**WARNING: IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN AVENGERS: ENDGAME, DO NOT READ THIS. IT CONTAINS SPOILERS.**
By: Bruce Liska
After years of writing some of the most popular comic books, Marvel Studios created a franchise of movies which is one of the most successful movie franchises in the world. 22 movies later, we are brought one of the most anticipated and hyped movies in recent memory, Avengers: Endgame.
PLOT
Avengers: Endgame starts off about 20-25 days after Avengers: Infinity War left off. Tony and Nebula are rescued by Captain Marvel. After Tony and Nebula return, the Avengers go to find Thanos. This time, Thor went for the head and decapitated Thanos.
Five years later, everyone who survived the snap is doing their own thing. Steve Rogers has his own support group to help people through the tragedy, while Tony leaves the Avengers and settles down.
Now, the most important character is introduced. I call him Jeffrey. Jeffrey is the little rat that accidentally frees Ant-Man from the quantum realm.
Soon after, we are introduced my favorite version of Thor: Beer Belly Thor. Thor took the loss of half of all living things harder than the rest, as he had the chance to kill Thanos, but went for the heart instead of the head. This reaction was different from most of the other Avengers because he was the one Avenger to pout after their defeat, rather than try to find a way to reverse it. He had his phase as really dark and serious, but nobody liked him that way (See Thor and Thor: The Dark World reviews). He then became less serious and became more humorous. I guess Chris Hemsworth just got bored with the other versions of Thor, so he tried something new out.
Later, Steve Rogers and some of the other Avengers visit Tony Stark and ask him about the possibility of traveling back in time and gathering the infinity stones from different time periods. Tony originally decided not to help because he didn’t want to leave his wife and daughter behind, but knew he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he knew he could’ve helped bring everyone back.
After the heroes get back (minus Black Widow, who will be mentioned later), they use Tony Stark’s suit to harness the power of the infinity stones, and bring back the other half of all life in the universe. Thanos finds out that the Avengers travelled back in time to find the infinity stones. He tried to stop it by sending Nebula after them, and she succeeded by creating a time portal for Thanos and his ship.
The battle between Thor, Ironman, Captain America and Thanos was, in my opinion, one of the best fight scenes in the MCU. It was very intense and was overall a well-choreographed and filmed fight scene. It was satisfying seeing Captain America pick up Thor’s Hammer, which was another callback to Avengers: Age of Ultron, when Captain America managed to budge the hammer (while trying to pick it up).
There was one scene I found dumb, the one where all of the female superheroes show up all at once. It felt extremely forced and unnecessary.
Overall, the movie was one of the best MCU movies to come out. While the first hour dragged on for a little while, it picked up very quickly. Marvel movies, in my opinion, have always had some of the best fight scenes. All of the fight scenes were entertaining in one way or another, whether it be because of good choreography, or funny one-liners. Avengers: Endgame lived up to the hype of being the conclusion of phase three of the MCU (Even though, technically Spiderman: Far From Home is the conclusion of phase three).
DEATH SCENES
Tony Stark’s death scene was one of the saddest I have ever scene. I used the rest of napkins I had left as tissues. It was an amazing callback to Ironman 1, where Tony said, “I am Ironman”. It was a great eleven year run for Robert Downey Jr.
The next one is Black Widow. Personally, I would have preferred to see Hawkeye (Or Ronan) to die rather than Black Widow. Hawkeye is the Aquaman of Marvel. They are the punch lines of their respective universes. I get that Hawkeye technically has a family, but so does she. However, Black Widow doesn’t really have any biological family, but the Avengers are her family, and she was willing to give her life for them.
While Captain America technically didn’t die, he retired himself. When he came back as an old man, it was very sad, but also at the same time made me happy. He finally got his dance with Peggy Carter.
While many people don’t like the fact Captain America gave the shield to Sam Wilson rather than Bucky, I liked the decision. Bucky Barnes has had his story arc, as he was the enemy in the Winter Soldier, but became the good guy in Captain America: Civil War. Sam Wilson more or less has just been Captain America’s shadow up to this point. Now that Steve Rogers “retired”, it is time for Sam Wilson to take over as Captain America. Apparently, there is a Winter Soldier and the Falcon movie in the works, so that should be interesting.
CALLBACKS
There are a lot of fun callbacks to older movies, which enhances the movie if you understand these callbacks.
Some of the callbacks mentioned above are when Tony and Spider-Man are reunited. There is a very heartwarming hug. Other references include Happy saying Tony loved cheeseburgers (Ironman 1), Tony’s death scene being an invert of Peter Parker’s, Tony’s father, Captain America’s “I can do this all day”, etc. There are so many more callbacks to talk about, but it would probably crash my laptop.
A possible continuity error that’s more nitpicking than anything else, but Scott Lang’s daughter, Cassie, is only supposed to be eleven or twelve years old. She looks like she’s 15 or 16 in a scene where we see her again. However, I doubt it is a continuity error, as Marvel Studios has had the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) planned for years.
As with every MCU movie, Stan Lee’s cameo must be mentioned. Stan Lee was Ant-man’s future self who came back after testing the time machine for the first time. I’m glad to see Stan Lee filmed these cameo’s ahead of time. There is a chance he will be in a few of the future movies, such as Spiderman: Far Away From Home.
Lastly, the end credit scene. It sounded like metal being clanked against another scrap of metal. I believe it was just a callback to the first Ironman movie. If so, that is a very good way to end the movie. However, every other MCU movie has had a short scene, Avengers: Endgame being the first that doesn’t. I generally prefer the actual clips more, but the Ironman 1 callback was also amazing and I’m glad they went with that over a video.
Overall, I give Avengers: Endgame an A+.
