Endgame has been watched!

[lunabee34]

I pretty much thoroughly enjoyed the movie, so lots of squeeing ahoy:

The opening of the movie with Clint losing his family is gutting. I really missed him in Infinity War, so I am really pleased that he gets such a big role in Endgame even if it's an emotionally devastating one for most of the movie.

I wasn't surprised that the team's initial attempt to take on Thanos and reverse the deaths doesn't work. What I find really fascinating and interesting (and very emotionally affecting) is the way that each of them chooses to deal with the loss and their inability to fix it. Steve is trying to help other people, and he's trying to find a way to find the good in the world and live a meaningful life even if his attempts often ring hollow. Nat is not trying to find the good in the world they've inherited, but like Steve, she's trying to help people and mitigate the damage Thanos wrought, and she's trying to keep what she has left of her family alive and well. Those scenes at the beginning with her and Rhodey and then Steve where Natasha is as open and emotionally honest and available as she's ever been in any of the movies get me right in the heart. Natasha is the emotional heart, the core, of this movie. Bruce is finally able to merge the two parts of himself that were at war with each other and accept himself as he is; I think his method of dealing/coping is the most healthy along with Tony's. Tony is taking his second chance and living life to the fullest. He's happy with Pepper and Morgan, and he's not spending a second looking that gift horse in the mouth. I realize that Thor's depiction is the most controversial, but it works for me. He's depressed and angry and so very guilty; he's trying to escape himself. He feels lost. I really appreciate that the movie doesn't change him; like, I kinda expected that once he got on board, there'd be a training montage, and he'd come back "to himself" and be all ripped again. Except that doesn't happen. He stays kind of a drunk and messed up and overweight, and he still gets to be badass. He still gets to be just as awesome in battle as he ever was. That moment when he's back in Asgard and he calls his hammer and he says to himself, "I'm still worthy," is really, really powerful.

I really like that Thor is able to have one final conversation with his mother. What a gift (as she says) to be able to connect with her again one last time. I also love that he takes her advice to heart and that he decides to figure out who he is and what he wants rather than just doing what's expected of him.

Now for some rambling about Tony:

Love Tony and Nebula on the ship trying to make it back to Earth. I am pleased that my post-Infinity War fic with the two of them manages to capture a lot of the grace notes from that opening scene.

I love that Tony's first words when he stumbles off the ship, before the resentment and anger set in, are about Peter and how he lost him. I think the possibility of getting Peter back is what makes the decision to change things for Tony. Their reunion is absolutely pitch perfect.

I like the way the Tony and Steve relationship resolves. Tony is angry and then he decides to let it go. I love that he says something like, "Bitterness is corrosive, and I decided to let it go." And things aren't easy between them after that, but that enmity is over. And Tony gets some nice snarking in about Steve's ass. LOL

I very much like Tony interacting with his dad and getting to have a moment with him even if Howard never knows what really happened.

I knew Tony was going to die sacrificially. That's been telegraphed since he shot through a wormhole carrying a nuke. I expected him to die, and I still can't deal with how gutted I am. I love that his last words are, "I am Iron Man." I'm tearing up just typing this, but I love that Pepper finally finds a way to be with Tony as he is. So much of their relationship is Pepper being afraid--worrying that she's going to lose him, that he's hiding behind a suit, behind a mask. But here in the aftermath of such tragedy where she and Tony have come together and made something good and meaningful and quiet, she finally is no longer afraid. When Tony tells her that he knows how fix things, she doesn't tell him to stop. She doesn't cajole or threaten. She tells him he has to do it. That he *is* Iron Man. That she gets him now, that she understands that ever since he saw what's out there waiting for Earth, he's never been able to rest, never been able to stop feeling like he's responsible for keeping everyone safe. And when the battle comes, she's right by his side, in the suit, every damn inch a superhero herself, and I can't tell y'all how happy it made me even when I was bawling my eyes out to watch her tell him that she understands his sacrifice and that it's worth it. Damn.

I did not expect Natasha to die at all. I was genuinely surprised and also emotionally devastated by her death. She and Clint are so close; they love each other so much. That callback to Budapest. Watching them vie to be the one to sacrifice themselves for the stone is gut wrenching.

I did expect Steve to die, and he doesn't. I am so stoked that he gets to live his life with Peggy. That they get not just the one dance but a lifetime full of dances. I also love that he passes the shield to Sam. I was fully expecting him to pass it to Bucky, and I'm so happy we're getting a black Captain America.

I love everything with Carol. I love that she's out there in the galaxy taking care of the planets without superheroes. I love that she is so badass that when Thanos headbutts her, she doesn't even rock back at all and just looks at him like, "What did you think that was going to do, buddy?" She's so badass that he has to take a stone out of the gauntlet just to punch her with any effectiveness. I also love her talking to Peter when he's crouched down in the crater cradling the gauntlet. It's hard to describe, but I love the cadence of her speech, the way she has such warmth in her voice like she's verging on a smile.

I love everything with Scott--his confusion over what's happened, his fear that Cassie is gone, their reunion, his insistence that something can be done to reverse the problem (what's a new and immediate horror for him is an old wound for everyone else; he hasn't had the optimism beaten out of him yet), his humor, his delightful reliance on pop culture (along with Rhodey). I find everything about Scott Lang delightful, and I am glad his role in this movie is so large.

That final battle is epic. Steve wielding Thor's weapons is awesome. I quietly cheered in my seat. The sky opening up and every damn body coming through (and Thano's face! OMG, his face!) while Sam says, "On your left." The all female charge. Just wow.

Little grace notes that I loved: Steve whispering, "Hail Hydra," as a big fuck-you to that comics arc nobody likes; Harley at Tony's funeral (Okay, I know that I am Doing It Wrong, but I love the Iron Man movies in reverse order, and I think Harley is awesome); Happy with Morgan (possibly foreshadowing that he Pepper eventually get together); Thor naming Val as Queen of Asgard.


So what's next? Thor going off with the Guardians is clearly the set up for their next movie which I am totally down for. I think that movie can go one of two ways. Either it will be them tracking down Gamora from the past and integrating her into the crew OR it will be them tracking down the soul stone and freeing everyone in there to get their Gamora back. I am comforted by the fact that if they free Gamora, they can free Natasha as well. I am also convinced that Loki nabbing the tesseract and skeedaddling with it means that a version of him is out there alive somewhere.


I've got to see it again. Soon. :)

Comments

[tabaqui]

Whoooooooo!!
Sweptawaybayou is visiting here with me and we've seen it (twice) and I have to agree with you 99 percent on everything you've said here.

The one thing i did *not* like was Steve going back and being with Peggy. Not that I don't like Peggy or anything ('cause I love her), but because it made *no sense at all*. Did Steve go back, and totally keep mum on Hydra in Shield, Bucky being tortured for decades? I can't imagine him doing that. And if he *did* tell Peggy, find Bucky, etc., he changed things. The 'you can't change the past' thing made no sense at all and doesn't work *at all*. So to me, that was incredibly confusing and weird. And if he said nothing at all and just let it all happen....HOW? Steve would never just stand by for that.

I didn't hope for or expect Steve and Bucky to ride off into the sunset together, but they got cheated out of any sort of real ending, their relationship was pushed back to 'buddy-bros' so we could make sure and underline that STEVE LOVES WOMEN, and he barely had any scenes with Steve. After everything that happened in WS and CW? That was just....
*sigh*

Not what I was hoping for.

I love love love Sam being the next Captain America. And i hope I didn't harsh your bliss, I just...am annoyed at the no homo cowardice of the movie industry that barely even acknowledges Steve and Bucky practically burning down the world for each other.

[lunabee34]

When I try to understand how Steve going back and being with Peggy actually works, I can't figure it out. It doesn't hold up to scrutiny, really. Time travel stuff is hard to figure out. LOL

I want to see it again, but I need to recover first. I am wrung out.

[tamoline]

The way I understood the time travel is that travelling to a different time actually transports you to an alternate universe where it's that time. Hence why the Ancient One said that taking the Time Stone would doom her reality whilst saving Bruce's. So you can do something in the 'past' but it won't change your present because it's affecting a different alternate reality. So Loki escaping with the Tesseract didn't affect the main verse, neither did 2014 Thanos being killed in the present. But there is a reality where the first is true, and a separate one where the other is.

So Steve presumably went back, married Peggy, destroyed Hydra and rescued Bucky in that reality, just not the prime one.

Why Steve turned up on the bench instead of returning to the circle is a question that bothered us at the time, but my head canon is that he just time jumped back there so he could sit down. Or something.

[lunabee34]

*nods nods*

It's him being on the bench as if he got old in their current timeline and walked to that bench and sat down while they weren't looking that throws me. If they'd had him return to the circle, it would make perfect sense to me exactly as you say. He went to the past, created his own timeline, etc. Although, that does beg the question of the two Steves.

[tabaqui]

So, in essence, they're not traveling in time so much as traveling in other dimensions. Which is good, I suppose, other than possibly really fucking up other selve's lives.....

That makes a lot more sense than what was said in the movie, which made *no* sense at all.

I can only hope he did, because frankly, the thought of him *not* is really horrifying.

I'm still grumpy, though. Really, really grumpy. :D

[lunabee34]

Heeeee. Grump away. :)

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

They took the Sliders theory. Now, because Steve is Steve, he pretty much has to dimension hop to Avengers Homebase, bring Sam the Shield and give him the Legacy because he's living in another continuity, the result of all the Buckys, Howards, Peggys and occasional Steves he's interfered for. Well, his continuity is only based on one of those though he gets there because of making a change and then time traveling to a related bit of multiverse.

It's a much more constrained sort of travel than the Parallel Reality conceit, where you get Very Different Tonys for example.

[slightweasel]

Aww, I'm so glad you loved the movie! I read this whole post going "yep. yep. yep" inside my head. I've already seen it twice and it's even better the second time imo!

[lunabee34]

I really want to see it again, too! I'll be able to pay attention better and notice little details now that I know what's going to happen.

Right now, I feel like a limp dishrag, though. LOL I need to emotionally recover.

[the_emu]

Oh my heart I loved this movie so fucking much. The only reason I haven't seen it again yet is because I want to go back and rewatch some early movies first.

I loved Infinity War, but the way this one gave all the major characters proper emotional arcs and wrapped up all of the stories and dealt out so much perfectly-measured fan-service made Infinity War look amateur in comparison. It's such an incredible achievement.

Most especially in Infinity War I was really disappointed that we got so little Cap, especially when they'd made him so extraordinarily pretty and sad. Here, I just love what they've done with his character. He's still kind and honourable and inspiring, but now he has so much more gravity, that's coming from a much deeper place. Like, I love, love how much he swore throughout this movie, and how he didn't need to take himself so seriously. The gravity isn't from the costume he wears; it's from the thoughtful, caring person he is.

Cap wielding Mjolnir was perfection. Makes me wonder if he could have lifted it in Ultron: was the wobble the best he could manage at that point, or was the wobble enough to show himself he could move it, and he didn't want to show up the others?

I love that Clint got a storyline worthy of making up for being out of IW altogether. I am glad I knew about the Ronin canon from fanfic, because I think that would have been confusing otherwise.

I was so happy with so many of the storylines. You're totally right about Antman coming in fresh where the rest of them (to whatever degree)have moved on. I'd slept through the Guardians movies, so I barely knew who Nebula was, but they made me care so much about her in this. I love that Tony had Morgan so the movie couldn't just do a cheap re-set that wiped out the last five years.

I really liked that the movie lingered on everything they'd lost, and that they continued to fail. I'd worried that the movie would just get on with fixing instead of showing how damaged they all were, but yowsa.

[lunabee34]

Yes! I was so disappointed that Clint was barely in Infinity War; his big role in this movie really redeemed that for me.

I loved every single thing they did with Tony as a dad. That kid they have playing his daughter knocks it out of the park. She's supposed to be four, and as the parent of a five year old, the way she talks and what she says is so perfect and spot on. I'm so happy he got those years to be with Pepper and be a dad.

[china_shop]

♥ ♥ ♥

I saw it yesterday and enjoyed it tremendously, especially the middle hour with the time heists. That was SUCH A DELIGHT! Steve fighting himself! Tony meeting Howard! (I was disappointed Peggy didn't actually get to do anything, though.)

Steve is trying to help other people, and he's trying to find a way to find the good in the world and live a meaningful life even if his attempts often ring hollow.

I loved his support group! It felt like a tribute to Sam's VA meeting in TWS. <333

[lunabee34]

Yes! I love the way the movie became a kind of love letter to all the other movies, and I love that we see not just the same footage from those movies but snippets we hadn't seen before.

I think that's Steve's way of honoring Sam. *sniffle*

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I'm thinking the Steve we see dancing with Peggy is a Rescued Steve, not Our MCU Steve that left to restock Stones. Our Bucky is but one of a multiverse of Bucky's, and some of them were retrieved by Steve that went to restock Stones, and some of them by some event however many degrees separate from Our Steve restocking Stones.

What I'm not sure, is how them Sending Steve was supposed to work, since he had a number of different times to go to; was the Time Stone his transfer? And it was good for as many trips as long as he held it? How is he supposed to put the Soul Stone back? Can he use it to rebuild Vision?

[lunabee34]

I don't know how any of it works! LOL Time travel is always deeply confusing to me even when it's done in the most logical, make sense fashion which this was not.