Yeah, yeah, I know. There was once a time when I would have had this written down mere moments after seeing this movie on opening night. All I can say is that adult life is a bitch and we didn't have the time or the funds to see it until tonight.
I did manage to stay mostly spoiler-free, however. Even after the embargo was lifted a week ago, I still didn't see too many spoilers, which I didn't expect. So, way to go Internet. You did something right for a change.
Anyway - my thoughts on this capstone of over ten years of comic book superhero movies -
It is very rare that a series with huge ambitions in the beginning manages to stick the landing at the end. I mean, just this morning multitude of Game of Thrones fans are complaining that this final season is not living up to expectations (meanwhile, I am vindicated in my choice to not get into it, even though there were times where I felt like I was missing out on something. Turns out, no - I really wasn't). Once Upon a Time fizzled out at the end. The DC movie universe is kind of... not. The less said about Universal's Dark Universe, the better. And, of course, the most infamous example of a series turning out a massive pratfall and pretending that all is well while also insulting the fans who are presenting legitimate criticisms - the less said about Star Wars, the better (never thought I would prefer the prequels, but I'll gladly take another Jar Jar Binks scene if my other choice is some hipster-beard asshole soy-splaining to me how I just don't get the glorious vision of Kathleen Kennedy subverting audience expectations by vacillating between utter laziness and preachy bullshit).
But, somehow - the Marvel Cinematic Universe pulled off the impossible. It stayed the course for 22 movies, with minimum flaws, sticking to the plan, and not churning out a single sub-par entry. Mediocrity was never an option. Even some of the MCU films that weren't quite up to snuff with their comrades are VASTLY better than anything else the imitators are trying to present. I mean, I would happily watch Thor: The Dark World when compared to some of the offerings of other studios lately.
I loved Endgame. I don't know if I'll get to see it in theaters again, but I'd love to. This was a love letter to these characters and this entire series. It went against everything I expected to see, but in a way that I enjoyed. Sure, I expected them to go after Thanos in the aftermath of Infinity War, but to have that confrontation happen and be done within the first act, it's like "Okay, what do we do now?"
We jump ahead five years later and have Scott Lang show up with the Applied Phlebotinum to save the day. That's precisely what we do now.
Who knew those memes about Ant-Man being the hero, rather than Captain Marvel, were actually pretty accurate?
Did I see the time travel plot coming? Nope. Did I enjoy it? Hell yes, I did! It was even explained fairly well (using pop culture references as well as scientific explanations in a way that the audience could follow. I appreciated that effort).
Remember what I said about this movie being a love-letter to all the movies that came before? This is how you make that work. The first Avengers movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, every Captain America movie, Doctor Strange, even Thor: The Dark World had a nod within this sequence (Thor reunited with his mom here was great). And in between, there are nods to other moments in the MCU and how it all connects together. This makes me want to re-watch all of the MCU movies in order, and now I'm not under a time-crunch to do it in. I can do it at a leisurely pace and enjoy myself as I do.
A few things that I did know going in, but I didn't really have context for - I knew about Thor letting himself go, but I didn't know that it was because of his guilt for not "going for the head." But the joy on his face when he finds out he's "still worthy" of Mjolnir - that was worth it. Also, I knew Black Widow died, but the reason for it and how it went down, was absolutely gut-wrenching.
Nebula was outstanding, even with the problem of her inadvertently alerting Thanos to the Avengers' plans (who knew that future!Nebula would have been on the same outer-space-wifi network as past!Nebula?) I loved that she got the chance to shine in the fight against Thanos. I'm even more excited that she's not only a Guardian of the Galaxy, but also an Avenger (but it's Karen Gillan - I already have a soft spot for her in general).
Banner-Hulk was adorable, as was Rocket (though I ought not to let him hear me say that). Tony's little family was unexpected, but lovely. I'm glad that he and Pepper finally got to live their lives together - also that Pepper finally gets what makes Tony tick. Seeing her as Rescue in the ending was great.
The cavalry at the end - everyone coming in through those portals behind Cap when he's facing down Team Thanos, seemingly on his own. If nothing else, THAT is what I mean when I say this movie - this whole series - stuck the landing. Nothing short of everybody showing up was going to be satisfactory enough. And it didn't feel like they were just throwing stuff at the wall to see what stuck. It actually WORKED (with a few minor exceptions that I will mention shortly, but those were hardly enough to be a bother).
Cap lifting Mjolnir was amazing. But what was even more amazing was Thor shouting "I knew it!" Meaning that he wasn't jealous of Steve's worth - they're a team and they all had common goals. But admit it - seeing Cap control Thor's lightning was pretty kickass.
Everyone reuniting with their friends - Scott and Hope, Tony and Peter Parker (oh man pull out the tissues for THAT one), Steve and Sam and Bucky, Groot and Rocket, all the Guardians showing up - just everybody. Wanda coming back and being utterly PISSED at Thanos (that was another one that I was cheering to get a good crack at Big Purple Ugly). I admit, I am looking forward to the Wanda/Vision show on Disney Plus.
One minor quibble of a moment that I thought was too on-the-nose and kind of took me out of the story for a bit - the Girl Power thing when Captain Marvel was trying to get the Infinity Gauntlet to Scott's van... eh, was that entirely necessary? I mean, everyone's already shown up to fight this insane threat. Would it really be so bad if, like, Thor or Black Panther or Doctor Strange or Drax helped too? It's not like Scarlet Witch or Wasp or the Wakanda warrior ladies really know this butch chick from outer space. Did they all have some weird estrogen wavelength moment where they all decided they were going to run block for her because, X-chromosome or something?
Then again, Girl Power was a huge deal in the '90s. It's kind of passe at this point.
But that's neither here nor there. It doesn't last that long and soon enough, we're back to everyone fighting toward the same goal - stop Thanos from getting the Infinity Stones again. And, honestly, having Tony be the one to do it was the best way they could have done it. This whole saga started with Iron Man - both in universe and as far as the success of the first Iron Man movie in the real world - he deserved to be the one to finish it. And it made sense - Doctor Strange even said that if he told Tony what he'd seen, it wouldn't happen.
But just that final "I am Iron Man" - I knew it. I mean, I figured that this was going to be RDJ's last hurrah as Tony Stark. And it wouldn't do for him to go out with anything less than a bang. Didn't make it any less heartbreaking (especially considering little Morgan Stark is now without her dad).
And then Cap wraps up the rest of the story by putting all the Infinity Stones back where they need to be - and then he gets to choose what he does with the rest of his life. And THIS - this part right here - this is what sealed the deal for me. Because from Captain America: The First Avenger, I have been the biggest hardcore Steve/Peggy shipper. I didn't get too carried away with it, though, because everything I've seen indicated that it was simply never going to happen. But I adore Steve Rogers and I adore Peggy Carter - both in their own rights as individual characters (honestly, I'd trade any future seasons of Agents of SHIELD for just one more round of Agent Carter). And once Banner and co. were all "Where's Steve?", that's when I knew what he'd done. He retired and went back to find Peggy and live out his life with her.
Funnily enough, I didn't get too weepy at any part of this movie. But at that moment - when Old!Steve came back to bequeath his shield to Sam Wilson and Sam commented on Steve's wedding ring - that's when the waterworks started.
What's weird is that, out of everything that happened in this movie, that's the thing that pissed some people off. Because their Tumblr slashfic of Cap and Bucky didn't get realized on screen. Honestly, if you have a problem with Captain Steve Rogers getting his happy ending with Agent Peggy Carter, First Lady of SHIELD and all-around classy badass, I really don't want to talk to you.
So - who's left? Thor's gone off to be an Guardian of the Galaxy (I think). Banner and Falcon and Bucky are still at Avengers HQ (what's left, anyway). Spider-Man's getting another movie in a couple months. After that, who knows?
And the credits - man, I think anyone who ever had a significant role in this universe got a mention in the credits. Which is more than appropriate. This is the capstone to an insanely ambitious project that started out as a pie-in-the-sky idea and that somehow - through the intervention of Fate, Kevin Feige, and the Disney Company's checkbook - came together and smashed all kinds of preconceptions and traditions in film. It has been imitated from studio boardrooms, but I don't think ANYONE is going to do this again. If the damn Academy could ever get off their high horses and stop huffing their own farts, Team Marvel deserves some kind of special recognition award for pulling this off (they'll never do it, because the Academy is about celebrating their own egos, not anything to do with actual film and culture). This has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience, for which I thank all involved for putting this all together.
It all worked. Everything just worked. There's nothing left that I have questions about (at least, nothing that I can accept belongs to future stories). I will probably have other thoughts as I have more time to process the movie. But I'm just feeling great about how this ended. Will I go see more Marvel movies? Um... not sure. I kind of want it to go out on a high note. I don't want to risk it hanging on longer than necessary and getting run into the ground (as inevitably happens with a lot of long-running series, see the list of failures mentioned at the beginning of this post).
But for now - let me enjoy this.
