Avengers Endgame Review (After Sobbing Twice at the Movies)

I’ve been waiting to write an Avengers Endgame review with spoilers. I went to the cinema twice, and I sobbed like a baby. (I’m pretty sure I’ll cry every time I see this movie, just as I do with the Lion King.) So, I’ve behaved, and now I’ll be reviewing the film, taking some tissues while I remember it fondly. (And probably find yet another excuse to see it again.) To say it’s a Superhero masterpiece is unflattering. Yes, it’s that good. The Avengers lost in Infinity War, and for the first time, they have to cope with precisely that: a huge loss. Each character will do it differently. It’s just so heartbreaking to see how each of them react.

SPOILERS: this review contains heavy spoilers of the film. It’s been weeks since it’s been out in the wild, but just in case you haven’t seen it yet, stop here. My review isn’t spoiler free at all. So, before you follow reading this brilliant review, do me a favor: see it!

We start the movie with Hawkeye losing his family while in house arrest, and IronMan stranded in the middle of space with Nebula. She’s quite robotic, so in case that things go astray, nothing happens. But Tony is human, and the ship is failing, so he has some hours to live. Happily, Captain Marvel finds him and brings him to the Avengers headquarters in Earth. There, we can see what’s happening with our heroes. This is in denial and visually grooming a massive depression. Captain America is also trying his best, still not believing that they’ve lost. And so is Natasha, and the others.

Thanks to IronMan’s tech, and Captain Marvel, they find Thanos who is on a planet called the Garden. But he isn’t the same like before. He’s heavily damaged and cooking some sort of soup. (This is the weirdest thing ever, but as he’s the Mad Titan, it makes sense. He’s simply crazy.) And the Avengers find him only to discover that he has destroyed the infinity stones. Denial creeps over everyone in the group, and Thor snaps chopping off Thanos’ head.

While Tony reverts to his previous persona, stating that he can’t do anything, others like Thor go down into depression. Some show it with closing themselves and keeping up with their families, like Tony. Others can’t move forward like Natasha. And the ones that have it worse are people like Thor: he’s fat, drinking all the time, and can’t talk about his trauma. Some people have stated that he’s turned into a coward, but I don’t agree. Depression can put you in a very dark place, and Thor is obviously hurting. Despite this, he ends up in the middle of the fight against Thanos trying his best. He needed to held Mjolnir again to feel that he was still worthy.

Different personalities will show sadness and depression in different ways. Some people are more sensitive than others, and we can see how every single one of them tries to cope with it in the best way they can. Hawkeye has gone rogue, and Thor has let himself go into the abyss. Both are examples of what can happen when you’re in a dark place.

Things get spicy when Ant-Man appears again, thanks to a rat walking on the buttons of the machine he was trapped in, in the quantum realm. He has the key to undo all the mess: time travel. He envisions the thing like Back to the Future, but Iron Man dismisses it. Tony has a family now with Pepper, and he has a super cute daughter. He adores her, and she adores him. In fact, she loves him three thousand. However, Tony cannot revert for long into his selfish persona and ends up helping the Avengers. They team up again, and they travel back in time to retrieve the stones at different moments in time. And, yes, they go to our favorite battle in N.Y., where we meet Loki again.

However, things don’t go as predicted, and Loki ends up with a stone and flees, creating a new parallel reality. So, what happens next in that alternate Universe? Perhaps will see that in the new Marvel show for Loki. So, Tony and Cap go further back in time to retrieve the stone and Pym particles to make back the trip. And Tony ends up meeting his dad who tells him his wife is expecting. This is highly emotional because he can see his dad again.

All teams are finally successfully retrieving the stones, but there’re two incidents. A major one is Natasha. Black Widow and Hawkeye are in charge to retrieve the Soul Stone, and it demands a soul for a soul. Both heroes try to save the other and sacrifice, but in the end, it’s Natasha. I cried, then I cried more, and then I was angry because I didn’t want her to go. That was a low blow! Her family was the Avengers, and she gave it all. We can’t really see any funeral of sorts since we’re in the middle of the battle. Maybe doing something beautiful would have been cool? I mean, regarding the other hero’s funeral at the end. (Okay, I’ll end up the rant here.)

The second issue is that Nebula’s interface mixes with her past self, and Thanos ends up knowing about their plans. But so is Gamora, who isn’t that keen on making Daddy happy. Thus, the old Nebula takes the place of the Nebula from the future, and while the Avengers put the stones on a Gauntlet made by Tony Stark, she brings the Thanos from the past to this future. But not soon enough, because Hulk snaps his fingers and brings everyone back.

Here we have an epic battle with everyone. Heroes come back, so the Avengers aren’t alone. And that includes Peter Parker. One of the most emotional parts of the movie is when Tony Stark finally hugs Peter, who accepts it fondly. For Tony, it has been five years since they lost. For Peter, just closing and opening his eyes again. So, it’s normal that he doesn’t understand the change in Iron Man.

Thanos brings all he has to get the Gauntlet. Now the plans are different. Instead of snapping half of the Universe away, he’ll snap everyone, and then create one that it’s grateful. Obviously, no one wants that, and they fight with all their might! And here comes the thing, it’s going to be between Thanos and Tony Stark. Even if Thanos has the Gauntlet, it’s Tony Stark who has the last say. Doctor Strange points at him one finger, and he knows that this is the only chance in all the infinite possibilities where they can make it.

Tony struggles with him, and the stones go from the Gauntlet to his suit, starting to poison him. He states: “I’m Iron Man” and then snaps his fingers. And with that, he snaps into oblivion Thanos’ army, and the titan. Iron Man is dying when Peter gets next to him. “Mr. Stark!” This scene mirrors the one in Avengers Infinity War. I cried a lot, but I wasn’t prepared to cry so much with this one.

We all know that all started with Iron Man, and this cycle ends with him. But it’s not an end, it’s just a new beginning. We have new heroes, and characters like Thor who join the Guardians of the Galaxy. So, we’ll have lots of cool movies in the future. Only that we’ll miss Tony Stark. In the comics, he becomes an A.I., and he keeps it up. I don’t know if Robert Downey Jr. will keep it up, but it’d be nice to have him around from time to time.

This movie was superb! It’s a grand finale for a great saga, and yet it’s not perfect. As I said before, I miss some ceremony for Natasha. Tony had it, why not her? I also wonder what will happen with this Thor and if he’ll ever encounter the missing Loki from another realm. We’re stepping into the territory of a Multiverse, and that’s fascinating. In the comics things are funky, but let’s hope that something of the sort also happens with the MCU.

For the time being, let’s see the movie yet again, and dare to dream!

Copyright: Images on this post (C) Marvel / Memes & Gifs (C) by their owners.