Stewart here…
Well, I can only assume you have managed over the weekend to see the biggest thing of the summer so far (or maybe THE biggest thing of the summer), by somehow seeing Avengers: Endgame. If you have, I’ll be here to talk about the key points, call backs, and poignant deaths of this three hour epic film. If you haven’t yet, you should go ahead and do that now (it’s not like you’ll be hurting to find it at your local multiplex), because this be full of SPOILERS. So if you haven’t, come back later. I’ll wait.
…
…
…
Done? Okay.
…
…
…
Credit where it’s due up front: all the promotion leading up to the release really has been the first act of this movie, and even there, it didn’t reveal all the big surprises that the first hour of Endgame had. Let’s go over what we didn’t know beforehand. The Avengers face Thanos…in minute fifteen? And they still can’t unsnap everything? A time jump of five years? Tony Stark and Pepper Potts have a kid? Fat Thor? Banner/Hulk combo person? That’s a lot to deal with up front, but there’s also a decent amount of time to actually sit with the repercussions of Infinity War, and how it affects the world and our heroes.
The middle of the movie is where things are really fun (well, relatively, but we’ll get there), as we get a massive time heist of the Infinity Stones, all set in familiar times to us longtime MCU viewers. I don’t know how all those cameos were wrangled, but that had to be a challenge in itself. The callbacks and humor in this were so wonderful, it did help out when things got super serious and dark, like the fate of Black Widow. I mean, it makes sense that she would make the bigger sacrifice play storywise, but it’s still rough to see that character go, being one of the only two women on this big mission. The other of course being Nebula, who has to deal with her younger more brainwashed self and a younger Gamora (sorry folks, we don’t get sacrificed Gamora back by this one).
Which brings me to the other major Avengers death: Tony Stark, who uses a makeshift Infinity Gauntlet to snap Thanos and his army of baddies to dust, only at the expense of his own life. Like a lot of people, I predicted Stark was going to bite the farm here (hell, people thought he was going to be dead by Infinity War), but the way he does is pretty powerful stuff. The major surprise was the one Avenger everyone thought was going to die but didn’t: Captain America himself, Steve Rogers. That he got a happy ending, spending his life after the big battle with Peggy Carter was a beautiful end for that character. Of course, this end also points out how little the time travel logic of this movie adds up.
Take a minute to consider where this movie ends up with time travel mindbenders: you got a Captain America who actually lived through the time he was frozen in ice, a younger Gamora from the past, a younger Nebula that is now dead, a younger Thanos and evil army that is now dead, a Loki that has escaped with a Tesseract into a future streaming show, it’s quite a few paradoxes. There’s a lot of big questions left for the next wave of Marvel movies to clear up (especially for the people who have come back after five years gone to people now five years older than them), and what that entails. I can imagine a movie or two at least set around this five years of half of everyone gone, and there is a Spider-Man movie that may be set before or after this, but what it means for our heroes is left wide open. As a whole though, I thoroughly enjoyed Endgame for going all in with the silliness, even when it didn’t completely add up.
So, how about some highlights that I really liked?
–The cold open with Hawkeye losing his family. Just the silent horror of them vanishing when he turns his back and he doesn’t know what has happened. Not the biggest fan of his post-snappening haircut, but he turns out to be given quite a bit to do.
–Ant-Man being the pivotal character to start this big time travel scheme going was a nice turn. Also, that awkward test of time travel? Hilarious. “I crapped myself. That may have been ‘young me’, or ‘old me’. Maybe ‘me me’.”
–Thor trash talking kids on Minecraft. The whole overweight Thor was such a surprise to the audience I saw it with, and that he didn’t really lose that girth once he got his mojo back was a nice turn. Plus, wielding both Mjonir and Stormbreaker was pretty cool.
–Speaking of cool hammer wielding, Cap using Mjonir in the climax was one of those payoffs I had been waiting for since Age of Ultron. Made up for how Thanos jacked up Cap’s shield.
–Captain Marvel wasn’t in this one too much, which is a bit of a shame, but I see why she had to get taken off the field of battle early in the climax (I mean, she reacts to a Thanos headbutt like a little bug landed on her forehead). Will the sequel have her with the haircut she got during the era of the snappening? Who knows.
–The Guardians are going after young Gamora with Thor? I don’t know the details of the next Guardians movie, but was it written before overweight Thor was introduced as an idea? I’m just saying, James Gunn may have a lot to rewrite before filming that next year.
–Smart Banner/Hulk was one of those origin stories I would have loved to have seen more of beforehand. Made sense later that he would have to use their makeshift Gauntlet first to bring back everyone dusted away, even though it messed up his arm in the process. I wonder if we’ll get a Mr. FixIt Hulk in the future.
–“Hail Hydra”. Such a cute inversion of the elevator fight in The Winter Soldier.
–Smart Hulk trying to make an effort to trash stuff in New York, and just not being into it. Definitely a contrast to the Hulk in Avengers, who almost loses it using stairs. “SO MANY STAIRS!”
–Tony meeting his dad was a nice beat, now that Tony has a kid of his own to reference when it comes to parenting. And Jarvis shows up from Agent Carter!
–This movie gives us the satisfaction of having Thanos being killed not once, but TWICE! Thor taking the mad Titan’s advice from Infinity War for the first time, and then getting dusted the second time. He couldn’t get killed enough in this movie in my humble opinion.
–I’ve read this movie cost around 300 to 400 million to make, and considering what the main actors are gonna make on the back end of this, that might be a discount, because holy Toledo, that final action scene with almost all the heroes was bonkers. I may end up going back just to see the things I missed, because guaranteed I did.
–Doctor Strange’s finger pointing for Stark. “Now.”
–Tony Stark gets a funeral where everyone attends, but no funeral for Natasha? Well, she probably was no fan of elaborate funerals at a cabin by the river, anyway.
–How many people thought Bucky would get the Captain America mantle, and how many of you got surprised it was Sam? The latter always made more sense to me.
–The Star Trek VI-esque credits sign-off? I mean, that was great. And no after credits scene, which was nice if only because you got time to see the small armies of people needed to make this thing.
–So we got Iron Man and Black Widow dead, Captain America a super old man now, Thor going off into space with Starlord and the gang, Hawkeye getting his family back, and Smart Hulk going back to dabbing for kids and doing science stuff. I mean, what is the next Avengers lineup after this? Should they even bother to have an Avengers lineup after this?
Look, that’s maybe a few random things that caught my attention, but what about you, dear reader? What were some of your favorite moments from Endgame? Got any theories for the future? Let’s chat about it below…
dee2henry
intellichick
ladydethpool
magnitudev1
natashanerdlush
nerdlushguests
elizabeth ann
stewartmoncure
NerdLush 
How was Natasha going to attend? She was dead.
“Smart Hulk” is Mr. Fixit and I’m livid that he was not gray and that he didnt go by that. He did however, have the Brooklyn attitude.
The entire concept and pre explanation about time travel and the idea that you are just creating a new timeline is perfect and has never been done better.
i thought Hulk was Professor Hulk? didn’t seem like Mr. Fix-it to me,
Okay, this is where things get confusing. Professor Hulk was one version of the Hulk, Mr. Fixity was other who was a gray Hulk who was a crime boss. Comics are weird.
Apologies, I meant no funeral for Natasha. I mean, that seems rough.
When they decided to give him the Brooklyn attitude they should have made him grey. No reason to not do that. Natasha not having a memorial was terrible but I dont think she would have wanted one.
Can we talk about how Tony put the gauntlet on? It’s his tech so I see the chance of it happening but really?