My Thoughts on Endgame and Journey with the MCU

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My Thoughts on Endgame and Journey with the MCU

Early Connection with the MCU

I am a very recent worshiper of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I haven’t read the comic books (aside from a few pages of one I bought for a friend). I was committed to the first set of movies, from Iron Man in 2008 to the first Avengers and Iron Man 3.

While many of my friends did not think much of Iron Man 3, I was already enjoying the cross-references between the initial set of movies. Tony Stark’s PTSD and anxiety attacks really stood out to me and were important to understand his personality and decision making throughout the next several movies.

Unfortunately, it took me a lot longer to connect with Captain America. In the first Avengers movie, without the context of the first Captain America movie, I could not connect with Steve Rogers as much as any of the others.

For the next several years, I missed all of the Thor movies, Captain America movies, Dr. Strange, and Ant Man. Fortunately, my best friend got me back into it with the back-to-back releases of Spiderman, Ragnarok, and Black Panther (all 3 of which I loved, by the way, and believe I even went to the premiere for all of them).

In the weeks leading up to Infinity War, I was able to watch The Winter Soldier and Civil War, which really got me hooked on Marvel, and also Dr. Strange.

Falling in Love with Infinity War

By the time I got through Infinity War last year, I was completely obsessed with the MCU, and shamelessly admit to YouTube-ing scenes from all of the movies almost every day (except for the short phase when Daredevil enthralled me even more).

What I (and so many others) love about the MCU is the powerful storytelling and the intricate thought and planning that goes into every single movie. It’s natural for me to appreciate this since my mother is the most meticulous planner and has an eye out for the most minute of details in every event or decoration she puts on.

In general, I am in love with authors who are masters at this element of storytelling. I try to keep up with a manga series called One Piece, and have similar feelings about how clever the author is able to link the most inconsequential detail/casual scene in the corner of a panel of page 7 in Chapter 418 to a groundbreaking truth in Chapter 814 (even being crazy enough to get the numbers reversed).

You wonder if these people have a stadium-sized office where they have laid out their entire mind map, or if they are just winging it.

In the same way, everything the Russo brothers put into their movies is so intentional, which makes watching the movies like embarking on a treasure hunt where you know you are going to come home with something but are still motivated to try your best because everything is fresh.

For a while, I got bored of movies for their predictability; while others may be able to easily predict what happens, these movies take so many twists and turns and keep me at the edge of my seat. 3 hours go by and only at the credits do I remember that I need to run to the bathroom (thanks Indian cinema for training me).

Thanos as the Perfect Villain

Where to start with Infinity War and Endgame!

Thanos: one of the best villain characters I have seen.
The suffering people go through when their closest ones are ripped away in front of their eyes.
Amazing and profound one-liners in Endgame (Stark’s last quote to his father, something like “no amount of money buys time”; Black Widow’s forgiveness of Hawkeye by saying you can’t look at the worst that someone has done – I forgot the exact quote).

I was extremely impressed with Thanos in both Infinity War and Endgame.

First of all, unlike so many other villains in movies, Thanos is ruthless, and that sets the pace for the penultimate movie of the saga. There are no distractions from each stone in his conquest, which is so different from the previous several movies where no heroes died, and if they did sacrifice themselves, it was very built up.

In Infinity War, I joked that Thanos probably exerted himself at most 5%, and still decimated all of the Avengers. But he was equipped with the Infinity Stones, so nobody had a chance anyways.

In Endgame, however, without any of the stones, he is seemingly even stronger than he was in Infinity War, and successfully beats Captain, Iron Man, and Thor in a 3-on-1 fight (which turned out to be even stronger than Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Spiderman, and the Guardians who took him on in the previous movie).

This discrepancy between the movies felt a bit of a plot hole to me at first, but I thought about it more and had appreciation for how they developed Thanos.

In Infinity War, the theme is about sacrifice, and therefore, he displays emotion and even spares some people along the way. Thanos believes that he is the only one who can teach the universe a lesson, and that when he is done, the message would have been sent to everyone.
Endgame showed just how smart and psychotic Thanos is when he sees Nebula’s recordings of the future. Once he pieces everything together, he decides that there is no forgiveness, no teaching lessons, and that everyone needs to be wiped out.

This fuels his power in combat and allows him to take down everyone including Captain Marvel. Again, as soon as he enters the present, he immediately rains fire on them mercilessly.

So in short, Thanos was a very good villain in both movies, the toughest one I have seen!

Captain America and Iron Man

Let’s talk about Captain America now.

I was convinced he was going to die, especially after Stark snapping at him upon return. I was even more convinced when he finally lifted Mjolnir and took on Thanos.

It’s not that I wanted Captain to die, I was actually a bit relieved that he lived in the end because I have really grown to like his character after watching the movies in a completely mixed up order.

If anything, I felt that he had less to lose than Tony Stark did, and that his death would finally ground Stark as a human being.

The way I thought Endgame was going was that Captain was going to take on a lot of unnecessary burden and guilt of failures; surprisingly, it seems that every other Avenger was more victim to this than him! Then, I thought his optimism which was not well taken by others would be another thing that grounded them after his passing.

All in all, I felt that it would have the most emotional impact with his passing as he is the most righteous, worthy, and selfless Avenger.

Don’t get me wrong, Iron Man’s death in the end was pretty shocking and sad, and led you to appreciate Tony Stark for being mature enough to put his life on the line.

The Final War

The final war had me shaking. There were so many memorable scenes that I will keep rewatching (honestly, it’s not even been 24 hours and some scenes have been looping on my phone).

Highlights for me:

Captain vs Thanos – while short, was even more epic than Iron Man’s or Dr. Strange’s clashes with him in the previous movie (too bad he got crushed right after).
The portals opening – what a scene! The lighting had a very special effect here too.
- Infinity War’s battle was in bright daylight and ended grim with thunder and more darkness.
- The opposite happened here. The light plus the sheer number of characters entering (far more than in Wakanda) brought so much optimism to the moment.
Captain Marvel’s entry in the sky (though the only thing I could predict properly in the movie) was great.
The handoff of the Infinity Gauntlet from Clint to T’Challa to Spider Man to Captain Marvel was so good!
Dr. Strange holding off the flood and again wow-ing the crowd without a time stone.
Pepper.
Spider Man’s instant kill mode.
Giant Ant Man breaking out of the underground (him diving in to save Hulk, Rocket, and War Machine was too adorable).
Scarlet Witch facing off with Thanos – this time she was not holding anything back.

I was waiting for her to go after him after what he did to her in the last movie!

Themes and Throwbacks

If a big theme of Infinity War was sacrifice, the theme in Endgame felt like making peace with oneself or one’s past.

This is not to say Endgame isn’t about sacrifice at all – the sacrifices made in Endgame are heartbreaking (Black Widow… I was torn). And often, coming to terms with oneself led to sacrifices (Iron Man).

It was nice to see many characters come to peace with their past:

Steve Rogers by going back
Stark with his father
Thor with his mother
Nebula with her personal growth and her sister

Endgame also stood out by having clever throwbacks and links to ALL 22 movies before it. Not a single movie was left out, even if a small detail!

The gamma radiation from Hulk
Captain being able to budge Mjolnir in Age of Ultron
The kickass elevator scene and “Hail, Hydra!” from Winter Soldier
Stark’s continued PTSD and fear of what is above from Age of Ultron and Iron Man 3 (and the boy’s cameo)
The Sorcerer Supreme from Dr. Strange
Younger Hank Pym from Ant Man

Disappointments

Endgame was not perfect but it was still an incredible and memorable movie.

I won’t comment on the confusion of the ending because it’s impossible to make a story make 100% sense when there is time travel involved :).

There were a few parts that had me a little disappointed:

Black Widow’s death – while more powerful from a cinematic/dramatic standpoint because of the setting and the blackout, was especially sad for me because I felt that she was forgotten by everyone but Hawkeye. I wish I could have seen her relationship with Banner through; with Hawkeye, their love was more like a best-friend kind of love, not romantic (maybe I am completely wrong here).
The remaining Guardians – very underwhelming, especially considering how much build up they were given in their previous 3 movies.
- Thanos forced Star Lord to shoot Gamora, and that would have definitely scarred him forever.
- Similarly, Drax has a beef with Thanos for killing his parents, but both were sidelined even in the final fight.

The directors did a really good job closing up so many plot lines, so I understand that they could not give everyone their prime time in the end. In fact, the focus was heavily on the original 6 Avengers, which makes sense.