Endgame review and observations

(Note: this post assumes you have seen all the Marvel movies, or at least do not care about spoilers)

There is this amazing moment in Avengers: Infinity War when Wakanda is being overrun and the heroes are truly being threatened despite their powers. Thor was presumed dead by the Earthbound forces, but then suddenly teleports in with Rocket Raccoon and Groot. The musical score swells and he utters this howl “BRING ME THANOS!” as he slices through the monsters on the field.

And it feels really good the first time you see it. It is because the tide of battle is turning, even though our heroes are divided on Earth and Titan. However, after you know what is coming, you can’t help but read it as false hope. Thanos will get the time stone from Doctor Strange. He will arrive on Earth, take the mind stone, and complete his mission. Thor and the rest fail.

That in a nutshell is why I wasn’t a big fan of Infinity War. I knew I would probably come around and enjoy it more when I saw the second half of the story, the one where we don’t see Spider-Man beg for his life before crumbling into nothing.

Avengers: Endgame wastes no time in delivering another gut punch. Before the title or even studio logo, we see Clint Barton at his farm with his family he kept away from the world. He is giving his daughter an archery lesson, and turns his back long enough to miss seeing her completely disappear. Another turn to the rest of his family and they’re gone too. I want to start crying right here but its only been one minute. The “snap” while purportedly only removing 50% of all life seems to have affected a some of our heroes a lot more than others. I imagine there are probably a lot of completely intact families out there if there are so many where 4 out of 5 disappear.

Nebula and Tony hang out on the Guardians ship, having run out of fuel and running out air and food. The scene is really helpless for a few minutes until Captain Marvel shows up. She truly comes out of fucking nowhere. The teaser during the credits for her movie seemed to be a scene from Endgame, but now it seems it was more of an event that happened while Tony was in space. Rocket and Thor knew the Guardians were headed to Titan. So when Carol shows up and can fly through space with ease, they sent her out to see who survived. This is why we don’t have a “who the fuck is this?” scene when she brings them back.

They waste no time at all putting all the survivors together and tracking Thanos. Now the title comes in. This is a fair amount of movie before the title. Reminds me of episodes of Alias when the cold open would go so long we’d see the intro 12 minutes into the 41 minute show. What doesn’t last long is their next encounter with Thanos. The team rushes in, slice off his hand and find the stones are gone. Thanos used the stones to destroy the stones so his act would be irreversible. Thor takes his advice and goes for the head.

And that is it. End of movie. They couldn’t protect the Earth but they made damn sure to avenge it. What a saga!

Anyway, five years pass and it isn’t clear how everyone is getting on. We never really ‘check in’ with the bulk of humanity or anywhere else. Steve is running a group therapy session. Nat is the one running missions and we see Okoye, Rocket, Carol, and Rhodey all dispatched to different areas. Carol has an approximation of her shorter hair from the comics, but its kinda big and a little goofy looking and I am glad Rocket made fun of it immediately so I don’t have to pretend I like it.

The dire situation has been normalized. But its about the pick up. Scott Lang makes it out of his quantum realm of solace. For him is been only 5 hours. He takes a little time to figure out whats happened and then hauls ass to New York to rally the Avengers. But like I said, its been normalized. To Scott this shit JUST HAPPENED. To the rest it is old news and they moved on. They accepted fate.

There is a bit of table setting here like showing how Hulk got smart and Thor got fat and Tony went home and became a family man. Clint becomes a murdering psycho after his family is gone. Nat and Steve are the only ones who kinda hold it together.

I don’t really have snarky observations about this second hour of the movie. It isn’t like you could cut this out but its hardly the most exciting part. They figure out time travel and argue about the rules of time travel and branching realities to the point where you forget what the actual rules might be so whatever happens in the FINAL moments of the film are OK because whatever. Vulture has a nice write up about how Time Travel works here.

When Nebula gets to 2014 her brain automatically updates her iCloud and gives 2014 Nebula and hence Thanos a picture of whats to come. Yes, the plot twist on Endgame is basically Nebula SPOILS Thanos on his own death with bootleg cam footage. If Nebula hadn’t spoiled the movie this all could have been avoided.

Thor has a good cry with his mom, Steve fights himself, Tony talks to his dad, and Hulk reasons with the Ancient One. Thats 4 of the stones. Nebula and Rhodes get the 5th from Star Lord before he can finish his chorus of “Come and Get Your Love” in 2014.

Clint and Natasha have it the worst. As the audience we know what going to Vormir means. Red Skull is waiting, though neither of them identifies him as such. There is some argument about it, but we know for sure what needs to happen. It had to be Natasha. Can’t being Clint’s family back without Clint. I don’t think I got teary eyed here. I love ScarJo and love this character and have a chaotic history with defending her in Age of Ultron’s toyline that went viral a few years back. But this felt RIGHT. I was with her. She was being brave and I supported her decision.

Upon returning to the future, Nebula is revealed to be her 2014 self and then teleports in also from 2014 Thanos and his full undefeated army. This happens just as the stones are assembled into a new gauntlet for Hulk to snap and reverse Thanos’ act from before. It isn’t spoken, but that undoubtedly increased the number of allies Thanos brings into the fight as well as he regains all the monsters and grubs that disappeared when he snapped.

There is a tense battle as Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America try to hold Thanos after he basically nukes Avengers headquarters from orbit. Cap gets to swing Thor’s hammer as a combo weapon with his own shield. This is where the fight gets BIG.

Portals start opening up and out steps Black Panther. Then the Guardians, Strange, and Spider-Man. And the then assembled forces from across all the movies. Its too many to list. The ensuing fight makes Helm’s Deep look like a game of dodgeball. There is no word for what happens here. It is the most comic book thing ever put on screen. Captain Marvel finally gets back in the fight and there is an awesome shot of all the powerful women coming together running with the gauntlet to keep it away from Thanos.

Its obvious from the moment this starts who is going to end it. And it plays out beautifully. And the epilogue showing what happens next is emotional and appropriate for all involved.

But where do you go from here? Every single Marvel movie seems to set up the next until now. Spider-Man is coming back in July. There are more movies coming 2 or 3 a year every year from now on. But this is the biggest franchise film making is ever going to get. It will be impossible to top this. They’ll try. And they will copy. But they won’t top this. Now every studio who is planning on trying for a “cinematic universe” realizes what the fuck they are up against. Transformers won’t top this. Nor will Fast and Furious. Nor will James Bond. And probably not DC either.

Hang it all up. We’re fucking DONE. Avengers have assembled. And there will never be another movie like Endgame.

Captain Marvel


I’ve been a pretty devout supporter of Marvel Studios so far. I think the only movie in the ‘MCU’ I didn’t see in theaters was Doctor Strange. And the majority of the movies in this series I’ve seen on opening weekend. Seeing them near release is for 2 reasons: firstly I am legitimately excited about the experience, and secondly the sooner I see them the quicker I can join in the conversation about them.

So, Captain Marvel. I picked up the first issue back in 2012 because I heard good things. I am a super casual comic fan. My behavior is typically to buy an issue to “try out” a series or arc and then wait a year and buy the paperback. I am perpetually 2-3 years behind on any comic series. Liked this one enough to do that. I read through Kelly Sue Deconnick’s entire run that way. I am not ashamed to say one of the things that kept me coming back was the fandom around it. Seeing the “#CarolCorps online sharing panels from the comics, fan art, cosplay, etc. It was really cool. And this was at a time when the Marvel movies were really starving for gender equality. Fans were pretty quick to call for a Black Widow movie and I really think a big reason behind that was she was the ONLY woman in the Avengers. Back in 2002, Mary Jane just screamed in every single scene of Spider-Man, so things got better, but they still were not great. My most popular tweet made a mockery of Marvel ignoring the character that was in front of their face.

Now I had this character that I could be kinda cool and ‘inside’ with. ‘Oh you like Iron Man? Yeah, My favorite is Captain Marvel, she doesn’t have a movie yet.’ And “yet” was really the operative word there. We had no reason to believe Marvel as a movie company was suddenly going to give a shit, but Carol was bold and didn’t respond well to being told she couldn’t do something so we just followed her lead.

Captain Marvel movie spoilers will follow so reader beware.

Now after years of anticipation, we are here. And the movie starts off kinda weird? The Kree have been in Guardians of the Galaxy but it was never quite clear what their deal was because we mostly spent time with Ronan who had his own agenda. I am not trying to recap the whole movie here but I legitimately don’t remember what the first 5 minutes or so are. Vers is a person in Starforce. And so is Yon Rogg, Korath, and the Warriors three Kree. They go to planet dust because Skrulls. These guys are shapeshifters and that is scary.

It probably wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world if there had been a voice over explaining that she’s a space cop with the Kree and that all these other people are Kree and the entire society is run by a super computer that looks like Annette Benning. It also might have helped smooth over that some Kree, like Yon Rogg or Korath can pass for a human with pale or dark skin, but others have very obviously alien blue skin. Maybe thats why Kree hate Skrulls: a race where everyone looks completely different is probably suspicious of one where everyone can look exactly the same.

There is a problem in mystery story telling when the audience has more information than the character. We know just by coming in Vers is Captain Marvel and her amnesia is an obstacle to character development rather than a method of presenting it. There is a scene early on where, captured by Skrulls, she relives a few pivotal moments but they are flashbacks with an emphasis on flash. Her personality is there, but we’re not sure whats informed it until well into the movie when the fragments of her life start to fall into place.

One big fight later, she escapes and falls to Earth directly into 1995. Full disclosure: I worked for a time at Blockbuster Video and at Radioshack, so the nostalgia hit me harder than most when she begins tearing apart a strip mall so she can phone home.

For reasons that are not apparent, Nick Fury and Phil Coulson arrive at the scene. Does SHIELD have so little to do after the cold war that they investigate a break in at a Radioshack? This is made doubly sad when Fury rattles off his resume later in the movie and you try to think about how he got to be part of this? I’m going to be a good fan and assume they came on because Carol’s entry in the atmosphere was picked up on radar off-screen and they just happened to come at the same time as local cops.

This is about the time the needle drops start and they do not ever end. Elastica, Garbage, TLC, Nirvana, No Doubt, Hole… It is radio from 1995 boiled all the way down. Its cool when its played in a scene where it makes sense. But there are at least two spots in the movie where all I could think was that she’s been off world 6 years so even if she suddenly gets all her memory back, she has zero connection to this song.


Fury finally catches up with Vers as she’s trying to place the memories that the Skrulls triggered. A short debate on how neither of them is the bad guy later and they’re off to find a secret military base. This is where after digging through files Vers realizes shes really named Carol and that the reason the super computer looks like Annette Benning is because it took the form of her mentor here. Also she had a cat, who has been living on this military base without a proper caretaker for 6 years.

Now they track down the one person who would have known her from before, Mario Rambeau. This is the part where my wife asked whether or not Carol is gay, because it is abnormal for one of these movies to be lacking a love interest and here we are halfway through and not only has Carol not shown interest in any of the men so far, she’s actually had a fight with every man she’s met. I’m happy to report that this is the first time a Marvel movie doesn’t have a love interest. Carol does not save a screaming man or woman at any point.

Now this is where the script gets flipped and if you haven’t seen the movie I’ll add another SPOILER warning. Skrulls are not the bad guys? This is an alien race that traces all the way back to Fantastic Four #2, created by Lee and Kirby, and usually represented as bad guys. It hasn’t even been that long in comic book time since The Skrulls actually tried to take over Earth, so it seemed like a obvious untapped villain resource here. However if you look at the animal kingdom there are certainly hunters that camouflage in order to catch prey, but there are probably just as many that disguise in order to avoid becoming prey. And Skrulls in the MCU are officially the latter. So Ben Mendelsohn breaks that streak of playing complete pricks he started in Rogue One and continues in Ready Player One.

Now the shit hits the fan, Carol gets the black box from the plane crash that gave her powers and knocked out her memory, and we set in motion taking her, Fury, Maria, the Skrulls, and the lovable cat into space.

As third acts go, this one isn’t too bad. By not having her memory and being chained by the Kree, her powers have been very limited up until this point. When she literally breaks free of the Supreme Intelligence, it opens up a virtually limitless bank of power. Carol beats the crap out of her former team and halts the Kree’s bombing of Earth. Maria gets a nice hero moment too, dog fighting with a space ship through a canyon that evokes Will Smith’s air battle in Independence Day.

When the smoke clears though, Carol comes back down to Earth to fight Yon Rogg one on one. He does a bit of patriarchal grandstanding, all but saying “DEBATE ME!” like some alt right troll on twitter.

And I think that is where the power of this movie lies. It would be a very middle of the road Marvel movie, which is to say still quite good. But my primary criticism of Marvel productions has been they rarely have any message or allegory to give the movie deeper meaning. They’re fun character stories and that is it. But this has a very relatable brand of feminism for the modern viewer.

Take Wonder Woman. In that film, Diana is raised by powerful women. When she joins the outside world, she is bewildered by the lack of respect women have. She is compelled to show her value and be an example to others. In Captain Marvel, Carol has been pushed down by men her entire life. Consistently told she can’t or shouldn’t do what she wants. This is what happens when she is tired of that shit. Even her relationship with Fury is dependent on her having a more dominant personality than he does. She has to dominate Samuel L Jackson in a movie and it works.

So that is why maybe reviews on this will be a little divisive. Because on its own merits it is merely a good movie. But, like Black Panther only a year ago, for the people who see and hear the message, it will be unmatched and inspiring.

Higher, Further, Faster. How high, far, and fast will depend on you.

I assembled the complete soundtrack for the movie. All available score and songs. Michael Giacchino’s studio fanfare has never been commercially released, so I’ve included a cover version.

Movie Diary

Fantastic Beasts And Where to Find Them
I’m a real latecomer to the Harry Potter thing. I was aware of the series for most of the 2000s of course, but didn’t see any of the movies (still haven’t read the books) until 2010 right before the last one came out. Dawn and I marathoned the series on Netflix (Discs by mail!)and then saw the final installment of Deathly Hallows when it reached theaters. I have afoundation of the series without being a super fan. I didn’t know what to expect from Fantastic Beasts. It is a very interesting film with more than a few strange choices. Firstly, the lead role played by Eddie Redmayne is really strange. He’s so socially awkwards, mumbles most lines and rarely looks other characters in the eye while speaking directly to them. Dan Fogler is unrecognizable but is also putting on a great character performance. I’ll admit to not being very familiar with most of the other actors but they were all similar shades of awkward. Kinda neat for a movie that is supposed to be a huge studio action film with kid appeal.

Keanu
Held on the DVR for about 3 or 4 months. Finally watched it and wasn’t disappointed. A fitting tribute to George Michael.

Raiders of the Lost Ark
Ok so when Indy is running from the natives in the opening scene, he’s left behind a small crew dead in the expedition. Then he gets in a single engine plane with one seat. What the hell was going to happen to all those other guys? Was he counting on them getting killed? Otherwise, this movie holds up.

Lego Batman
I’ve seen The Lego Movie a hundred times. Kids love it. I was hot to see this one before it came out then the reviews were great too, so we finally made it out a couple weeks ago. It almost plays like an official parody of Batman movies. The weird Tom Hardy Bane voice coming out of the comic looking Bane was pretty great.

Batman v Superman
OK so Superman arrives at congress to face questions and Bruce Wayne is watching on TV and asks whats the deal with the former employee who is also appearing. He sees the returned checks, he sees the bomb go off and while I can appreciate it might be hard to directly connect this entire thing to Lex Luthor is should be clear to HIM that there is a conspiracy to frame Superman. One so great it will put him in the US Capitol building with a bomb and kill hundreds. Why the hell does he continue to pursue his insane plan to stab Superman to death? Shouldn’t the world’s greatest detective go deeper at this point?

Great Wall
My dad had a brush with death 2 months ago. Trapped in a hospital bed watching network TV as he recovered, we saw a lot of ads for this Matt Damon bomb. We decided this movie had to be either so great or so stupid. As he got better, we went out for a weeknight screening at the nearest IMAX screen. I know it was an off peak time to see a movie in its 2nd or 3rd week of release but we were the ONLY people in an IMAX theater. The weird mix of fake history, science fiction, fantasy, and Matt Damon’s accent conspired to make a movie that defied rationality. Monsters from space that attack on an Earth clock! One Chinese warrior speaks perfect English! Bungee jumping with spears! Willem Dafoe! Emperor of China is played by some kid from a boy band! Fuckin’ magnets, how do they work? Never mind the white washing, the movie was shot and paid for by the Chinese and there is so much nationalism for a culture, society, and events that do exist it was difficult to comprehend. I’m not sure who this movie was for! It is barely on the edge of Mystery Science Theater 3000 level bad.

the usual suspects

Spider-Man: Can I get some coffee?
Space Ghost: In a while. Let’s talk about the lineup.
Spider-Manl: I’m really thirsty. I used to dehydrate as a kid. One time it got so bad my piss came out like snot. I’m not kidding, it was all thick and gooey.