Endgame: Vague Thoughts/Reactions/Enthusiasm
OMG! MOG! GMO! OMG!
SO MANY AVENGERS ENDGAME FEELINGS!!!!
First, to get the important things out of the way.
1) I LOVED IT.
2) Yes, fat joke with Thor was stupid and annoying.
3) My only other gripe is that Coulson wasn't at the funeral.
4) Otherwise, I LOVED IT.
I'm actually a little afraid to check in with other fans about Endgame, particularly slashers. I have a feeling that a lot of Bucky fans aren't going to be as happy with this movie as I am. It's like the divide between fans who enjoyed Civil War and the fans that didn't. I loved Civil War, but I know a lot of Bucky/Stucky fans who were less than pleased with it.
So, with that disclaimer regarding other people's feelings in place, here are my current thoughts/reactions...
The thing is, there was a really predictable route to this movie. It was: Fight to get the stones back, follow the classic 3-act/escalating conflict movie structure, then get the green time stone and use it to reset and save the dead people.
I think a part of why I so enjoyed this movie was that it actually managed to surprise me! Yes, at its core, it was still basically a fight to get the stones back. However, I genuinely was not expecting all that time travel. Or, for the time travel to not simply be related to the getting green power stone.
Maybe that's silly on my part, but using the green/time stone seemed like such an obvious route and I figured they'd just do that. Instead, we get the rat that saved half the universe bringing Scott Lang back! We get Tony, Pepper, and Morgan Potts! We get... I love you times 3000.
I just feel so relieved and kinda touched by the way they managed to wrap this up. The way they handled the time travel did such a lovely job at being retrospective and giving fans a taste of the past moments/arcs. It was so nice to revisit Manhattan and to go back to Thor's mom and Jane. It really felt like everyone had their moment of wrap-up/resolution. Hawkeye continues to be massively underserved by the MCU, but his story mattered in the sense that it mattered to Natasha and got us to that gut-wrenching fight at Vormir. I live in hope that the Hawkeye TV series may actually resemble the Matt Fraction and David Aja run of the comics.
Ultimately, I just felt really satisfied by the way they a) wrapped up Natasha, Steve, and Tony and b) set up for Sam. And, let's be real, other than the Clint/Coulson ship in my head, those four (and maybe Darcy) have always been the characters I connected with the most.
The other thing this movie helped me to remember was where this franchise began in "phase one." In particular, it helped me remember that all this began with Tony Stark. When this franchise began I was two things: 1) a clint/coulson shipper and 2) a steve/tony shipper. When Bucky came back in Winter Soldier, we were in the phase one to phase two transition. It was an interesting moment in fandom and in the franchise. That Steve/Tony vibe just went away. At that point, we'd had the three Iron Man movies and the franchise was moving on. Equally important, we'd just been through a major economic recession. Technically, it was over in 2009, but most people were (are!) still dealing with its effects. At this point, I think Tony's excess and bravado was a lot less palatable and, with Nationalism, paranoia, and Trump-politics on the rise, Steve's earnest patriotism was very appealing.
In phase two, the emphasis was much more on the interplay between Steve, Natasha, Sam, and Bucky. Tony absolutely showed up and played an important role, but Steve took on the leadership role, both in the Avengers and in the franchise. During phase two and phase three, Tony became more of a foil for Steve and his priorities.
Now, here we are at the end of phase three, and Tony is back at the center of the action again. Only, he's also back as the hero making the sacrifice. And, that just feels right to me. It feels right on a practical level (aka RDJ getting old) and on the level of story (aka, bringing the 22 movie arc back, full circle, to Tony).
For Steve, his ending didn't feel quite as tidy to me, but I thought it worked at that it made sense. He's already "died" for the cause. It feels right that his ending is that he gets to live into old age. I didn't love the way they just brought Peggy back as a love-interest/bonus gift, but I'm resigned to it. I'm not shocked that they couldn't manage more there.
I have to say, I went to the movie and sat through it just fine-- perfectly stoic, no tears!-- until one critical moment. When Steve hands Sam the shield, the tears just started flowing. SAM! The SHIELD! And, OMG Sam's BEARD?!?!?
Other things I loved:
Steve + Thor's Hammer
AMERICA'S ASS
Jarvis cameo!!
Natasha and Clint at Vorimir
"I can go all day." "I know."
LOKI!
Fully actualized Bruce "The Hulk" Banner.
My main gripe:
Wait... you could get the kid from Iron Man 3 back for the funeral, but you couldn't get Coulson?!?!?!?
Those are my current and fairly disorganized thoughts on the film. I need to see it again. Multiple times.
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