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.