Avengers: Endgame MOVIE TALK

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Okay. So. How do I even begin to summarise a movie this awesome?
A word of warning, you can't just jump into Endgame as a casual fan. Even if you've seen Infinity War and think you know everything you need to know... you don't. This movies is ten years, 20+ movies in the making and it draws on all the memories and character growth and references to past adventures.
I don't want to say too much in the non-spoiler section because I think it's best to go in completely blind but I will say that I've never cried more at a movie. In the first half, I had the odd tear once or twice but from half way onward... I was crying continuously. Seriously, I had to cover my mouth with my scarf because I was afraid my sobbing was making too much noise. And, yes, I cried over sad, happy and empowering moments alike.
Endgame is a culmination of everything you love about superhero movies coming together and it will definitely go down in history.

SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD
Sidenote: If you can't be bothered to read through this monster of a review (I really wouldn't blame you) a brief bullet point list of my favourite moments and quotes are at the end of this review. Enjoy!

The Immediate Aftermath
Boom! We start with the gut-wrenching scene of Hawkeye losing his family. I've never been a massive fan of Hawkeye but I will admit that this movie has increased my love and respect for the guy... a movie where said guy goes on a killing spree after losing his family... I don't know what that says about me.
Up in space, Captain Marvel is quick to rescue Tony and Nebula and it all felt a little quick. I suppose it kind of had to be otherwise the movie would be four hours long but it wasn't all that surprising as so many people had theorised Carol saving them. It was nice to just get that out of the way at the beginning because we all kind of knew what was going to happen.
Tony reunites with the left over avengers and Pepper and it's sad to see the state they're all in. Tony has a massive go at Cap about him not being there and as much as I love Tony, I think that was a little out of line. Having said that, Tony definitely wasn't in the right state of mind so probably didn't mean a lot of what he was saying.

The Avengers find out where Thanos is and decide to bring the fight to him. On Thanos' retirement planet, we discover that he's destroyed the stones and it doesn't take long for Thor to finally go for the head. This whole confrontation happened so damn quick and I'm pretty sure I looked like a fish with my mouth hanging open.

Five Years Later
We see a lot of the aftermath and things are tough! Nat is still keeping updated with all the Avengers, unable to move on and Cap is doing the most Cap thing ever: running a counselling group. And I loved the Joe Russo (director) cameo!! It was such a nice touch and, damn, the guy can act!
A rat of all things accidentally brings Scott back from the Quantum Realm and we see Scott figure out what's gone on. He goes straight to his daughter, Cassie, and when he sees her as five years older and they reunite... I won't lie, this was the first time I cried in Endgame.
Scott approaches the Avengers with his time travelling idea and I think it's interesting how they sidestepped the whole change-your-past-affect-your-future kind of plot holes. The idea was to use the stones to bring back everyone who had dusted as opposed to turning back time and stopping Thanos from snapping, and then take the stones back to where they were in the past so time can unravel as it always has. After hesitation (of which I totally understand), Tony creates a device that allows them to time travel and he just has to hope for the best that he doesn't lose either his life or his daughter's future. On a side note, I absolutely loved Morgan. She's the cutest kid ever and the way Tony was with her made my heart melt!

They start to collect everyone they need to time travel and it was nice getting the gang together again but... things have changed.
Nat goes to get killing spree Ronan and Hulk Bruce and Rocket go to get Thor who's... let himself go a little, shall we say. I actually love that Thor was chubby and a drunk because it just shows the extent of how he blames himself for the snap. If he'd gone for the head, none of this would've happened and that guilt plays so heavily on him in this movie. I also love that we see Valkyrie and Korg in New Asgard. I especially wasn't expecting to see Korg but this was a lovely movie where so many references and smaller characters popped up left, right and centre.

Journey to the Past
The Avengers split into four different groups to find all the infinity stones as and this whole section was a whole lot of fun- especially when we got to see old characters again and some of our favourite moments from the MCU as a whole.

Tony, Cap, Hulk Bruce and Scott head to New York and this was my favourite of the four different groups that went time travelling. Hulk Bruce talks to the Ancient One who has the time stone. She's reluctant to give it up but when she finds out that Doctor Strange had gives it up in the future... she knows he knows what he's doing. One down, five to go!
Tony, Cap and Scott focus on getting the space stone from the Tesseract as well as the mind stone in Loki's sceptre. This whole scene was so funny and amazing. I love how it felt like a behind the scenes of the first Avengers- seeing what they did after they beat Loki and watching all the technical aftermath like Shield coming along and securing everything. We also see Loki imitating Past-Cap and Thor placing that contraption over his mouth to stop him from talking- honestly, I just loved every moment of seeing Loki again because he's spectacular.
To get the sceptre, Cap goes into an elevator with a bunch of 'Shield' agents who we now know are Hydra since The Winter Soldier! I thought we were gonna have another epic elevator fight scene but Cap just whispers 'Hail Hydra' and they hand it over willingly.
Meanwhile, the Past-Hulk barges into Current-Tony, knocking the Tesseract out of his grip and who does it land by? The one and only Loki! Loki disappears with the Tesseract and this ensues so much more fun. Past-Cap sees Current-Cap and thinks he's Loki so fights him!! I can't put into words how awesome it was to see Cap fight himself and when old him went 'I could do this all day' and he was like 'yeah, I know'... comedy genius. Current-Cap beats Past-Cap and I will completely agree that, yes, Cap does have America's ass.
As Loki has disappeared with the Tesseract, Tony and Cap decide to go to 1970 to get both the Tesseract when it was in Shield's possession as well as more of Pym's particles so they can get back home. Tony sees his dad which was super sweet- they had a nice talk about their kids and I'm so happy that Tony got that moment with his dad. I also loved how we saw a glimpse of Jarvis- I totally wasn't expecting that!!! You'll only know who Jarvis is and how awesome he is if you've watched Agent Carter but, trust me, he's a complete God-send.
Cap has the task of getting the Pym particles and, of course, he sees Peggy. My one and only hope for this movie was that we'd see Peggy again and Endgame delivered so well! I'm such a Hayley Atwell fangirl and every glimpse we got of Peggy was beautiful.
And, yes, I cried again.
Over to Thor and Rocket, they head to Dark World Asgard to retrieve the aether (reality stone) from Jane- another character I didn't expect to see and, I think I speak for everyone when I say, I didn't give two hoots about her. We did see another tiny clip of Loki in the Asgard prison which I loved and it was even funnier seeing chubby Thor and Rocket sneak past him.
Thor talks to his mum while Rocket retrieves the aether and I loved this conversation. We never saw too much of Thor's mum from the previous movies but we really got to delve into their relationship here and I think it really helped Thor get some motivation and hope back into his life.
In Vormir, Nat and Hawkeye go to get the soul stone and, no surprise, I sobbed here as well. Dread completely consumed me when Red Skull explained how they could get the stone and it was really a coin toss over which one of them would die- though, Nat did seem like the sensible choice because she doesn't have a family like Clint. I was on the edge of my seat when they were fighting over who dies and when Clint jumped off the cliff, I thought he was gonner. And then, Nat saves him and falls herself?!? I was a wreck. Having said that, I think this movie really did Nat justice with her character and her death. In Infinity War, she was a little more than a background character with the odd line and emotionless expression but she really took centre stage in Endgame. She had a lot more emotion and humanity to her character and it made me love her even more... which just made it more painful when she sacrificed herself. This whole thing just makes me way more excited for the Black Widow prequel movie.

And finally we had War Machine and Nebula trying to get the power stone before Starlord gets it in the form of the Orb. We briefly see Starlord dancing like at the beginning of GotG Vol 1 and it made my heart so happy! They manage to get the Orb and War Machine takes it back but Nebula gets stuck there because Past-Thanos is onto her! I definitely wasn't expecting this turn of events- I knew Thanos was the villain but I didn't think Past-Thanos would become the villain!
Through Nebula, he, Gamora and Past-Nebula know what happens in the future and it was interesting seeing how the whole Nebula/Gamora relationship and allegiance works. They kidnap Current-Nebula and you can instantly see Gamora wavering over who her allegiance lies with whereas Past-Nebula is dead straight on hating her future self and proving her loyalty to Thanos. It's actually comical- why the hell would you not listen to your future self?!? It's bizarre.
Past-Nebula takes Current-Nebula's time travel wrist-watch and takes her place as they all return to the present day.

Back to the Future
They all make it back to the future (or so they think) and Tony has created this Iron Man gauntlet and everything is going great! Hulk Bruce snaps the iron gauntlet and it appears as if everyone from the snap is back! And I'm so happy...until Past-Nebula ruins freakin' everything!
Nebula opens a Quantum Realm portal that allows Past- Thanos and all his armies into our current world to steal to the Infinity Stones. They bomb the Avengers facility spectacularly and I was sure someone was dead at this point but, miraculously, they all survive the blast. Hawkeye runs from the monsters with the iron gauntlet while Cap, Thor and Iron Man deal with Thanos head on.
From here on, I was in tears. I'm not even exaggerating when I say I sobbed through the entire battle.
The whole fight between Thanos, Cap, Thor and Tony was so brilliantly done and when Cap saved Thor by throwing Mjolnir... the cinema audience cheered and I was absolutely awestruck! We've all had suspicions that Cap could pick up Mjolnir since Age of Ultron when it moves a tiny bit but this was just awesome! I also love how Thor is completely okay with Cap using it- he has Stormbreaker now and doesn't get insecure or jealous that Cap can hold it.
We seem to losing, Thanos' entire army forming with only Cap still standing and then.... the best scene in MCU history. The finale battle.

Avengers... Assemble!
As the Hulk had previously snapped the iron gauntlet to bring everyone back, we have an entire army!! Doctor Strange creates portals for everyone to join Tony, Cap and Thor and it's a breathtaking scene. Falcon is the first to fly through and I love the little detail of him saying to Cap 'on you left.'
T'Challa, Shuri and Okoye appear and then, before we know it, everyone who dusted comes through! Bucky, Scarlet Witch, Starlord, Doctor Strange, Spider-man, Drax, Mantis, the Wasp and Groot!! It was such a glorious moment and, with all the Wakanda armies as well, it was spectacular.
And it's all topped off when Cap says "Avengers... assemble!"
Peter and Tony have a brief reunion hug which was everything and Peter tells him that Doctor Strange explained everything- that they'd been dusted by the Thanos snap and been reanimated five years later (though it only felt like fifteen seconds to them) and then created portals for them to come and fight. I love this little reunion between and it just makes the ending more devastating.
The Avengers play hot potato with the gauntlet, trying to keep it out of Thanos' clutches and I love how Spider-man activates instant kill when he has it! I've always wanted Peter to use the instant kill on his suit! It also gets passed to Valkyrie who I need to take a moment to appreciate because she's awesome! Riding around on Pegasus, she's perfection.
Another scene I loved (and was maybe my favourite scene of the entire film), was when the women got together and charged for Thanos' army. It kind of felt like Infinity War when Okoye and Scarlet Witch defend Black Widow but this was that times 100! Peter wonders out loud whether Captain Marvel can take on the army by herself and the women just back her up, storm the army together and it's epic. I mean, we have Captain Marvel, the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Valkyrie, Pepper in her iron suit, Okoye, Shuri, Nebula, Gamora and Mantis all gunning for Thanos. It was epic and all kinds of empowering and this may have been the part where I cried the hardest because I've never felt that empowered before. These are all strong and powerful and inspirational women fighting and supporting one another and, even thinking about it, brings tears to my eyes. It was so special.
On the lead up to the movie, there's been a lot of debate over how much Captain Marvel should contribute to this movie because nobody wanted her to just show up and take all glory and I think her participation in the movie was perfect. Aside from getting a bloody awesome haircut, she contributed the perfect amount, giving great help during the battle but not taking the final glory of killing Thanos.
I also loved when Scarlet Witch went up against Thanos by herself. Scarlet Witch is the one of the strongest Avengers and the way she says 'you took everything from me' and Thanos just replies with 'I don't even know you' and she ends with 'you will'.... it was everything! It is crazy to think how this Past-Thanos has no idea why everyone has such personal vendettas against him and he doesn't remember everything he took from these people. But Scarlet Witch holds her own and it was a really special moment for her to fight for what he took- Vision, one of the people that can't get bought back.

We also had a brief interaction between Starlord and Past-Gamora and it was bittersweet because Past-Gamora obviously doesn't know who Starlord is but Nebula had told her about him so she knows he means something to her in the future... after she kicks him the nuts, though.
Tony has a brief interaction with Doctor Strange who had obviously seen this whole thing play out and Tony asks what happens. Doctor Strange refuses to tell him otherwise it wouldn't come true and, in that moment, it basically confirms all our suspicions that Tony's gonna die.
Tony manages to steal the stones from Thanos' gauntlet, puts them in his own and... his final words were just perfect. "I am Iron Man" is such an iconic quote and Tony Stark is truly the heart of the MCU. It's safe to say my crying intensified as Tony snaps everyone from the past away and destroys the stones, killing him in the process. Peter cries and begs him not to go which gives me way too many flashbacks of the end of Infinity War but flipped and Pepper tells Tony he can rest and then cries over his dead body.
I was a wreck. I really think I need therapy now.
As much as I love Tony and didn't want him to die, I don't think there was any other way for his character arc to end. From the very first Avengers movie, Tony has been ready to sacrifice himself for the greater good and that time has finally come. To see how far he's come from the first movie, arrogant and selfish, to who he is now makes me so proud. Tony has had the most epic character growth of anyone I've ever seen and I think he had to die. He sacrificed himself to save the entire universe and it's the only way his character arc could be completed. Devastating but perfect.
I was crying so much through his funeral. Seeing everyone there to pay their respects and mourn the heart of the MCU... it was powerful.

With the movie tying up, we see Thor deciding to stay with the Guardians and I love this!! Chris Hemsworth has said that he's open to doing more movies as Thor and I'm hoping this means he's in GotG Vol. 3! It's such a lovely fit for him and I also love how he's made Valkyrie the Queen of New Asgard.
We also see a shot of Starlord searching the universe for Gamora and... I don't know how I feel about this. It makes me think that GotG 3 will be them looking for Gamora but they haven't actually changed the past... which means she still dies. As much as I love Gamora, I think it would cheapen how she died and wouldn't make sense for her to come back. And I also don't want Past-Gamora coming forward in time with them because she doesn't remember all their memories and isn't in love with Starlord! She'd be Gamora, but she's not Gamora! If that makes any sense at all...
We also briefly saw Scott, Hope and Cassie all together as one happy family which was lovely as well as Clint reuniting with his family.
And then we had the final scene and it made the whole movie all the more perfect for me. Cap goes back in time to return the infinity stones and Mjolnir so the past doesn't change and affect their future (a nice way to ensure there aren't any past-changing future plot holes). Hulk Bruce, Bucky and Sam are expecting him to come back but he doesn't... he decided to stay in the past and returned as an old man to pass on the Captain America shield to Sam. We see that he has a wedding ring and I knew... I just knew and I was ecstatic.
Through the entire Thor and Guardians scene, I'd collected myself from all the crying and I thought I was controlled and good for the rest of the movie but when I saw Peggy and Steve in the past dancing... I just lost it again. Steggy has been my favourite ship in the entire MCU and their story has always been so tragic and to see them finally together, finally having their dance, kissing, imagining the life they'll love together.... it was all Steve wanted and deserved and I just had to sob over how perfect it was.
And yes, there could be some potential plot holes but a) I don't want think too much into and b) I think it does make sense.
Past-Steve still exists so is currently in the ice as Current-Steve lives his life with Peggy, therefore not affecting his past and therefore his future. I'm sure he would tell Peggy about the whole situation and Peggy would definitely keep it a secret, meaning she would lie to everyone else, saying that she married someone else (like in The Winter Soldier when the recording had her saying she married someone that Captain America had supposedly saved). And, also, it makes sense that Cap grew old because he isn't immortal. The ice and stronger cells are what kept him from ageing between world war 2 and the current day and he simply ages slower, meaning he would've grown older with Peggy. I just love this whole ending and don't want to think too much into potential plot holes. That explanation is good enough for me (please don't ruin this ending for me with plot holes...).
I'm actually really happy there wasn't any post-credit scenes. I think any clip of humour would cheapen the ending. The official ending was Steve and Peggy dancing and that's what it need to end on, I think.

Overall, this movie was a rollercoaster. The beginning is a little slow and takes time to get into the groove but the final battle made up for any lulls in pace and was maybe the best scene I've ever seen in my life. This finale was tragic, devastating, satisfying, uplifting, empowering and the end of an era! I swear, most of my crying was because this is the last time we're going to see this group of characters together!

Favourite Moments
- Female Avengers teaming up
- Cap picking up Mjolnir
- Cap and Peggy dancing together at the end
- Cap fighting Past-Cap
- Nat and Clint fighting to sacrifice themselves
- Tony snapping the iron gauntlet

Favourite Quotes
- 'I am Iron Man'
- 'Avengers... Assemble.'
- 'She's got help.'
- 'I love you 3000'
- 'That is America's ass'
- 'I could do this all day.'   'Yeah, I know'

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment your thoughts. Stay amazing!
Chloe