Skip to main content

Movie Review: Avengers: Endgame (2019) *Spoiler Section*

After eleven years of movies Marvel Studios continues to surprise me with Avengers: Endgame. No matter what I think might happen (and I'm rarely right) they always manage to unfold a story full of twists here and there that I would never have thought of.

Avengers: Endgame begins moments before the snap in Infinity War. As you would expect this movie is all about how the Avengers deal with the consequences and, ultimately, formulate a plan to reverse them.

At just over three hours long at no time did this movie drag for me. The first hour is probably the least action packed but there's so much story and so many characters that you're never in any scene long enough for it to wear thin. The story is pretty much moving forward all the time.

As well, it is interesting to see a post snap Earth, and to see what the Avengers have been doing for quite some time after.

If you enjoyed Infinity War then this is a very satisfying part two that you're going to end up wanting to watch back to back with that film at some point (I mean, if you're a true fan why wouldn't you want to watch a five and a half plus hour Marvel Superhero movie that features appearances from virtually every live action MCU superhero from the last eleven years?).

When I came out of Endgame at no time did I think 'I wish they would've done this...' or 'I wish they hadn't done that...' (well actually there was one point where I thought I wish they hadn't done that but it's such a nit picky detail that it really doesn't matter to anything).

Everything about Endgame is up to the familiar high standards you'd expect from a Marvel movie, great action, good humor, mostly great special effects (let's face it there's so much CGI in these things sometimes a few patchy moments get through), and, as I said, they always manage a few surprises.

Definitely one to see on the big screen, and you'll almost certainly want it in your MCU movie collection.

** Spoiler Section **


So if you've seen the movie and just want to read a few of my random thoughts about certain aspects continue on. If you haven't seen the film and you don't want to be spoiled at all, bookmark this post and come back when none of the following will be new information.

Quickly, my minor nitpick with the film is some random rat accidentally pushing the button on the quantum gateway device. While this is certainly plausible by this time five years have gone by and 'someone' impounded Scott's van with all the equipment intact. In all the time the van was sitting on the parking garage rooftop, after the snap, or when it was moved into storage, no actual person got curious about the machine inside it wondering... 'What does this button do?"

I just think, with all the creativity of these movies, I would've like to have seen something a bit more interesting than a rat step on the 'on' switch to bring Scott Lang back. That aside, it is nitpicky and makes no real difference to anything. I hope the rat writes a book, 'How I Saved Half the Universe Without Really Trying."

A thought I had about Captain America being able to now lift Thor's hammer is, what if he could always lift Thor's Hammer? I mean you're either worthy to lift it or you're not, there's no 'not quite worthy'.

What if, in Age of Ultron, Steve went to lift the hammer expecting not to be able to lift it but discovered he could - hence him moving it a little. However, so as not to spoil Thor's game (because he's just that nice a guy) Steve faked not being able to lift it any further.

At that point Thor would realize that he's not the only one who can be worthy of wielding his hammer... hence the look of concern he displays when Steve moves it a little.

Further to this theory, why would Captain America even think to summon Thor's hammer in the Endgame if he didn't know he had a shot of wielding it? It's not like the hammer was right next to him and he picked it up by chance, discovering he could now lift it. He actually had to call it to him.

I'm almost certain Cap has always been worthy. Even on Thor's best day he doesn't come close to how worthy Cap has been his whole life... Thor had to become worthy.

Clearly I'm not the only one to think this, and maybe this hypothesis is correct based on Joss Wheden's response at the end of the WatchMojo video below:



Whilst we're on the subject of Thor,. 'Melted ice-cream', Big Lebowski Thor is my new favorite Thor. One of those surprisingly unexpected things that I didn't see coming - but makes perfect sense for the character.

I also liked smart Hulk but I kind of saw that one coming - well I didn't but I'd heard it speculated as a possibility. My favorite moment was smart Hulk trying to smash things up a little so as to not arouse suspicion.

While stating that this is very much a time travel movie isn't really a spoiler because we all knew some form of time travel was a real possibility to reverse the snap, I really appreciated that the film tries to offer new mechanics for how time travel actually works.

They do this in the context of a multiverse where alternate realities are happening concurrently. Essentially allowing you to bring yourself from one time stream into another creating a different you in the same time stream. Anything can happen to either version of you and it won't affect the other's past or future because you're not actually the same person. You're different versions of you from different time streams.

It's all very complex and probably breaks down massively if you overthink it too much but, as a time travel movie fan, it's always nice to see new thinking about how time travel might work if it was actually possible.

Time travel was used quite well in this movie too. Not only do we get a little bit of tour around previous films in the finale but it also allows Thanos to be the full strength bad guy that he was in Infinity War.

I'm still not sure about Captain Marvel's power levels. I have no problem with the character but I've seen her take down massive, hulking spacecraft single handedly in two films now, yet she still struggles in a hand to hand fight with Thanos. Yes Thanos is strong but without the gauntlet I've never seen him do anything comparable to Captain Marvel... and he can't even fly like she can.

I think that's all I wanted to add about the film. I really enjoyed it and I appreciate it being definitively the end of this chapter of Marvel movies. I'm really looking forward to where Marvel goes next. I'm particularly interested in their take on the Fantastic Four (as someone who hasn't been that disappointed by the previous incarnations on film).

But speculation on what's next is for another time.




Comments

Buy Whimsical Cat Art Prints by TET (Redbubble Store)

Enjoy Your Favorite TET Art Up Close, Interactive, and so Relaxing!

Enjoy Your Favorite TET Art Up Close, Interactive, and so Relaxing!
Relax and Challenge Yourself with a Fun, Whimsical Cat Art Jigsaw - 30-1000 pieces. Click Image for More.

Popular posts from this blog

Occupy Wall Street - Movement for Change of... Something?

I've been kind of following the Occupy Wall Street 'movement' from my position of apathetic denial of what's actually happening in the real world - that you can see if you pull back the curtain or disconnect from the Matrix. In particular I've watched vlogs of the Melbourne, Australia, Occupy Movement through the eyes and camera of You-tuber Sean Beadlam . Sean is quite a hard hitting comedian whose humor is topical, political and often based on the injustices faced by the oppressed. He also focuses on the media and how they'll beat up a story to get their 'angle' rather than provide balanced reporting of the whole story. Although not one of his comedy routines this video below from Occupy Melbourne is a good example of Sean's work with several juxtaposes of the Occupy movement with media and Sean's use of technology. Although Sean isn't the only source of my information, you would think that a guy like him would have...

Pt5. Three Cat Tails Painting by TET

Finished: Three Cat Tails Acrylic on Canvas panels. Day five of my video diary (embeded below) following the creation of my latest series of paintings, Three Cat Tails. View Part one , Part two ,  Part 3  and Part 4 if you haven't seen them yet. In the final episode of this series I get to paint the black and white layers that I thought I'd be painting on day 4 but delayed in exchange for adding more purple and green shadow. The black and white layers take the artworks through to completion. Then I finish each panel off with a dark blue border around the edge (to cover up the paint marks on the sides). Whilst I do continue to talk about what I'm doing as I paint this episode does contain a few quite moments of just me painting away because there isn't really a lot to say about the white and black layer. However I hope you'll stick with it to the end just the same. The series of artworks are available to buy so if you're interested contact m...

Software Stylus for Tablet Drawing

 I own an Android Tablet that has available to it many great drawing applications.  The trouble is, drawing on a touchscreen with  your finger is like trying to sketch with jumbo crayons.  As is trying to draw with most stylus pens which are only a marginal improvement over using your finger.  Precision drawing on your average touchscreen seems like wishful thinking.  However I've had this idea for a software stylus that acts like an extension of your finger and allows drawing with greater precision.  See my rough diagram below.  Essentially it's a pointer that follows your finger around the screen. Its angle can be adjusted so that from your vantage point it looks like the tip of  your finger is coming to a point. Softnib concept sketch.  You simply move the pointer around and the line is drawn from the point of the stylus instead of somewhere under your finger, where you can't see it.  Obviously I haven't worked out a...

Pt4. Three Cat Tails Painting by TET

WIP: Three Cat Tails Darker purple and green shading added. Day four of my video diary (embeded below) following the creation of my latest series of paintings, Three Cat Tails. View Part one ,  Part two  and Part 3 if you haven't seen them yet. Yesterday I said that I would begin on adding my black and white final layers today. However after looking at the paintings a few times over night I decided the cats could really use more shadow to give them just a little more three dimensional form. I had a strong feeling that adding purple and green shadows was what the images really needed. Especially the two larger images needed the purple shading on the background behind the cats to connect them with it - since those two particular images actually make more sense if you get the feeling that you're looking at the cats, laying on a blue floor, from above. At this point I pretty certain I'm ready for my final black and white detail layers - which I'll get onto...

Pt3. Three Cat Tails Painting by TET

WIP: Three Cat Tails Darker shading and cream fur added. Day three of my video diary (embeded below) following the creation of my latest series of paintings, Three Cat Tails. View Part one and Part two if you haven't seen them yet. In this video I mix a dark brown colour to add some shadow and stripes to my cats. You'll see how the brown tones the orange down quite a bit to make the colouring of the cats a little more believable. I also mix a light cream colour to fill in the transitions between the orange and white area of the cats fur. You'll see in a later episode more clearly what I mean once I add the white back in. Note how, when I add the cream, it initially goes on too thick and I have to wipe it back with a cloth and water it down to make it more translucent. The perils of mixing colours with white paint! Finally I finish up by adding in a few small details like paw pads and noses. It doesn't actually seem like I did that much today. O...

Pt2. Three Cat Tails Painting by TET

WIP: Three Cat Tails background and base colours. Day two and part two of my video diary (embeded below) following the creation of my latest series of paintings, Three Cat Tails. View Part one if you haven't seen it yet. After painting my initial base painting using the three primary colours, in this episode I demonstrate blocking in my backgrounds and the base colour for the three cats. This episode is a little longer than the last but hopefully is still interesting to watch. All the painting you see is in real time but obviously edited down quite a lot to show the 'highlights' and I explain what I'm doing as I go. I realize these videos aren't as exciting to watch as the more common 'speed painting' style videos but if your the kind of person that likes to watch over the shoulder of a real live artist at work then these might just be up your alley. Continue to Part 3 .

Who Even Reads This?

W riting this blog is largely both a labor of love and a discipline. Since about 2006 (the blog started in 2004) I have written a minimum of two posts per month. Sometimes I've posted more, particularly in the last 4-5 years, where I've tried to write and post at least one article a week without fail. Unfortunately it's not a niche blog, unless the niche is things that interest me. Which means my blog is either too broad to have regular readers or too niche to have anyone other than my mum reading it. Which she does (hi Mum) as we established back in January of 2014 in the post Ya Mum Reads it... That said, this blog overall regularly gets 6-7k views every month, mostly through people finding various articles through search engines. By far the largest traffic source is 'Other' which is basically unknown sources. I'm willing to bet a large percentage of that is the dead internet. Bots testing my comments to see if they're spamable or Illuminati spammers. Whil...