Avengers: Endgame (2019)

-
I have to admit, I have been reading a lot of discussions and speculations after watching Avengers: Infinity War in my excitement to see the next instalment, Avengers: Endgame. And then I stopped when the movie started showing in the cinemas because I didn't want to come across advanced information and actually spoil the surprise for myself. The only advance information I checked was about movie length and the best times to take a toilet break while watching the three-hour film.

Right after its opening weekend, I went to the cinema to watch it, finally. People were still flocking the theatres to see it... the audience reception suggests that this movie is probably going to break records like Black Panther and Infinity War... or even Avatar (just the top-grossing movie of all time so far).

I was excited to watch Endgame because (1) it's the end of a series of movies that I thoroughly enjoyed; (2) I was so shocked with the Infinity War ending and I wanted to see how those who remained (the original Avengers team) handled defeat.

The movie could be divided into three parts. The first part was all about how people coped with Thanos' decimation using the Infinity Gauntlet (I was shocked with how swiftly they caught up with Thanos... and actually thought that the movie would end there). The second part was all about how the Avengers devised a solution to bring back what they've lost (yes, the MCU's rules for time travel were quite different from those of Back to the Future). And the third part was about the second round of fighting with Thanos and his minions. Doctor Strange saw more than 14 million alternative scenarios and this, hopefully, was the one in which the Avengers would win. The movie's writers, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, created a well-developed and suspenseful story that did not divulge until the very end if this was that one endgame that Doctor Strange foresaw.

As I watched the scenes in Endgame unfold, I remembered the scene in Infinity War in which the young Gamora in the Soul World asked Thanos, "What did it cost?" And he replied, "Everything." This attitude about his sacrifice (he threw Gamora into the pit in Vormir to get the Soul Stone, after all) mirrored the Avengers' state of mind: they were willing to recoup their losses "whatever it takes."

It was an emotionally charged film for fans. In the three hours, people in the cinema cried, cheered, and gasped as the characters took one unexpected turn after another. The story arcs of the original Avengers (Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, and Hawkeye) came full circle as they took their destinies into their own hands and found catharses at various points of the movie. Iron Man and Black Widow found their peace by sacrificing their lives for the greater good. Captain America found his by actually giving himself a chance to live. Hawkeye drew strength and happiness from seeing his family back after the Hulk's snap. Thor, who let go of his weight because of his failures, found peace in embracing his destiny: he was not built to be a king; rather, he was an adventurer and a defender... a guardian. And Hulk? By being able to live both as Bruce Banner and the Hulk in one body, he no longer had outbursts of extreme anger. He was, among the group, the understated hero. Without him, it wouldn't have been possible to un-snap what Thanos did..

I finally understood why people want to discuss the movie ad infinitum right after watching it and why the cast and crew discourage posting spoilers online. My friends and I opted not to talk about it until everyone has watched it. As I wait, I wonder what's next for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If Infinity War was an initiation to the newer members of the Avengers, Endgame felt like a graduation of sorts. It heralded the passing of the torch to the newer heroes, giving them a chance for the character development they deserve.

---
As of May 19th, the box office sales of Avengers: Endgame has reached over USD 770M in the US market and USD 2.6B globally, making it the second highest grossing movie in the whole world without adjusting for inflation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in Bagu
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma
Read more