By Anjuli Niyogi
Whether you were excitedly awaiting your Thursday midnight showing of this action-packed, finale to the Avengers movie series or watched it a month after all the madness, the ending of Avengers: Endgame all had us at least, somewhat in shock or disbelief.
For anyone looking for a recap of what happened, essentially the plot centers around the Avengers making up for Thanos’ catastrophic use of the Infinity Stones to wipe out half of the earth’s population in Avengers: Infinity War. At first, the grieving Avengers felt that all hope was lost, but with the unexpected appearance of Scott Lang, also known as Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), the Avengers gather one last time to find a solution to this madness. Ant-Man believes that there’s a way to reverse Thanos’ unfortunate, deadly snap; time travel. Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, the Hulk, Rocket, Nebula, Hawkeye, and of course, Ant-Man all team up for one last mission to save the universe and undo their past mistakes, unfortunately with many sacrifices along the way.
In my opinion, this powerful finale definitely lives up to all the hype. Apologies for anyone who had their movie experience spoiled by all the Endgame memes, or even your supposedly, harmless math teacher. It’s a captivating and charismatic way to conclude this 22 movie series, full of emotion, themes of duty, honor, friendship, family, and yet still manages to leave its audience endlessly laughing.
Almost all the Avengers show how regretful they were of their failures and how difficult it was to get back up again, especially for Tony Stark. If you’ve watched a majority to all the Marvel movies, you’ll know that Hawkeye got the recognition that he deserved in this film and demonstrated his complex relationship with Black Widow. Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor also prove that they can set aside their differences once again to finish the job at hand.
As far as the plot is concerned, there was an overwhelming amount of events happening at times, even in the duration of a three-hour film. The movie definitely leaves you with numerous twists and turns and foreshadowing clues for the more die-hard Marvel fans (Not to mention the Stan Lee cameo).
In terms of all the characters present, Endgame primarily focuses on the main six superheroes that birthed the first Avengers film. More newly introduced characters to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe(MCU) like Black Panther and Star-Lord did not receive the recognition and character development as one might have expected, so if you were looking for an epic “I am Groot” moment, you won’t find it in Endgame. Captain Marvel also did not receive the involvement that many fans, including myself, were expecting. We did, however, receive special appearances from Tony Stark’s father, Howard Stark, S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Carter, Jane Foster(Thor’s ex-girlfriend), Valkryie from Thor: Ragnarok, and even a now teenage Harley Kenner from Iron Man 3.
*SPOILER ALERT: First off, Endgame reveals to us how Captain America is now worthy of Thor’s hammer. It seems a little out of place to give him the power to wield something that should be, specific to Thor. Thor’s greatest strength is supposed to be the fact that he is the God of Thunder, but when you give someone else that same power, it simply makes Thor not as unique and rare.
*SPOILER ALERT: As far as Iron Man’s sacrifice is concerned, the battle ends when he executes his own snap to dust away Thanos and his forces. Unfortunately, Iron Man is unable to withstand the heavy toll that the stones have on his body. Towards the end of the movie, we see numerous people throughout the Marvel films come back to Tony’s funeral, including Harney Keener. I have to say that this ending did have some, including myself, in shock, but I do feel that they gave Tony Stark an honorable and sufficient goodbye. Still, it’s hard to believe that the man who started off the MCU movies is forever gone.
*SPOILER ALERT: Regarding Thor’s ending, he retires his rule over New Asgard and gives it over to Valkyrie. I do feel that this is a sensible choice and gives Thor the freedom he needs to pursue his own passions. In effect, this God of Thunder hops on over to Star Lord’s ship, and in a sense joins the Guardians of the Galaxy.
There are countless other spoilers to discuss, but I feel that the graphics also deserve some recognition. Disney’s MCU movies always seem to surpass my expectations in terms of special effects and how real everything looks on-screen. The first Iron Man movie was impressive back in 2008, and over a decade later, Disney has proven that they know how to bring their game when it comes to incorporating complicated special effect requests and bringing it to life. At the end of the day, it’s practically impossible to have a noteworthy action movie without realistic graphic designs and top of the line video editing.
With all the amazing graphics, plot twists, and laughter-filled moments, Endgame is a definite must-see movie. It should be watched at least at one point in your life. But make sure you watch a few other MCU movies before you end off your Marvel experience with Endgame. Trust me, you’ll appreciate those little details much more.
Photo Credits: BookMyShow
