Endgame!

[lebateleur]

Was a really great movie; better, in fact, than I'd been expecting (and far more satisfying on every level than Infinity War). It certainly did not feel like I spent over three hours in the theater.

Some quick first impressions, featuring spoilers!

I have a sneaking suspicion that the time travel mechanics won't hold up to logical scrutiny, and I'm trying not to look at them too carefully.

Cap, Iron Man, and Thor are the main stars here, with some pivotal assists from Black Widow and Hulk. Cap and Thor have always been my favorites, so I loved all the attention their stories got. And there are so many Easter eggs for fans of these characters: the "Cap in the elevator" redux may be my favorite scene in the entire movie. Also look out for:

• Cap and Mjollnir, and Thor's reaction to the above; so good.
  
• The hilarious coda to The Avengers, in which Loki sets himself up for his miniseries, and the excellent Cap vs. Cap scene.
  
• Cap and his support groups.
  
• Cap and Bucky remixing a notable exchange from The First Avenger.

Thor's transformation is hilarious, heartwrenching, and perfectly in keeping with his character. His reunion with Freya was so sweet and sad and good. And I really love the careful way the Russos build to the resolution of Cap's storyline. Attentive viewers will see it coming long before it arrives, but that doesn't make it any less satisfying.

Other great bits: Korg and Drax and Mantis' cameos. Hulk in the coffee shop. Captain Marvel carrying ten times' everyone else's weight. The Ancient One's scenes (who knows, maybe there's even a branch universe out there where Marvel actually has the balls to make her Tibetan. "Time Heist." Black Widow crying over a jam sandwich (oh god, I spent most of the movie just wanting to give her a giant hug.)

This probably makes me anathema to a large portion of MCU fandom, but I can take or leave Iron Man so his demise didn't pack much of a punch for me. (And hey, if Pepper misses him so badly, maybe she should just revive him with Goop or something. I hear that stuff can do anything.) Also, the "noble hero sacrifices himself for the Greater Good but is survived in a bittersweet conclusion by his child" is an ending that bores the living crap out of me. Especially because it's an ending that's pretty much reserved exclusively For The Dudes. Tony gets a wife to mourn him and a child to carry on his genetic legacy. Black Widow gets...?

At least they didn't go for a full on surprise! pregnancy here.

And I know I said I wasn't going to look too closely at the time travel, but. It does suffer from the same paradox all time travel stories do; namely, an inability to explain why the heroes are able to use time travel to fix things in this one instance but never again after that.

I had some other minor quibbles (half the world's population is gone and yet humanity somehow manages to keep the oil refineries going and the groceries stocked and the roads paved?) but overall the movie is so good I'm willing to handwave them away.


All in all, a really satisfying movie that I don't regret spending the money and hassle to see in the theater.

これで以上です

Comments

[i_am_zan]

Yup, it didn't feel like 3 hours to me ... I enjoyed it too.

Time travel, is always going to be wibbly wobbly timey-wimey, in whatever series it plays in ... it's always going to be difficult how you want to set the rules, or in many cases set them and break them as you go along. This happens in Dr Who, Star Trek (most recently in Star Trek Discovery) and of course now the MCU.

I loved spotting all the Easter eggs too. Cap vs Cap was well choreographed and scripted, as was the elevator scene. ... and Cap and his support groups. I loved it!

The main time travel quibble I have is Gamora and Nebula. If the original Nebula was killed ... and then the Old Gamora before the Soul Stone event, before meeting Quill, the build up to that meet ... uhmm yeah like you said - best I don't think about it too hard. At the end of the day the Guardians of the Galaxy are together again (which is good, because I love the Gamora/Nebula dynamic) and does that mean Thor will be travelling with them should Guardians 3 ever get filmed ( is a little hmmm with me because won't there be too many alpha males on that ship?) .

I'm kind of glad for Cap and his happily ever after, but does that mean 'Civil War' doesn't happen (which could be a good thing) or... how does it work?

I had expected it to be Iron Man's swan song, so I wasn't cut up too much about it - I was sad for Peter Parker though ... but Natasha's death hit me quite a lot harder than I thought it would. Perhaps because of all of them she is (I suppose this literally as well as figuratively) she is the most human - perhaps I love Clint Barton for the same reason too. Although he is very much quite a different character in the comics from long ago. Which brings me to gush about the fact that Hawkeye was in the film at all. I have a thing for minor characters. (Although I can see his devolution into a psychotic assassin going after the world's mobsters in retaliation for losing his family ... would the comeback from this dark place been so easy ... again really? I always feel - because of my bias I guess - that his stories are never dealt with satisfactorily. I also do realise they probably don't have the time so yeah I am quibbling. Ahahaha! )

I can't say too much about Antman and the Wasp - I never saw the films but from osmosis I know enough, nor did I see the Spiderman film or the first Thor one.

Freya and Thor ... that wise beautiful Asgardian witch. That scene was so much love.

.. and yes ... how they set up Loki for his series was pretty clever.

A lot of things to love about the film. A lot of other jumbly thoughts as well. But I suppose the scope of it all. A lot of folks are going to feel like that.

Glad you enjoyed it too! ^_^

[lebateleur]

The main time travel quibble I have is Gamora and Nebula. Yes, I mean, that's one way for them to get Gamora back, and Nebula too, after a fashion...but then you lose all the character development they went through. And yup, my guess is that Thor is part of the Guardians now.

In a way, it makes sense, what with Asgard destroyed and Thor being a non-Terran like the Guardians. But really, I think it was done because a lot of people liked Ragnarok who disliked the other two movies, and Ragnarok was basically the Thorverse remixed as Guardians, so it makes sense from a marketing standpoint. And Helmsworth does seem to enjoy doing comedy. But I loved my Shakespearean and Dark World Thor, so it's a bit of a disappointment for me.

If nothing else, I imagine Nebula will be able to keep most (if not all) of those alpha males in check. But I take your point. (If only they could somehow resurrect Yondu and add him to the mix. Yondu-Thor interactions would be hysterical.)

I'm kind of glad for Cap and his happily ever after, but does that mean 'Civil War' doesn't happen (which could be a good thing) or... how does it work?
I heard that the Russos said Cap went to another branch of the multiverse to be with Peggy, but that begs the question as to what happened to the original Cap in that branch. To say nothing of the fact that it seems a bit out of character for Cap, for all the reasons we keep going over.

Which brings me to gush about the fact that Hawkeye was in the film at all. I have a thing for minor characters. (Although I can see his devolution into a psychotic assassin going after the world's mobsters in retaliation for losing his family ... would the comeback from this dark place been so easy ... again really?
Apparently he's getting his own show on Disney, so you'll potentially be seeing quite a lot of him! And I guess his psychotic assassin devolution is a nod to the Hawkeye Ronin comics, which I have not read and thus totally did not pick up on.

The Antman and Wasp films are fun, but I still prefer almost all the other movies to them. The first Thor, however, is fabulous. It suffers a bit for being too subtle for its own good--Branagh was having a bit of a laugh at audiences who go into "just a superhero movie" and see exactly as little as they expect. But watch it closely and you will be rewarded. :D