John Carter Jr
(Massive Spoilers ahead- if you have not seen Avengers: Endgame Stop Here )
Last year’s box-office smash. Avengers: Infinity War left us all wondering what was going to be happening next for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So many characters were lost to the “snappening” that it seemed inevitable that a massive resurrection would have to be on the rise in Avengers: Endgame, or at least that was the perception of the fans given many major actors in the MCU have different remaining contract lengths. So throughout this long year of anticipation and speculation, the fan community was finally able to see who is coming back, who is permanently dead, and who would be written off.
The film starts with original Avenger, Hawkeye, training his daughter to use a bow and arrow. This scene is adorable and silent in its tone as this is right before Thanos snaps his fingers and Hawkeye’s family turns to dust. Eventually, we’re brought to a more present time, this being about 20 some-odd days after Thanos’s fight with Iron Man and Company off Earth. Iron Man has been adrift in space alone with Nebula who have grown fond of each other and only have so much food to survive. This is how the film works in recent additions to the MCU such as Carol Danvers’ version of Captain Marvel, as she is the one to pull Tony and Nebula in their ship back to Earth.
This is where the film finally started to pick up some pace as The Avengers through the help of Nebula and Captain Marvel find Thanos, discover that he has destroyed the Infinity Stones, and kills him. Mind you this is about the first 20 minutes of the film. This discovery along with the execution of the scene and the ending of the film has a way of taking away the threat of Thanos because they kill him early on in the story and the timing in the film, it reduces the impact of the finale. The film then has a 5-year time skip, where Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) comes back. This is where the time machine Shenanigans ensue.
Not only does Tony Stark figuring out time travel water down the legitimacy of the plotline, but the whole time travel sub-plots are confusing at best. This is ignorable to many fans, however, given how satisfying many of the endings are for our favorite Avengers and the execution of these ending is incomparable. In short, the major arc for Endgame’s plotline is The Avengers going back in time to individual time periods to retrieve the Infinity Stones before Thanos aquires them. These escapades result in what seems to be a definitive casualty when Black Widow sacrifices herself to get the Soul Stone.
Another major plot-point that is muddied by the use of time travel is anti-hero Nebula partaking in the time travel and therefore allowing the machine portion of her mind to link with the past version of herself that is loyal to Thanos. This enables the big baddie to learn of his future fate and the Avengers’ current plan’s to thwart it. Thanos then follows the Avengers back to present time after capturing the future Nebula (which kind of made Nebula into more of a plot device than she should have been but whatever).
(the Ancient one from Doctor Strange)
Professor Hulk (Dad/Hipster Hulk) has to be the one to use the Infinity Gauntlet (after acquiring the time stone from Tilda Swinton’s the Ancient one), This is due to the immense power that it takes to bring everyone back from the dead (well, non-existence) using the Infinity Stones. As Captain America is getting his butt kicked (America’s Butt) on the battlefield and Thanos’ Army’s is being summoned, T ‘challa, Shuri, and Okoye appear on the scene through a portal made by a Dr. Strange. Spiderman, Dr. Strange, Valkyrie, The Wasp, The Guardians of the Galaxy, Scarlet Witch, Rescue, Falcon, The Winter Soldier, and more characters are summoned to the field on the side of Captain America who is now wielding Thor’s hammer after a round 1 fight between him, Iron Man, and Thor. The characters currently dead or missing are Vision, Gamora, and Black Widow.
This leads to the epic climactic battle that everyone has been waiting for during phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and ultimately ends in a major surprise. Tony Stark uses The Infinity Gauntlet to snap the entirety of Thanos’ army and Thanos himself out of existence. This leads to the ultimate demise and sacrifice of Tony Stark. It is poetic and executed well especially after Tony’s wife, Pepper tells him that they’ll be okay.
At the Funeral of Tony Stark, many friends and familiar faces appear to say goodbye. It is Captain America however who gets the last shots of the film. In that, he goes back in time to be with his true love Peggy Carter and stays there. He then passes on the mantle of Captain America to Falcon by giving him his shield.
These last lines being tied up for these major characters are not the only thing that this film has the whole it even expands upon potential future films, one including a potential new Guardians of the Galaxy film featuring Thor and all those not necessarily in phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after the acquisition of all the Marvel properties previously owned by Fox who will eventually make for a great tie ins to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are many plot lines in the comics that could be used, this includes many famous instances of the X-Men fighting the Avengers and even more likely or excitingly the next cinematic villain could be none other than the infamous Planet eating Giant Galactus. Only the future will tell us what’s next concerning this Marvel Cinematic Universe but with Spider-Man: Far From Home set to be out this year we still have much to look forward to in the MCU.
I give this film an 8 out of 10 for a cinematic and theatrical execution, it’s riveting story, and it’s colorful aesthetic.