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Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large. 

Avengers Endgame is a masterpiece

Spoilers, I guess? 

Avengers Endgame is everything I ever wanted or needed. The absolute perfect culmination to this particular 22 film saga that makes up the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The fine folks at Marvel Studios deserve all the special Oscars for their singular achievement in turning a franchise of films into a super convincing facsimile of a television season. Endgame is the best season finale one could have wished for.

It’s the MCU’s Return of the King, and it deserves the same accolades and awards the final Lord of the Rings film received.

While you needn’t have watch the prior 21 MCU films to enjoy Endgame, would argue it’s not nearly as fulfilling. In electing to use time-travel as the mechanism to undo the damage done by Thanos in Infinity Wars, Endgame offers an endless amount hark backs to the earlier movies that are not mere fan-service, but integral plot-points. Throughout the lengthy 3-hour runtime (I survived the great bathroom avoidance experiment), audiences are delighted with surprise after surprise, and each hit wouldn’t have as great an impact if you didn’t see some of the films in the series.  

And that’s why the MCU is indeed like the biggest television series ever made, in terms of scale and monetary expense (take that, Game of Thrones). Endgame does superbly well to provide closure to the many plot-lines that’s been simmering for the past decade. There’s heavy emotional weight to the entire proceedings because of the backlog of stories that preceded it, where otherwise in a vacuum, Endgame wouldn’t have made any sense at all. Everything felt precisely earned, and as an audience you cannot help but laugh, cheer, and cry during the moments because the satisfaction hits you right at the heart.  

One example: not once in the over ten years of MCU has Captain America uttered the iconic phrase “Avengers, assemble”, so when he finally did so just before the climactic battle in Endgame, my emotions came rushing out just as the Avengers went charging towards Thanos’ army.

Is that the best moment of the film? Difficult to say right now; there’s so many to choose from, and I’ve still got to see Endgame many, many more times. Cap’ wielding Thor’s hammer, Iron Man’s ultimate sacrifice, Hawkeye and Black Widow on Vormir, Tony saying goodbye to his father, Professor Hulk; there’s brilliance littered over the entire movie, and I’ve only peeled off the first layer of the onion.

The Russo brothers have created a masterpiece in Avengers Endgame, a marvelous bookend to consolidate the interweaving MCU storylines into the most gratifying last chapter. It’s a resounding closure for all of us that have followed from the very first episode: 2008’s Iron Man.

Historic.

The Endgame is here

Indeed it’s the night before endgame – Avengers Endgame, that is. I am beyond excited to finally watch this three-hour movie tomorrow evening, and I’ve got my strategy all planned out. Honestly though for such a long and important movie, they really should’ve built in an intermission in the middle, but that would rob theatres of precious time to cram in as many showings as possible – something they’d never forsake. So that means I will have to control my fluid intake before and during the movie, so to avoid having to use the restroom during.

The plan is simple: no water intake two hours before show time, and only start replenishing (slowly) about an hour into the movie. I reckon that should be sufficient; fingers crossed.

You’d think for such an important movie event - on ticket pre-release day all major theatre chain systems crashed due to demand – I’d be watching the movie tonight instead. Or more extremely I’d have flew back home to China because the Endgame is (unfairly) released two days earlier there than the States.

Well, as to the first suggestion, I can’t physical do a Thursday evening showing because I have work, not to mention the likelihood of me getting those tickets was very slim. As for flying to China, now is not a good time because the weather there is getting hot and humid, and the seasonal monsoon has arrived. Also, I simply don’t have the money: I did just pay loads for a Porsche back in January.

I mean, what’s an extra day of wait for a movie that I’ve been anticipating since I came out of the theatre from watching Avengers Infinity War. I haven’t been this full of eagerness for a film since the final chapter of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. At least for Return of the King I knew the ending because I’ve read the book; I’m heading into Endgame completely blind to what the story is going to be, and that makes it extra bit more special.

But that entails fending off potential spoilers: since this Monday I’ve muted all possible words related to Endgame on twitter, and it’s so far so good. With people actually getting the opportunity to watch the film starting this evening, I may have to log-off the platform entirely from now until after I’ve seen the movie tomorrow night.

I’ll see you all on the other side.

This is brilliant: two Fiat 500s fitting in one San Francisco street parking spot.