“A thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts. It’s a Privilege to be among them.” – Vision in Avengers : Age Of Ultron
I cannot state this enough, I will literally be talking about every single major spoiler from Endgame. If you haven’t seen it yet. I can wait. This article will still be here for you. Go watch it, feel every emotion imaginable in 3 hours and then come back here.
Alright, I’m sorry for the long intro but hopefully you understand. 11 years ago I sat down in the theater and watched Iron Man for the first time. I’ve followed every film since and these wonderful films are a large part of the reason that I even started writing and that this website even exists. So believe me when I say that Avengers Endgame is honestly something that is beyond just a film to me. It is simultaneously a celebration of 11 years of serialized storytelling, a fantastic finale for the first 3 MCU Phases and most importantly, it is a beautiful story of true heroes.
Following Avengers : Infinity War I was a bit defeated…much like the Avengers themselves I just didn’t feel satisfied at all with that film. When we did the Fandom Commentaries for the different Avengers Films leading up to Endgame (Shameless Plug ) I made the realization that I honestly didn’t like Infinity War but I think that’s why it works so well. It’s not a film to enjoy and that’s absolutely brilliant. You’re supposed to dread it, to hate that it’s coming but Like Thanos, it has to happen. But hey, let’s look past the film itself and think about the fact that the most powerful Film companies in the world allowed Kevin Feige and everyone else at Marvel Studios to have a massive film where all of our heroes lose. I mean, even the most self aware person who knows that everyone is coming back has to stop and appreciate that they took that risk and because they did it so well, it paid off big time for them.
One of the things that was pretty easy to notice at the end of Infinity War was that the original 6 Avengers were all still alive that was when I realized that Endgame was their last ride. It’s sad to think of but I wouldn’t want it any other way. These 6 People were the ones who carried us through the MCU all of these years. At least one of them has been in just about every film and if this was going to be their final fight then I was happy that it would focus on them. Sure, I love War Machine, Okoye, Ant-Man, Captain Marvel and the rest but let’s face it, it’s the final story of the main 6 and I’m glad they did that for them. They genuinely deserved it. 11 years led to this and I think that all of them received what was a worthy finale for them.
The Avengers going through the Time Heist was so great because it was the first time that we’ve actually seen all of them work together since Age Of Ultron and I still hold to the idea that if they had been together during Infinity War then they would’ve Beat Thanos without any kind of issue. Which is why the 40-50 minute mark of Endgame was so important to me cause they all kinda realize it around the same time. The following scenes are genuinely funny, do a fantastic job of redoing older scenes and genuinely make every movie matter. The recreation of the Battle of New York was perfect and I loved seeing what happened after they beat Loki.(More on him later.) But now it’s time to get a bit teary eyed, cause between the moments where Tony gets to talk to his father in 1970, Steve gets to see Peggy again at Camp Lehigh but the one that defined this segment for me was the scene between Frigga and Thor which is one of the best ones of the entire film.
It happens in Thor The Dark World which most people consider to be the worst of the series but it’s handled so well that I personally will watch the original movie in a different light now. Especially knowing that she knows she’ll soon die but she still wants to offer her son some final wisdom. It’s a lovely scene that admittedly did probably hit me harder than some other people due to losing my own mother 4 years ago.
Natasha says early in the film that before the Avengers she had nothing. The Avengers were everything to her and then half of them were taken from her. Black Widow doesn’t lose. She just doesn’t and that’s why the lengths that she’s willing to go for in this film are so perfect for her story arc. Her fighting Clint over the Soul Stone is something that truly broke me and it still does even a week later. When he’s holding her hand and she keeps telling him that it’s ok is one of the most tragic performances I’ve ever seen. Renner and Johansson absolutely nail the scene and it’s something that will stick with me for a long time.
Natasha went out like a true hero. Sacrificing herself for everyone else to have a chance. They all owe everything to Black Widow.
After we finally got all of the Infinity Stones we had this moment of hope but then it was dashed by Thanos arrival and attempted destruction of the Avengers but this is what led to 2 of my favorite shots of the entire film. First was this one :
The big 3 standing together to face down this ultimate evil was something that I absolutely needed to see one more time before the end of this film and it delivered in a big way. Thor with the Hammer and Stormbreaker, Iron Man with the absolute best version of the Iron Man Suit and then Captain America Finally does it…He picks up Mjolnir and wields it against Thanos!
(I wish I had a good picture of it but they’re all super low quality cause Marvel is trying to stop Spoilers and I can totally respect that. Anyway, you know the scene and you know how great it looks)
Now as much as I love the originals and love the idea of them saving everyone, I was also very worried that everyone who was dusted in Infinity War would hardly get any screentime in Endgame and I really wanted to make sure that we got to see everyone together one last time…I need you to understand that I could barely contain my joy when this shot happened :
I’m not gonna lie. I kinda already guessed what was coming. I knew that everyone was coming back but it didn’t really matter cause this was the moment that I felt like a little kid again. Cap was alone against an Army. What was he going to do?!?! He had just picked up the Hammer which nearly blew my mind but then we had the return of The Avengers and he said “Avengers Assemble” and is it fan service? Sure! But honestly, what’s the problem with that? If you watched this scene without a smile on your face then I honestly don’t know what to do for you. This was the most beautiful finale imaginable. They were able to mix everyone so well that everyone got a moment to shine. I loved the charge of the MCU heroines, especially when I realized that there’s a very specific amount of space between Okoye and Scarlet Witch where Black Widow should be standing. It’s subtle, but it’s a gorgeous tribute for her character. I loved the massive chase scene for the Gauntlet with Hawkeye, Black Panther and Spider-Man just being the best. I loved that Captain Marvel came in and just destroyed the ship in basically 5 seconds. It was just a fun ride for about 15 minutes…then the final moment happened.
I felt the same way at the end of this film that I did after The Force Awakens : They killed one of my favorite characters and yet, I still walked out of the movie theater satisfied. In fact, this one killed 2 of my favorite heroes and I was still satisfied. Naturally, if Black Widow and Iron Man had both survived then I would’ve been fine with it but honestly, it would’ve been disingenuous to their arcs in my opinion.
Most of us went in with the knowledge that this would be Iron Man’s last film. I remember watching and thinking well maybe he’ll just go back to that house and retire with Pepper after they beat Thanos. But he can’t. Strange tells him that there’s only one way they’ll win and him accepting his fate is one of the best performances that Downey has ever given. From there, the film has a massive memorial for Tony. From the scenes of people returning to their families, Peter returning to his High-School of the bright lights Wakanda, Tony’s Voice-over during this scene is a brilliant way of saying goodbye to the past while also mentioning to always look ahead to the future. Tony just wanted to rest and be with his family but he couldn’t do that if Thanos hadn’t been truly defeated. The promise of Avenging the earth had to be answered and he did just that because he is Iron Man. His funeral scene was so well done for the entire franchise. Everyone came because they all owed something to Tony, they owed him because he truly was the start of everything. He won’t get the nomination but he absolutely deserves the Oscar for this one. Just like Tony, he gave us everything and they can both rest now.
Steve Rogers had a very different finale than I expected but it was a welcome one. Steve was allowed to be Happy and honestly, that’s all I cared about. Steve got the ending he deserved. For those of you that say that it doesn’t make sense for the character or for the time travel aspects of the film then you’re just wrong. They explain that Tony had figured out how the Time Travel wouldn’t have messed anything up, which is why the 2 Caps can fight during the Battle of New York scene without anything terrible happening so yes, the time travel makes sense. As for returning the stones, I know it’s a bit cheap but the best explanation is that it’s Captain America and he figured it out cause that’s what he does. As for his character arc, just think about it. This is a man who has saved the world at least 4 times and saved the universe once. I think we can say that he’s done his part and absolutely deserves to have his happy ending with Peggy.
Those 3 Avengers Stories have come to an end as of right now. Although Downey and Evans are officially done with the MCU, Johansson has the Black Widow movie coming up. Supposedly the movie will be a Prequel set in 2006 though so it might be the first and last Black Widow film that we’ll see but who knows.
Thor, Hulk and Hawkeye can carry on but I’m not sure that they will in the same way. Thor sets up a lot of things that could happen with Valkyrie in Thor 4, He’ll most likely be a pretty big part of Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 which is going to be great and Honestly, I can’t wait. The development of Hemsworth as Thor has been fantastic to watch and I’ll continue to watch him as long as he wants the role.
Hulk is an interesting one because he finally won. He’s the perfect mix of Banner and Hulk in this movie. I’ve seen some complaints about him not doing much in the final fight but he had literally just used the infinity gauntlet to bring everyone back. I personally thought his inclusion in the film was great and made sense. As for where he goes from here I’d love to see him as a mentor to the next generation of heroes but what I would really love is for them to do a She-Hulk film with him as her teacher. I think it’d be a lot of fun to see what they could do with that dynamic.
Hawkeye might be the most interesting of all of them in my opinion. He’s actually scheduled to appear in the Hawkeye series on Disney+ sometime next year. Supposedly the show will be about Clint Barton passing on the mantle of Hawkeye to Kate Bishop who is one of the Founding members of the Young Avengers in the comics. I’d love to see if they could that as a show but I’d also just love to see Kate in any form so I’m for anything that they wanna do.
Now the big question is where do the other movies go from here. We have The Eternals, Black Widow, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3, Dr. Strange 2 and Black Panther 2 all in development but we don’t have any official release windows or anything else like that yet. We also will eventually have the inclusion of The X-Men and The Fantastic Four following the fox merger that happened back in March but Feige has said that they will most likely be around 5 years out. The big question is will there be a larger threat that we’re working towards like Thanos was or will we go more into building each world separately while having everyone cross over from time to time? Only time will tell but there’s so much they could do that they’ve barely touched on. Galactus, Dr. Doom, Annihilus, Fin Fang Foom(Yeah, who doesn’t wanna see a gigantic green kaiju?) and Kang the Conqueror are just 5 villains that haven’t even appeared in the film. Meanwhile we still have Dormammu, Zemo, Red Skull(Possibly) and Mordo. All of these guys could easily make comebacks in the next phase. A Masters of Evil arc with Zemo at the head would actually be pretty awesome.
In conclusion, the fact of the matter is that Endgame isn’t the end of the MCU. It certainly was a fitting finale for some of the characters but the universe will carry on. If you had told me when I was 14, that by the time I’m 25 I would have 23 connected Marvel Films then I would’ve thought you were insane. They truly have pulled off something utterly spectacular.
All of us here at the Fandom Correspondents would just like to extend a big thank you to Everyone at Marvel Studios whether you were an actor, writer, director, producer or anyone else. You’re the reason that we have these wonderful films, so thank you so much.
Love you 3000.
