know that they would all go and chop off his head within the first few minutes, it left me wondering where the film was going to go from there.
From that moment, I stopped trying to predict what would happen and just watched the events unfold. The movie cleverly used a five year time jump and it worked beautifully in its favor. I loved seeing where all of the characters were and how Thanos had affected each and every one of them in different ways.
Captain America was running a support group for people and doing his best to still help people mentally in the wake of a devastating event. Natasha was able to take over the operations for SHIELD. Hawkeye went rogue and started murdering due to the death of his family. Bruce Banner utilized his time to merge the Hulk persona with his human self and figure out a cure for himself. Thor suffered through alcoholism and anxiety. Tony was able to have a family and essentially gained more than he lost due to the snap.
The directions of these characters were all interesting and I said in my spoiler free review that there were some questionable decisions given that may make fans scratch their heads and that was with Thor and the Hulk. At first I was not a huge fan of the direction they went and it felt a little bit weird to me. Once I started thinking about it more, however, I really started to appreciate what the directors were trying to do and what they were trying to say with each character.
With the Hulk, they have done a really good job of keeping the character fresh. If every single time he was an uncontrollable angry green rage monster then that would get boring after a while. We saw this a little bit in Ragnarok and he was barely present in Infinity War and now in Endgame they have given the best of both worlds to try and do something new with the character. I appreciate this as it shows that these characters can change and evolve over the series and not grow stale. They remain a core part of the franchise and in the same manner that Iron Man always has some new cool technology or suit to wear, the Hulk direction is something new and hopefully exciting.
Thor was more extremely divisive for some people due to the fact that he was fat for most of the movie and did not slim back down for the final fight against Thanos. I am actually very sympathetic towards his character and honestly Thor’s arc is very inspiring during the film. Most of it is played for comedy which is good, but there is a deeper meaning to Thor in this movie that I found myself really appreciating. Thanos essentially destroyed his entire psyche and identity and Thor turned to alcohol to cope with us. It’s really sad to see to just how broken he is and speaks volumes about the impact that Thanos had.
Moreover, the fact that Thor did not trim down for the final fight was something I really appreciated. Society has sculpted heroes to be big, strong, muscular, and good-looking all the time. I appreciated that Thor stayed the way he did because it shows that you don’t have to be muscular or slim to be a hero, you just have to have a good character and heart and a willingness to help.
Even further, Thor goes through anxiety and panic attacks during the film, and yet at the end of the day he STILL stands with his friends to take out Thanos even though Thanos was the source of a lot of his anxiety. That is admirable and more so heroic for him to do. It painted a good picture for those going through issues of anxiety and I appreciate that Thor was still heroic despite all of the problems he had going on.
All right, end my discussion on Thor there. Overall, the character development was great and I loved seeing just how devastating Thanos was. Rarely have we seen true consequences have a lasting effect in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so it was refreshing to have the beginning be slow and allow us to see our heroes in a truly vulnerable state. It made them human and more personal to connect with. It set up the stakes quite while and allowed us to know how urgent their mission was when the time travel stuff started happening.
The time heist was great! I love how it was set up with sending different people to different time periods and different areas across the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. I had predicted that they would use time travel in some way but I was genuinely surprised with how everything played out. This lead to some great humorous moments and some more heartfelt ones as well.
I loved the entire New York sequence and all the witty banter going on between Ant-Man, Iron Man and Captain America. I was really glad that we revisited the first Avengers movie and got to see things from a new perspective. The aftermath of the battle, some returning characters from other films appearing to serve roles, it all blended quite nicely together and allowed us to have some great callbacks and references to the past 11 years of Marvel. Yes at times the film could have been too referency and overindulged itself, but this is the end of an era and has been a long time in the making. Plus as a fan who has seen all 22 movies and is passionate about this franchise I was ecstatic to know all the different movies and moments they were referencing.
A lot of the heart came from the family aspects of the film, particularly the interaction between Thor and his late mother and Tony with his late father. Both of these moments provided some good character moments for both of them and gave them some great emotional core with key figures in their lives. Thor’s moment with his mom allowed him to regain the confidence and determination he needed to fight Thanos again and it was a sweet moment to see even though Thor knew the inevitable future.
Tony’s moment with his father was beautiful as over the course of 22 films we have seen how much his father has meant to him and the influence he had on his life. It was sweet to see them bonding over fatherhood and for Tony to get some closure over all the good and the bad that his father was to him. It is even oddly poetic given how the film ends (…and I will get there…) which I truly appreciated.
Two characters I haven’t talked about as much being Hawkeye and Black Widow especially with their big moment at the planet Vormir. These two characters share a special bond so it was no coincidence that they were the two who were chosen to go and make the sacrifice. I liked the fact that it was Black Widow given that she mentioned earlier in the film that this was her family and we know how much it has meant to her. It was a noble sacrifice and I liked the tension building over who would sacrifice themselves. It was a great yet sad moment that I loved to see play out. Black Widow went out with a noble death, but it does make it interesting how this will play into her solo movie that is scheduled to debut in the next phase of Marvel movies. Maybe it will be more a prequel?
Perhaps one of the bigger surprises of the film for me was that a past Thanos from 2014 was actually going to be the true villain of the film. I liked how he started to catch on to what the Avengers were doing and knew what had to be fulfilled. He was a great villain in Infinity War and here he takes a little bit of a back seat but for a good reason. This is the Avengers’ movie and we know all we need to know about Thanos and his motivations. He was still a good villain and served a meaningful purpose in rallying all the Avengers together for one last effort.
I will say this about the time travel aspect of the film: they executed it very well and honestly I was not bothered by any of the plot holes or questions it could have spurred up. No time travel movie doesn’t have plot holes or problems and yes some of the aspects may have been confusing after exiting the theater, but it did not detract from my overall experience and enjoyment of the film. This is not a “time travel” movie but a movie where time travel is used to help forward the story and is an aspect of the film, not something the film relies on for its narrative and payoff. Sure we can nitpick all of the holes and questions it creates, but it did not affect the overall narrative or experience for me in the end.
Finally the last hour of this movie was straight awesome, glorious, spectacular fan service and I LOVED every single second of it. The original trinity teaming up against Thanos was a true treat to watch and a great way to start off the final battle. However, when Captain America lifted Mjolnir and threw it at Thanos I went crazy!! That was so epic and left a giant smile on my face. I don’t know exactly what made Captain America worthy in that moment but nonetheless it was an awesome moment that gave me a huge adrenaline burst.
But the defining moment, the best part of the film, the ultimate payoff, the scene that I wish Stan Lee saw before he passed was 100% the portal scene where everyone comes back. When I say everyone, I mean EVERYONE! All of the heroes spanning 22 movies and 11 years was there and my jaw dropped. I was tearing up seeing everyone stand together against Thanos and it was done in the most perfect way possible. We all knew the characters would come back, but man this scene gave me serious chills that I am getting even now just thinking about it. And just when I thought the scene couldn’t get any better, Captain America said “Avengers Assemble” and I went absolutely nuts!!! Of course this is all fan service but hey I was a fan and I was serviced!
That battle was truly epic featuring some great character moments, witty dialogue between members of the team, an awesome all female hero shot, and all the payoff of being invested in this cinematic universe. I even liked Captain Marvel more in this film than I did in her solo one. The fact that her involvement was minimal was handled well, making her appearance at the end all the more exciting.
So we have finally gotten to THAT moment of the film. Yes Tony Stark/Iron Man dies and he goes out in the most perfect way possible with his last words being the words that started the entire cinematic universe, “I am Iron Man”. I at first didn’t believe it, but then everyone was saying their goodbyes and I started tearing up. It was such a beautiful moment and then what proceeded crushed me in my emotions with the funeral scene. Everyone shows up, everyone that Tony has impacted over the past 11 years was there and it was so emotionally satisfying and heartbreaking at the same time.
Tony had a great character arc, going from someone who was a selfish know-it-all to someone who laid down his life for his friends until the end. It was the perfect ending to his character and left me a wreck after the film ended. No matter if you had seen only seen this movie or all 22, this moment definitely tugged at your heartstrings.
I also was a fan of how they wrapped up Captain America’s arc. He goes back in time, returns all the Infinity Stones, and decides to live a good honest life back in the 1940’s with Peggy Carter. It was yet another beautiful ending to a character we have grown to know and love and it was a perfect way to end the film with him getting the dance with his best girl that he promised all those years ago. I am a fan that Falcon is now going to be the “new” Captain America and I’m interested to see where this goes.
In terms of where the franchise is going next, I loved the fact that this movie did not have a post credits scene as it did not need one. Putting a post credits scene would undermine the beautiful send off and finality the film had. If this was the final film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe I would be totally alright with that. Everything wraps up in a emotionally satisfying way and could very well be the period on this franchise. While we know that isn’t true, it does put a good finality to this era and I am completely content and satisfied with how everything turned out.
Avengers: Endgame is a phenomenal cinematic masterpiece to me. It gave me everything I wanted and more. There was pure raw emotion, excellent character development, some fun humorous moments, rewards for those that have invested their time, stunning action sequences, and overall just a blast to watch. There won’t be another film like Endgame for a long time, and even then it won’t be the same. The Russo Brothers accomplished the impossible and they should be proud of the closure they have brought to this generation of heroes.
Those are all my spoilerific thoughts on the film! All though I did not cover everything, I tried to hit on most of the key parts I wanted to talk about! Hopefully you all can see the film again as I know I sure will be seeing it numerous more times.
Check out my other review:
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Review
Raj Reviews 
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