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Avengers Endgame discussion thread, potential spoilers
I'm not sure how spoilers work here on tildes. I'd say just be wary of entering this thread if you haven't seen the film yet.
I'm not sure how spoilers work here on tildes. I'd say just be wary of entering this thread if you haven't seen the film yet.
OK, I'll bite: I loved it. I don't know why anyone is expecting some grand subversion of expectations or huge narrative risks for a mainstream comic book movie adaptation. Endgame deftly resolved pretty much every hanging plot thread and character arc it needed to, and set the stage for future Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Guardians movies. It may not have been novel but it sure was satisfying.
This movie was obviously going to end with a second Thanos confrontation, how could it not? Tony summed it up nicely, "when you mess with time it tends to mess back." It couldn't just end with getting the stones. It's a comic book movie, of course it was going to end with an epic battle.
I genuinely feel sorry for people who came out of that film and felt it needed to be some overly-complex, genre-breaker. It took over 10 years of characters and movies and brought it all to a deeply satisfying conclusion and was a hugely fun ride throughout. I honestly never expected them to nail IW and EG and they absolutely did. Definitely one of the two greatest cinematic achievements, in my mind. (Not greatest films, but cinematic experiences.)
It just seemed like there was a lot of filler like a clip episode of a tv show. While it was exactly what I expected, not bad, and they did close out the story arc nicely, as a film I feel like it (and all other suoer hero movies) was/are mostly a money grab.
Well yeah, obviously. Every film with a wide theatrical release is a money grab. Studios don't make movies for fun. They're all made with the express purpose of turning a profit. Especially when you spend $400 million to make them.
That's a fair position. I thought it, like most super hero movies, was an absolute blast. I suspect I'm much closer to the target audience than you. And what you saw as filler, I saw as wonderful scenes letting me catch up with beloved characters.
I finally watched it, avoided all spoilers. Of the MCU I've only seen Ultron and Infinity War (shortly before getting into Endgame, just to have the background), and Ant-Man at some point.
I thought it was kinda weird they talked about every single existing time-travel movie and plot, without actually lampshading the time travel element. I really wanted one of the characters' reactions to the idea of time travel to be: "Come on, don't you think if it were possible we would have tried" or something.
Like, five years, then, "oh what about time travel?". That felt bad.
Movie was good though. I could definitely see tons of references I was missing though. I was entertained by the movie and might watch a couple more MCUs in the future but this didn't really get me into the universe all that much. It felt very mainstream, generic. Good, but nothing exceptional or memorable. I felt the same coming out of Avatar. With one difference: The 3D really worked for me in Endgame. The spaceship scenes in 3D gave me chills. But that's more my spaceship-nerd-fantasy coming out.
It was a pleasant experience and I may end up coming back in the theaters for future good-quality MCU releases. I guess all this is just not that captivating if you aren't into the comics?
Spoilers:
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Thanos getting decapitated in the first 10 minutes of the movie resulted in me having no clue at all as to where it was going to go. It was a completely open book on the first page, and all I could do was become immersed in the movie as the plot unfolded. It's still a Marvel movie though, and it hit the usual checkpoints - but it was solid! 8/10, would watch again
I agree, very much a "this should be interesting" feeling after that scene
A pretty spot-on comment/quote from reddit:
Wow, that really does sum up how I feel about Marvel's franchises in total. A monument to adequacy.
I still can't remember a single fucking Marvel theme. :/
I have the same reaction to Endgame I have to most of their recent movies... didn't love it, didn't hate it, munched popcorn and wondered if I left the oven on. I seem to remember I used to see some films multiple times in the theater. I'm wondering if those days are over.
Haha, that video definitely did not age well. The Avenger's Theme is a memorable piece from Marvel.
I was pretty into this movie until 2014 Thanos came in pretty much to give then an excuse to have a fight scene. I was liking the idea of moving on and solving the issues without a direct villain or any real ticking time bomb element. As soon as the past Thanos cane in though, we were completely back on to the rails for predictability.
I thought it was pretty boring. It starts off quite well with Hawkeye and his family vanishing. It does hit some emotional beats in the first act. Apart from that, there isn't anything all that exciting happening, except for killing off Thanos.
The whole time travel bit wasn't very interesting either. The remaining Avengers got the Infinity stones pretty easily, except for Black Widow dying. They mostly visited locations we've seen before, even in the exact same time period. In Infinity War, we got to see some new places and had the end fight in Wakanda. The whole scope here seemed quite a bit smaller. It didn't feel as epic, fighting at a destroyed Avengers headquarters.
The stakes didn't feel as high as in Infinity War. Thanos was genuinely scary, because everyone, including the audience, feared him getting the stones and snapping half the population out of excistence. Here, not so much. In the final fight, he didn't even have any stones to fight with, like he had in Infinity War. It was the same Thanos, but weaker. But the Avengers were of similar strength (Scarlet Witch), or stronger (Captain Marvel). They were only lower in numbers, which was quickly fixed as well.
I also felt as if it should've cost the Avengers much more than just two of them to die, to flip the tables on Thanos. It all seemed relatively easy.
Finally, most of the snapped characters contributed so little. They all came back, got one or two nice moves or a quote and that was that. Except for maybe Spiderman, who had a heartfelt return to Iron Man. It felt as if the writers were overwhelmed with the number of characters and didn't really know what to do with most of them.
For a movie this long, I expected more.
Deleted a very long post about the film, because my thoughts aren't particularly insightful. As an MCU casual (I've seen less than half the movies) I was thoroughly entertained, and very glad to have been able to catch this one in the cinema. All the character moments felt earned and satisfying, and the endings for each of the main trio were excellent. I hadn't intended to see the film (hell, I didn't see Infinity War until this week) but am glad I was persuaded to go.
All that said, I'm glad that it's over: this is a great jumping off point for a casual such as myself, and I don't expect to see any of the subsequent movies that they make. I find myself wondering if this will be a jumping off point for a lot of other people, and if the superhero genre as a whole will start to take a bit of a dip in popularity.
speaking as someone who has no investment in the avengers and knows how the movie ends because of spoilers: i feel like i could have just predicted that ending and on some level it makes me glad i don't really have investment in the series. i get that there is both a marketing and canonical reason for endings like this, but it would be nice if for once one of these generic superhero films could break the template and actually serve up an ending people don't expect instead of going for the most predictable possible outcome.
I've avoided spoilers and was pleasantly surprised by the ending. I thought they brought a lot of unexpected elements to the table. There were a lot of people crying softly in the movie theater at the late-night screening I went to yesterday!
I can't bring myself to agree. I invested my time watching 22 films, and hundreds of hours before that coming to know and love the characters in the comic books. The ending gave me exactly what I wanted - satisfying conclusions to the arcs of the heroes I've read, watched and loved for years. I really didn't need my expectations subverted. This isn't an art-house film. It's a huge, visual, bombastic romp where the core goal isn't to be shocked or befuddled, but to be entertained. And holy shit was I entertained. They did something I didn't think was possible and brought everything to a thoroughly satisfying ending. And I really don't think it was the most predictable outcome. Thanos being killed, then coming to the future and attacking the stones there? I did not see that coming. If you mean the good guys winning was the predictable outcome, then sure. But this isn't some tedious, dark, brooding Nolan film (where the good guys also win anyway). It's there to make people happy. To bring them excitement and joy (and a dash of sadness for good measure). And it did that in spades.
The only reason I know this movie exists is random strangers constantly PMing me what happens in it.