My first novella, City of Kaiju, is finally out! Available through Amazon and Books2Read. You can see a preview of the very first chapter here. Help support a fresh new author with a fantastic read this spring season.

Whoo boy. Do I have a review for you. I’m likely going to spend the next thousand words gushing about how epic this movie was and how it exceeded all expectations. Like, this would forever be the gold standard of superhero movies and I honestly don’t know how Marvel Studios, or really, anyone, can top this. So let’s just get right into it.

This won’t spoil the ending, but will contain spoilers nonetheless. Deaths and the like will be omitted, but I will mention the big battle at the end. Just a heads up.

We’re in the Endgame now

So if you haven’t seen Infinity War yet, please do so. A lot of this review will spoil moments leading up to it, so please watch that film first before reading this.

Anyway, after the Infinity War, Thanos succeeds in wiping out half of the universe and everyone tries to make ends meet in a destroyed, apocalyptic world. With Tony and Nebula trapped in space with no hope of survival, they accept defeat until Captain Marvel comes to the rescue and brings the two home to meet with the remaining Avengers. Natasha, Steve Rogers, Rocket, War Machine, Okoye, Thor, and now Tony and Nebula remain. Their next goal is to somehow undo everything Thanos did and stop his insidious plot once and for all.

This whole film is too much for me to do in one review. It has to be seen live. The story, the character development, and most of all, the entire Marvel universe coming together full circle in order to finish what was started with Iron Man in 2008. It’s woven so perfectly that it’s stunning throughout. Many of the characters are battered when most of earth is snapped to dust, some even going off the rails like Tony and Thor, the latter who let himself go so hard that he felt like a different character.

All of the characters have come to their fullest here, with each one getting ample levels of character development. Even the unusually missing Hawkeye gets an arc to himself with Natasha. And what an arc that was. We also have the unusual relationship between Thor and Rocket, who mocks his current condition any chance he gets. Rocket’s always been the lovable asshole type who wants to help but can’t help but crack a few insulting jokes.

And there’s also the ever tumultuous relationship between Tony and Steve, who have split ways since Civil War all the way back in 2016 and hasn’t changed one bit. While Tony is warming up to everything, this moment is where we see him at his most human, taking care of his daughter, Morgan Stark, who Pepper Stark (formerly Pepper Potts) is his mother. Somehow spared by the snap, the three try to live life to the fullest and because of it, he’d rather not screw up anything else with their lives, even if they have to recover the Infinity Stones in another time.

Timey Wimey stuff

This is how everything returns to normal. Scott Lang’s mysterious absence at the end of Ant-Man and the Wasp shows that he’s been in the quantum realm for too long, so much so that he reappeared five years later when all was said and done. Because of his journey in such a short span compared to the outside world, he inadvertently invents Time Travel, using the very suits needed to shrink down and enter this mysterious realm.

As a result, the team formulate a plan to steal the Infinity Stones from the past and bring them to the future, and once their mission was complete, they’d return it to their past timelines. Mind you, this isn’t like Back to the Future where the future changes if they step on a rat’s tail. This creates an alternate future independent of their own. Also, Thanos’s stones are gone, obliterated after the ultimate snap.

It seemed to make sense at times, but it felt a little easy. It’s just the nature of Time Travel in the modern world. But to be fair, Tony’s an insane genius who invented nano tech and another created a suit that makes the user both shrink and grow, so time travel isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Plus, it’s a very comic book plot that no doubt many would love to use. Superman can go back in time by flying against the earth’s rotation and the Flash can do the same by running so fast he warps into another time.

So in essence, it’s perfect. why fight Thanos in the future when you can find the stones in the past. But it is easier said than done when the future heroes have to warp back to numerous points in time. Three of them are in one singular location. The time stone, the mind stone and the space stone were all in one location while the other three were in the far off reaches of the galaxy, including a past Asgard. The main story focuses on their time in the end climax of the Avengers in 2012.

It was super fun seeing the heroes react to their past selves and trying not to screw up, but no doubt many of them had funny reactions to them stealing the stones from these time periods. Not to mention it was interesting cinematography to take an already filmed sequence set almost a decade (Damn I’m getting old) in the past and having the two duke it out whilst being believable at the same time.

Side note: they did show a trailer to Ang Lee’s Gemini Man and I do love how cinema can successfully handle the same exact actor on screen at the same time. It’s honestly brilliant and Endgame handles it well. Most don’t even interact that much aside from two Captain America’s fighting against one another.

Just seeing over ten years worth of MCU history unfold is the prefect backdrop for this grand climax. Many famous characters return and sets long since abandoned make a nostalgic return. I wasn’t keen on the twist, but seeing it in action, it made perfect sense. It was the only way they could have brought everything together.

The epic battle

And then, there was the grand finale. I won’t give too much away, nor spoil anything at all, but I will say this may have been the single most epic battle not just in the history of the MCU, but possibly all of cinema. While some unfortunately are absent due to plot reasons, the biggest heroes of the MCU from over a decade of history, all face off against the biggest, baddest villain around, Thanos from the past, who has somehow traveled to the present to accomplish his goal a second time.

This battle was a sight to behold and kept me hooked all throughout. It somehow wasn’t chaotic and everyone got a part for themselves, even if it were minor. They fought valiantly and the climax brought concluded the biggest story arc of all time about a decade’s worth of Marvel magic. We’ve come a long way from the days of cheesy super hero films. This will forever be the gold standard of superhero cinema, as well as cinematography as a whole.

My words fail to capture how epic this battle was. It must be seen to be believed. You won’t be disappointed.

Final thoughts

With Phase 3 over and dusted, my biggest question is…what’s next? We do have Spider-Man: Far From Home, a Doctor Strange film, a Black Panther film, Black Widow, Guardians of the Galaxy (maybe) an Eternals adaptation and many others, but it begs the question. Which path will Phase 4 bring us. Thanos is dead, the world is at peace finally, but who remains. The only other I can think of is Galactus, who has ties to the Fantastic Four, which I believe Marvel Studios now owns through their acquisition of Fox’s assets, as well as the X-Men. So no doubt they’ll play a role in the upcoming storyline.

For now, let’s bask in the glory that the MCU, as far as the past eleven years, has come to a gloriously satisfying conclusion that is sure to tug at the heartstrings of anyone who has sat through all of the MCU films up to this point. This was one hell of a ride and I hope that it keeps going for as long as possible, as we go through the many stories of Marvel’s long history and vast library of heroes. To this, I end with the immortal words of the late Stan Lee.

Excelsior!

To all the heroes in the galaxy.

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