Not only is Endgame the most ambitious movie Marvel has made, but it also is the grandest. Even more so than Infinity War. No other movie can utilise the emotional ties that have been embedded within our hearts over the build of 11 years. And boy does it use them well. Stringing together scene after scene of nothing but impactful tension in the third act. But this doesn't leave the other two boring or bland. It allows these parts to build off of the aftermath of Infinity War. Never once was I bored, or felt like I was sitting there for three hours. For the action is no letdown, lovely dynamics are interwoven for a fantastic spectacle.
I don't want to say much, but it is hands down the best Marvel can offer. It is not Infinity War, Part II. It's something much better, the true culmination of everything and I do mean everything. The fan service here is through the roof and done so damn creatively. Not one thing feels hammered into the story. Even some major elements in its plot stem from the smallest details of previous movies I would have never seen coming. Taking even lesser liked fragments and stringing them into a more meaningful poetic story than the original movie would have ever told.
Using style and grace to tell this bold epic is strong with this movie. Gone are the golds and purples of Infinity War. And in comes a bleak atmosphere with hope lingering yet far. Visual storytelling is a bit lacking, but that is not what you come here to expect. You have been supported with all the exposition you need in previous movies. Since this is the case, it must be judged as a singular part of a series.
The themes in this movie are unity, utilisation, and more importantly; revelation. Kevin Feige has given this movie a lot to work with through these themes and has finally made his magnum opus.
Yes, there are a few hiccups. But that's to be expected. Captain Marvel was not given her full potential again sadly. But worked well with what was given. There is an amazing moment within the third act that truly gives her and a certain cast of characters time to shine. Plus the time it takes to leave out is a bit jarring. Not to mention, that to me Thanos seemed less threatening than in Infinity War because of something that happens. Still great impact by Josh Brolin of course.
Everyone will cry. Everyone will laugh. Everyone will leave sad yet satisfied with this amazing conclusion to the MCU so far. It's no Dark Knight, but then again, that was more drama than superhero epic. But this is modern hero gold. Here is the Holy Grail of superhero cinema.
9.6/10
8/10 After second viewing - Hype obviously had its hands around my neck I admit. Review doesn't meet my current thoughts about the film
Check here for my rankings on the MCU:
https://trakt.tv/users/corruptednoobie/lists/my-mcu-rankings?sort=rank,ascCheck here for my 2019 movie rankings that I've seen:
https://trakt.tv/users/corruptednoobie/lists/best-to-worst-2019-movies-so-far?sort=rank,asc
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING COMMENT IS RATED S FOR "SAPPY AS HELL". PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
We all know a bad series finale can ruin the entire show, which is why I've been feeling on edge all week. I just wanted a satisfying ending for my team. And, for the most part, I got one.
I started crying as soon as they said the team would never be all in the same room again. And then Deke made a sacrifice to stay in the altered timeline! It made me so emotional, but it was also funny (the way Sousa tried to be all heroic only for Deke to just… go full Deke on him). He’s gonna be just fine. I almost dread to think what SHIELD looks like under his leadership, but I'm sure it's equal parts hilarious and insane.
Fitz guiding Jemma to get her to remember was lovely. Iain and Elizabeth brought their A game, as always. I’ve missed that good old Caestridge magic.
The way they brought the whole thing full circle to the season 6 finale… Genius. The logistics of time travel made my head hurt, though. It’s way too complex for me.
”- Nice flying there.
- That used to be all I did.”
Yeah, like a million years ago. That line got a smile out of me. The season 1 nostalgia is real. Everybody gives the pre-Winter Soldier episodes so much flack, but I really enjoyed those early case-of-the-week shenanigans.
Daisy and Bitch Boy’s showdown paired with Cavalry dropping from the ceiling made me SCREAM. When Daisy blew up those Chronicom ships... Avengers? I don't know them. I only know one superhero and her name is Daisy freaking Johnson. The movies wish they had her. For a minute I really thought she was dead and my heart stopped. I wouldn't put it past the writers to kill her off. The Whedons have never met a surprise death scene they didn't like. But she’s okay! And Kora saved her! I’m fine (* narrator voice * she was not fine).
So like I predicted FitzSimmons had a child. A very blonde, very cute child. Her little voice made me tear up even more, if that’s even possible. That adorable accent!
I'm glad we didn't see the actual goodbye because that would've been too much for me. But I also don't fully understand why they decided to break up the band in the end other than because Enoch and Fitz told them they would. Even though they're still in each other's lives at the end, after 7 seasons of watching them become a family it hurts to see that they're all separated. It's just not the same.
During the last 10 minutes of the episode all the remaining self-control I had went out the window. The waterworks were flowing. Especially when Daisy was the last one left in the room, it really felt like we were watching the character as much as we were watching Chloe herself get hit with the realization that it's over. That broke me. Also, I don't buy for a second that they only do the futuristic Zoom thing once a year. Sure, maybe not all together, but Daisy and Jemma definitely talk like three times a week and they all 100% have a group chat going on that consists mostly of cute videos of Alya and Daisy sending memes (May never says anything but she reads every single message and Coulson uses the wrong emojis all the time). This is what I choose to believe. And none of it contradicts what's been said in canon, so I'm sticking by it. But aside from that minor gripe about the frequency of their communication, I really liked the ending. FitzSimmons are happy with their daughter, May is teaching (which oddly suits her) at a new SHIELD academy named after Coulson and Flint is one of her students, Daisy is in space with Sousa and Kora, Mack and YoYo are still in the field, Coulson and Lola are reunited (the real OTP of this show), even Davis is back! All my babies are okay! That’s all I wanted!
Well, not true. All I wanted was for this show to never end. But it did, as all good things must. And it did so on its own terms, despite everything working against it.
Now comes the truly sappy part.
7 seasons. 136 episodes. And it all ends here.
In October 2014, I was a 16-year-old casual Marvel fan who stumbled upon this show by chance one Saturday afternoon and pressed play on the pilot episode without thinking too much of it. It’s been nearly 6 years since that fateful day and out of all my shows I’ve been watching this one the longest and the most consistently by far. It’s been such a steady presence in my life that I still can’t fully comprehend that there’s not going to be any more episodes to look forward to. Agents of SHIELD has taken root in my heart and ingrained itself in me more deeply than any other piece of media has ever done, which makes this goodbye all the more difficult for me.
Now, I am not going to claim that this show was perfect. But at its best, Agents of SHIELD was an absolute non-stop thrill ride filled with awe-inspiring CGI (especially for a network show!) and exciting fight scenes, jaw-dropping plot twists and well-crafted intrigues, laugh-out-loud humor and heart-wrenching angst, brilliant acting and skillful writing. And most importantly, it had a group of amazing characters at its center, characters who got under my skin and never left, whose adventures I followed with bated breath, whose joy and laughter and pain and tears I felt and shared time and time again. For those characters, for everything I got to experience with them and through them, for all the ways they have enriched my life, I am truly, deeply grateful. I can only say, from the bottom of my heart: thank you.
Thank you for Phil Coulson, the dad to outdad all dads, who gave his life to the cause more than once; whose unwavering belief in his team and everything they stood for was a foundation that the entire show rested on; and whose cheesy one-liners never failed to get a smile from me.
Thank you for Melinda May, our Cavalry, whose many demons never managed to consume her heart; who fashioned her jagged edges into a weapon to protect the people she cared about; who went through hell and unspeakable trauma and came out the other side fighting, always fighting the good fight.
Thank you for Leo Fitz, the man who loved a woman so much that he jumped through a hole in the universe to find her; whose brilliant mind saved the day too many times to count; who suffered so much but always stood for what he believed in, no matter the cost.
Thank you for Jemma Simmons, the girl with two PhDs and a million questions who looked to the stars and yearned for an adventure; who survived being stranded on an alien planet and traveled farther than she ever could’ve imagined; who never backed down, never gave up, never surrendered, even in the face of the most insurmountable odds.
Thank you for my darling Daisy Johnson, a lonely girl without a home or a name who dreamt of a family and built herself one; who went from a hacktivist living in a van to an earth-quaking superhero; who carried the weight of the world on her shoulders but refused to let it break her; who had a blazing fire burning within that nothing, no matter how painful or horrible, could ever snuff out.
Thank you for Mack, YoYo and Deke, who joined the team a little further down the line and became invaluable members of SHIELD. Thank you for Bobbi, Hunter and Lincoln, who I was sad to say goodbye to. Thank you for Ward, who all of us loved to hate. Thank you for every single character, whether main, recurring or guest, for every hero and villain, ally and enemy, everyone who contributed to making Agents of SHIELD what it was.
To my favorite cast, especially my OGs Clark, Ming, Chloe, Lil and Iain, who brought these characters to life and blessed us with their talent every week, and to everyone who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make the best show possible: you guys absolutely rock. I wish all of you the best of luck and many, many more successful projects in the future.
Goodbye, my favorite team. I’ll miss you like hell.
If you’re still reading this, thank you for sticking by me while I went through 5 stages of grief in roughly 1,200 words. I feel like I need to stare at the ceiling for a while until the void that this show left inside of me feels a little less cold and overwhelming.
Sorry Angelina, you're in the past now.
Alicia Vikander is phenomenal in this movie, and I appreciate the italian version of the movie for not dubbing her "screams" and "moans" because they are fantastic and add to an already adrenaline pumping movie.
The movie is the same as the first reboot game on the "next" gen, personally I did not play it, but I did play the second one and if they are going to make the next movie the same as the game, it's gonna be even greater!
This cinematic reboot is a rollercoaster. Lara's ability to come out of situation is always a bittersweet taste of disbelief that makes you love it even more. But, in this movie they took a nice step back to her and so we get to see a more inexperienced Lara. Because of this, every failed step doesn't look... "fake" as it did (in my opinion) with the original Jolie movies where she was a badass from starters, feared and known by everyone and still went on about and made stupid mistakes which didn't make sense really.
I gotta say that if you let yourself be immersed, the suspense in some of the scenes is thick and palpable. The line between mythos and reality is thin, but it develops perfectly near the end without resulting boring or monotonous.
Regarding every other aspect of cinematography: I have to say, some of the CGI felt a bit cheap, but usually is surmounted by the amount of action the movie delivers, sound editing and engineering was on point, note that there aren't really big, romatic or thought-provoking photografical shots, but it's to be expected in an action movie.
Alicia Vikander is perfect for the role. I absolutely loved her for the entire runtime and she honestly kept my interest up entirely on her own.
I don't know if Square Enix is to be thanked for the level of quality and "textuality" of who Lara Croft is and what Tomb Raider is about, but I think it's a safe bet and I hope it stays this way.
Please if you have the choice, watch the movie in english, it might sound creepy or weird, but Alicia's screams are fuckin fire in this movie, it gives depth and dignity to the struggle of a character that is supposed to be strong.
Can’t help but feel this was a little bit of a dud of an ending? Not sure, going to have to reflect on this for a little while, but immediately feels like a 6/10 ending for what was overall an 8/10 show.
Edit: Having read the book ending, yeah, I'm a little let down by this one. The book basically throws in another murder that Jacob is suspiciously close to after Hope winds up dead and Laurie finds a red stain on Jacobs bathing suit. This pushes Laurie over the edge with guilt as she is now totally convinced Jacob did it, resulting in her killing him with the car crash. I feel this is much more compelling ending as it adds a pattern of similar circumstances around Jacob, but still doesn't confirm he is the killer. and further drives home some of the central points of the show. The grey area between right and wrong, the decision between what is right ethically, and what is right for the family, and how hard it is to straddle that line for the people involved. How a parent copes with loving someone that they are convinced did a horrific act. It keeps the same ambiguity of the show ending while adding the finality of Jacobs death, meaning we may never know the truth.
Although it feels like I've bemoaned the entire ending here, I still really enjoyed the show, and would probably give the whole show about an 8/10 if pressed for a score. Would have just been great for them to have gone through with the book ending as it's a little darker and much more in-keeping with the shows tone and presentation.
Where do I even start? First of all, congrats to Elizabeth Henstridge on directing the best episode of a spectacular season (and one of the best episodes of the show)! I love it when actors get to branch out on their shows and try new things. She did a terrific job.
This episode was all around perfect. It was a total nail-biter, you could really feel the urgency of trying to find the solution the whole way through, but there was also plenty of humor (Coulson explaining everything to Daisy, Daisy and Jemma's made-up word bit, Enoch repeatedly kicking everyone's ass) and good old-fashioned Feelz with a capital F. I'm glad it was a Daisy-centric episode as she didn't appear at all in episode 7 and only had a couple scenes last week. Chloe Bennet was fantastic. She had to carry this entire episode on her shoulders (the runtime was 42 minutes and she was literally on screen for like 40 of them, I can't imagine how many hours of filming that translates to) and she made it look easy. You can really see how much she's grown as an actress since season 1. She's always had talent and charisma, but over the years she's had the chance to polish those raw qualities and she's really become one of the best actors on the show.
I'm very sad to see Enoch go. He's been with us for a while now and I've grown attached to him. But at least he wasn't alone and he sacrificed himself for his friends. And his death scene was SO beautiful and moving. Did he foreshadow the season finale when he said the team would fall apart? That's definitely something I could see them doing, leaving SHIELD just to finally have a life.
Man, Chloe and Enver have brilliant chemistry together. Daisy taking an entire loop just to have a conversation with him and then going in for that kiss was lovely. It's a shame he won't remember any of it. And I guess he's gonna die now, just like every single one of Daisy's love interests. Although I don't think they would kill an important character two weeks in a row, Enver is still only listed on IMDb through episode 10, so I guess we'll see what happens next week. I would really like to see them end up together though.
11/10 overall. I'm so glad this final season is so good. Imagine if it had turned out to be as meh as season 6. That would've been a huge bummer. This is the send-off that my team deserves.
Only three spots left on this list, here we go!
5x14 "The Devil Complex"
Just like Elizabeth got her chance to really shine back in season 3's bottle episode, this was Iain's tour de force. That episode really stabbed me right in the heart when that twist was revealed. That was the episode Fitz became a morally ambiguous character for me. I understood the reasoning behind everything he did, but hurting Daisy the way he did made me feel kind of :grimacing: about him (and yes that emoji encapsulates my feelings better than any words could because that's the exact face I make when I think about him in that episode). I still don't like the fact that the writers just straight-up killed him at the end of the season instead of actually making an effort to fix things between him and Daisy. It felt like such a cop-out. But this episode was amazing and intense and I loved it but also kind of hated it? You get it. Either way, Iain was on fire and the writing was brilliant.
Oh, it's so good to finally know what happened to Fitz. And I squealed with joy when I saw Hunter again. It's been so long! I've missed my dumb English son. It's absolutely hilarious to me that Fitz managed to communicate with him by insulting his favorite soccer team in a magazine. I guess it's canon that at some point in the past they decided it would be their emergency line of communication. It's so British. I'm a little disappointed Bobbi wasn't there as well, but I guess Adrianne is too busy these days working on The Orville. Good for her, she deserves it. I still miss Agent Morse though.
I'm not saying Fitz telling those military guys "They were abducted by aliens" should become a meme, but... oh wait, that's exactly what I'm saying.
I feel so bad for Polly. First she lost her husband because of his Terrigenesis, now her daughter is practically out of her reach as well. Also, I can't believe that they brought this seemingly random family from season 3 for this episode.
Enoch observing humanity for 30,000 years kind of reminds me of those creepy bald dudes on Fringe.
So if I understand correctly, Lance and Bobbi spent the rest of their lives knowing the world was going to end. Did they survive it? Did they die in the Lighthouse? Thinking about it breaks my heart.
That little Han/Leia moment with Fitz and Hunter made me cackle and warmed my heart at the same time. This is such an underappreciated brOTP.
I can't wait for the next episode. It's a shame that we have to wait two weeks for it. Oh well. Happy Holidays, I guess?
My god... Does Ava DuVernay know that you can actually zoom out a camera? I've never seen so many "closeup" face shots in a single movie in my entire life. I'll never be able to get Oprah's giant-sized face out of my mind...
As for the movie itself, It's a bit all over the place. Some parts and themes are very well-done, such as Meg's journey to accept herself, while others are really half-baked (especially the relationships between Meg & Charles Wallace, Meg & Calvin, etc). Too many things just get thrown together or just suddenly happen by sheer "coincidence" without a solid lead-in or development. This could have definitely used some additional scenes and runtime to flesh characters and their relationships between each other out a bit more. Reese Witherspoon's character is actually my favorite of the 3 "Mrs."'s. Oprah and Mindy Kaling's characters definitely did not hit home.
Visuals were pretty stunning for the most part, but sometimes went a bit too overboard. Don't even get me started again on the cinematography and editing... This movie definitely had potential and I was excited to watch it, but it just misses out on some major points. It was enjoyable overall for the visual fest and seeing the world of A Wrinkle in Time, but other than that it is just an average film. I'd temper my expectations for sure. 5/10 as it is just an average movie...
Apparently this is just the third $100+ million budget movie directed by a woman. I'm not sure that Ava DuVernay's movie is going to help buck that trend...
