rlochraven

So, finally got to see Avengers: Endgame this weekend, and it did not disappoint. Even though it was just over three hours, it didn't feel like three hours. It was very well done and wrapped up a lot of the existing storylines.

There were definitely some unexpected items that left you shaken:

1) The opening with Hawkeye's family. That was a major shock to start things off.

2) Black Widow's sacrifice for Hawkeye on Vormir. That one I didn't see coming (hadn't heard of prior to seeing the movie either!). So, that kind of puts the Black Widow movie as a story in the past, unless something else not in the movie happens to return her (doubt that with the scene at the end with Hawkeye and Wanda).

3) Captain America letting himself age (and of course marrying Peggy Carter).

4) The Ancient One's discourse on the affects of taking the stones and the effect on time streams.

5) Thor's physical decline / reverse of character.

6) Dr. Strange actually telling Tony the one chance, despite all his earlier protestations.

7) Vision did not return. I was thinking of the case where Shuri could have "replaced" the mind stone since she did all the detailed scans, but seeing that he was based upon the mind stone, I see why they didn't bring him back.

There were also some "expected" items, though there was some latitude....

1) Tony Stark dying. The rumor mill had either Tony or Cap dying at the end, so this wasn't as big a surprise. How they did it was, as I'm sure everyone will say, was the ultimate tearjerker, especially with Peter and Pepper there and the power cell on the suit fading out.

2) Steve Rogers handing off the mantle of Captain America. I wasn't sure who, but it was either Sam or Bucky. It looks like, the way they did it, that Bucky knew that Steve was going to handoff to Sam. Of course, the 'aging' he did to himself was the perfect lead in to that.

3) Dr. Hulk. With the conflict between Hulk and Banner, this was a perfect outcome and definitely added some comic moments (like the selfie in the diner) and the first tests with the time travel and what he did to Scott.

4) Time travel. We knew that had something to do with it. I like how they worked it.

There were some unanswered questions in the end.

1) Where is Gamora? We know is it the "past" Gamora that hasn't yet met the Guardians. I'm assuming that will be answered in GOTG Volume 3.

2) Is Thor really joining the Guardians?

3) Will there be a Rescue (Pepper's Iron Woman suit) movie? Will she appear in future MCU?

4) Where did Loki go when he took the Tesseract when Future Tony got knocked out by Past Hulk?

I have more, but too many to organize right now. I did like the part in the final battle where all the women band together to try to get the Iron Man gauntlet to Scott to start returning the stones. It would have been interesting (though it would have added time to an already long run-time) to see Steve returning all the stones, especially to Vormir to see Red Skull there. All the hype prior to the movie kind of had people thinking that Captain Marvel was a bigger part of the movie, but she actually wasn't. She saved Tony and Nebula at the beginning, and she was key in the final battle.

I'm definitely going to have to see it a second time to get all the little things I missed. If I do, I'll let you know what I missed.