Brie Larson – Read it or Weep

Avengers: Endgame has so much happening at such a rapid pace that it’s unavoidable to talk about its plot. I’ll try to be as vague as possible about the movie until the second paragraph. Avengers: Endgame continues the story of Avengers: Infinity War where Thanos (Josh Brolin), the movie’s super villain, gathers the Infinity Stones and kills half the universe in one snap of his fingers. With this type of cliffhanger after such an iconic movie, it’s hard to imagine not seeing Endgame. Ultimately this comes off as bittersweet as it’s hard to forget how the heroes failed to prevent such a tragedy.

Spoiler time. We start off with Clint Barton aka Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) spending time with his family. As he’s teaching his daughter how to shoot arrows, he tells her to go retrieve the arrow she shot. As he turns to speak to his wife we see dust behind him. He calls to his daughter with no response and as he’s looking we see the rest of his family turn to dust. He’s left alone in a field. Really just as the movie starts we’re reminded of the gut-wrenching circumstances of the last film.

We then go to Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) in space with Tony recording journals saying he doesn’t think he’ll make it. Just as Tony is falling asleep he sees a bright light which turns out to be Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers (Brie Larson). She brings them back to Earth. Tony is in bad shape and they quickly consult with War Machine (Don Cheadle), Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth). They learn the Infinity Stones have been used again and Nebula confirms the location of Thanos. They fly off to meet him and quickly defeat him in battle. They learn Thanos used the Infinity Stones to destroy themselves and in frustration, Thor unceremoniously kills Thanos.

The movie then skips to 5 years into the future. We’re shown Steve Rogers in a support meeting for those who have lost those close to them. He explains in the meeting that this has happened to him before when he was trapped in the ice, so he’s not unfamiliar with how others feel. We cut to a warehouse where a rat is crawling around some equipment and it activates a portal to the Quantum Realm that brings Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd). He looks around the world confused, unaware of what happened. He finds his daughter to see that she’s much older. We learn that time hasn’t moved for him since he entered the Quantum Realm, and that the unusual way time flows may be the key to fixing this world.

This movie provides about as climactic of an ending to the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far as well as to this story of Thanos. Going back to Iron Man, I don’t think many would expect something this grandiose at the other end. The Russo Brothers really created something that encapsulates an era of film making. While there are some flaws in the movie, they’re negligible in the broad scope of things. I recommend catching up on some of the past movies before you see this one. There are even some inside jokes with the comics. Rated PG-13.

Ryan

While I know much about certain comic book characters, I don’t know as much about Captain Marvel. I’ve only read Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Captain Marvel comic book run, which is similar to the movie version. Otherwise I’ve learned about her through Avenger’s stories, X-Men, Ms. Marvel, or character synopsis. So, I was curious to learn what story they’d try to tell with her. Overall, I think the advertising campaign helped keep that a mystery. Something many may not know is that this takes place mostly in 1995.

The movie starts out with Vers (one of three names for Captain Marvel in this movie), played by Brie Larson, waking up from a dream. She goes to spar with Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), where he tells her she needs to focus on controlling her emotions. She talks about how she doesn’t seem to recall her past. They talk about some of Kree society on the planet Hala, which they’re on. We learn of their enemies the alien shapeshifters, the Skrull. Soon enough they get into a conflict with them and Vers is taken captive. The Skrull begin to explore her memories. She eventually frees herself from the Skrulls and crash-lands on Earth.

Some Skrulls follow her to Earth and soon she is met by Agent Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg). Fury and Coulson are understandably apprehensive about Vers’s story of space travel and shapeshifting aliens. They’re soon shot at with an alien weapon from the nearby roof. Vers chases after a Skrull. After the chase, it becomes clear to Fury that Ver’s story is real. So Vers and Fury end up teaming up to deal with the threat.

After seeing this movie, I compared it to other Marvel movies. I think this one feels most closely related to Thor. They’re both powerful characters from alien societies. I think they learned from Thor that having a “fish out of water” character isn’t necessarily enough to tell a compelling story, when there are now numerous origin stories. So, they added more action and supporting characters to make a relatable narrative. The story is less overwhelming than it could have been, as introducing two alien societies is a lot to explain in one movie. We could have ended up with several more societies, and that’s hard to keep track of.

There is a lot going on in the movie with three prominent species. The character of Carol Danvers really has a lot of complexity to her as well. I personally think they could have spent multiple movies introducing her prior to Avenger’s: Endgame. Doctor Strange was the last Marvel character to be fully introduced in their own movie and I think his story felt less rushed in comparison. One problem with the character is that they explain early on that she’s supposed to stifle emotion from her Kree training. So, I suspect we’ll see a different version moving forward. I do think this movie nailed the points it needed to for the bigger universe. It’s a fun addition to the great Marvel Cinematic Universe. Rated PG-13.

Ryan