[Coach]

Its going to be hard to encompass all my thoughts at once without typing while watching the film. So much to unpack.

Overall I loved it, and I can't wait to see it a second time so I can really focus on it. I didn't like it as much as Infinity War, but still really great with a lot of good conclusions.

I'll start with the few nitpicks/questions that I have (and I did take a 1 min pee break at some point so maybe there was something I missed):

It kind of bugged me how quickly Tony figured out the time travel. Or I guess how easy it looked. Did Lang give him some quantum realm data that he used? I feel like the scene could have been the same length and shown him in a montage up for a few days (or weeks or months) figuring it out. It's not like time was a huge factor at that point.

Okay. Someone had to die in the nuking of the compound. Like c'mon. I understand the suspension of disbelief is at hand here, but some of these characters are mere humans. How did they ALL survive that? Did I miss some Dr Strange spell or something?

For some reason I feel like Rhodey should have figured out that Nebula was the wrong one. He knew there were two right? I feel like he had a reason to be suspicious but can't remember why. And she seemed to work the time machine with relative ease.

I liked professor Hulk, but I thought I'd see more of a rage back into full beast mode Hulk when they found out Natasha died.

Overall I really liked the Hawkeye/Black Widow duel for sacrifice, but I think having Scarlett Johansson's face perfectly clean as she hung off the cliff took away from the moment before she dropped. Sounds weird but I think some dirt on the face would have helped.

... I think that's pretty much it.

Now the awesome:

Captain America lifting Moljnir. Not just great fan service, but an excellent device to allow an under-powered Captain America legitimately battle Thanos 1v1.

I loved how they opened the movie before the time jump. It was almost a separate short film of the Avengers space vengeance mission that failed anyways. Part of me thinks that the opening scene of Endgame was at one point the end of Infinity War.

I like how they kept Captain Marvel out of it until the very end. And While I did find myself wondering what took her so long, I reminded myself that only a few minutes had passed since they returned and Thanos blew up the compound.

I liked the female team up. Who cares? There are a lot of great-but-corny moments in this (and other) Avengers movies. Let the girls have one too. Also, while at first I felt it to be a bit much, I read it more as a "there have been women here the whole time" point than a "Avengers: now there are women!" point. Either way. It's a kids movie and if it makes my buddies' daughters want to pretend to be Captain Marvel the way I pretended to be Spiderman, then that's just fine by me.

Fat Thor is a given win. Loved his Odin-esque look with the braided beard and dual Stormbreaker/Moljnir badassery. You know that's going to be a popular costume.

Lang's fanboying for Cap is pretty great, and the America's ass joke had me laughing.

Loved the call backs to the other films, particularly the elevator scene and the "I could do this all day" "Yeah, I know, I know...".

The finale had so much greatness it's hard think about it all.

I've always really loved Nebula's story arc. I think she's an underrated character and Karen Gillan has had a VERY underrated run with her performance. I thought she was the best thing about Guardians 2 and I think the Russo's agreed she deserved more screen time because she got it. I've always had thing for the bad characters going good. There's just something more interesting about a character's who's perspective has been changed so radically.

As for Cap's and Tony's conclusions, I thought I knew what would be good. I thought Tony would live and step away from Iron Man and become the true leader and benefactor for humanity he was striving to be. And I thought Cap, a man with out much connection to his time than the Avengers themselves, would ultimately sacrifice himself for the rest. I'm very glad to be wrong.

Tony's whole arc in this movie was top notch. His anger at everyone and himself. His whole attitude after nearing death. Pretty much a complete reverse reaction to the last time he escaped. The way he died "laying down on the wire" vs "cutting the wire" was a great way to conclude his arc. Building his own Infinity Gauntlet was superbadass, and I think really showed why Stark had Thanos' respect. He really is (was) on a cosmic level of understanding. When he got the stones I thought he had stolen just one maybe, and holding that was going to be a big enough deal, but having the gauntlet built into his armour too was such an awesome plan B, and I guess the ultimate "wire cut". Not ashamed to say I cried when he died. The funeral was nice but didn't hit me as hard as his actual death scene.

Cap's finale was so satisfying. To know that he lived his life and was able to have something outside of all this madness was a fine way to end his story. When they looked off into the distance after he didn't come back, I thought maybe he just carved a message in a tree or something. But giving Sam the shield was a very well done moment, and refusing to tell them about "her" was the perfect old school Cap move.

Happy for both Evans and RDJ. I am sad to see them go, but grateful for their work. That said, I wouldn't say no to a Captain America: Time Cop movie.




As for the future, I think the Russos left the MCU in a great spot heading into the next phase. A main cast of popular characters Spiderman, Black Panther, Dr Strange, etc... Room for the Falcon/Winter Soldier and Loki spin-off series as well as the Black Widow prequel. I do hope they take a little break from the films for a while. I think it would do them just to wait a few years before putting them out. But I know that won't happen. Too much money to be made.

I'm sure more things will pop up as I think and read and see it again. Open to and answers to questions I have or things I missed.



Oh! and... "Flick me."