SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers for Avengers: Endgame follows.
Sometimes I get so hyped for movies that when I see them, I am ultimately disappointed. It’s rare when a sequel lives up to the original and almost impossible for the sequel to surpass it. After 11 years and 22 movies of build-up, not to mention the incredible lead-in and cliff-hanger of Infinity War, I was just hoping not to be too disappointed.
So I was absolutely blown away to find that not only was I not disappointed by Avengers: Endgame, and not only did it meet my extremely elevated expectations, but it exceeded them. I didn’t think it was possible for any movie to so capably pay homage to all that has come before while satisfyingly tying up so many loose ends and, yes, ending some heroes’ journeys. (No, I am not going for some kind of record for usage of the letter “y” in a single sentence).
Endgame is an incredible accomplishment and is not only easily one of my top 5 favorite MCU movies, but probably one of my top 5 favorite movies period. I absolutely loved it, as you could probably tell if you listened to me rambling during the Post Endgame Reactions podcast. Now that I’ve seen the movie a second time and am a few days removed from the first viewing, I’ve got a few more thoughts. Because I like to try to be too clever for my own good, I thought I might break them down by 6 familiar categories. While some of these might sound like criticisms, they all come from a place of deep respect and admiration. I wouldn’t have spent a fraction of the time obsessing over this movie if I didn’t love it.
Time Stone
Time travel is a popular trope in movies, but I have a love/hate relationship with it because it almost always opens up plot holes that are impossible to explain away. Endgame is no exception:
- If time travel is so easy to do and so free of consequence, then why not go back a few days and bring past-Tony back much in the same way past-Gamora was brought back? In fact, why not do this for Natasha too and everybody who dies an untimely death?
- Once Cap takes the Infinity Stones all back to where they came from in the past, are they still all gone in the present because Thanos still destroyed them? If so, then isn’t our timeline doomed like the Ancient One warned because it is defenseless from threats such as Dormamu now that the Sorcerer Supreme doesn’t have the Time Stone?
- How about the Tesseract that Loki escaped with after the botched attempt in New York? Does that mean Loki is still alive in some timeline? Is it ours? Or is there a timeline now where there are two Space Stones?
- The Ancient One claims that when an Infinity Stone is removed from one timeline, it essentially creates an alternate universe. When the Infinity Stone is returned, that alternate universe ceases to be. Isn’t wiping out the entire universe what the big evil Thanos was threatening by the end of the movie? Are the Avengers wiping out entire universes by playing around with time travel and the Infinity Stones? At least Thanos started off just wanting to wipe out half of life in the universe, not all of it. Are the Avengers secretly the villains here?
This also seems like the relevant place to talk about the end of Steve Roger’s arc, since it involves a heavy helping of time travel. Captain America has been my favorite Avenger in the MCU and I knew the writing was on the wall in terms of this likely being the last hurrah for Chris Evans’ portrayal of him. I’m glad he got the happy ending that he has been yearning for since the end of his first film, but in a lot of ways his decision doesn’t make any sense and is a bit of a betrayal of who Captain America is.
By Steve’s own admission in Infinity War, Earth had just lost their best defender in Tony Stark and the only other person qualified to lead the Avengers. He finally seemed like he was ready to move on from Peggy after kissing her great-niece. He had told Bucky that he was with him “’til the end of the line”. Steve Rogers has always been about self-sacrifice for the greater good, and this act seemed like the epitome of selfishness.
Steve goes back in time with a lot of knowledge about future events. How does he handle that? Does he just not tell Peggy that Hydra is slowly infiltrating and taking over S.H.I.E.L.D.? Does he do nothing to try to save Bucky from his life as a brain-washed assassin? Does he just let him kill Tony’s parents again? In Civil War, Steve says, “If I see a situation pointed south, I can’t ignore it. Sometimes I wish I could”, so letting all of those events just play out when he could prevent them doesn’t seem like something Captain America would do. And yet, he couldn’t have prevented them or else would that affect the future and his ability to have shown up on that bench in the same reality? If he really wanted to be with Peggy, couldn’t he have just brought past Peggy into the future with him? That way they could live a long happy life together and still get the benefit of the internet, Marvin Gaye, non-boiled food and lack of polio.
And if the plan was to have a five year time jump, kill off Natasha, and send Steve back in time to be with Peggy, couldn’t they have at least alluded to a possible romance between Steve and Natasha during that time? Her flirting with Bruce seems to have gone nowhere during those 5 years and Steve and her seemed to be all alone living in the Avengers Facility. I know I harp on this a little too much, but I can’t help it. Steve and Natasha just make too much sense together and have too much chemistry. I’m just going to choose to believe that the two of them had a discrete romantic relationship during their time on the run prior to Infinity War and the five years spent coordinating things by themselves at the Avengers Facility and the reason Steve decides to go back in time to be with Peggy is because his last connection with the present (Natasha) is gone. The rest of the team probably would never have found out about it since Natasha is the master of secrets and Steve the paragon of modesty and a gentleman who would never kiss and tell. It’ll be the Avengers version of the Mass Effect 3 Indoctrination Theory for me.
At least he finally got to wield Mjølnir and utter “Avengers Assemble”. Those were some awesomely epic scenes.
Mind Stone
We first encounter the Mind Stone when Loki brings his scepter to Earth in the original Avengers, although we don’t know that it houses an Infinity Stone at the time. Apparently Thanos didn’t know it when he gave the scepter to Loki either? Past-Thanos seemed pretty thrilled to have found a single Infinity Stone in Endgame. Also, when the Avengers originally took the Mind Stone from the past, it was housed within Loki’s scepter. but when Captain America journeys back in time to return the Mind Stone, he only has the stone, so how will that work?
Anyway, for the past couple of years the Mind Stone was in possession of Vision. Considering how packed the movie already was, it’s not surprising that Vision’s status wasn’t fully addressed, but his fate is one of the few deaths which is left unclear. Wanda clearly thinks he’s gone, but Shuri was in the process of trying to detach his personality from the Mind Stone in Infinity War and had she succeeded before being interrupted, then it’s possible he could be brought back, although perhaps in a weaker form. This seems pretty likely considering Disney is creating a TV series based around him and Scarlet Witch.
The Mind Stone section seems like the ideal place to discuss Tony Stark, possibly the biggest genius in the MCU (although Shuri certainly has a claim). I couldn’t think of a better send off for one of the most iconic portrayals of a character ever. Robert Downey Jr / Tony Stark kick started the whole MCU 11 years ago with Iron Man and he has played a critical role in nearly all of the most important movies since. It makes sense that the end of Tony’s journey would be closely tied with the end of the Infinity Saga. I figured there was a good chance that Iron Man’s story would end in this movie, but I struggled with how it would come about. During the Endgame preview podcast, I mentioned that I had a hard time seeing Tony sacrificing himself to save everybody and being denied a happy ending living with Pepper and having a kid that was alluded to in Infinity War. It just felt too brutal to deprive him of that. I’m really glad they found a way to give Tony both. He had five good years of family life and being a father and good husband and still got to have his heroic sacrifice to save literally the entire universe. Hard to imagine a more fitting way to send off Tony Stark.
The big question I’m pondering now? Who had the more epic and iconic portrayal of a comic book character? Hugh Jackman as Logan / Wolverine (9 movies over 17 years) or Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron man (10 movies over 11 years)?
Soul Stone
The death of Natasha was quite a surprise, given that she was finally slated to have her own solo movie. That’s also twice that the writing seemed to be on the wall for Clint but his life was spared by the sacrifice of another so that he could return to be with his family. I thought this worked well, and was a great way to handle two Avengers who had a long history together even before the first Avengers movie. We had just enough hints dropped over the years about the red on Natasha’s ledger that she felt she had to atone for and how Clint was able to rescue her from her previous life by looking past the bad things she had done that it felt very fitting for the roles to be reversed here.
I’m also glad that we never learned just what happened in Budapest. Some things are better left to the imagination.
Gamora was the other victim in the quest to acquire the Soul Stone. I thought it was pretty clever how they brought her back, and I’m enjoying what looks like is going to be a Star Trek connection with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 potentially dealing with a search for Gamora (vs the Search for Spock). Diehard trekkies will note that when Spock initially returned, he wasn’t quite himself and I’m fascinated to see how that plays out with Gamora, who should be in a similar situation. This is a Gamora from 2014 who had never met any of the Guardians before. She never got to bond with them in the Kyln or have Peter nearly sacrifice himself to save her. She doesn’t get to see first-hand how self-less the crew is in trying to save Xandar or to see the trauma that Peter goes through in learning that his father killed his mother and then losing his other father figure. Will she warm up to him and the rest of the crew in the same way? If Thor is truly going to be traveling with the Guardians going forward, might there be a love triangle that develops there? It’ll be interesting to see.
Also, speaking of the Soul Stone, I would’ve loved to have seen Captain America return it to Vormir just to see his reunion with Red Skull. Does the “soul for a soul” deal mean he gets Natasha back when he returns the stone?
Reality Stone
Much like how the Reality Stone seemed to have an assorted grab bag of powers, this section is probably going to feel like a random mix of miscellaneous points. I like to think that the common thread tying them together is (1) things that aren’t real and (2) points that break the fourth wall, or “reality”. You can be the judge on if that works or not.
It was an awesome visual, but where exactly did Valkyrie get a Pegasus? What else has Norway been keeping from us?
At one point during Tony Stark’s funeral, my wife leaned over and asked me, “Who is that boy?”. I typically take pride in being able to answer questions just like that so I was a little embarrassed to tell her that I didn’t know. I was surprised to find out after the movie that the teenager was Harley Keener, the little boy from Iron Man 3 (played by the same actor). Tony seemed to become a sort of mentor and father figure to him well before meeting Peter Parker or having his own child, so it was a nice touch including him at the funeral. At the same time, I can’t help but wonder if it was more than just a nice touch to include him. Might that be some foreshadowing for somebody else taking up the mantle of Iron Man in the future? Obviously nobody could replace RDJ as Tony Stark, but perhaps he could show up in a Young Avengers show on Disney+ down the line.
We got to see Jarvis! Not the AI assistant voiced by Paul Bettany that eventually turned into Vision, but the actual human butler to Howard Stark who was introduced in the Peggy Carter TV series. Is that the first character introduced in one of the Marvel TV shows to have crossed over to the movies? That was an incredibly nice touch to finally see the TV shows acknowledged, even if it was just in the form of a few seconds from a supporting character.
Continuing the theme of problematic Infinity Stone returns, I’m really interested in how Cap managed to discretely inject the Aether (now in stone form) back into Jane Foster without her noticing.
Power Stone
The MCU has always had some inconsistency in the power levels of their heroes, something well documented by The Ringer in a recent article. It’s a problem that has only gotten worse over time and seems to have peaked with Infinity War / Endgame. After acquiring Stormbreaker, Thor seemed to have been powered-up to a fairly ridiculous level. He seemed to be single-handedly capable of defeating the entire Outrider army on his own and he tore through their dropships as if they were made of tissue paper. Later, when confronting Thanos, his throw of Stormbreaker apparently overpowered a blast from the completed Infinity Gauntlet powered by all six Infinity Stones and only Thor’s hubris in not going for the head saved Thanos from an embarrassing defeat while in possession of six of the most powerful items in the universe. So why, in Endgame, was a Thanos without any Infinity Stones able to defeat Thor (now Mjølnir enhanced) so handily?
There are some theories out there as to why Steve Rogers was able to wield Mjølnir after barely being able to budge it previously. My theory? The hammer instinctively was drawn to Thor when he summoned it in the past and after seeing what had happened to him it realized how far its standards of “worthiness” had fallen and so ignored whatever imperfection it previously noticed in Steve, like keeping the secret of Tony’s parents’ murder.
Also, didn’t Guardians of the Galaxy establish that the Power Stone was so, well, powerful, that all one had to do was touch it to a planet and it would be completely destroyed? Thanos clearly had possession of the stone when it popped out of the gauntlet and he used it to punch Captain Marvel. Why not just reach down and touch Earth to destroy the whole planet?
Considering his obsession with being the “strongest Avenger,” this seems like as good a place as any to discuss Thor’s new character arc. To put it simply, I’m not a fan, and it seems like it’s completely out of character. Thor Odinson has been alive for hundreds of years with a magical hammer that can only be wielded by those who are “worthy”. He had been groomed almost his entire life to be the next leader of Asgard. It makes no sense why he would suddenly become a self-pitying, alcoholic, lazy, bumbling idiot who wants to relinquish all of his responsibilities to his decimated people who have lost their homeworld in order to run off with a bunch of space pirates. It would be like having Batman doing a bunch of pratfalls or an emo dance. Although I suppose the existence of Adam West’s version of Batman is a an effective counter point…
It makes even less sense to appoint Valkyrie to be their new leader. Because time works differently on Sakaar, we don’t know how long she has lived there or how old she is, but this is a person who was sworn to protect the throne and turned her back on her vow possibly before Thor was even born. She then spent years enslaving people for the Grandmaster and trying to drink her problems away on Sakaar. Even if she turned into a model leader during those 5 years that passed, that’s still a much longer period of irresponsible behavior especially when compared to Thor’s hundred’s of years of noble and heroic leadership as a Prince of Asgard.
Where is Lady Sif? She seems like she would by far be the best option to lead Asgard now.
Space Stone
The Space Stone (in the form of the Tesseract) has been in more MCU movies than any other Infinity Stone, but I’m choosing this section to talk about Captain Marvel. Why? Because Carol Danvers gets her powers from the Tesseract / Space Stone and she also takes pains to constantly point out how she’s responsible for patrolling all of outer space and that’s why she rarely shows up to Earth. I understand outer space is big, but it still seems like she is doing a pretty poor job of covering what is going on. Let’s go over a short list of the major destabilizing things that have gone down that she didn’t lift a finger to help with:
- A Chitauri invasion of Earth that involved not just one, but two Infinity Stones
- Malekith and the Dark Elves attempt to end the entire universe by using the Aether and the Convergence
- Ronan the Accuser starts a military campaign against the Nova Empire that culminates with him acquiring the Power Stone and coming within a dance-off of destroying Xandar
- Ego initiates a plan to consume countless worlds
- Thanos begins his campaign to bring balance to the universe by halving the populations of countless planets like Gamora’s homeworld and Xandar
- Hela, a being of immense power who seeks to conquer the nine realms and who once long ago basically did, returns and is defeated only by the destruction of Asgard
That’s three apocalyptic events dealing with the destruction or conquering of multiple worlds along with another three involving mass genocide. Were there really that many more big events happening out there which were more important for Captain Marvel to get involved in?
Overall, I felt like Captain Marvel was a weak spot in Endgame, although it’s not really her fault and I have sympathy for the writers and directors. Endgame was all about the original six Avengers, as it should be. At the same time, Captain Marvel was the most recent MCU movie leading into Endgame in addition to being quite possibly the most powerful superhero in the MCU yet. It was impossible to ignore her, but also incredibly hard to include her and not have her overshadow everybody else. In the end, I think they settled on just the right balance, but it still left Carol Danvers as feeling aloof and somewhat detached from everybody else. If she is supposed to take over for Tony and Steve as the new leader of the Avengers, then there is some work to be done to humanize her as a character.
I also worry about her suffering from the same problems of being over-powered as Thor has recently. When you start off being able to completely destroy a giant spaceship in seconds and can stand toe-to-toe with the most powerful villain in the MCU to date, what possible challenges can she face going forward? Captain Marvel seems like Superman at this point, except without the weakness to kryptonite.
Although I’m interested in seeing her reaction to Tony’s death. Early in the movie, Carol was pretty confident in her ability to kill Thanos. However, when faced with the full-strength version from the past, she ultimately failed to stop him, which led to Tony having to sacrifice himself to save the day. I wonder if that failure will eat at her and cause some self-doubt. It could be a way to make her more relatable in future movies.
And yeah, much like with the Mind Stone, the Space Stone was originally housed within the Tesseract when they stole it from the past, so how does Cap turn it back?
The Future
Marvel has made a living with post credits scenes and planting the seeds of future plot lines in almost all of their movies. At this point they’ve basically trained audiences to sit through the credits to see what kind of amazing teaser for future movies is coming up. So it was shocking to find out that not only was there no “The Avengers Will Return…” promise, but also no mid-credits or post-credits scene (the hallmark of Marvel movies). I thought it was an incredibly powerful and effective move that really drives home that this movie was an end and not just another jumping off point to the next movie.
Not only that, but Endgame also didn’t really leave many dangling threads alluding to future projects. Yes, we have some hints for where the Loki Disney+ show might go and a potential plot for the next Guardians movie, but Endgame did far more tying up of loose ends than planting seeds. In a way, it’s exciting to not know where the MCU will be going next. Will we see the introduction of the X-Men or Fantastic Four soon? Will the next big bad be Galactus or Doctor Doom or somebody else? Will we see a new group of Avengers that include Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch, Valkyrie, Professor Hulk, Falcon, and others?
I have no idea, and I can’t wait to find out.
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