Movie Review – Avengers: Endgame

So here we are, 11 years after Iron Man’s adaptation to the big screen. This is the movie that brought us here because without it there wouldn’t be The Avengers as we know them. Marvel, who at that point did not have any film rights to their characters (X-Man were at FOX and Spider-Man at Sony), were looking for a way to find their place under the sun. In this line of thought, their choice to give green light to the most arrogant Avenger was accepted skeptically at first. Before Robert Downey took the mantle of Iron Man, he never enjoyed a huge fan base in the comics. And now, one brilliant acting from RDJ shot the MCU in a direction that allowed them to use Spider-Man and even buy FOX. Every saga, however comes to an end. For 11 years, various Marvel heroes have been featured on the big screen, some of which were considered impossible to be adapted, such as the Guardians of the Galaxy. For more than a decade, we have lived with their adventures – Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Black widow, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man, GotG, Black Panther, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel and many others alongside. We saw marvelous villains like Loki, Thanos, and Zimo. Also not so good as Ultron, Tha Mandarin and the Dark Elfves. However, there is no MCU movie that has not returned its budget tenfold. This is the first so large, shared universe. This final chapter for the original Avengers, sends them to a very much deserved break.

Here come the spoilers because I will break the death/endstory of each of the original Avengers. The goal is to find out if they were properly sent off and what we can expect later on.

1. Black Widow

This is the first death in Endgame. After a brief fight with Hawkeye, she sacrifices herself to take the Soul Stone. Was it a good end for her story? I think so. The dynamics between the two are as extremely good friends, which at times pass into mild flirting and if I did not know that Clint had a family and children, I would have thought they were more than friends. However, Clint wants to get his family back while Natasha’s family are the Avengers. In the five years between the snap and the return of Scott (Ant-man), she tries to find a way to fix everything, while sinking in self pity. And this sacrifice elevates her character. We look forward to the movie about her, which will probably take place around the events in Budapest or about her recruitment by SHIELD. So for now, we are saying goodbye to Natasha and Godspeed to Scarlett Johansson in future projects outside the MCU. 

2. Captain America

Although we do not really see his death, we understand that his mission to return the stones was a success, and he has greatly enjoyed his years with Peggy in the past. Although there are several plot holes, what the Russo brothers came up with is just very emotional. After Chris Evans failed to represent properly the Human Torch in Fantastic 4, his first appearance as Captain America was a WoW! effect. Like Robert Downey, he performed the role perfectly and set a benchmark on how to play a superhero. “Captain America: Winter Soldier” is still considered the best MCU movie by many fans. But he never seems to fit in through the films. Despite the attempts to catch up the lost 70 years, the life and love he knows are not in the modern time. So the final stage in which he ages and experienced his life with Peggy fills the viewers with a sense of completion. As for the journey in time, I will give a paragraph for that. Thank you Chris for recreating my childhood on a big screen.

3. Iron Man

Perhaps the most powerful and influential moment in the whole movie. You must remember that in Infinity War, Strange told Tony that in only one of the 14 million variants they are going to win. So this is it, the way is Tony to put on the gauntlet with the stones and destroys Thanos. Naturally, it takes his life because they are not intended to be used by a mere human. The very moment in which everything happens, including the dynamics between the other Avengers and Tony, and the fact that he already has a child leads to tearing up. Iron Man is the hero who started everything and who finished it. Whatever I say about Robert Downey’s representation of the character won’t be enough. He managed to make one of the least loved comic book characters into a complete opposite. Thank you as well Robert, for those 11 years full of cinematic joy.

Lastly I want to say a few words about the time travel in the movie. There are three major theories about it, and I will not discuss them all here in details. If you have interest, google it! The one used here is for the parallel universes, namely that every change of the past creates a new parallel universe in which events are affected by this change, but it does not affect the current, original one. For example, if you return to the past and kill Hitler, it will create a new universe in which he will not exist and perhaps there will be no WWII. If you stay in the past, you will continue your life in this universe, but if you return to the future, you will return to your own universe where Hitler was alive. This means that each trip or change closes one cycle. 

In conclusion I will say that despite some problems and plot holes, the film is brilliant and it is mandatory to watch on the big screen, preferable IMAX. The emotion, the acting, the action are at a completely different level from each of the previous MCU movies. Also, this is the only MCU movie without an after credit scene because there is no need for one. In the coming years, we don’t expect any major MCU movies on the level of Avengers, at the expense of several mini-series that will complete the story of the minor characters. I look forward to introducing the new Disney acquisitions in the MCU – X-Man and their adventures. Good bye to all the original Avengers that we will not see anymore and thank once again for everything. We love you 3000! Godspeed to all!