ENDGAME

AVENGERS ENDGAME REVIEW
warning: long post filled with spoilers

The Final Fight

• I love the part where Thanos just waits for Thor, Iron Man and Cap to come to him and says "You couldn't live with your failure and where did that take you? Right back to me."
• The ensuing fight scene. I know that Thanos' villainous motivation was either a hit or miss with people but regardless of what one's opinion was on his 'balance the world's resources' agenda, I think it can't be denied that it gave us an extremely entertaining story. 
• Thanos as a villain...showing us what it means to have a large scale cosmic villain. Not just one who blows up a town or affects a planet or a nation...but one whose schemes affect the entire universe. I just loved what a menace this guy was and how difficult it was to fight him.
  
  I enjoyed watching the Trinity get clobbered not because I wanted them to lose (far from it!) but because it showed how much they had to put up with and in effect- how heroic they were to keep going on despite getting the shit beat out of them. The scene where Thor almost got sliced by Stormbreaker (with Thanos pushing down on it) was terrifying. I felt that Iron Man was going to get ripped in half at one point as well.
  
  Loved Cap's moment of glory with Mjolner, even if it didn't last long. He deserved to wield that hammer and I'm glad this part of comics canon was included. I also loved how Cap was able to wield Stormbreaker. :D
• To be fair, I also enjoyed watching Thanos get clobbered. It prevented him from becoming a perfect, unconquerable villain. The Avengers got clobbered but they gave just as good as they got. It was probably the most difficult fight of Thanos life. Tit for tat.  Which brings me to my next favorite scene-
• "Avengers Assemble" preceded by the whole "Yibambe" chanting. Very uplifting. In fact, I was even more exhilarated by this than I was by Aragorn's speech in ROTK or any of the other LOTR fight. I think it's because, after 20+ movies, we were given not only character back stories but we also were made to witness the horrors they had to go though (like, that horrible cliff hanger in Infinity War)  
• Thanos getting clobbered by Scarlet Witch. Loved Captain Marvel's entrance as well, but as far as female empowerment goes, this had an even better impact on me because we saw exactly what happened between Scarlet Witch, Vision and Thanos in IW. That scene gave new meaning to the words 'hell hath no fury...' It was great to see a blood lusted Scarlet Witch and what she could do. It was also the only scene where it looked as if Thanos was going to get it >XD She didn't even have to lay a finger on him!
  
  I know some people will think of this as pandering but it has all the basis in the world. Not only is Scarlet Witch more powerful in the comics, but even her MCU version has already shown what she was capable of- in Infinity War, not only did she fend of Thanos, she did it while she was destroying an Infinity Stone. Whatever powers she displays aren't out of the blue. They were there from the beginning.
• Passing the Gauntlet scene from Hawkeye to Black Panther to Spider Man to Captain Marvel. I like the symbolism. I also like how T'Challa said, "Give it to me Clint.", because in the previous movie Civil War, he said "I don't care," when Hawkeye tried to introduce himself.
• The look Doctor Strange gives Tony when he raises his hand saying that this was the one chance.
• "I am Iron Man." Well, of course. I loved the look on Thanos' face when he got dusted. I think it's poetic justice. His character is practically synonymous with not just the Gauntlet but the finger snap...it's only fair he gets snapped out of existence.

Nebula

• All of Nebula's scenes. She's one of my favorite characters. The way she had that paper game with Tony in outer space and was so serious about it. The way she tucked him in bed when she saw he was exhausted. The way she let him have the water. Shows how far she's come as a character. I would say she is much better developed than Gamora - although I do like Gamora a lot...I understand that it was quite disappointing for fans that Gamora did not to amount to much and instead became a kind of mother figure to the Guardians, especially since they marketed her as the 'most dangerous woman in the galaxy.'
  
  Still, I did like the somewhat twisted sister dynamic they had. Nebula's relationship with Gamora sort of added to her character.
  
  It reminded me a bit of Thor and Loki's brotherhood...but of course you have to understand that a character like Thor is usually given more opportunities for development ( I mean, three solo movies, hello) as opposed to someone like Gamora. Bit unfair, but that's the way it is. Perhaps now that we have a different version of Gamora running around, we might get to see how ferocious she really is. :/
• Nebula walking past Ant-Man outside the Avengers compound. She's just one of those characters you can't stop looking at in awe because of her intensity.
• Her scene with Rhodey when they watched Quill dancing XD I loved that scene in GOTG but it looks so funny without music. 
• I love her Terminator like scenes, putting (and burning) a hand in that barrier to get the Orb, evil Nebula doing that hand thingy to the portal so that Thanos and co. could enter 2019.
  
  Nebula: "I wasn't always like this."
  Rhodey: "Well, we have to make the most of what we got."
• New Nebula killing old Nebula and all the symbolism that goes with it.

Character Interactions

• I loved all the characters brainstorming in the beginning about which timeline to go to, etc. I think it was a great idea to have only Nebula and Rocket interact with the Core Avenger group. I like the dynamic a lot. I feel that their quirkiness plays off with the Avengers well. I would've expected more surprise from them at having to talk to a racoon but at this point I know they are too tired to absorb the fact.
• Antman seeing his much older daughter after 5 years.
• The whole time travel test scene where you get to see Antman turn into an old man, a teen and a baby.
• Iron Man deciding to help them with the heist, returning Cap's shield and saying "I discovered that resentment is corrosive."
• When Antman gets angry with Iron Man at messing the heist up in 2012 and says "No, you're repeating yourself!" three times in anger >XD
  Then Stark calls him a piss ant.
• Cap versus Cap.
• Cap's '"Hail Hydra" moment.
• Hulk having to use the elevator. A little mean, considering that Thor and Iron Man could have easily flown down. I guess he still wouldn't have fit inside.
• Loves seeing a young Hank Pym.
• I didn't care much for the whole Howard Stark/Tony Stark scene but I did like it when Tony said "No amount of money ever bought a moment in time."

OTHER THINGS

• Black Widow's suicide. I actually thought that her fight and race to the death with Hawkeye was one of the best, most heart wrenching scenes in the movie. But her death was so sad to me. Stark's story arc seemed complete at least...Black Widow's didn't seem like it was. I think it's because we know so little of her compared to the other guys :/ I hope that Black Widow movie wasn't just a red herring.
  
  I don't understand why she didn't get a funeral along with Stark. I get that she had an earlier, more private one...but it looked to me like the whole world was mourning Tony Stark and yes, he saved the day. But so did she, so she deserved to share that funeral with him.
• Thor. I thought Hemsworth's performance was good. But I don't understand what they were doing with Thor's character in the end. I had no problem with the change in his appearance (grief affects people in different ways- and the guy still kicked ass and had many good scenes)...but...
  
  ... why did he just give up on Asgard?
  
  The message I got was that it was okay to be a failure. Fine. But still, why did he give up on Asgard altogether? I'm not saying Valkyrie wouldn't have made an awesome ruler, but that's a different topic. When Frigga tells Thor that it's "okay to fail and instead be the man you were meant to be." I didn't know exactly what man that was?
  
  Were they trying to say that he wasn't meant to rule Asgard? Okay...but at the end of the movie what- he became one of the Guardians of the Galaxy? That's who he was meant to be?????
  
  I don't get it.
  
  His power-up scene before the fight with Thanos was awesome, though.
• The Soul Stone. Why is it so hard to get compared to the other stones? I appreciate how tragic the sacrifice was...but I sort of wish getting the other stones also required such 'creativity.'
  
  Does this mean anyone can get a soul stone?
  
  I think it's a bit unfair how raw a deal Hawkeye and Black Widow had...they were the two non-cosmically powered Avengers and they got the hardest part -_-
  
  Were they aware of what was going to happen once they got into Vormir? For that matter, was anyone aware what exactly had to be done in order to get the Soul Stone? The only thing people kept repeating was "Well Thanos and Gamora went to get it but only Thanos came back"- doesn't exactly say if they realized what happened. The whole time heist seemed like a walk in the park for most of the Avengers except them :(
• I don't get how 2014 Thanos and co. were able to get to 2019 without a time machine. They didn't have Pym Particles. I wasn't aware if there was any other way of getting into the time stream aside from the quantum tunnel and/or the particles c/o Antman.
• How did Tony become an expert in Time Travel? It's not his field at all...his character has not shown any involvement in that whatsoever but all of a sudden he can come up with a GPS for the quantum realm and figure out how to make the time portal work? It would have made more sense for Antman to have done all that, given his exposure to Pym and Hope.