Avengers: Endgame Review

Preface

Before the review starts, I want to tell you all something.

When I went back to see Avengers: Endgame a second time, Steve and Peggy's song was playing, graceful and gentle, and the staff turned the house lights up. I didn't expect everyone to leave. Who'd have thought none of these people knew about the last few seconds of audio, or maybe they just didn't plan to listen or didn't care.

After everyone had gone, a staff member said to me, "There's no post-credits scene. Don't waste your time waiting through the credits." I said, "Can I watch to the end?" "Sure. Give me your glasses."

There's no picture at all, but after the credits end and the logo appears, you hear the clang of metal striking metal.

Anyone who's been watching since Iron Man knows that's the sound of Tony being reborn from the ashes. It's also the sound of Marvel betting everything eleven years ago.

Those who get it will probably smile. Whenever you feel hopeless, that sound rings out, as if Tony is whispering in your ear: "Don't waste it, don't waste your life."

Some people's youth was Star Wars. Some people's youth was The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Now, eleven years of Marvel later, with Endgame here, I feel these eleven years aren't just eleven years on a calendar. Suddenly they mean something deeper and more complicated.

Getting to see a series of movies like this in one lifetime makes it all worth it.

How It Felt and the Story

Here's the main part. I may have some things wrong, so feel free to leave a comment and talk it over with me.

The first time I walked out of the theater after Avengers: Endgame, my heart felt exhausted and heavy.

I was afraid of having to go to the bathroom in the middle, so I didn't dare drink anything. After it ended I had only three feelings: I was starving, I couldn't bear to let go, and I didn't think I'd wiped the tear tracks off my face.

Actually, when the second viewing started, I regretted it. Not because it wasn't good, and not because it was too dramatic. It's just that the heroes are in their twilight, and the arc reactor that's glowed for eleven years was about to go dark within three hours. I couldn't bear to watch it again.

The plot is honestly pretty standard. Before the release, everyone had already guessed most of it. Hawkeye can't accept his wife and kids turning to dust and becomes a ronin. Tony, drifting in space, is rescued and brought back to Earth by Captain Marvel. Ant-Man discovers the Quantum Realm can be used to travel through time. The Avengers go back to earlier timelines to try to undo the Infinity War.

Everyone could guess all that. What nobody guessed was that they were only going back to get the Stones. Nobody guessed the people who died would stay dead. Nobody guessed how hard the whole thing would be.

God of Thunder · Thor

Let's start with Thor, God of Thunder. Son of Odin, second only to one god and above all the rest. He's lost his mother, lost his father, lost his brother, lost his sister, lost all of Asgard and half its people. Even one of the eyes he sees the world with is fake.

He's growing. His mind is slowly becoming more human, to the point that he can cut off Thanos's head without a second's hesitation, because he regrets what happened in the Infinity War so much. "You should have gone for the head." "I went for the head." In those five years, he drowns his sorrows and grows a beer belly, because there's no Loki left to worry about. "What brand is it?" In front of the Avengers, he describes the woman he loved most and his mother without any flourish: "We were together then." He can laugh happily and say, "I knew it!"

That's Mjolnir. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, when Steve budged it just a little, his face changed instantly and he tensed up. Now he's smiling, happy to see a second person worthy of ruling Asgard. Why? Because Asgard is gone. The royal family no longer exists. Because he himself no longer has what it takes to be king. In the end, Thor sends himself into exile, and like most old guys, he'll smile at some young person and say, "I used to be pretty great, you know," and then knock back a big gulp of beer without a second thought.

Hawkeye · Clint

Now Hawkeye, Clint. The first and truest Avenger. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, when the team is falling apart, he's the one who holds it together. After losing his whole family, like Rocket, he has "nothing left to lose." So when everyone hesitates over who goes first, Clint says without hesitating, "I'm ready." He leans on the doorframe, his temples gone gray, the bow he was once proudest of tossed aside. In that moment, however resolute the look in his eyes, he's no longer the Clint he used to be.

And yet he's still the most ordinary of the Avengers. When the enemy attacks, he protects the Gauntlet first, with no thought for his own life. Surrounded by an army, a mere mortal with nothing but a sword, he still carries out his duty.

The toughness of this fearless archer, and his weakness when he bows his head and sobs by the lake, look so much like us in real life.

“Please, don't give me hope.”

Black Widow · Natasha

Black Widow, Natasha. She doesn't have Cap's serum and shield, Tony's family fortune, or Thor's royal dignity. She started out with nothing.

No home, no family, no love, no happy past, no hero's title or songs of praise. Not even a good enough nickname.

The Avengers were her home. The Avengers were her family. She's the coolest and most beautiful, the smartest and quickest. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, she sees clearly who's friend and who's foe and helps Cap take on all of S.H.I.E.L.D. In Captain America: Civil War, when the Avengers fall apart and go to war with each other, with everyone fighting for themselves, she's the only one who sees friend and foe clearly, and the only one fighting for the whole team.

“I'm not the one who needs to watch the back.”

Even five years after the Infinity War, she's the one keeping the whole Avengers compound running on her own: "If anything happens, let me know." When Cap comes back: "You here to do your laundry?"

The white hairs rising through that jet-black hair can't be hidden anymore.

“This beats the old days.”

On the ship, Natasha laughs and teases Clint.

But she knows she can't go back. No one will ever be by her side like they were back then.

“Whatever it takes.”

What was going through her mind before she jumped? This peerless spy died tens of thousands of light-years from Earth. There are no white snowfields there, no piercing wind.

Hulk · Banner

Hulk, Banner. If anyone is the most bitter about how things went, I can't think of anyone who fits better. If he could have controlled himself, he wouldn't have been apart from Natasha for two years. If he'd been able to turn into the Hulk, maybe they wouldn't have lost so badly. If it weren't for him, all those civilians wouldn't have been hurt back then.

“I spent 18 months in the gamma lab.”

To the ear and the eye, it's an ordinary, offhand line. But who knows how much helplessness and pain is hidden behind it.

Back then, Banner hated the Hulk so much. "I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out."

Turning into the Hulk was so painful: "It's like fighting cancer."

He had enormous strength but no rational mind. When he needed to step up, he couldn't transform. When he should have avoided a fight, all he did was smash things. So whenever he's needed, he'll take on anything, even the Quantum Realm he knows nothing about.

A Quantum Realm that even Banner, with more than a dozen PhDs, doesn't understand.

Even when he knows putting on the Gauntlet might kill him. "It's like I was made for this..."

In that moment, I wonder whether he thought about bringing Natasha back.

But he didn't. He told Cap, "I tried to bring her back."

From start to finish, he never thought about himself. On the outside he's become invincible, but inside he's still the gentle, kind Dr. Banner. When they need him to show his strength, he only dares to give a chair a light kick. When he learns Natasha won't come back, he picks up a chair and hurls it as far as he can.

Regret. Hesitation. Missed chances. When Banner chose to become the Hulk, maybe he'd already decided to face his mistakes and spend his life atoning for them.

“The sun's getting real low.”

Captain America · Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers, the man who gave everything for his country.

Even when everyone had failed, he still stepped up and told everyone, "Life has to go on." Then, alone, he held his pocket watch and quietly asked himself, "what should i do if it doesn't."

He still carries guilt inside, so when Tony fires question after question at him, he has nothing to say. Tony demands, as if his heart is tearing apart, "Where were you when we needed you! Where were you hiding!"

Rogers lowers his head. He's no longer the man in Captain America: The Winter Soldier who'd give everything for freedom. He's a man who can only watch Bucky disappear, kneeling on the ground and helplessly murmuring "dear god."

But he's still the Captain. You see him rally the whole team: "whatever it takes." You see his quick wit: "hail hydra." You see his stubbornness: "Bucky is alive."

When he sees Ant-Man reappear, there's hope in his eyes. When he sees Tony come back after leaving, there's relief. When he looks at the love of his life, all alone, his eyes are full of longing. He's tired. All this time, carrying the shield and the weight of America's ideals on his back, he's been tired for a long time.

“They say this is where Captain America was born.”

“This is where the belief was born.”

——Avengers...

——“Assemble.”

The man who says the rallying cry under his breath, the man who walks out alone to face Thanos's army, the man who straps his broken shield tight to his arm, is also the man sitting quietly on that bench.

“He made this for you.”

He takes the shield, and quietly, hands it on to the next person.

“I had a date.”

The whole thing ends gently with his slow dance. The first Avenger has left us.

Iron Man · Tony Stark

Iron Man, Tony Stark, the man who single-handedly built the whole Avengers, finally completes his mission in Avengers: Endgame. The cinematic universe began with him hammering metal in a cave, and it ends with the sound of hammering.

In the movie, Tony finally marries Pepper and has an adorable daughter who loves him three thousand. He finally reconciles with his best friend at the door of the Avengers Tower, shaking hands and trusting each other again. And he finally meets his father, untying the knot he'd carried all his life.

Tony is a genius. One casual experiment of his makes up almost half the plot of Avengers: Endgame.

Pepper tells him, "Trying to talk you out of it would be the dumbest thing I've ever done."

In the end, he goes.

When Thanos puts on the Gauntlet and Captain Marvel is blasted off the Earth, Tony might be thinking, "If I rush in, is that how we win?"

He glances at Doctor Strange.

Strange holds up one finger.

And he finally understands why Strange never told him how the one winning outcome would come about.

He used to regret not saving Spider-Man. Now Spider-Man is back, and they've even shared a big hug. He used to regret never saying certain things to his father. Now he's said them. There's nothing left for him to regret.

It all started with him, and it's his responsibility to see it through.

“I AM IRON MAN.”

Tony was never afraid of goodbyes. He once carried a nuke in his arms.

“I love you three thousand.”

Even FRIDAY's voice is choked up. Tony just looks at Pepper. He just keeps looking at her.

“we will be ok without you,time to rest.”

The Marvel universe is built now. Look, there are so many heroes. Mr. Stark, we can keep going without you.

You can rest now.

But in the end Tony still isn't at ease. At the very end, his eyes don't even close, and all that plays over and over in my head is the arc reactor going dark.

He still wants to see the brothers he's fought beside, to see his child, to see whether the future still needs him somewhere.

But in the end, he's just too tired.

“Tony stark has a heart.”

Epilogue

Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye.

The original Avengers have completed every mission.

The Russo brothers didn't even leave a post-credits scene.

Part of the journey is the end.

The end.