Endgame

Avengers is… well, done. I’ve been considering the movie since seeing it a few weeks ago. Without spoiling it for anyone, I guess I’ll just try to work through some thoughts.

Knowing that the MCU had to wrap up this first chapter, I had some opinions (as we all did) about how it should be done. I think the movie did a decent job of it, and even left some openings for future changes – though likely not to be capitalized on. Ten years ago Iron Man gave birth to a whole new system of filmmaking, and we’re still seeing the ramifications of that throughout the entertainment industry.

There are some characters that will likely never appear in the new films again, and that feels somewhat devastating. At the same time, actors age. Comic book characters don’t. Rather than pull a Red Skull or Spider-Man and change actors out, better to close doors on characters and open doors to new ones.

I laughed during the movie. Very nearly cried a couple of times (Downey Jr. and Holland about did it, thank you very much). And I left feeling neither disappointed nor contented. It was an end to the first part, and it feels final. Some endings don’t feel like endings. Some leave you room to imagine the next adventure. The next chapter.

Some endings are ambiguous. They can be anything.

And some endings – like Endgame – just end.