Avengers: Endgame

Welcome to week 22 of the 39 week countdown to Avengers: Doomsday. I’m watching the MCU films in order of release, one per week, in the buildup to December 17, when Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters. This countdown will culminate the following day, with my thoughts on that film.

So much has already been written about this film that I’m going to keep this intro bit short. We all know that Avengers: Endgame destroyed the box office. I believe it was the top-grossing film of all time for a while, until Avatar was re-released, and reclaimed the top spot. Regardless of where it ranks, it was a massive success, both commercially and critically. Everyone loves it, or so it seems. Me, not so much. More on that in a moment.

You pretty much knew when Avengers: Infinity War ended that the heroes weren’t going to stay dead. Had they killed one or two minor characters, then sure, maybe, but Spider-Man? Black Panther? Doctor Strange? Most of the Guardians of the Galaxy? No way, man. You knew they’d bring them back to life in part two, and it was only a question of how they’d do it that mattered.

So how’d they do it? Time travel. With a giant battle at the end featuring pretty much every character we’ve ever seen.

As far as the overall story arc of the MCU to this point, it made for a solid ending to the stories of the original Avengers. Captain America finally put duty second, and let himself have a happy ending, while Iron Man made the “sacrifice play” he was accused of being unwilling to make back in the first film. Black Widow also sacrificed herself, for both Clint and the universe, finally clearing her ledger. Bruce Banner found peace with his Hulk side. Hawkeye retired and is now home with the family. Only Thor is left without a proper final chapter.

Most people will tell you it’s one of the best movies ever. I don’t like it that much. I don’t hate it, but I don’t think it’s great. Too much of the film is what’s known as “fan service,” and while I realize that fans, obviously, love that, and it makes the studio boatloads of money, it takes me out of the movie.

The film starts strong, and until Ant-Man shows up at the Avengers compound, it’s actually telling a very good story. After that, it falls apart. For starters, Iron Man invents a time machine, something that apparently does not exist anywhere else in the universe, after a couple hours of casual effort. And then begins the fan service. We revisit the battle from the first Avengers film in a very Back to the Future 2 manner. Then Tony Stark happens to run into his dad purely by accident, while at the same moment, Steve Rogers happens to run into Peggy Carter, again purely by accident. The fans love it! We revisit Guardians of the Galaxy. We get a redo on Vormir with Red Skull. It’s the MCU’s Greatest Hits! The fans are going wild!

Eventually, we get a massive final battle that lasts for about half an hour. It’s ridiculous and gratuitous. Not only does it defy logic— the Avengers are hit point blank by dozens of missiles, including one that basically hits Ant-Man in the face, and which are strong enough to level the entire compound, yet no one is even slightly injured. And of course, right when things look grim, every superhero ever shows up. The battle rages on! Yet, despite 30 minutes of brutal combat with alien hordes, no one is injured, much less killed. Iron Man, of course, dies, but in a moment of self-sacrifice. THAT part is great. The callback to the first Iron Man film’s final line was a brilliant bit of dialogue, apparently added after the fact and tacked on after the film had finished shooting.

There’s the ridiculous moment of all the female heroes grouping together— female fan service! yes!— and honestly, why the hell is Pepper Potts even in the battle? It’s all just dumb, lowbrow fluff to appease the fans.

And what’s up with Thanos suddenly being so strong? He was always a bad-ass, but without any Infinity Stones he can still beat Cap, Thor, and Iron Man like that? With 4 Infinity Stones he nearly lost to a small group of heroes on Titan.When he had all six stones he still couldn’t prevent Thor from lodging Stormbreaker in his chest, and would have been killed had Thor “gone for the head.” Now he’s suddenly able to mop the place up with all three of them, with even an Infinity Pebble??

A better ending? Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor defeat Thanos after a difficult, but not half an hour difficult, battle, culminating with a moment where Cap wields Mjölnir, and Iron Man acquires the Infinity Stones, for the victory. But the fans wouldn’t have liked that as much, so it makes sense they did it the way they did. That’s why they have $2.8 billion and I don’t.

“I liked when Sam told Captain America he was on his left, and the portals began opening. The image of the portals appearing, and the heroes emerging from them, was cool to me. My favorite part of all was when Captain America said two words: ‘Avengers assemble!’ That’s all I can think of.”

I was at the AMC Oakridge 20 in San Jose on April 25, 2019 for the Thursday night preview showing of Avengers: Endgame. Letterboxd reminds me that I watched a second time on July 14, 2024, and again this afternoon.

I watched this on a Blu-ray I own. It’s not a 4k, making this the 5th MCU film I’ve watched so far for this countdown that isn’t a 4k. Going forward, most will be on Disney+. I think I only own a few of the post-Endgame MCU films on physical media.

You can click the image below to buy yourself a copy, but the link will take you to the 4k version. You can always click to the cheaper, regular Blu-ray if you want the same one I have. (I get nothing if you do, so this isn’t a ploy to make money.)

I have to go with “I am Iron Man,” right? It’s pretty damn satisfying to see Thanos vanish into dust.

I have a strong feeling that the events of this film will somehow be responsible for whatever Dr. Doom gets up to in Avengers: Doomsday. Maybe all the time travel and rewriting of the timelines, and especially the freeing of Loki, will have cataclysmic repercussions. Perhaps what Steve Rogers does at the end of the film triggers some sort of event on Doom’s home world? We’ll find out in 17 weeks!!

If you are picking a handful of films to watch as a refresher for Avengers: Doomsday I think this is one of the key ones to watch. It’s not for nothing that Disney is re-releasing this later this year, as a lead-in to the new Avengers movie.

While contemplating this project my biggest question was whether or not I should rate the films. I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m terrible at assigning films a score. I either like ‘em or I don’t. However, I know readers like ratings, so I’ve come up with something close. I’m going to rank the films as I go along. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, and with each week it grows more difficult.

1. The Avengers

2. Spider-Man: Homecoming

3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

4. Avengers: Infinity War

5. Thor: Ragnarok

6. Guardians of the Galaxy

7. Captain America: Civil War

8. Ant-Man

9. Iron Man 2

10. Iron Man

11. Captain Marvel

12. Avengers: Age of Ultron

13. Avengers: Endgame

14. Iron Man 3

15. Black Panther

16. Thor

17. Doctor Strange

18. Captain America: The First Avenger

19. The Incredible Hulk

20. Ant-Man and the Wasp

21. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

22. Thor: The Dark World

Next week I’ll write about the 23rd installment in the MCU, Spider-Man: Far From Home.