Avengers: Endgame is a 2019 production from Marvel Studios and the second of two final setpieces during the third phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Be sure to check out my review of that first setpiece, Avengers: Infinity War as well. Just like Infinity War, this movie is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, with the writing done by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
This second instalment features even more actors and actresses than the first, although not all as important to the story, here is the list. This movie features Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Josh Brolin, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Brie Larson, Tom Holland, Karen Gillan, Zoe Saldana, Evangeline Lilly, Tessa Thompson, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, Danai Gurira, Benedict Wong, Pom Klementieff, Dave Bautista, Letitia Wright, Tilda Swinton, Natalie Portman, Taika Waititi, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer and more.
The movie scores an 8.4/10 on IMDb and received a 78 Metascore.
A Summary
We start at Clint Barton’s (Jeremy Renner) family farm, where he is teaching archery to his daughter. But suddenly his family disappears because of Thanos’ snap. We switch to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) who are stranded in space with no fuel and almost no supplies. At the last moment, Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) shows up and gives them a lift to Earth.
On Earth, the survivors of the snap, including Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) have gathered to discuss their next steps. Their plan seems quite simple: find Thanos (Josh Brolin), get the Infinity Stones, reverse the snap. They succeed in the first step but find out that Thanos destroyed the Stones with the Stones, which makes the third step impossible. Enraged at this thought, Thor chops Thanos’ head off.
We skip five years and see Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) jump out of the quantum realm. He was left there just before the snap and unable to get out because his crew was snapped away, as seen in Ant-Man and the Wasp. He goes to the Avengers compound, where he speaks with Natasha and Steve. He explains how he only aged a few hours because he was in the quantum realm, where five years passed on Earth. This makes Scott think that time travel may be possible to save the universe.
The three of them head to Tony, who now lives far away from the busy cities with his wife, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and their daughter. He rejects the possibility of time travel, mostly concerned about the dangers it brings. But Tony is still mourning Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) death and decides to give the possibility a shot, ultimately finding a working model for time travel. In the meantime, the Avengers set out to retrieve their old friends.
Natasha finds Clint in Japan, where he has brutally killing cartels under the name of Ronin. Bruce, who has now merged with Hulk and become one, sets out with Rocket to find Thor in New Asgard. Upon arrival, Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) tells them that he is not in such a great place. He has gained a lot of weight and become a bit lazy but he agrees to come with, as do Korg (voiced by Taika Waititi) and Meek. Now with the squad assembled and a working time machine, they head into the past to retrieve the Infinity Stones from their past selves.
The Time, Mind and Space stone are all present in New York at the time of the battle of New York, which occurred during the events of The Avengers. Bruce gets the Time Stone from the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), Steve takes the Mind Stone from undercover HYDRA agents, which he knew were undercover. However, Tony and Scott have failed to retrieve the Space Stone, which past-Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has now taken. Steve and Tony make another jump back in time to a U.S. Army base in the 1970s. They steal the Space Stone alongside some Pym Particles to make the journey back but not before Roger sees Peggy Carter and Tony has a conversation with his father Howard.
Rocket and Thor went to Asgard to get the Reality Stone, which possessed Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) at the time. Thor is distracted by his mother and talks with her, whilst also retrieving Mjolnir. Nebula and Rhodes set out to steal the Power Stone from Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) on Morag, who was on the planet during the beginning of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Rhodes goes back to the present with the stone but Nebula’s suit malfunctions and she becomes stuck. In meantime, in the past, Thanos and Nebula found out about the Avenger’s plan because of the two Nebula’s being connected.
Clint and Natasha set out to Vormir to retrieve the Soul Stone, knowing that Thanos came to Vormir with Gamora (Zoe Saldana) but left alone. Red Skull informs them of the rules about the Soul Stone and both Clint and Natasha want to give up their lives. After a brief fight, Natasha takes the fall and Clint goes back to Earth with Soul Stone.
Back on Earth, all the Infinity Stones are in one place. Banner offers himself up to take the snap, knowing that it could kill him. He succeeds and half of the life in the universe returns. The victory is short-lived however as Thanos immediately appeared with his ship and shoots the facility down. A large fight starts where the Avengers are fighting with Thanos, past-Nebula and past-Gamora alongside Thanos’ Children. Nebula kills her past-self when she tries to steal the Infinity Stones from Clint.
Thor, Captain America and Iron Man have been gearing up in the meantime to fight Thanos again. Captain America picks up Mjolnir during this fight, proving he is worthy, but still the three of them are ultimately defeated by Thanos. Steve is one of the last man standing, seeing Thanos’ full army appear in front of him. But he is not alone, Sorcerers teleportation circles start appearing everywhere behind Steve. All the snapped-heroes have returned to help in this final, epic battle.
Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Bucky (Sebastian Stan), Wong (Benedict Wong) and Drax (Dave Bautista) appear alongside much more superheroes and a large of sorcerers, Wakandans and Asgardians. Many friends and lovers are united within the fight, while Thanos’ commands his ship to shoot at the battlefield, also killing his army when he is almost killed by Wanda.
But Captain Marvel destroys the entire ship by flying through it and saves the Infinity Gauntlet from falling into the wrong hands. In the final moments, Stark uses the Infinity Stones to snap Thanos and his army out of existence whilst saying the famous ‘I am Iron Man’ line. The radiation from the snap kills Tony as we get an emotional goodbye from Pepper and Peter. During the final moments of the film, after Tony’s funeral, Steve sets out to put the Infinity Stones back where they belong as they will otherwise cause trouble in different timelines. He doesn’t return at the expected time, however, as he finally lived out his days as he always wanted to, with Peggy.
The Story
Compared to Avengers: Infinity War, Endgame is kind of a sad story. I liked how they make that clear right from the get-go. We see Hawkeye’s family turning to dust and Tony speaking, what he believes will be, his last words. These dark moments set the tone for the movie, a tone that this movie needed because this isn’t your regular superhero movie where everything is all fun.
I am not a great fan of the way to movie continues. We see the remaining Avengers getting together with Captain Marvel to find Thanos and get the stones. But by the looks of it, they are very quick to decide on this without much planning. Have they forgotten how Thanos kicked their asses the last time around? Sure, Captain Marvel is present but nobody but herself knows how strong she is. And nobody in the room thought of the idea that Thanos may have destroyed the stones, or at least in some way prevented that the Avengers could ever restore the lives taken?
After the Thanos-killing debacle, we skip five years into the future, alright I can live with that. At least Thanos’ work has done some damage to the universe. We see Ant-Man getting out of the quantum realm because of a rat though? If you see through that coincidence we get to Tony Stark.
Apart from some mental damage, he seems to be doing just fine and he is the only one on Earth doing so? I get how Tony now has his family to care about but I feel like it is a bit un-Tony like to refuse the possibility to save everyone at first sight. Luckily for us (and the story), he changes his mind after making some shapes on his super-advanced computer.
What follows are a few minutes with a lighter tone. Bruce’s time travel making Scott old and young is quite fun, although they are overdoing the referencing of other time travel movies. Besides, Scott wanting to eat his taco but the contents get blown out was a great moment alongside Hulk holding a new taco in his extremely large hands.
Then we get into a lot of time travelling stuff. We relive some events of The Avengers from a different point of view which is quite fun. Also the inside information, like HYDRA being infiltrated in S.H.I.E.L.D., gives them a nice advantage. The Captain America vs Captain America fight and new Hulk smashing things against his will were fun to watch.
While most of the time travelling in New York is fun to watch, at the other locations a real story is being built rather than an old one retold. The Ancient One ups the stakes once again for our heroes when she tells Bruce that taking the Time Stone creates a doomed universe, which can not be saved unless the stones are returned to their original places.
We also get the first death of a major character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe when Black Widow gives up her life for the Soul Stone. Those scenes on Vormir are among the best in the franchise. We finally get to see some proper acting with emotions. That’s exactly why I don’t like the fact that they needed to fight it out, rather than just talk about it. In the end, Romanoff has fewer reasons to live as Barton could see his family return to life.
Although the exact workings of time travel in the MCU are still quite unclear, I liked how Steve and Tony went further back in time. The interaction between Tony and Howard Stark may seem arbitrary but I feel like it was vital to Tony’s character arc. Meantime, we get some Peggy Carter foreshadowing with Steve Rogers and we get to see a young Hank Pym.
To this point, the time-travelling was orchestrated by the Pym particles. Captain America and Iron Man needed to take even more risks to get enough of them but then Thanos uses one tube to get his enormous ship into the future? Seems a bit strange in my opinion. Not to even mention the consequences of the way time travel is implemented. Can’t they just go back in time to get a ‘new’ Romanoff?
And then the big fight starts. Not much to say about the ‘story’ of that so we’ll move on to the end of the fight as we get our second major death in the MCU. Tony Stark, Iron Man, the leader of the Avengers, the main figure of the whole movie franchise, dies. It is a powerful moment, emotional. With the cut to his funeral, it got me in tears, even though it was my second time seeing this happen. His arc has been completed and this moment will be seen as the end of an era for decades to come.
The Characters
This film features a lot of characters, and that is no understatement. However, this becomes both an enhancement and a pitfall. Where Infinity War managed its characters relatively well, I feel like Endgame disregarded too much of the characters. There is a small group of characters that become the protagonists for this story but there is an even larger number of major characters who have nothing more than a single line. That created a bit of cramped feeling as if they were trying too hard to put everyone one, which may have actually been the case.
While you could argue that Thor has a proper storyline in this movie, I do feel like that isn’t true. His story was of less importance to this movie compared to his story in Infinity War. Therefore I feel like these are the only characters who truly played a meaningful in this story.
Tony Stark – Steve Rogers
Iron Man and Captain America have been the pillars for the MCU over the past decade as their characters grew in popularity. Both have had three standalone movies and were main characters in the previous Avengers instalments. These are the characters that have gotten the time to build up their story and show the viewer everything they needed to see.
While they may not have always been on the same side, I feel like Avengers: Endgame became their proper send-off. After years of fighting, they start properly working together with great results. After the additions of extraterrestrials, gods and just straight overpowered beings like Captain Marvel, they are still the ones who get the job done.
Tony, the egocentric billionaire, knows that there is only 1 timeline where they succeed and he knows what to do. As his character has grown over the years, Tony has realised that it isn’t all about him. His final moment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is therefore a proper one, disregarding his own needs to save the whole universe. Reciting his famous ‘I am Iron Man’ line one final time as he gets laid to finally rest.
Steve, the stubborn soldier, always ready for the next fight. He may have never been the smartest or the strongest person in the room but his sheer will to win is astonishing. Picking up Mjolnir in the middle of the fight with Thanos, proving he is worthy, was soo cool to watch and a nice nod to the scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Over the years he has become that leader of forces of good and everybody knows it. Seeing those portals opening behind the Captain at the moment they needed it most, gave me goosebumps. I feel like that ‘Avengers, assemble’ line will go down in movie history.
Of course, Steve finally gets his deserved time off, kind of like Tony. After skipping on his normal life when he went into the ice, he is now able to be with his Peggy. Seeing the old Steve Rogers on that bench, giving the shield to Falcon, creates a sense of accomplishment. He did is his job and was able to benefit from the rewards.
Natasha Romanoff – Clint Barton
They were part of the team that was to retrieve the Soul and Power Stone. Together they went to Vormir in their quest for the Soul Stone, already knowing what would come as they knew Thanos had come to Vormir with Gamora but left alone. These two characters are about the only ones having a proper story in the movie and I feel like Jeremy Renner and Scarlett Johansson were up for the challenge as they delivered some great performances.
Nebula – Thanos – Gamora
After seeing one of my favourite Guardians die in Infinity War it was nice to see Gamora again, knowing that she probably would end up surviving and rejoining the Guardians. Although I do think that its a shame that she will now not be able to remember anything about their adventures in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Her relationship with Quill finally got somewhere but now that is all thrown out.
Meantime, were getting two Nebulas. Seeing the future-Nebula shooting her past-self was quite a powerful moment. It can’t be easy for anyone to kill herself, even though it might be another version. But she lost almost all her new friends by the Thanos’ snap, so she was determined not to let that happen again. The weird memory syncing between the two provided a nice plot device for Thanos to attack the Avengers facility.
Thanos, who becomes a less important character in this movie, got a bit of a weird role in this film. We see him living out his day on a distant planet, only to see his head chopped off. Definitely, a change from the Thanos in Infinity War, who was always in possession of at least one Infinity Stone, making him nearly unkillable. I do like how the past-Thanos knows that he completed his plan but with an undesired outcome. He changes up his plan, which takes away any sort of support to his previous ideals. During this movie he felt less strong at almost all times, creating a Thanos which I enjoyed less than the Thanos in Infinity War.
The Production
Like my tagline says, this is cinema at scales we have never seen before. Even more superheroes, even larger armies and a more devastating battleground. Like I said earlier, Tony’s final line and Captain America assembling all the heroes are amazing moments. Alongside action from every superhero and small things like Strange holding up one finger to indicate the only possibility are soo cool.
Also, every fight with Thanos in this movie is amazing. First, seeing OG Avengers Thor, Captain America and Iron Man going all out on him trying to defeat him. Followed by the likes of Wanda who was almost able to kill him on her own, only being stopped by Thanos’ cannons shooting on everybody on the battlefield, including his men.
The CGI army of Thanos also got better, for the first time ever in the MCU. His army added some hovercrafts and larger, more powerful monsters, which I thought were really cool. However, Thanos’ sidekicks were a bit underused in the battle. During Infinity War they were the ones who proved a challenge to our heroes but during Endgame they barely made a stand.