Avengers: Endgame SPOILER THREAD

Ovinomancer · May 2, 2019

Erekose said:
Nothing new to what's been discussed here but still an interesting read:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/movies/avengers-endgame-questions-and-answers.html

Sorry, fat fingered the laugh button. Please consider that xp.

Mercurius · May 2, 2019

Saw it last night. My overall impression is a lower grade version of the Last Jedi phenomenon: a bit baffled by how much the critics loved it. The movie felt like a jumbled mess...I mean, time travel plots almost never work out well. I enjoyed it as far as pure entertainment, but even the spectacle didn't feel new: we've seen it all before.

But here's something I haven't seen mentioned as I scanned through this thread, and bothered me: so they feel safe about just sending the Infinity Stones off in different directions, knowing full well what they are capable of? How are they to prevent some other mad crazy bad guy from trying to assemble the Stones in the future? I mean, why doesn't this happen again and again? Shouldn't the powers that be in the universe find a better way of safeguarding the Stones?

MarkB · May 2, 2019

Mercurius said:
But here's something I haven't seen mentioned as I scanned through this thread, and bothered me: so they feel safe about just sending the Infinity Stones off in different directions, knowing full well what they are capable of? How are they to prevent some other mad crazy bad guy from trying to assemble the Stones in the future? I mean, why doesn't this happen again and again? Shouldn't the powers that be in the universe find a better way of safeguarding the Stones?

Theoretically, they don't exist anymore. By placing them back in their original times, they still got to be picked up by Infinity-War-Thanos, used to wipe out half of all sentient life, and then destroyed by Thanos.

But seriously, just thinking about it makes my head hurt.

megamania · May 2, 2019

My understanding / take on it is there are many alternate timelines (14,000,000,605 ?) BUT only one set of six Infinity Gems (Stones). These were created as "Timeline #1" was created. By spreading them out it messes with time - yes but also makes it that only through time travel can these ever be brought together again.

Blue · May 5, 2019

Nellisir said:
- Professor Hulk. No real explanation, no development, no tension, no conflict, no nothing. And he doesn't even break anything in a particularly impressive fashion. Dud. I'm just hoping this means they're saving it for something a little further down the line.

There was a five year gap. We got to see several characters how they grew during those five years. Cap leading small counseling sessions because he cares about actual people. Tony and Pepper starting a family. Nat burning herself out trying to hold her chosen family together. And Banner/Hulk resolving the issues from the end of Infinity War, finding his center and coming to peace with himself (himselves?).

While it wasn't the only way to have that work out, it would have been jarring and bad writing if that hadn't been resolved in some way during that time.

Blue · May 5, 2019

RangerWickett said:
My only quibble is I would have liked them to call in Captain Marvel to do the unsnapping, so that her role in the movie is greater, and to give her a chance to be part of the team grieving Natasha, whom she seemed to have at least a bit of a rapport with in the teleconference scene. Then due to the snap, she is out of commission for the first part of the fight against Thanos's army, but gets to have a big hero moment bursting out of the ground.

This would have been cool, though since her power is from one of the stones in the first place I wonder how it would have affected her.

But yeah, that makes sense. I think she wasn't there just so they could have the dramatic entrance. They were expert and whipsawing our emotions up and down throughout the movie and that fight scene.

RangerWickett said:
Also, I wanted Hulk to be holding up the debris to protect people, and instead of looking panicked, he should have glowered and said something about how Thanos just made him angry. Then let him smash a bit, but do smart smashing.

I had two thoughts about the drowning scene with Hulk. first is that Hulk gets stronger when angry, and I think he wasn't angry - he was scared. The other is that he was down an arm due to the snappening. It's still in a sling at Tony's wake in the denouement.

doctorbadwolf · May 5, 2019

MarkB said:
It was a good "passing the torch" movie, and I'm glad that they brought these storylines to a conclusion, and that they didn't go for a consequence-free time travel reset that made the events of the previous movie not happen.

That said, I still don't see how the final sequence with past-Thanos being wiped out doesn't violate their own self imposed time travel rules.

He came from another timeline, and never changed his own past, or anyone else’s.

Imaculata · May 5, 2019

I greatly enjoyed the movie. It is great to see all the characters deal with the aftermath of Infinity War, and reunited with characters from previous flicks. I also enjoyed fat Thor, and happy they kept him fat all movie long. The only real crinchy bit was all of the female characters teaming up, that felt very fan servicy and on the nose. I also loved seeing Pepper in Ironman armor again.

Umbran · May 5, 2019

Saw the movie last night...

Those of you who have a problem with the Thor "joke" are having a problem with a decent (for the genre and setting) depiction of how trauma impacts people. It is in part played for the joke (because, apparently, alcoholism is funny to people), but his descent into that and depression are entirely appropriate.

And, to be honest, if you didn't turn from laughing at him to feeling some pity for him... Well, maybe that's on the film, and maybe it is on some of our culture's views on alcoholism and grief.

Mudstrum Ridcully" said:
But I can't quite reconcile how that works for Old Steve Rogers. I mean it's possible there has always been a Steve Rogers that came back at some point to reunite with Agent Carter (clearly after the events of the series), and that's our old Steve Rogers now. But that suggests that travel into the past doesn't always end up with an alternate timeline. But how would the time travel mechanism "know" which option to pick?

No, you got it. The thing we need to realize is... Old Cap is not Cap. At least, not "our" Cap.

When you travel in time, you go to alternate timelines. They establish that the way you get back to your own timeline is *through a portal*. Cap and Iron Man even initiate a jump (to 1970) without a portal, but to return, they use the portal. Without the portal, any time jump you make is to an alternate timeline.

Old Cap did not come through the portal. So, it isn't our Cap. He's a Cap from an alternate timeline.

There's actually a ton of timelines going through much the same thing - each with their own Thanos trying to kill off half the people in its universe. There's a bunch of Avengers jumping through a bunch of alternate timelines trying to do much the same thing. But... *we* are an alternate to someone else. So, Our Cap jumps out, goes to an alternate timeline, and spends a life with alternate Peggy Carter. A *different* Cap jumps from somewhere else into our timeline to deliver the shield.

RangerWickett said:
You only split off a new timeline if you change what you know.

I think you are incorrect. See above.

---

Now, aside from time travel shenanigans -

I like how the one person who manages to get their Infinity Stone by just straight up rational discussion... is the Hulk.

Janx · May 5, 2019

I snuck out Friday after lunch to see it. Then the Tornado Watch stopped the film right before Nebula stuck her hand into the fry your hand field (I was right).

Much waiting in the hall as we wondered just how close the Tornado was (4 stop lights away at Hooks Airport). Then it's back into the theatre where they nicely rolled it back a minute or so and we got to silently rewatch Quill dancing his way through stupidity, an arm frying and a Nebnapping by Thanos with some silent soul searching as he pondered the meaning of headless him in silence.

Then the sound came back.

I liked it. I liked fat Thor, because he's pointed out how grueling the workouts for these movies are, so it was a bit meta.

I liked the time travel movie jokes as they struggled to come to grips with time travel is not like Back to the Future.

I liked that many past actors of the MCU got to be in this film, from Carter to the Civil war guys and Jarvis. Missed Coulson.

I liked that we finally got to hear "Avengers Assemble."

In marriage, as Cap will tell us, it's about finding something you love in the other person, not their faults. Here's to another 20 MCU films and until Thanos stops sitting down so much, make mine Marvel!