Six years ago, Avenger’s Endgame swept across the world, and dominated the Box office. After Thanos completed his mission of eliminating half of life across the universe, audiences could not wait to see how The Avenger’s fought back and returned their world to normalcy. On the week of the movie’s 6th anniversary, let us go back and see if this record-breaking phenomenon still packs the punch it did in 2019.
Starting off with the story. We had, had 10 years of marvel movies before the release of Endgame. The culmination of over 30 installments of this franchise had to deliver, and in my opinion it still does. Not only was it able to juggle a massive narrative, but it was also able to successfully balance it’s characters and make sure that every single one of them found a satisfying ending, or was set up to progress into future endeavors.
Another factor that really worked for me is what the movie is about. This movie is about second chances. The over arcing story demonstrates this enough, giving the Avengers a second chance to undo the damage that Thanos caused, but it does not stop there. This movie gave Tony Stark his second chance at a family. It gave Thor the second chance to say goodbye to his mom. It gave Steve Rodgers a second chance with the love of his life. These moments not only work, but I found them to still be some of the best moments throughout this movie.
Now one thing that has soured more and more throughout the years was the decisions made for Thor. When I initially saw the movie in 2019, the changes made to Thor were not my favorite, but it wasn’t something that I was going to let bog down the experience of the movie. However, as the years progressed, becoming ever so apparent to me on this rewatch, I very much dislike the treatment of the God of Thunder here.
He is used as the butt of the joke way too often, and in moments that feel incredibly out of place. Having gone into a state of depression and going through symptoms of PTSD it just feels very out of place for these people that love Thor to be treating him in the ways that they were. I liked the ambition the writers had to make a change like this, but it just really does not stick the landing.
However, a final thing that really works for me throughout this movie are all the character moments and callbacks. Endgame is rich with moments that tie us back to other movies that came before. Two of the biggest being Captain America lifting Thor’s hammer, and Iron-Man sacrificing himself to stop Thanos’ army. These moments work so well because they progress the characters but also remind you of where they started, and because of that this movie continues to work years after its release.
So, all in all,…does Endgame hold up? Yes. This movie continues to be enjoyable while packing a killer punch emotionally, making it altogether, an incredibly satisfying watch. This year for the films anniversary I suggest you put it on, and relive these epic moments with these incredible characters.