So, a little while ago, I received a request from my personal trainer's son, who's another Marvel fan, to do a review on these two films. To me, I think the movie is genuinely about Thanos' ideology. This blog will be the condensed version of my thoughts on the 4-hour battle Infinity War and Endgame since that is quite a long time to watch what is essentially a single story.
The point of The Infinity War was to introduce an opponent to the Avengers who could test them. We see Thanos come in who can challenge Tony Stark, the strength of the Hulk, the magic users, basically provide a counterpart to each of the Avengers. Thanos' mission is to use the power of the Infinity Stones to carry out his ideology of population control after seeing the toll overpopulation took on his home planet.
I enjoyed how Thanos conducted the war he started by tracking the Infinity Stones to various locations, seizing them, and killing anyone who resisted him. Population control is a relevant theme in the movie, as we see how it affects our resources. Although the way he went about it, I don't think it was the right way. Thanos' logic has some substance, in my opinion, but I think he takes it too far and lets his status get to his head.
I will say I like the level of planning Thanos had in his plots. For instance, I thought it was brilliant of him to send his special units, The Black Order, down to Earth, where he knew the Infinity Stones were to test Earth's defenses.
I think the Avengers got too carried away, 31thinking they could do anything; they were untouchable until Thanos came along. My favorite fight in this movie was the fight in Wakanda. I like that we saw the Avengers try to strategize and come together to fight Thanos, and they get about halfway to finishing Thanos. I thought it was a pretty close call until they couldn't make the finishing blow. Overall, it was a fun fight to watch, and I think it was an excellent way to end the movie. We see how much further the Avengers will go to defeat Thanos since it builds up anticipation for the second movie.
Endgame starts five years later, where the Avengers are scattered all over the planet doing their own thing again when Natasha Romanoff detects a familiar energy signature. She assembles the Avengers again, and they realize Thanos has retreated to a planet. They use this time to muster up the resources and go to that planet, where they find that Thanos has taken up farming in an empty world. This movie focuses on how the Avengers regroup and plan an attack to wipe out Thanos.
Once the Avengers learned to harness time travel, I thought it was interesting the different periods they had to go to to pick up the Infinity Stones. We saw glimpses of them going into other critical locations of the story, like Asgard, or periods like the 40s and 70s. There's a scene where we see Thor's mother giving a speech to him before she dies, which stuck with me. Something along the lines of always staying true to yourself and always picking yourself back after you all. Those words resonated with me.
One of my favorite parts after the Avengers gathered all the stones was when Tony Stark had to find someone who could wield the glove's power, which happened to be the Hulk. It was a moment we saw him find some purpose in his life. Of course, Thanos discovers the Infinity Stones are being gathered and travels back in time to reclaim them. He goes into the situation thinking he's unstoppable, but his past self had no idea what was lying ahead of him, which is the grand ending scene of Endgame.
Overall, I liked many things about these films. I enjoyed how the Avengers were brought to their knees by one of their opponents. It was necessary for the Avengers because, in the previous movies, it began to feel like they would win every fight no matter how intense the opponent was. But the irony is that their near-fatal flaw would also be Thanos' fatal flaw.
I am glad that the Avengers were able to learn from their mistakes and grow from them. However, I wouldn't say I liked how they only give Tony Stark the credit for discovering time travel when it was Professor Hulk, Antman, and Tony Stark who found time travel altogether. I will repeat this in many movies: time travel is a convenient plot device overused, and the concept is simplified. I think the part of Endgame I liked the most was when Tony Stark died because he finally understood that to be a hero meant that you had to stand for something bigger than yourself, and for him, that was protecting humanity and his family. As much as I hated his overreliance on technology and his know-it-all attitude, I must respect the character's level of character growth throughout the two films.
I thought Endgame was a fitting closing chapter 2, this phase of the MCU universe. I look forward to seeing what will happen with all these characters to everybody who has seen both Infinity War and Endgame. What are your thoughts on these films?