WARNING: Endgame Spoilers Ahead

Avengers: Infinity War made movie history. The heroes lost, the villain prevailed, and the audience lost all hope in the future of the universe. We waited for a year in agonizing pain, wondering what will happen to the Avengers and what will become of Thanos. However, now that the time has finally arrived, it was a little bit of a letdown.

Marvel Studios built up Endgame for ten years. Their marketing leading up to the movie was so spot on that it set the stage for a movie that the entire world absolutely needed to see. However, that’s all the movie was – a really good marketing scheme.

Throughout the movie, the Russo Brothers added many “edge-of-your-seat” moments. We all knew this was the endgame and that some of our favorite characters wouldn’t make it. So, we cringed when Rocket and War Machine got stuck underwater, when Thanos was beating Cap and Thor, and when Black Widow and Hawkeye fought to sacrifice themselves.

These cringy, “I don’t want to look” moments show us just how well the Marvel Cinematic Universe is built. Marvel Studios made us fall in love with these characters. We followed them on their journey, we laughed with them, and we cried with them. Therefore, losing one of them was just like losing one of our own loved ones.

This was the best aspect of the film. It made us feel things and it made us connect with a world we have no part of. The film also provided the perfect ending to both Captain America and Iron Man’s story. However, once you get past all the movie’s nostalgia and emotional value, Avengers: Endgame was all just one giant marketing push for Disney’s new streaming service filled with predictable endings, confusing storylines, and a reversal of everything Infinity War accomplished.

The Plot

Avengers: Endgame focused on the Avenger’s plan to come to terms with their failure and to bring back their lost loved ones. However, it seems as though Marvel Studios wasn’t very good with their surprises this go-around because the Avengers’ journey was all too predictable. We all knew the Avengers were traveling back in time to stop Thanos and that all of the dusted heroes would return.

The deaths in the film also weren’t very surprising. Captain America, Iron Man, and Black Widow were all older Avengers that we knew had to go. They either had contractual reasons to leave and/or needed to make room for the newer heroes. Although they each received send offs that were very fitting for their character, this also just made it seem that much more predictable.

In fact, half of the movie we’ve already seen in previous Marvel films! The Avengers’ journey through time brought back a lot of nostalgia for long-time fans and extreme comedic relief. However, it also repeated a lot of scenes we’ve already seen before and made the film feel as though it wasn’t a new movie at all – it was simply a filler film for Disney to ready its streaming service. Then, all of the action happened at the end of the movie and made the entire 3 hours seem very rushed.

The whole idea of time travel also played out very oddly throughout the movie. The Russo Brothers simply threw in some jokes about time travel to throw us off the scent and make us stop thinking so hard about the film’s flaws. However, jokes aside, the plot didn’t make much sense. Like, how is Nebula still alive!? She shot her past self!

The thing I didn’t like the most about Endgame though was the fact that they completely erased the events of Infinity War. Infinity War was an amazing, monumental film that changed the status quo of movies. It provided us with something we’ve never seen before – the bad guys winning. However, Endgame simply made Infinity War irrelevant. It’s like nothing that happened in Infinity War actually mattered and Endgame ultimately diminished the many amazing things the movie accomplished.

The Endgame

Endgame provided the perfect ending for both Captain America and Iron Man’s character arc. It concluded their stories after an entire decade and provided an ending that was extremely fitting. Captain America got the life he’s always wanted and Iron Man gained a family and sacrificed his life for the good of the universe. Stark even completes his arc with the words that started his journey – “I am Iron Man”.

However, despite Captain America and Iron Man’s character arcs, the endgame wasn’t really an “end” like we all thought. It was really just Disney’s plan to grow its holdings and push its new streaming service, Disney+. If you take a look at all of the loose ends from the film, they all lead to a story that’s already slated to run on Disney+. For example, when the Avengers go back in time, Loki obtains the Tesseract and slips away through a portal. This plot matches the description of Loki’s Disney­­+ television show which says Loki “pops up throughout human history as an unlikely influencer on historical events”.

Disney+ is also expected to run a Falcon and Winter Soldier series, which will likely play off Falcon’s new role as Captain America, and a Scarlett Witch and Vision show that will probably explore the couple’s relationship pre-Infinity War.

We also saw a new trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home which revealed that one of the Infinity Gauntlet snaps created a rupture in the space-time continuum and merged alternate universes. Along with Captain America changing his own timeline to grow old with Peggy, Endgame created the possibility of multiple universes, much like in the comics. This allows Disney to explore many other characters, worlds, and possibilities.

Although this is a smart move for Marvel Studios, it all felt a little too forced all at once. It made the movie seem a little too much about making money and not enough about providing fan service. It also made Endgame feel a little too rushed. Everything happened at the end of the movie to help branch the plot off towards other streaming service shows, while most of the duration of the movie didn’t focus on anything besides humor and nostalgia.

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All in all, I would give Avengers: Endgame a 7 out of 10. It was an amazingly nostalgic movie that showed us exactly what we love about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We got that iconic Marvel humor, and the film proved that we completely fell in love with each of these characters and brought them into our lives. However, the film ultimately failed to continue the legacy of Infinity War. Endgame erased all the amazing aspects of Infinity War and replaced it with a marketing push for Disney+, predictable endings, and a confusing story.