Rob Retro Review: Avengers Endgame (2019)

This weekend saw the release of Avengers: Endgame Encore. It is essentially a re-release of the 2019 movie Avengers: Endgame, but includes four additional minutes of footage which are said to tie directly into the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday movie.

I debated seeing Endgame again this weekend in theaters. However, I have actually already seen all the additional footage that was added to the movie. One scene was at the very end of the movie, two others were mid-credits, and the final one was a post-credits scene. As much of an MCU fan as I am, I could not rationalize either the money or the time I would spend in a theater to watch a movie I’ve already seen just for additional footage that has already been leaked online.

Having said that, the buzz around this re-release got me thinking—and I figured it was past time for a proper review of this movie.

Avengers: Endgame is a continuation of a story started in Avengers: Infinity War. Of course, the story started in Infinity War was the overarching narrative of the previous 18 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Thanos, the Mad Titan, has been on a quest to assemble the Infinity Gauntlet—a glove consisting of six different gems which essentially control the fundamental elements of the universe: Reality, Power, Soul, Time, Space, and Mind.

Thanos believes that the universe is simply overpopulated. His plan is to assemble the six Infinity stones on the gauntlet and wipe out half of all life in the entire universe, resetting the cosmic order of things.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Thanos is successful in Infinity War, and with a literal snap of his fingers, he instantly wipes out half of all life in the universe, including the majority of our MCU heroes.

The movie begins with the Avengers broken and trying to, well, reassemble. They’re able to track down Thanos with the intention of killing him. They do so, however, only to realize that he already used the Infinity Stones to destroy the stones themselves. There is no way to undo the damage that Thanos has done.

Enter Scott Lang / Ant-Man. As we saw at the end of Ant-Man and the Wasp, Ant-Man gets stuck in the Quantum Realm during the events of Infinity War. He is not present in our universe during the snap and therefore returns to a much different world than the one he left. Five years have passed at this point. He travels to Avengers headquarters and explains where he has been, pitching an idea: why can’t they time travel using the Quantum Realm?

With some collaborative work between Scott Lang, Bruce Banner, and a reluctant Tony Stark, the Avengers ultimately find a way to travel to precise locations in time through the Quantum Realm. Their plan is to grab the Infinity Stones from the past when they were in locations the team is aware of. A “time heist,” as Scott Lang calls it.

The various team members are successful in retrieving all six Infinity Stones from the past. However, in order to retrieve the Soul Stone, Black Widow has to give her life.

The team creates a new Infinity Gauntlet which the Hulk uses to perform “The Snap.” They’re overjoyed when they receive a call from Clint Barton’s wife. As far as they can tell, their attempt to bring everybody back worked.

Little does the team realize that a variant of Thanos from the past has also been alerted to their actions, and he travels back to the present to fight the team there. The mother of all comic book superhero battles ensues.

The fight showcases a massive display of heroism by the Avengers, including Steve Rogers lifting Mjolnir, thus proving that he is worthy of the power of Thor. Rogers appears to be the last man standing against Thanos and his army. Defiant to the end, he plans to continue fighting when, all of a sudden, numerous portals generated by Doctor Strange open up. All of the heroes have returned to make one last stand against Thanos.

Just when all appears lost, Tony Stark makes the supreme sacrifice—grabbing the gauntlet, wearing it, and making one final snap to erase Thanos and his army.

Wearing the gauntlet costs Tony his life in an absolutely gut-wrenching sequence in which the heroes all mourn his loss. The funeral scene alone is truly something to behold. Roughly forty actors and actresses from all the various MCU movies appear at Tony’s funeral. This was no CGI; all the actors appeared on set.

After the funeral, Steve Rogers has one last mission: travel back in time using the Quantum Realm to return all of the Infinity Stones to their rightful points in time. Several members of the Avengers team are there waiting for him to return after what should be just a few moments. Ultimately, Steve doesn’t return. But they see an old man sitting on a bench waiting for Sam.

It turns out that the old man is, in fact, Steve Rogers himself. He gives Sam the Captain America shield, refusing to explain exactly how he aged so much. However, in the final scene of the movie, it is revealed that after returning the Infinity Stones, Steve Rogers reunited with Peggy Carter, sharing a long-awaited slow dance in the past.

The Endgame Encore Bonus Scenes

However, there are four bonus scenes in the Endgame Encore version of the film was just released in theaters. Here is a description of each of the four scenes (and yes, I actually saw these online):

1. Steve, Peggy, and Loki: During the final sequence where Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter are sharing their dance at home, a knock comes at the door. Peggy answers, and a 2012-variant Loki (wearing his TVA uniform) greets them, telling them, “No, but I can help you. Both of you,” leaving a stunned Steve stepping out from hiding.

2. Doctor Doom Collects Bruce Banner (Mid-Credits): Bruce Banner is in isolation in a deep underground bunker recording a video diary about suppressing the Hulk. The room flickers, glowing green Latverian symbols appear on the floor, and Doctor Doom’s voice echoes: “Dr. Banner, I’m here to collect you” before a struggle ensues and Banner vanishes.

3. The Forging of the Mask (Mid-Credits): A short transition scene tying into the credits where the classic audio of a hammer hitting iron (which originally paid tribute to Tony Stark) is paired with visual flashes of Doctor Doom crafting his iconic metal mask.

4. The TVA Intercept (Post-Credits): A final post-credits sequence featuring Mobius and a TVA analytical team monitoring the timeline disturbances caused by Steve’s retirement in the past, directly setting up the multiversal crossover stakes for Avengers: Doomsday.

The scenes comprise less than four minutes of the movie and quite honestly weren’t worth the price of admission for me. I think they could’ve just as easily tacked these scenes onto Avengers: Doomsday and been equally effective—perhaps putting the last scene of Steve and Peggy dancing at the beginning of Doomsday in a Superman- or Rocky-style movie recap. But of course, money talks, and Disney has decided they want Endgame to once again become the highest-grossing film of all time.

My Take

Avengers: Endgame was the crown jewel of the Marvel Cinematic Universe up to that point. Had Disney/Marvel decided to end the MCU right there, the rest of the movie-making world would have been chasing this franchise for decades. But of course, Disney decided they had to keep it going.

That’s not to say they didn’t have good ideas with the Kang storyline, which ultimately was aborted due to Jonathan Majors’ legal troubles. But the fact is, the new characters and new actors simply haven’t been able to capture the magic or the charm that moviegoers fell in love with over the course of 15 years.

In a lot of ways, I feel like Avengers: Doomsday is going to serve as fan service and knee-jerk reaction much the same way that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker did. Both movies exist primarily to play to the long-term fanboys.

Yet, looking at Endgame on its own merits, managing a three-hour runtime for a blockbuster is always a massive gamble. Most studios would have panicked, cutting the grief-stricken fallout short to rush straight into the time-travel mechanics within the first twenty minutes. But because this was the culmination of an entire 22-movie saga, they had to spend that first hour showing the true, crushing weight of failure. Roughly an hour in—right as they make that jump into the Quantum Realm—you realize that quiet, agonizing period of mourning was entirely necessary. It mirrors an epic like The Lord of the Rings: when you’ve invested a tremendous amount of time into a sprawling story, you don’t want to rush the exit. You need to sit in the wreckage so that when the triumph finally comes, it’s genuinely earned.

Put on its own, Avengers: Endgame is an absolute masterpiece of blockbuster filmmaking. It proves that comic-book movies can carry the weight, the heart, and the deep emotional resonance of any other genre.

Rating: Highest Possible Recommendation

(Note: To truly appreciate it, you obviously have to watch Infinity War first—and realistically, you need the background of most of the preceding MCU films to feel the true impact of what’s happening.)

Avengers: Endgame is currently streaming on Disney+

Avengers: Endgame Encore is currently playing in theaters

Rebuilding a life takes grit, consistency, and a lot of ‘Option C’ thinking. Having crossed the 1,000-day milestone, I’m now charting the territory beyond. The mission remains the same: No glitz. Just the work. New to the blog? Start your journey here to see the blueprint and the ‘Tricorder’ perspective behind the rebuild.

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