And I'm warning you - there are obviously going to be insane insane insane spoilers ahead so please, if you haven't seen this movie yet then DON'T PROCEED.
And if you have - DON'T spoil it for others!!!
You have been warned.
I wasn't sure how to do this but I think the most sensible thing is to go through my initial reactions to each major scene of the movie.
Starting with:
I. The Birth of Ronin.
Damn, we all knew what was going to happen to Hawkeye's family, and yet, when it happened, it was still such a heartbreaking shock. He didn't even actually see the dusting, so he was literally clueless as to what happened. Suddenly his entire family disappears and it's just silence. I love that the camera just lingered on him. He's trying to find his family and he runs aimlessly around looking for them but there's nowhere to run to, nowhere to go.
And then he gets angry. But mainly, he feels guilty. He took the deal to be on house arrest to spend time with his family, but then because of that he wasn't able to help in the fight against Thanos. He's lost all hope, and he becomes Ronin, a merciless assassin killing off ganglords around the world. They should have been the ones to die in the Snappening, not his family.
II. Nebula Makes a Friend.
Cut to Nebula and Iron Man stuck in space, running low on food and oxygen. I loved seeing Iron Man teaching Nebula how to play Finger Football; after all, she's never had some friendly competition (losing meant some major rewiring).
I loved seeing Nebula care for Iron Man. She's had a great arc over the course of the series and I feel really sorry for her. She was pitted against her sister, pulled apart and rebuilt every time she lost, she was always made to feel inferior, then when she finally believes she is strong enough to repair her relationship with her sister and go against her father, Gamora is taken away from her, her father wipes out half the universe, and she is left to die in the middle of nowhere.
I also thought the CGI for making Iron Man emaciated was really well done. It was so shocking to see him in that state...
But then Captain Marvel comes and saves the day! Honestly I really did not like Captain Marvel (2019) because I didn't like Brie's acting, the writing, and even her superpowers just seem too overkill. It's the same reason why I don't like Superman. I'm glad that she wasn't in the film too much, and happy that one of her few scenes was saving Iron Man's life, because that was a relief.
III. Thor Goes For the Head.
They've located Thanos. He's in this retirement planet where he's become a disabled farmer and suddenly Captain Marvel just bulldozes into him and Thor kills him faster than you can snap your fingers! (too soon?)
But of course it's too late. I feel truly sorry for Thor. He finds out he has a sister, has to kill her, his father dies, then his entire kingdom gets demolished and his people have to flee into outer space, where they are immediately attacked by Thanos. Then he goes through all this trouble of attaining Stormbreaker and when he finally hits Thanos, he misses and he's the one that witnesses up close the Snappening. He must have been replaying that moment in his head over and over again, thinking, "What if I just hit him in the head!!!" Then there's the chance to get the stones back, but by the time they can overcome Thanos, the stones are destroyed. Knowing the stones are gone, he takes out all his rage on Thanos. If only he did it properly the first time. The guilt becomes too much to handle as we see later on...
IV. Five... Years. Later.
Wow, what a shock when it said YEARS instead of MONTHS. That is a long time. Think about 5 years ago, in 2014. The Marvel films coming out that year were Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Guardians of the Galaxy. I mean, that was a long time ago. Black Widow's trying to keep her Shield family together, trying to do good in a world where she was born and bred as an assassin. Cap's running group therapy, trying to tell a bunch of guys and himself to move on, but how do you move on in a world like this? It's difficult enough moving on when it's your own personal tragedy, but here there is tragedy on a universal level. The whole universe is mourning, still unsure of what happened or how. Part of the process of moving on is continuing like normal, which is easier when the rest of the world actually is normal. Here, there is no normal, there is no moving on.
V. One in Fourteen-Million Rat.
Damn I'm glad that the timeline we get to see is the one where the rat so happens to press the right buttons for Ant-Man to exit the quantum realm. I felt really sorry for him in this moment too (sensing a theme here?). One second you're just casually entering the quantum realm, you know, just your typical Tuesday, then 5 hours later you shoot out 5 years into the future, and Earth isn't the same. I was so so so happy when he found Cassie, but was so sad that she was all grown up and not her cute cuddly self anymore. He missed 5 years of her life.
But on a related note, the fact that he thought it was only 5 hours in the quantum realm when it was actually 5 years... this doesn't seem to tee up with the OG Wasp being stuck in the quantum realm for decades and still ageing. So if someone can explain how Michelle Pfeiffer aged in real time whereas Ant-Man didn't, please tell me why! Although we do know that Paul Rudd doesn't seem to age at all, so... yeah.
VI. Avengers Re-assemble.
One question: why wasn't Okoye part of their time travel missions? What exactly was she doing? I felt like they could have used all the help they needed but maybe this could just be explained by them only having a certain number of Pym particle tubes so they had to limit the number of people that could go. Okay I just answered my own question.
But this was a fun little sequence. Hulk and Banner are now... Hanner? Bulk? Bannulk? Hulker? I don't really know, but it's weird. And I agree with Valkyrie: I prefer him as either of the other two rather than a mix of the both of them. In the end he didn't even really do much as Bulk, so it seemed like a waste of an interesting premise.
Then there was Fat Thor, who I found really funny but some others thought he was overdoing it on the whole alcoholism thing. I think it seemed pretty realistic for him to spiral - he's always been arrogant and able to rule over and protect his people, with the guidance of his parents. But suddenly his parents are gone, and he has been overpowered and so many of his people were decimated. All because he didn't aim right the first time. I think it's not unrealistic for him to want to pretend it never happened.
VII. Back to the Future Part 1: New York.
I LOVE time travel movies so this was fantastic for me. Just like in Back to the Future, I love seeing them go back to a moment we already know, and then see a different perspective of that scene play out.
Nice to see Tilda Swinton back as The Ancient One, and it was nice to see her do the math on trying to figure out why Doctor Strange traded the time stone in exchange for Tony's life (although, in the end, we see that he wasn't saving Tony's life at all...).
On the other side of New York, Tony and Ant-Man lose the Tesseract. I literally freaked out at this point, and aimlessly shuffled in my seat into a new position because I got so antsy when this happened! But does this mean that Loki is no longer dead? Surely... surely this creates some sort of hole in the timelines and they can't really return to their original timeline??!?! But whatever. It's never mentioned again, they can just go back to 1970. I thought it was funny how Tony spoke to his father and gave him some advice, and I like to think that Tony in this new timeline has a better relationship with his father because of it. Too bad different timelines aren't a thing but sort of are in this movie???
The best part HAS to be Captain America getting the scepter though. I was so excited for a rehash of the elevator scene in The Winter Soldier but him just saying, "Nah, it's alright. .........(hail hydra)" was so hilarious my theatre cracked up at that. And then him running into his past self, who says "I can do this all day", and he just annoyingly says, "Yeah, I know!" And then he has the quick thinking again to get out "Bucky. Is. Alive!" before konking himself on the head and knocking his past self out. I honestly think that was one of the best scenes of the movie.
VIII. Back to the Future Part 2: Asgard.
Art by juank007 on Zedge.
Then we're back on Asgard, Thor has a breakdown, Rocket talks him sort of out of it, but his mother does a better job. There wasn't much to see here but I was pleasantly surprised they even got Natalie Portman to do a tiny cameo in here, and did present-day Thor just steal past-Thor's hammer?! So much for not messing up the timelines... Although I read that since Cap left with the hammer, maybe he returned it to him the second it flew out of his hand.
IX. Back to the Future Part 3: Space: The Final Frontier.
This was another interesting sequence. Nebula and Rhodes are on Morag where we see Quill doing his own silent rave. I loved the bit where Nebula's hand gets fried to the metallic bone, and she looks so sad, saying, "I wasn't always like this." It's interesting how the writers chose to do the pairings - both Rhodes and Nebula can bond over the fact that they were "re-built" and now "part machine".
When Thanos hacks into present-day Nebula's network, holy cow I was squirming! First Loki and the tesseract and now Thanos knows that he actually WINS in the future?!
Gamora was lovely to see again, though, and especially at the time right when we first meet her in Guardians where she is already planning her escape.
Then, alas... Black Widow and Hawkeye arrive in Vormir. Sigh.
This was so upsetting, just seeing them fight each other over who gets to die. But of course it had to be Black Widow. Hawkeye had a family after all, and Black Widow has forever been looking for redemption from her days as an assassin. It was just so sad to see it all actually happen. I was sobbing at this stage, trying to keep it in as she tells Hawkeye to let her go. It was so brutal. And she fell in almost the exact same position that Gamora did.
X. Oh Snap!
So now we know why they made Bulk a thing. They just needed someone who could withstand the power of the stones. And even Bulk couldn't fully withstand it, his arm is still wrecked by the end of the movie.
But the Snap happens, or un-happens, and everyone seems to be back?
But oh snap! Past-Nebula has taken the place of present-day Nebula and brings past-Thanos into the future (present-day)!
He has an entire army, and it looks like our favourite Avengers will soon be defeated.
But oh snap! Cap is worthy and him and Fat Thor are just duoing it up between Mjölnir and Stormbreaker. My cinema cheered when this happened - it was such a great moment. But remember in Age of Ultron when Cap wasn't able to lift it up fully? Does that mean since that movie he has now become more worthy? I quite like that because I do think that Cap has grown a lot over the last couple of movies.
But still, this ain't enough and our Avengers are still being over-powered!
But the un-Snappening worked, and we know for sure that everyone's back. Hawkeye's family, the Pyms, the Wakandan armies, and ALL the sorcerers in all those sanctums. I just like to imagine Doctor Strange telepathically communicating with all of them, saying, "Guys, we gotta get portals to bring The Wasp in. Oh and also the Wakandans. Oh, and also Pepper. Is that it? Is that everyone? Okay cool, then just portal yourselves all over."
Logistics aside, it was INSANE watching all those armies come out of those portals, my cinema went INSANE everytime a character flew back on screen - Falcon, Bucky, Spiderman, Black Panther, Scarlet Witch - everyone was here. And the fight scenes here were insanely spectacular. I also loved that precious moment between Spider-Man and Iron Man, and I was happy to hear that those who were snapped didn't suffer as much (Spider-Man mentioned that he just felt like he passed out and woke up again).
XI. The Endgame.
So it seems to be that the one in 14 million timeline has to have Captain Marvel come in, take on Thanos, and be so strong that Thanos has to actually rip out the power stone to get rid of Captain Marvel. Now that the gauntlet doesn't have all five stones in it anymore, Tony pounces, meshes his nanotech to the glove, picks up the stones, and snaps Thanos away. "I am Iron Man" indeed.
That moment where Doctor Strange looks up and gestures "1" was so powerful. In that moment, everything falls into place. Iron Man knows - his life was traded before for a reason. Now he's going to have to trade it back.
Tony dies, surrounded by his Iron family, and he is told that he can finally rest now. A funeral is held, and his daughter will forever remember that her father was the one who saved the universe.
I really liked the "Proof that Tony Stark has a heart" - there was proof in more than just one way. But I honestly thought the camera was going to pan down to further in the water where a similar wreath would be floating, except this time it would have the words "Natasha Romanoff" on it. I'm really upset they didn't give her a proper funeral, because without her, Tony wouldn't have been able to sacrifice his life.
But the funeral was nice, and it was nice to see everyone included in it, even Michelle Pfeiffer. Although there was some random boy at the back that threw me off, but apparently it's the kid from Iron Man 3. I don't know how appropriate it was to include him in that scene, because he looks so different and unrecognisable and really just confused everyone in the cinema.
XII. Cap Gets a Life.
Even though I swear this messes up with the timelines, and he must be like 100 years old when he shows up on that bench, I'm happy that Cap finally got to have that dance with Peggy.
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