"Avengers ... assemble."
Hello everyone!
Well, against all odds, I finally made it.
Not that it didn't take me freaking FOREVER.
The thing that happened this time was that I watched three or so Marvel movies in a row and then decided I needed to take a break - then the break turned out to be longer than expected because I just couldn't seem to find the time.
Three hours is a bit much and you need to actually plan to ensure you can get that in one go!
But I did it, and it's all under the belt now. FINALLY.
Of course it's late in comparison to when most people've seen this movie, but at this point it's not something I even worry about anymore.
I'm always late to something or other haha.
Avengers: Endgame was just the current in a long list of my lateness!
Yes, I have in fact seen the lot of them. I'm OCD enough that I actually wanted to do this before I got to Endgame proper, which is how I ended up with a Marvel chain of movies several nights in a row, because I suddenly clued in to the fact that I was missing a few of them from my lineup.
And of course, I wasn't about to see Endgame before I caught up on the rest. That just wasn't my groove.
If we recap a little bit just to be safe, however, the Avengers fought Thanos, the bad guy who thinks the universe needs him to kill off 50% of every living creature in it; he managed to get all the Infinity Stones, snap his fingers, and pretty much most of the people we know sort of disappeared and disintegrated.
After that, Thanos went to a random spot where he could watch the sun rise.
Back to the Avengers, however; after the end of Captain Marvel, we know that Nick Fury manages to get a distress signal out to Carol Danvers which prompts her to return to Earth and demand to know where the good director is. It's assumed, because the first scene we get to see her in when it comes to Endgame is in space again that the remaining Avengers showed her what beacon or signal she might need to look for if she were to ever try and find Tony Stark.
Now Tony's stranded in space with Nebula after the battle with Thanos on the guy's home planet, and they're running low on oxygen and stuff, so Danvers shows up just in time to bring the ship back home.
After which Stark kind of loses it on Steve Rogers and collapses, and the team leaves him behind when they find Thanos' location where Carol Danvers kicks some serious ass (and you realize she probably won't be in the movie much because of this) and they learn from Thanos that he destroyed the Stones, which prompts Thor to decapitate the bad guy in his fury.
Oops?
Five years later, Scott Lang aka Antman finally gets himself out of the quantum realm where he was left stranded after the entire Pym family disappeared, and has no clue what happened in the five years he's been gone, so he returns to Avengers HQ where he's greeted by Black Widow and Captain America both (Widow appears to be running what remains of the skeletal Avengers and the Captain runs a self-help group),
Here's the catch, however.
It hasn't been five years for Scott. It's been FIVE HOURS.
He theorizes there might be a way to enter the quantum realm in one spot and exit at another, which MIGHT enable them to travel back in time. This means they could potentially grab the Stones before Thanos does, and they just might be able to bring everybody back.
Of course, they need Stark for this, but Stark is kind of busy raising his daughter and staying far away from any civilisation, though as it later turns out his brain keeps on churning and he solves the time traveling problem without too many issues (which couldn't be said for when a recruited HulkBanner attempts it with Scott, because that does NOT work out well). He arrives back at HQ and promises to help on the condition that they don't reset the timeline, just bring the eradicated back to THIS reality.
Also joining the team is an overweight Thor who's busy drinking beer and wallowing, Rocket the Racoon, Nebula of course, War Machine, and Hawkeye (who's been busy vigilanting after the disappearance of his family and even manages to take out Katsumoto's sidekick from The Last Samurai, ironically enough with a katana!).
They split into teams, sending different people for different stones, with some hilarious team-ups along the way. After all, Thor and Rocket don't really strike you as a working team, do they? And yet they manage to find their way to Asgard where Thor speaks with his mother Frigg, who if you recall was killed way back in the first Thor movie, and she quickly clues in that he's from the future.
Also that he needs to eat a salad every now and then.
Rogers and Stark head to New York with Antman and Banner because there were three Stones in New York at one time: when Loki unleashed the army of Thanos on the city back in the first Avengers movie.
Of course they fail - naturally - and need to jump even farther into the past to get what they came from AND some more Pym Particles with which they've been hoping around through the quantum realm with.
Banner goes to negotiate with Tilda Swinton and wins her over by saying Doctor Strange gave the Stone away, seeing one future where they win - and prompting her to hand it over when she was initially hesitant, saying that maybe she had made a mistake and Strange was right.
Meanwhile, Nebula and War Machine head off Quill just before the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie happens, stealing the Stone before he can do it, but upon returning only War Machine does. Nebula's cybernetics fritz on her because they connect with the CURRENT Nebula, who's being tortured by Thanos, and so the 2014 Thanos now knows what the Avengers of 2019 are up to, and sends 2014 Nebula to them in 2019 Nebula's place.
And finally, Black Widow and Hawkeye go to pay a visit to Lord Elrond to grab the Soul Stone, fighting it out for who will sacrifice their life so they can acquire it, only to end up with Black Widow dead and Hawkeye in possession of the Stone.
Side-note: for some reason this death didn't impact me as much as it should have, and I've always loved Black Widow's character. I have no idea why, but that's the honest truth.
Finally back in their own timeline, Stark fashions a gauntlet for the Stones and Banner volunteers to snap his fingers because most of the radiation from said Stones is Gamma, and that's the basis for the Hulk, so he might even survive it while everyone else won't.
He snaps his fingers (I still don't get how the snaps even work - what, you just think about what you want to happen and it happens at the snap or something?) and manages to live (with a hurt arm), and there IS a restoration, but no time to celebrate, as Fake Nebula brings Thanos and his army from 2014 to 2019 and he attacks the Avengers HQ.
Then it's time for some ass-kicking, and Captain America FINALLY lifts Mjolnir (which Thor brought back with him from the past) much to Thor's delight, but they're still outgunned and outmatched.
That is, until Rogers hears the Falcon's voice in his earpiece, rifts in space open, and the rest of the restored Avengers and their armies (including the Valkyrie on a flying horse, because apparently they stable those in New Asgard) march through to confront Thanos, rip-shit pissed about what happened and ready to throw down.
Even so things might have gotten ugly if not for the timely arrival of Captain Marvel (which is followed by an awesome all-female team up on the battlefield), and a little assist from Doctor Strange who gives Tony a bit of a hint.
Which ends in Stark stealing the stones from the gauntlet Thanos grabs from the Avengers, thinking that "he is inevitable" (yadayada), letting them fuse with his Iron Man armour, and snapping his fingers, which results in the disintegration of Thanos and his entire army to boot.
After this, however, and a tearful goodbye from Pepper Potts (who, it should be noted, came to whoop ass in her own Iron Lady armour), Stark dies from exposure to the Stones.
They bury him with honour (although I was scratching my head at who the heck one of the kids at his funeral was, needing to Google to find it's the one from Iron Man 3 who finds Stark in their family's garage) and then the Avengers disperse back to their homes and families, with Thor handing over his kingdom to the Valkyrie while he heads off with the Guardians, and Rogers taking the Stones back to their original timelines because of the agreement between Banner and Swinton.
He also takes Mjolnir along since Thor has his axe, but the thing is ... he doesn't show up again when Banner summons him back.
At least, his young self doesn't.
An elderly Rogers, however, sits right there by the lakeside, where he passes his shield to the Falcon and viewers get to see that, instead of coming home, Captain America went back to Peggy Carter in the past, married her, and lived out the rest of his life as her husband, progressing naturally to the point when he needed to meet the Avengers again.
And with that, a final credit roll - and a final clanging sound after the credits that potentially indicates Tony Stark forging his first ever Iron Man armour back in movie one, as tribute to the fallen hero - the movie draws to an end.
WHOOP.
Three hours is a long time, and to be honest about half an hour could have been shaved off from all the dialogue going round and round in this movie. I know it needed to be done, considering this was the epic conclusion of a decade of heroes and movies, and we say goodbye to most of the original Avengers since they won't be returning, but STILL.
There's probably a bunch of things that need to be addressed (like where did the rest of the New Avengers go to now that they're back?), but my comments will be whittled down to three bits:
1) Rogers and Mjolnir and thunder-power. I stared at the screen for a bit at that one before it came back to me that in the first Thor movie, Odin specifically says: "whomsoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor."
2) Gamora. 2019 Nebula turns Gamora (who is alive in 2014 and comes into the present with everyone else) from Thanos and she joins up the female team, but then afterwards she just poofs. Where the heck did she go again?
3) That female team-up. Is it pandering to the audience? Well, obviously. Was it still hugely satisfying? It was to me. If we can't just watch a movie for the sake of watching, we have a massive problem on our hands. I found myself cheering and clapping when the girls popped up to help Captain Marvel across the battlefield, angry and ready to throw down.
Besides, the guys had gotten tossed about just minutes before when Thanos ordered his ships to rain fire.
And can we just say Scarlet Witch is BEYOND POWERFUL HERSELF?!
That's the end then, for the Infinity Saga at least. It took us about ten years to get here, but it was SO worth it. Now it's time to see what the future holds for Marvel.
And of course, if you've stuck around for this long ... I love you 3000.
xx
*images and video not mine
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