Author Topic: Avengers: Endgame  (Read 5047 times)

FLYmeatwad

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Avengers: Endgame
« on: April 25, 2019, 09:43:26 PM »
Reckon we'll need this. A little tired, so I'll hammer things out tomorrow (duh, Thor continues to be the best, and perhaps the only consistently good thing about this film?), but my biggest takeaways would likely be that this thing really meanders a good deal in the middle, and for a cinematic universe that is arguably at its worst when it's just a bunch of people talking about and chasing infinity stones, it's definitely an odd choice to literally make this film about people talking about and chasing infinity stones. Though I guess I do admire the subversion, and enjoyed the first encounter with Thanos. I would have liked that tone maintained throughout and really went with a character examination, but just as that starts to ramp up, we give way to the plot and it becomes all consuming.

Also not sure that losing half the people on earth would make things so desolate five years later, but who can say. I definitely think there would still be baseball teams.

Way about Iron Man dying, this film, as pretty much any film with Tony Stark at the center, is at its worst when RDJ just does his thing. Hemsworth continues to impress constantly, and has me hopeful that we may finally get a good GotG movie.

Going along with enjoying the parts where they subvert expectations, I really liked the choice to have no stingers.

Working through my thoughts on the big battle, because, at this point, we've seen it done so much that I'm not sure this brings anything new to the field. It doesn't capture the same heft that the big ones in LotR have, there aren't enough fronts to match GoT at its best, so I guess it most felt like a smaller scale version of the Ready Player One fight? Who knows.

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Avengers: Endgame
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2019, 06:23:33 AM »
A quick comment. Feel this film was deliberately longer just so they could get all the cameos in. Particularly the 1970s sequence which was a total padding bit with a nice bit of Tony getting to hug his father (which was still unnecessary padding).

1SO

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Re: Avengers: Endgame
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2019, 01:21:15 PM »
Hope they don't get tied up in knots over half the people aging 5 years and the other half not aging a day. It really stood out when Peter Parker went to school, because I wondered about all his classmates who didn't get dusted and would have graduated, or if school was cancelled, they'd be older and bigger looking.

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Avengers: Endgame
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2019, 07:16:40 PM »
I was wondering that too. Obviously based on the trailers it is safe to assume all of the core cast got dusted. Guess they could say Martin Starr wasn't, but he's at an age where you can just believe that he's teacher age give or take five years regardless, probably.

1SO

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Re: Avengers: Endgame
« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2019, 09:47:30 PM »
My wife thinks the Spider-Man trilogy will take place between Civil War and Infinity War, but I think Marvel needs to be careful of the audience getting frustrated about having to keep track of the time line.

BTW, I liked Captain Marvel's new haircut. Always hated a character with a military background having long, flowing hair. The short look suits her attitude. The brief exchange between her and Peter Parker is a confident Captain Marvel I want to see more of. Also liked Thanos using the Power Stone separately just to get her off of him.


So, Captain America returns all of the Infinity Stones. Makes the most sense with the Time Stone because the Sorcerer Supreme is in on the plan.

Does he re-inject Natalie Portman with the red matter? That's a scene I'd like to see a super nice guy pull off without guilt.

How does he put the purple Power Stone back? Nebula fried her arm getting it and Peter Quill used some space age device. Cap went in with just his wits and a suitcase.

What about the Soul Stone? Does he return it to Red Skull knowing that it means someone else down the line will be killed? He can't return it in exchange for Natasha.

Will

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Re: Avengers: Endgame
« Reply #5 on: April 27, 2019, 07:31:07 PM »
First you had to sacrifice someone you loved to get the Soul Stone. Now you can just kill yourself for it. Okay!

Wish they clarified that a snap = wish? Because they can snap to bring back people and also to kill Thanos and his army so...

I also think it's hilarious that Tony makes, quite possibly, the greatest discovery in scientific history of mankind and Pepper Potts is all like... "Oh... Cool." I laughed so hard at this. No one else did. We just (and everyone in the film, apparently) accepts at this point that Tony is the Smartest Person of All Time, despite the fact that he started out as a weapons manufacturer.

...

This was fine.

The Deer Hunter

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Re: Avengers: Endgame
« Reply #6 on: April 28, 2019, 12:22:10 AM »
What was everyone's expectations about characters dying? I figured it would either be Cap and Iron Man. I definitely didn't see Black Widow coming. Cap returning back to the 40's to live out his life was unexpected too.

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Avengers: Endgame
« Reply #7 on: April 28, 2019, 04:16:38 PM »
Also figured that those two would be likely to go, especially hearing that they were both, Evans especially, pretty much done with the MCU. Kind of remember reading something about Hemsworth feeling the same, but also that seems to shift, and he seems fully on board at this point, which, as I said earlier, is great. If they want to bring back IM or CA it's easy enough for them to do so, they already pretty much set that up with CA, and if the post credits thing/inclusion of that kid at the funeral does mean anything then I guess they teased IM doing the same thing. Also didn't expect Black Widow to die, but didn't resonate with me much anyway. At some point I assumed that new Gomorrah would just replace dead Gomorrah, though it looks like dead dead Gomorrah isn't actually dead.

Teproc

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Re: Avengers: Endgame
« Reply #8 on: April 28, 2019, 05:18:34 PM »
What was everyone's expectations about characters dying? I figured it would either be Cap and Iron Man. I definitely didn't see Black Widow coming. Cap returning back to the 40's to live out his life was unexpected too.

I thought all of the original Avengers would go. Only half, as it turned out (counting Cap).
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Bondo

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Re: Avengers: Endgame
« Reply #9 on: April 30, 2019, 08:55:32 PM »
Wait, there was a mid/post-credits tag? I read specifically that there wasn't and my theatre put the lights up immediately.

Anyway, I also thought I had read Black Widow was getting a stand-alone, so now sure how that goes now. I suppose it's prior to this point in the timeline because magic. I get that they had to go with Black Widow because Hawkeye has family to reunite with, but on the other hand Hawkeye is the worst and should have died.

Anyway, I really liked this. It is in that top tier of the MCU with Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Ant Man. It also accomplishes the feat of making me like Infinity War more. One of my complaints about Infinity War (though certainly not the only) was being annoyed by the dusting mostly because I knew it wasn't going to take. And obviously it didn't but I think how Endgame handles this process retroactively makes the prior one seem less manipulative. I still think there are many other problems with Infinity War (namely Thanos being the absolute dumbest version of the Malthusian terrorist*).

I think Endgame contemplates mourning extremely well and handles time travel surprisingly well without making the exposition seem leaden. Putting it into a heist structure is entertaining and they also balanced the natural grief-stricken tone with a ton of really funny bits. The film's main weakness is it is just too damn long. I thought a good bit of the ending was dragged out (the Steve-Sam conversation could have been half as long, the funeral could have been half as long) and like mentioned above the 1970 scene really stretched as well. But I'll forgive it its nostalgia.

*If the stones can as easily just dust Thanos' crew or a random 50% of all life in the universe, why do a random 50% of life on the universe? Why kill half of endangered animals? If overpopulation is an issue, why not be selective about who you reduce? Why not dust white supremacists, bank executives or people who walk slow in front of you?
« Last Edit: April 30, 2019, 09:22:48 PM by Bondo »