Avengers: Endgame *Spoilers*

[GreenLantern]

To be fair, Thor 3 was the first movie where Hemsworth actually had valid input into the character. So while part of it will be the director, part of it is also what Hemsworth wanted to see, and he is by nature a pretty comedic guy.

I thought Thor 3 was hands down the best of the three movies, and one of the best in the MCU period. For many reasons already listed above, but above anything else we got a new take on the existing character. Characters develop, it happens, Thor becoming more like a 'human' probably stems from his extensive interaction with humans over all of the movies.

The Thor we see in movie 1 is this spoiled, over confident knuckle head who punches first and asks questions later. He lives his life like a barbarian warlord with no consequences. Through out his arc in all of the Marvel movies he goes through some real world, emotional, very human-esque experiences. Not only did they develop a great character, but they made him relatable for the average audience member.

I think of all the characters, Thor might be the most intricate and well developed.

Also just re watched Avengers 1, Cap has a line calling Tony out about not being the guy to make the big sacrifice and lay his life on the line for others. There's a reaction from the actor where he just like twinges, not sure if it was intentional or maybe I am just seeing this with different eyes after End Game but man was that a cool part to go re experience and one I had forgotten about.

Still can't get over how good this movie was. Going for viewing 2 tomorrow night and viewing 3 Saturday. Each time with people who have yet to see it, so I can't wait to see their reactions as well.

[Yamer]

[driveway]

A lot of people complaining about the 'girl power' scene.

I teach 100 12-13 year old girls and every. single. one. loved that scene and their faces light up like crazy when it gets mentioned.

[Poe969]

I got into a discussion with a co-worker about this, he was complaining about certain aspects of the movie like the time travel, and Tony taking the gems and making his own gauntlet, fat Thor and other tiny details. He just kept saying that it "wasn't realistic enough". I hate when people say stuff like that, it's not supposed to be realistic because it isn't. Just enjoy it as entertainment and if you want something realistic, watch a documentary.

[FireGilbert]

Whoa that was a lot to take in. This will need some time to settle and possibly a 2nd viewing before a proper review. The first act was possibly the best dark comedy ever, the second was the fun fan service reminiscing time heist, and the third was the epic final battle and conclusion to the series and many character arcs. Very ambitious and very well done.

My favourite part was obviously Cap wielding the hammer. I actually said this to my wife during the scene:

NSFW!

[ResAlien]

Pretty good flick. Little bummed there was no Hulk redemption fight after the thrashing he got from Thanos previously. Really wanted to see him Hulk out over the top that would have been cool. Liked it though, wrapped everything up as expected. First third was dark and slow, middle was fun, final third succeeded in closing the book cleanly which you can’t always expect. No major problems with any other plot points or developments, everything worked.

[Looch City]

Man that was great. I didn't feel the time pass at all. A very fitting end of an era.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by driveway

A lot of people complaining about the 'girl power' scene.

I teach 100 12-13 year old girls and every. single. one. loved that scene and their faces light up like crazy when it gets mentioned.

I think they are still fair complaints. If you were to draw a Venn diagram between the things that appeal to most adult males and things that appeal to 12 years old girls, you'd see very little cross-over, assuming Bronnies are removed as outliers of course.

What you're basically saying is that since this movie appeals to such a wide audience, you have to accept that parts of the movie will appeal to different demographics. I do think there are ways to do things more subtly that aren't quite as jarring. I don't have an issue with the girl squad, but the execution could have been better. I think it also takes away from the importance of the all girl team, when, instead of weaving them into the plot, you just throw them out there randomly. It turns it into a form of tokenism.

[TheyCallMeBruce]

Originally Posted by blankall

I think they are still fair complaints. If you were to draw a Venn diagram between the things that appeal to most adult males and things that appeal to 12 years old girls, you'd see very little cross-over, assuming Bronnies are removed as outliers of course.

What you're basically saying is that since this movie appeals to such a wide audience, you have to accept that parts of the movie will appeal to different demographics. I do think there are ways to do things more subtly that aren't quite as jarring. I don't have an issue with the girl squad, but the execution could have been better. I think it also takes away from the importance of the all girl team, when, instead of weaving them into the plot, you just throw them out there randomly. It turns it into a form of tokenism.

I think the all girl squad was more of a nod to A-force (which was basically fan service), than appealing to girls. Though it's great if that scene manage to inspire little girls.

That was what the scene reminded me of, which I appreciated. only thing missing is She-Hulk

[blankall]

Originally Posted by TheyCallMeBruce

I think the all girl squad was more of a nod to A-force (which was basically fan service), than appealing to girls. Though it's great if that scene manage to inspire little girls.

That was what the scene reminded me of, which I appreciated. only thing missing is She-Hulk

I didn't even know what A-Force was, but after looking it up, the roster seems to be entirely different other than Captain Marvel. The comic was also decidedly unsuccessful, and only existed for just over a year from 2015 to 2016. I'm not sure why we need a nod to a short lived and unsuccessful comic from 2015/16. There aren't that many of fan of the comic to service.

However, even if you are correct, that still doesn't mean fan service can't have better execution.

[TheyCallMeBruce]

Originally Posted by blankall

I didn't even know what A-Force was, but after looking it up, the roster seems to be entirely different other than Captain Marvel. The comic was also decidedly unsuccessful, and only existed for just over a year from 2015 to 2016. I'm not sure why we need a nod to a short lived and unsuccessful comic from 2015/16. There aren't that many of fan of the comic to service.

However, even if you are correct, that still doesn't mean fan service can't have better execution.

It's a nod to A-force, not actual A-force. So really, any combination of female heroes will probably work. Though the series didn't achieve the success they hoped for, there were still a lot of comic book readers who are familiar with the series, so it wasn't like a totally obscure reference.

Plus, I don't know how you would execute that scene subtly. You kinda want to make it prominent if you want people to think of that relation. Making is subtle probably won't conjure that kind of image. I liked that scene and am glad they did make it obvious.

[brocoli]

I am looking forward to the day when Infinity War & End Game are together as one movie. It'll be a long day but the flow with them together could make for one of the best days

[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."

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Regarding Tony and time travel, I got the sense he’d been secretly working on it even though he was “retired”. Based on some of the things he knew about the problems and how they showed him sort of picking up where he left off after being approached by the other Avengers.

Maybe they could have fleshed that out a bit more but that’s what I got out of it.

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Regarding Tony and time travel, I got the sense he’d been secretly working on it even though he was “retired”. Based on some of the things he knew about the problems and how they showed him sort of picking up where he left off after being approached by the other Avengers.

Maybe they could have fleshed that out a bit more but that’s what I got out of it.

This was my interpretation as well, that he had been secretly working on that for 5 years and just "coincidentally" figured it out on that day with a little inspiration from Lang's story/experience.

It could be either way though. He brushes off the photo of Peter Parker just before it shows him working on it, but the way it seems like he was trying out yet another simulation implies that he had tried a ton of different models and variables and nothing had worked yet.

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by Coach

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.

I'm very excited that I will be able to pull off an accurate Thor this Halloween.

[Swarly]

Originally Posted by blankall

... I do think there are ways to do things more subtly that aren't quite as jarring. I don't have an issue with the girl squad, but the execution could have been better. I think it also takes away from the importance of the all girl team, when, instead of weaving them into the plot, you just throw them out there randomly. It turns it into a form of tokenism.

This was the problem to me, it stood out so much and seemed so lame. Like the writers were sitting around brainstorming and someone pipes up 'hey, we should have a girl power moment like we did for IW' (I like that scene in IW btw, it fit perfectly and was still a cool girl power moment). Then after weeks and weeks of trying to think up a good girl power scene they just said ' eff it, lets do the exact same thing we did in IW but with a few more supers' and everyone just congratulated themselves on a job well done. but then another writer pipes up 'and what if we had all the superheroines protecting the most powerful one of them all, you know, Captain Marvel, the one who literally just flew in and busted up the motherfu**ingship in 2 seconds without breaking a sweat.' Let's all line up and promise to protect her, even tho all of us combined couldn't muster as much force as a Captain Marvel fart

I think it's great to show strong women doing cool stuff in these movies but make it original, don't just do the same exact thing back to back. You do it by having strong female characters kicking butt and making big moves without having the scene patronizingly pointed it out to the audience like some sort of PSA or que the star wipe and 'the more you know' music.

[Scornfire]

That's the problem, it's so uninspired and pandering I can't help but groan.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by brocoli

I am looking forward to the day when Infinity War & End Game are together as one movie. It'll be a long day but the flow with them together could make for one of the best days

I guess if you've seen all the movies it works, but having Scott Lang appear out of thin air from the back of a van and then playing a big role in Endgame with no reference would be very weird

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Swarly

This was the problem to me, it stood out so much and seemed so lame. Like the writers were sitting around brainstorming and someone pipes up 'hey, we should have a girl power moment like we did for IW' (I like that scene in IW btw, it fit perfectly and was still a cool girl power moment). Then after weeks and weeks of trying to think up a good girl power scene they just said ' eff it, lets do the exact same thing we did in IW but with a few more supers' and everyone just congratulated themselves on a job well done. but then another writer pipes up 'and what if we had all the superheroines protecting the most powerful one of them all, you know, Captain Marvel, the one who literally just flew in and busted up the motherfu**ingship in 2 seconds without breaking a sweat.' Let's all line up and promise to protect her, even tho all of us combined couldn't muster as much force as a Captain Marvel fart

I think it's great to show strong women doing cool stuff in these movies but make it original, don't just do the same exact thing back to back. You do it by having strong female characters kicking butt and making big moves without having the scene patronizingly pointed it out to the audience like some sort of PSA or que the star wipe and 'the more you know' music.

Personally, I found CM's presence a bit jarring generally. She is powerful enough to take down one the head ship of one of the most powerful invading armies in the universe in a few seconds and without any real effort. Her excuse for not helping when Thanos had some of the stones or when the Chitauri were invading, was she had better things to do?

Surely, she could have sensed Thanos, a menace to the universe already, gaining even control of one of the stone was a pretty big deal. No?

If Thanos' forces had put up more resistance to CM, it would have worked a lot better for me.