“Avengers Endgame” (2019) Initial Thoughts

-There is still nothing else like the MCU in cinema: a long, well developed, continuity conscious, series of stories that build on that potential to develop characters and deliver messages.

-They did a great job of capping off ten years of story for several characters, while also setting up new scenarios and character arcs going forward.

-I had thought it would be intensely emotional having followed these characters for so long, but the only moment that almost got me to tear up was the one between Thor and his mom. What a wonderful scene.

-While I’m at it, the stuff we’ve seen with Thor over “Ragnarok,” “Infinity War,” and now “Endgame,” make him my new, favorite Avenger. (My favorite MCU characters are non-Avengers.)

-The send-off for my old favorite Avenger, Cap, concludes his story arc very satisfactorily. His development occurred in his trilogy and he had nowhere left to go.

-The time travel concept usually ruins a movie for me. The MCU decided to handle things in the appropriate, comic-book, way. Don’t get caught up in the logic and don’t build your whole plot dependent on some internal logic. You can either accept that or not. If not, don’t go reading the source material for these MCU movies, because comics are full of anything-goes time stuff.

-Strange has only tiny moments here, but he establishes firmly his spot as my favorite character. I can’t wait for his next outing.

-I loved everything to do with Hulk. Especially the reference to a couple of famous moments in comics, both in “Defenders” and “Secret Wars.”

-I hope that tiniest moment where we got to see what an all-female version of Avengers would look like bugged the heck out of the male-chauvinist branch of geekdom who are vocally scared of powerful women.

-Things I want to see going forward:
Secret Invasion
Throg (now that Avengers of the Galaxy was referenced.)
A Fantastic Four era, now that the Avengers/Infinity Stones Era is over.
Galactus
Just much more space opera stuff.
Uatu
And if they do bring in the X Men, or even without them, we need a Mojo movie. The story of a reality TV mogul trying to rule the universe is just so timely.