Please note that this is one a series of posts, all of which may contain spoilers for the MCU, and particularly Endgame.
People talk about the cultural phenomenon of Avengers:Endgame, but I don’t know if it’s been fully addressed how the movie, indeed the culmination of the series has, and is continuing to affect viewers.
Trying to avoid lines (and get reasonably good seats), we ended up seeing Avengers:Endgame the Tuesday the week after opening. For various reasons[1], we decided to take the afternoon off to watch it. I laughed, I cried, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I left the theater with a feeling of satisfaction, knowing that they had done the movie justice, that (aside from a few issues[2]) it was a satisfying conclusion to a 22-movie series.
So, it took me a while to realize what was happening in the subsequent weeks. I found myself watching analysis, and re-watching scenes from old MCU movies (mostly Avengers:Assemble), especially scenes of Iron Man. It wasn’t until I watched a youtube video about how Endgame actors reacted to the movie, and read Dave Bautista’s tweet about how he was still processing, almost a week after viewing the movie.
I realized that I was still processing. I also realized that Iron Man was quite my favourite character[3]. It took me a while to notice that I might have been grieving, and re-watching ‘All Iron-Man suitups’ videos wasn’t going to bring him back.
So, perhaps as a way of processing, perhaps as a way of getting closure, perhaps as a way to notice all the things we didn’t see the first time[4], S & I independently came up with the idea of re-watching the MCU, in order[5].
So, please enjoy this series of reviews/processing/introspection.
[1] We really like afternoon movies, as you can fully react to them, then, while still processing, go outside and walk in the sun, perhaps get some dinner. Also, it was much easier to get good seats during the day on a weekday.
[2] I’ll get in to this later, but I was most bothered by the treatment of Black Widow.
[3] Maybe since my youth, but I know I def. recognized him from comics I read when I was growing up. I might have liked Cyclops more growing up, but the X-Men movie version of him was pretty unengaging.
[4] I would mention the Infinity Stones here, but my understanding is that they didn’t intend for all of the movies to be about them, until about GotG:Vol1.
[5] Starting with Iron Man, and probably skipping Hulk, as neither of us are particularly interested in it (even less than Thor:2, that S slept through[6]).
[6] In her defense, she may have been sick, and Dayquil:SEVERE may have been involved.
I have been waiting three decades to read your thoughts on comic book characters. I am adding this to my RSS reader as Uatu intended.
If you’re going to marathon them, I think it would still be worth seeing Thor 2, to help put the Thor 2 flashback from Endgame in perspective, particularly for Thor’s interaction with his mother. (Gentle reminder that even the weakest of the Marvel movies are still pretty good and have their moments… also, I think it’s on Netflix right now)
As for the Incredible Hulk, if you change your mind, I have it on DVD if you want to borrow it. 🙂 It’s been a while since I’ve watched it, but I hear that it implies that the super soldier serum they use is based on the one that made Captain America. (They refer to the doctor from Captain America by name) Also, it features a cameo from Tony Stark, so they were building up the MCU, even back then.