SPOILER * SPOILER * SPOILER
Avenger Endgame Review with SPOILERS
by Urizen
Okay,
so this is a spoiler filled review/synopsis for
Avengers Endgame. This gives me the chance to dive deeper into a film I could
originally barely talk about. It has been a bit since I’ve seen it but am going
to go through a few things based off from memory. The option is always there to
turn back now if you haven’t seen the movie and want to avoid spoilers. I do
highly recommend going into this movie spoiler free if possible. Of course by
now, most that want to see the movie probably have. So okay, here we go.
The movie starts off with Clint Barton his family at their farm. He is teaching his daughter how to shoot a bow and arrow when he leaves to do something. Turning back around his family is gone, the snap has occurred and took all of his family from him. The movie starts off hitting with a heartbreaking moment and Jeremy Renner does a great job which I will touch on more with his character later.
Jumping ahead, we see Tony in space with Nebula. He is teaching her to play paper football and is starting to look a bit noticeably thinner. He goes to record a message to Pepper and I believe says that they’ve been drifting for twenty something days. He won't last much longer. We get a few actually touching moments that show Nebula's character growth such as when she gives Tony her food so he can hang in there. He lays down with the idea that he won't be waking up and Nebula props him up in the seat of the ship, looking out into space. We see the color begin to change and Tony stirs, looking outside to see Captain Marvel. My guess is either the end credits scene from Captain Marvel happens and the Avengers have her go locate Tony or she just happens to stop on the way and helps them.
Carol carries the ship back to Earth, meeting up with the other Avengers while also giving us the reveal that Pepper is thankfully alive. One of the first things he says is how he couldn’t save Peter, really showing just how much guilt he has and how much he cared about him. Getting him inside and hooked up to an IV, the others fill him in on the events that transpired and how Thanos did succeed in wiping out half of all life. Tony ends up snapping at Steve and saying how he saw this coming and how they were supposed to fight together but in the end, Steve wasn't there. Tony passes out and in the mean time, the remaining group talk and decide to take the fight to Thanos. Between information from Nebula and from an energy signature similar to the one that occurred during the snap, they track his location and head off to space.
It doesn’t take long for the group to find Thanos on his farm. Limping and seeming quite injured, Thanos heads inside his hut, only to get ambushed by the Avengers. Quickly and with ease, they pin him down and notice that he doesn’t have the Infinity Stones anymore. With this it is revealed to them that while it nearly killed him to do so, Thanos used the Infinity Stones to destroy the stones themselves. Realizing that the only chance they had to reverse this is gone, the Avengers are distraught. Thanos gloats, saying he is inevitable when suddenly he is decapitated by Thor who when asked what he was doing simply said he was going for the head.
This is the intro to the movie. Within probably the first 20 minutes, Thanos is killed but the Avengers are still defeated. After this we get a time jump to five years later. Steve has been going to, and seemingly help lead, a therapy group for people affected by the snap. Natasha is running the Avengers and in communication with the other members that are out helping the world in various ways. Clint has taken to brutally murdering criminals which has been hard for Nat as she worries about him but is also angry for everything that has happened. Leading to this we get to Scott. Scott gets let out of the Quantum Realm by the most important character in the whole MCU, a rat. He has no idea what happened because despite it having been five years, to him it has been almost no time at all. He goes and finds out his daughter is alive, though older, before going to the Avengers compound to find out more of what happened. While there, the idea of using the Quantum Realm and time traveling to get the stones is brought up. With that, we have the basic set up for the plot of the movie.
That alone made it hard to do a spoiler free review. Now I will touch on some of the other things I liked and disliked with this movie. I will still be trying to go in basic order of the plot but I don’t want to do a summary of the whole movie as well. That beginning was already a lot.
First thing that is pretty major is we find out that Tony has a child now. After everything that has happened, he has moved away to a small cabin with Pepper and his daughter Morgan. The Avengers try to get his help with time traveling which he says no to. He has a family and he doesn’t want to risk anything happening to that life that he finally has. I just have to say that throughout this whole movie, Robert Downey Jr. does such an amazing job. All of the cast does great but he really is giving his all. Tony seems like such a great father to Morgan and I think that has a lot to do with how well RDJ plays the role.
When everything fails with Tony, we get the next big spoiler…and I do mean BIG. The team goes to Bruce Banner for help, only Bruce has now fused with the Hulk. He has the Hulk's strength but with Banner’s brain. Ruffalo does a good job with this, especially in his introductory scene which is hilarious. If I had one complaint, it would be that I wish they showed more of that Hulk side. What we really get for the most part is just a larger Banner. It is fine though. Like I said, Ruffalo does a great job with it, just a small disappointment to me really.
I want to say the next reveal is Clint Barton who has now taken the Ronin persona. Man I wanted more of him like that. His costume is amazing and the action we do get is great. Jeremy Renner really does a great job selling the heart break that Clint is feeling with having lost his family. He and Scarlett Johansson really played off each other well in this. Clint has been working this whole time, taking down criminals because he doesn’t see it as right that so many of these innocent people died at random from Thanos while these criminals continue to run wild. As he is in Japan, going after a criminal he gives a great line of how everyone else “got Thanos, but you get me.” It was so great and kind of chilling.
Hilariously, our other big Avengers member reveal is Thor. Thor is living in small village with the rest of the Asgardians. We see that Valkyrie is alive thankfully and also later learn that Korg is as well. Bruce and Rocket go searching for Thor only to find him fat and depressed. He drinks and eats a lot to the point that even Valkyrie says he has a problem. With his appearance throughout this movie, he looks very much like The Dude from The Big Lebowski. Fat depressed Thor is a mood though. He feels guilt for not having originally taken Thanos down and stopping this whole ordeal from happening. Eventually he agrees to join them in time travelling, but really only because Rocket said there was booze on the ship.
After Tony, dealing with guilt at having lost Peter, figures out time travel (much to his annoyance), he goes and agrees to give his help as long as his family will stay safe at the end of this. Steve agrees and they quickly get to work on building the machine and discussing what they all know about the Infinity stones. It isn’t long before they realize that three were in New York at the same time. They decide they will split up. Bruce, Steve, Tony and Scott are going to New York for the Space, Mind and Time stones. Nebula and Rhodey will go to Morag for the Power stone. Rocket and Thor go to Asgard to get the Reality stone from when it was inside Jane, then finally Clint and Nat will go to Vormir for the Soul stone.
With the time traveling we get some really nice sequences with them going back to earlier movies. In New York we obviously get the first Avengers movie with the battle of New York. Bruce has to blend in as the Hulk and go to get the Time stone which at this time is being held by The Ancient One. She explains that she can’t give him the stone for if she does and they go back and remove it from that timeline, it will have disastrous effects. He tells her though that Strange willingly gave up the stone to Thanos which causes her to have a change of heart. This is interesting because it shows that even before knowing him and despite how she treated him when he showed up at her doorstep, The Ancient One always knew how great Stephen would become and trusted his judgment.
Tony and Scott go after the Space stone and we get to see a bit more of how things went down after they captured Loki. We get a small but nice cameo from Alexander Pierce and Brock Rumlow. It was really exciting and surprising to see them. Makes it seem like they really wanted to bring back as many past characters as possible. We get to see Shield trying to take Loki and the stone into custody which was a nice touch. Scott and Tony's plan ends up failing in the end though which leads to an interesting thing. Loki gets the Space stone and escapes. Now in theory with what we have learned with time travel and the idea of alternate realities in this movie, this is a different timeline now in which Loki escapes and in theory is still alive out there. Considering we have a Loki show coming to Disney+, this could prove to be interesting.
Steve is going to get the staff to get the Mind stone and ends up running into his past self who thinks he is Loki in disguise. We get some truly hilarious moments and a great fight scene in this where our current-time Steve is actually getting overwhelmed before he distracts past-Steve by saying Bucky is alive. As Steve walks away, he goes into an elevator with Brock and other Hydra members. We get almost a shot for shot moment of setting up the elevator fight scene from The Winter Soldier. I was so hyped but they went different with it and in the end, I think I liked it better. Steve leans in and whispers “Hail Hydra" before walking out with a smirk. I love that little callback to the Secret Empire comic event, despite how terrible it was.
Not too much happens with Thor and Rocket on Asgard. Rocket has to work to get Thor going between Thor being just a mess and him not wanting to see Jane. It is actually pretty funny because obviously they couldn’t get Natalie Portman back for the movie due to her issues with Marvel, so for the most part we just get glimpses of someone walking through a door or glimpses of clothing where we are told it is her. The only time we get any shot of Jane is when they show a cut scene from Thor: The Dark World and then they put Rocket in the background sneaking up to get the Reality stone from her. We do get a moment that was certainly needed, and that is Thor and Frigga having a talk. Throughout the Thor series, it has always been about Thor and Odin. We haven’t had many reactions between Thor and his mother. It was a very heartfelt moment and I’m glad it happened. Thor also gets Mjolnir and is relieved to know that despite everything that has happened, he is still worthy.
Having to go even further back in time to the camp where Captain America was created, Tony and Steve steal Pym particles from a younger Hank Pym which while interesting, wasn’t as cool as seeing the classic Ant-man helmet. Steve gets a chance to see Peggy through a window while Tony gets to have a much needed talk with his father. The family moments in this movie are just done so well and were things the characters always needed. There are no shortage of family issues in the MCU and Tony was probably the king of that. Seeing him get to talk with Howard and having him get to see things a bit from his dad’s perspective was really nice.
Unfortunately next we get one of the more controversial but also saddest moments in the movie. We learned in Infinity War that a person needs to sacrifice the soul of someone they love to get the Soul stone. Naturally we get Clint and Natasha going for it. It is truly heartbreaking to watch this all happen. Both characters want to sacrifice themselves and end up fighting each other for who will die. Clint figures he has done enough harm in the world and should be sacrificed while Natasha sees herself as not having a true family but wants to bring back what she does have and bring back Clint's family. I have seen a few people complain about Natasha’s death and I can agree on some points with it. I also see it as the only option though. This is the only way to get the Soul stone. Who left had anyone that could be sacrificed? Possibly only Tony and he wouldn’t sacrifice Pepper or Morgan. It was always going to come down to this. Plus if Clint got killed, then his family all would come back to nothing. It was a death that made sense, but I do wish we had more from Nat and had a funeral at least. It was still one of the sadder moments in the movie.
Rhodey and Nebula easily get the Power Stone but Nebula ends up captured by Nebula, Gamora and Thanos from the past who find out what happened and start working on how to get the stones. Past-Nebula disguises herself as the current one and goes to the future. After mourning Natasha, they get the stone on a gauntlet that Stark makes and it is decided that Bruce is the only one who can handle it. Even with him, it proves to be difficult to handle all of the stones. It really shows how powerful they are and just how strong Thanos was. He snaps his fingers and everyone wonders if it works and that is when Clint gets a call from his wife. The heroes don’t get to celebrate long though as Nebula lets through Thanos' ship from the past. Bruce also severely wounds his arm from using the gauntlet.
Thanos attacks the compound and sends the Outriders, the Black Order, Gamora and Nebula to go get the gauntlet. What is interesting here is, we get to see a very different Thanos. This is not the one that said “I’ll do it myself.” This is not the one who has lost so much to achieve his goal. He has seen a future where he wins. He is confident but also a bit lazier. Instead of fighting, he sends everyone else to do it while he sits and waits. He also sort of doesn’t get why people aren’t thankful for what he has done and decides that since doing things this way will end up leading to people like the Avengers standing up and trying to stop him, he will just destroy everyone and create a whole new world. This gives us a much more villainous Thanos rather than the one from earlier in the film that we almost feel sympathy for.
While Clint is running with the Gauntlet we get the great scene of Thor, Tony, and Steve walking up to Thanos. Steve with his shield and Thor with Mjolnir and Stormbreaker which is amazing to see. I really appreciate that throughout this whole movie, they kept Thor fat. I kept expecting him to just instantly become fit again but thankfully they didn’t go that route.
Even with how different this Thanos is, he proves to be a challenge and while taking some hits, he does take down the three and is getting ready to kill Thor. This leads to one of the best scenes, a scene that was teased back in Age of Ultron. We just see Mjolnir lifted from the ground and get slammed into Thanos before flying back into Steve’s hand. Steve easily wields Mjolnir and the shield, using them in unison and even channeling the lightning and firing it at Thanos. It is such a great scene. The action throughout the movie was great but there wasn’t much of it. The film makes up for it in this third act. It is just so amazing. Unfortunately even with that, Thanos manages to beat them back. With all the Avengers down, we get an amazing looking shot of Steve standing up against all of Thanos' army. One man against hundred if not thousands. It is so visually impressive.
Here we get another wonderful, just perfect moment. “On your left” we hear in Steve’s ear as portals start to open in the sky. Finally everyone starts coming back. And I mean everyone. You have the heroes, the citizens of Wakanda, the Ravagers, the wizards, even Howard the Duck is there. Then finally…FINALLY we get Steve saying “Avengers Assemble” and the all out war begins. Peter gets to see Tony who hugs him. Pepper shows up in the rescue armor and is fighting. Valkyrie is there fighting. Everything is just so great about this scene. Unfortunately Thanos decides he will sacrifice his army if he has to and starts shooting from his ship. The gauntlet at this point is passed from Clint to T’Challa and finally to Peter who webs onto Mjolnir and uses that to try to get the stones back so they can return to their original timelines. He hides as blasts rain down, Rocket covers Groot from the fire and the wizards put up shields to block the blasts.
Now we have Captain Marvel showing up and doing what she does best, blasting through Thanos’ ship. She joins the fight and takes the gauntlet from Peter. We then get another great shot of all of the women heroes banding together and fighting to defend the gauntlet. We also have a very angry Wanda showing just what she is capable of. Thanos ends up with the gauntlet though and gets ready to snap but Carol stops him. Much to his shock. The fight continues with him having to remove the power stone to fight off Carol. And now is when pain really starts to set it.
Strange looks over to Stark and holds up one finger, showing this is it. Tony attacks Thanos but is knocked back and Thanos goes to snap, saying he is Inevitable. The snap doesn’t work though as the stones are gone leading to a shot of Tony with the stones fusing with his gauntlet. He proclaims “I am Iron Man”, snaps his fingers and takes out Thanos and his army. From the very beginning, most people had a feeling that Tony would die. Did not change how sad of a moment it was. Especially considering he had a family now. He got that happiness he wanted. Peter is heartbroken at this, begging him not to go which only makes the scene even more heartbreaking. Unfortunately there is no coming back from this..
After his funeral we have Steve going to take the stones back to their timelines which they say that for them he should be back in only about 5 seconds. Despite that, Bucky says he will miss him. Instantly you know that he isn’t coming back. They look over to a bench to see an old Steve Rogers. He ended up staying back with Peggy. Living his life and finally getting that dance. He gives the shield to Sam, we see Steve and Peggy dancing and that’s that.
This is probably one of, if not my favorite film in the MCU. While it isn’t as action packed until the end, it is a really well done movie, one that was obviously made for the fans. There are plenty of call backs to the other films in the franchise and they went and addressed plenty of things that people questioned in those films as well. I will say that while the directors have since came out and talked about the time travel in the movie, I’m still not sure how much it all makes sense. At the end of the day though, it is a comic book movie. I have learned to shut my brain off when it comes to things like that. I am excited to see Spider-man in July and see how this phase of the MCU will end and what the next will bring. It will certainly not be the same without Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr.
I forgot to mention that Thor has also teamed up with the Guardians of the Galaxy. So Guardians 3 with Thor? I am even more excited for that film now. This movie is the end of an era and was a bit bittersweet because of that, but as sad as it made me, as I’ve said, it makes me even more excited for the future of the MCU. At the end of the day, I have loved nearly everything so far and will most certainly continue to love it 3000.
The movie starts off with Clint Barton his family at their farm. He is teaching his daughter how to shoot a bow and arrow when he leaves to do something. Turning back around his family is gone, the snap has occurred and took all of his family from him. The movie starts off hitting with a heartbreaking moment and Jeremy Renner does a great job which I will touch on more with his character later.
Jumping ahead, we see Tony in space with Nebula. He is teaching her to play paper football and is starting to look a bit noticeably thinner. He goes to record a message to Pepper and I believe says that they’ve been drifting for twenty something days. He won't last much longer. We get a few actually touching moments that show Nebula's character growth such as when she gives Tony her food so he can hang in there. He lays down with the idea that he won't be waking up and Nebula props him up in the seat of the ship, looking out into space. We see the color begin to change and Tony stirs, looking outside to see Captain Marvel. My guess is either the end credits scene from Captain Marvel happens and the Avengers have her go locate Tony or she just happens to stop on the way and helps them.
Carol carries the ship back to Earth, meeting up with the other Avengers while also giving us the reveal that Pepper is thankfully alive. One of the first things he says is how he couldn’t save Peter, really showing just how much guilt he has and how much he cared about him. Getting him inside and hooked up to an IV, the others fill him in on the events that transpired and how Thanos did succeed in wiping out half of all life. Tony ends up snapping at Steve and saying how he saw this coming and how they were supposed to fight together but in the end, Steve wasn't there. Tony passes out and in the mean time, the remaining group talk and decide to take the fight to Thanos. Between information from Nebula and from an energy signature similar to the one that occurred during the snap, they track his location and head off to space.
It doesn’t take long for the group to find Thanos on his farm. Limping and seeming quite injured, Thanos heads inside his hut, only to get ambushed by the Avengers. Quickly and with ease, they pin him down and notice that he doesn’t have the Infinity Stones anymore. With this it is revealed to them that while it nearly killed him to do so, Thanos used the Infinity Stones to destroy the stones themselves. Realizing that the only chance they had to reverse this is gone, the Avengers are distraught. Thanos gloats, saying he is inevitable when suddenly he is decapitated by Thor who when asked what he was doing simply said he was going for the head.
This is the intro to the movie. Within probably the first 20 minutes, Thanos is killed but the Avengers are still defeated. After this we get a time jump to five years later. Steve has been going to, and seemingly help lead, a therapy group for people affected by the snap. Natasha is running the Avengers and in communication with the other members that are out helping the world in various ways. Clint has taken to brutally murdering criminals which has been hard for Nat as she worries about him but is also angry for everything that has happened. Leading to this we get to Scott. Scott gets let out of the Quantum Realm by the most important character in the whole MCU, a rat. He has no idea what happened because despite it having been five years, to him it has been almost no time at all. He goes and finds out his daughter is alive, though older, before going to the Avengers compound to find out more of what happened. While there, the idea of using the Quantum Realm and time traveling to get the stones is brought up. With that, we have the basic set up for the plot of the movie.
That alone made it hard to do a spoiler free review. Now I will touch on some of the other things I liked and disliked with this movie. I will still be trying to go in basic order of the plot but I don’t want to do a summary of the whole movie as well. That beginning was already a lot.
First thing that is pretty major is we find out that Tony has a child now. After everything that has happened, he has moved away to a small cabin with Pepper and his daughter Morgan. The Avengers try to get his help with time traveling which he says no to. He has a family and he doesn’t want to risk anything happening to that life that he finally has. I just have to say that throughout this whole movie, Robert Downey Jr. does such an amazing job. All of the cast does great but he really is giving his all. Tony seems like such a great father to Morgan and I think that has a lot to do with how well RDJ plays the role.
When everything fails with Tony, we get the next big spoiler…and I do mean BIG. The team goes to Bruce Banner for help, only Bruce has now fused with the Hulk. He has the Hulk's strength but with Banner’s brain. Ruffalo does a good job with this, especially in his introductory scene which is hilarious. If I had one complaint, it would be that I wish they showed more of that Hulk side. What we really get for the most part is just a larger Banner. It is fine though. Like I said, Ruffalo does a great job with it, just a small disappointment to me really.
I want to say the next reveal is Clint Barton who has now taken the Ronin persona. Man I wanted more of him like that. His costume is amazing and the action we do get is great. Jeremy Renner really does a great job selling the heart break that Clint is feeling with having lost his family. He and Scarlett Johansson really played off each other well in this. Clint has been working this whole time, taking down criminals because he doesn’t see it as right that so many of these innocent people died at random from Thanos while these criminals continue to run wild. As he is in Japan, going after a criminal he gives a great line of how everyone else “got Thanos, but you get me.” It was so great and kind of chilling.
Hilariously, our other big Avengers member reveal is Thor. Thor is living in small village with the rest of the Asgardians. We see that Valkyrie is alive thankfully and also later learn that Korg is as well. Bruce and Rocket go searching for Thor only to find him fat and depressed. He drinks and eats a lot to the point that even Valkyrie says he has a problem. With his appearance throughout this movie, he looks very much like The Dude from The Big Lebowski. Fat depressed Thor is a mood though. He feels guilt for not having originally taken Thanos down and stopping this whole ordeal from happening. Eventually he agrees to join them in time travelling, but really only because Rocket said there was booze on the ship.
After Tony, dealing with guilt at having lost Peter, figures out time travel (much to his annoyance), he goes and agrees to give his help as long as his family will stay safe at the end of this. Steve agrees and they quickly get to work on building the machine and discussing what they all know about the Infinity stones. It isn’t long before they realize that three were in New York at the same time. They decide they will split up. Bruce, Steve, Tony and Scott are going to New York for the Space, Mind and Time stones. Nebula and Rhodey will go to Morag for the Power stone. Rocket and Thor go to Asgard to get the Reality stone from when it was inside Jane, then finally Clint and Nat will go to Vormir for the Soul stone.
With the time traveling we get some really nice sequences with them going back to earlier movies. In New York we obviously get the first Avengers movie with the battle of New York. Bruce has to blend in as the Hulk and go to get the Time stone which at this time is being held by The Ancient One. She explains that she can’t give him the stone for if she does and they go back and remove it from that timeline, it will have disastrous effects. He tells her though that Strange willingly gave up the stone to Thanos which causes her to have a change of heart. This is interesting because it shows that even before knowing him and despite how she treated him when he showed up at her doorstep, The Ancient One always knew how great Stephen would become and trusted his judgment.
Tony and Scott go after the Space stone and we get to see a bit more of how things went down after they captured Loki. We get a small but nice cameo from Alexander Pierce and Brock Rumlow. It was really exciting and surprising to see them. Makes it seem like they really wanted to bring back as many past characters as possible. We get to see Shield trying to take Loki and the stone into custody which was a nice touch. Scott and Tony's plan ends up failing in the end though which leads to an interesting thing. Loki gets the Space stone and escapes. Now in theory with what we have learned with time travel and the idea of alternate realities in this movie, this is a different timeline now in which Loki escapes and in theory is still alive out there. Considering we have a Loki show coming to Disney+, this could prove to be interesting.
Steve is going to get the staff to get the Mind stone and ends up running into his past self who thinks he is Loki in disguise. We get some truly hilarious moments and a great fight scene in this where our current-time Steve is actually getting overwhelmed before he distracts past-Steve by saying Bucky is alive. As Steve walks away, he goes into an elevator with Brock and other Hydra members. We get almost a shot for shot moment of setting up the elevator fight scene from The Winter Soldier. I was so hyped but they went different with it and in the end, I think I liked it better. Steve leans in and whispers “Hail Hydra" before walking out with a smirk. I love that little callback to the Secret Empire comic event, despite how terrible it was.
Not too much happens with Thor and Rocket on Asgard. Rocket has to work to get Thor going between Thor being just a mess and him not wanting to see Jane. It is actually pretty funny because obviously they couldn’t get Natalie Portman back for the movie due to her issues with Marvel, so for the most part we just get glimpses of someone walking through a door or glimpses of clothing where we are told it is her. The only time we get any shot of Jane is when they show a cut scene from Thor: The Dark World and then they put Rocket in the background sneaking up to get the Reality stone from her. We do get a moment that was certainly needed, and that is Thor and Frigga having a talk. Throughout the Thor series, it has always been about Thor and Odin. We haven’t had many reactions between Thor and his mother. It was a very heartfelt moment and I’m glad it happened. Thor also gets Mjolnir and is relieved to know that despite everything that has happened, he is still worthy.
Having to go even further back in time to the camp where Captain America was created, Tony and Steve steal Pym particles from a younger Hank Pym which while interesting, wasn’t as cool as seeing the classic Ant-man helmet. Steve gets a chance to see Peggy through a window while Tony gets to have a much needed talk with his father. The family moments in this movie are just done so well and were things the characters always needed. There are no shortage of family issues in the MCU and Tony was probably the king of that. Seeing him get to talk with Howard and having him get to see things a bit from his dad’s perspective was really nice.
Unfortunately next we get one of the more controversial but also saddest moments in the movie. We learned in Infinity War that a person needs to sacrifice the soul of someone they love to get the Soul stone. Naturally we get Clint and Natasha going for it. It is truly heartbreaking to watch this all happen. Both characters want to sacrifice themselves and end up fighting each other for who will die. Clint figures he has done enough harm in the world and should be sacrificed while Natasha sees herself as not having a true family but wants to bring back what she does have and bring back Clint's family. I have seen a few people complain about Natasha’s death and I can agree on some points with it. I also see it as the only option though. This is the only way to get the Soul stone. Who left had anyone that could be sacrificed? Possibly only Tony and he wouldn’t sacrifice Pepper or Morgan. It was always going to come down to this. Plus if Clint got killed, then his family all would come back to nothing. It was a death that made sense, but I do wish we had more from Nat and had a funeral at least. It was still one of the sadder moments in the movie.
Rhodey and Nebula easily get the Power Stone but Nebula ends up captured by Nebula, Gamora and Thanos from the past who find out what happened and start working on how to get the stones. Past-Nebula disguises herself as the current one and goes to the future. After mourning Natasha, they get the stone on a gauntlet that Stark makes and it is decided that Bruce is the only one who can handle it. Even with him, it proves to be difficult to handle all of the stones. It really shows how powerful they are and just how strong Thanos was. He snaps his fingers and everyone wonders if it works and that is when Clint gets a call from his wife. The heroes don’t get to celebrate long though as Nebula lets through Thanos' ship from the past. Bruce also severely wounds his arm from using the gauntlet.
Thanos attacks the compound and sends the Outriders, the Black Order, Gamora and Nebula to go get the gauntlet. What is interesting here is, we get to see a very different Thanos. This is not the one that said “I’ll do it myself.” This is not the one who has lost so much to achieve his goal. He has seen a future where he wins. He is confident but also a bit lazier. Instead of fighting, he sends everyone else to do it while he sits and waits. He also sort of doesn’t get why people aren’t thankful for what he has done and decides that since doing things this way will end up leading to people like the Avengers standing up and trying to stop him, he will just destroy everyone and create a whole new world. This gives us a much more villainous Thanos rather than the one from earlier in the film that we almost feel sympathy for.
While Clint is running with the Gauntlet we get the great scene of Thor, Tony, and Steve walking up to Thanos. Steve with his shield and Thor with Mjolnir and Stormbreaker which is amazing to see. I really appreciate that throughout this whole movie, they kept Thor fat. I kept expecting him to just instantly become fit again but thankfully they didn’t go that route.
Even with how different this Thanos is, he proves to be a challenge and while taking some hits, he does take down the three and is getting ready to kill Thor. This leads to one of the best scenes, a scene that was teased back in Age of Ultron. We just see Mjolnir lifted from the ground and get slammed into Thanos before flying back into Steve’s hand. Steve easily wields Mjolnir and the shield, using them in unison and even channeling the lightning and firing it at Thanos. It is such a great scene. The action throughout the movie was great but there wasn’t much of it. The film makes up for it in this third act. It is just so amazing. Unfortunately even with that, Thanos manages to beat them back. With all the Avengers down, we get an amazing looking shot of Steve standing up against all of Thanos' army. One man against hundred if not thousands. It is so visually impressive.
Here we get another wonderful, just perfect moment. “On your left” we hear in Steve’s ear as portals start to open in the sky. Finally everyone starts coming back. And I mean everyone. You have the heroes, the citizens of Wakanda, the Ravagers, the wizards, even Howard the Duck is there. Then finally…FINALLY we get Steve saying “Avengers Assemble” and the all out war begins. Peter gets to see Tony who hugs him. Pepper shows up in the rescue armor and is fighting. Valkyrie is there fighting. Everything is just so great about this scene. Unfortunately Thanos decides he will sacrifice his army if he has to and starts shooting from his ship. The gauntlet at this point is passed from Clint to T’Challa and finally to Peter who webs onto Mjolnir and uses that to try to get the stones back so they can return to their original timelines. He hides as blasts rain down, Rocket covers Groot from the fire and the wizards put up shields to block the blasts.
Now we have Captain Marvel showing up and doing what she does best, blasting through Thanos’ ship. She joins the fight and takes the gauntlet from Peter. We then get another great shot of all of the women heroes banding together and fighting to defend the gauntlet. We also have a very angry Wanda showing just what she is capable of. Thanos ends up with the gauntlet though and gets ready to snap but Carol stops him. Much to his shock. The fight continues with him having to remove the power stone to fight off Carol. And now is when pain really starts to set it.
Strange looks over to Stark and holds up one finger, showing this is it. Tony attacks Thanos but is knocked back and Thanos goes to snap, saying he is Inevitable. The snap doesn’t work though as the stones are gone leading to a shot of Tony with the stones fusing with his gauntlet. He proclaims “I am Iron Man”, snaps his fingers and takes out Thanos and his army. From the very beginning, most people had a feeling that Tony would die. Did not change how sad of a moment it was. Especially considering he had a family now. He got that happiness he wanted. Peter is heartbroken at this, begging him not to go which only makes the scene even more heartbreaking. Unfortunately there is no coming back from this..
After his funeral we have Steve going to take the stones back to their timelines which they say that for them he should be back in only about 5 seconds. Despite that, Bucky says he will miss him. Instantly you know that he isn’t coming back. They look over to a bench to see an old Steve Rogers. He ended up staying back with Peggy. Living his life and finally getting that dance. He gives the shield to Sam, we see Steve and Peggy dancing and that’s that.
This is probably one of, if not my favorite film in the MCU. While it isn’t as action packed until the end, it is a really well done movie, one that was obviously made for the fans. There are plenty of call backs to the other films in the franchise and they went and addressed plenty of things that people questioned in those films as well. I will say that while the directors have since came out and talked about the time travel in the movie, I’m still not sure how much it all makes sense. At the end of the day though, it is a comic book movie. I have learned to shut my brain off when it comes to things like that. I am excited to see Spider-man in July and see how this phase of the MCU will end and what the next will bring. It will certainly not be the same without Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr.
I forgot to mention that Thor has also teamed up with the Guardians of the Galaxy. So Guardians 3 with Thor? I am even more excited for that film now. This movie is the end of an era and was a bit bittersweet because of that, but as sad as it made me, as I’ve said, it makes me even more excited for the future of the MCU. At the end of the day, I have loved nearly everything so far and will most certainly continue to love it 3000.
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