Avengers: Endgame Movie Review

This review contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.

Ben Williams, Staff Writer

Marvel Studio’s “Avengers: Endgame” is a superhero team up movie following the events of “Avengers: Infinity War.” It is the climax of the 21 movies previously made by Marvel and is one of the most anticipated movies of 2019. The movie was released o The plot of endgame revolves around the fallout from “Infinity War”. In “Infinity War”, the main villain Thanos killed half of the universe  along with some Avengers using the Infinity Stones. The remaining Avengers including Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Widow devise a plan to go back in time and gather the infinity stones themselves.

While this movie is three hours long, it does not seem to be that long. The movie is a little slow at the start but once the time travel begins, the movie begins to move very fast and does not waste a scene. Endgame begins with Iron Man being rescued from space by Captain Marvel and Hawkeye’s family dying. Shortly after Iron Man returns to earth, the Avengers who are still in good conditions go to the planet that Thanos has retired to. When they arrive to the planet Thanos is at they discover that he has destroyed the infinity stones. Shortly after this Thor kills Thanos and the movie jumps five years into the future.

After the time jump, Ant-Man arrives and comes up with a plan to go back in time and get the stones. From this point on the movie has a lot of character moments. While Infinity War was mostly action scenes and had very little character developments and arcs. Endgame on the other hand is very story driven and gives great moments to all of the original avengers along with Nebula and Ant-Man. This movie is the last one with Iron Man, Captain America, and, Black Widow and, it gives all of them extremely good arcs, moments, and scenes.

One of the main plot devices used is Time Travel. The remaining Avengers split into teams and go back in time to the events of “The Avengers”, “Thor; The Dark World”, and, “Guardians of the Galaxy”. The way that time travel is used can be a little confusing. It is not like normal time travel movies like “Back to The Future”. Instead, if the Avengers mess something up, they simply create a new alternative timeline. This allows for a less messy plot but, it is incredibly hard to understand on the first view because the rules of the time travel are not explained completely.

The time travel plan works and the Avengers get all of the infinity stones. While getting the space stone, Iron Man and Captain America have to go back to the 1970’s because they lose the stone the first time. This allows Iron Man to see his father again and for Captain America to see his old love, Peggy Carter. This gives some great moments to the two characters as their stories are winding down.

Nebula and War Machine get power stone by going back to 2014 and retrieving it from the planet seen in the original Guardians of the Galaxy. However, while on the planet, the 2014 Nebula and the 2023 Nebula minds sync and the Thanos from 2014 learns everything that has happened over the years. He then stops 2023 Nebula from going back and switches the two so that the past Nebula who is loyal to Thanos can infiltrate the Avengers. This was a huge plot twist in the story and brought a threatening villain back into the story which is something it had lacked for most of the movie.

After Thanos returns, he attacks the avengers base but not before the avengers are able to bring back half of the population by using the infinity stones. From this point on, the movie has it’s big fight that it has been building up to. The fight is littered with Easter eggs and gives almost every character the time in the spotlight. This is the climax of the movie and it is executed very well.

Ultimately, Thanos ends up being defeated by Iron Man who sacrifices himself by using all of the infinity stones. Iron Man’s death is extremely emotional and is a great ending to this movie, which is supposed to signify the end of a marvel era. Iron Man was the first hero of the marvel movies and with Robert Downey Jr.’s electric performance made not only marvel but superhero movies what they are today. There has been talk of Robert Downey Jr. getting an Oscar for this movie. While it may be a long shot, it is certainly deserved.

The movie ends with Captain America going back in time to return the infinity stones. After he returns the stones, he stays back in time and marries Peggy Carter and lives out the rest of his life in that timeline. He then returns to the present of the movie as an older man and retires the shield to The Falcon. Similar to Iron Man, the ending of Captain Americas story is  both fitting and poetic and a perfect way to end the movie and the infinty saga.

While the movie may not be a favorite for non-marvel fans, it is still an epic, emotional, and entertaining movie. “Endgame” goes above and beyond normal super hero movies and elevates the genre as a whole. It has deservedly so become a huge moment in pop culture and is becoming one of the highest grossing films of all time.