"Avengers: Endgame" (2019)

I've been writing this review in my head for days.  Weeks, actually.

First of all, let's be very clear:  I love this movie.  Love it with a deep, satisfied sort of love that I didn't dare hope for after Infinity War left me so, well, angry.

Maybe you remember how I said in my review of it that my sadness over Infinity War was not the same kind of sadness I feel by the end of Hamlet.  I love Hamlet, obviously, and it's tragic, but it's a tragic that leaves me feeling cleansed, washed clean, and at peace somehow.  Infinity War was not that.

You wanna know something crazy?  Endgame is not sad.  I mean, it has sadness, but it ends on an upbeat note.  But Endgame leaves me feeling a lot like I feel after watching or reading Hamlet.  Calm.  Washed clean.  Peaceful.  Serene, even.  And that's a huge part of why I love it.

I've seen it twice now, and I yearn to see it again -- maybe I can make that happen this weekend somehow.  I need Cowboy to see it, if only so I can talk about it around him.

SPOILERS from here on out.  I'm serious.  Lots of spoilers.

You know what else I love?  How much closure we get.  Totaly, true closure for so many character arcs, so many threads.  I'm a stickler for closure, and that's a lot of why middle movies in trilogies don't often please me -- no closure.  But this?  So much of it.  Thanos is for real gone.  Cap is for real married to Peggy.  Hawkeye is for real reunited with his family.  Thor is for real going off on new adventures and leaving the throne of Asgard to someone who is, if not more worthy, at least more interested.

Okay, so, speaking of Thor, let me just say that maybe now people will FINALLY believe me when I say that I love him not for the fact that Chris Hemsworth is hot but because of who Thor is as a person.  And man, do I love him in this movie.  He's despairing and depressed and hiding from himself, and I love him.  Nothing I love more than a character who genuinely needs help.  My poor darling.  I love that he works through his problems with his mom's help and is back on an upward trajectory by the end.

And I love that Captain American can wield Mjolnir.  Opening day, the crowd cheered there.  I had such a great crowd that first viewing -- so much clapping, cheering, gasping, laughing.  Wonderful.  I went to see it again a week later, and nada.  Boring people.  But anyway, I love that Mjolnir got to be in this again (Thor's "I'm still worthy!" moment is one of my fave Thor moments ever), and that he got to use both it and Stormbreaker together, and that Cap got to use it, and and and and... so cool.

Cap really just... was spectacular in this.  He's been my second-fave Avenger for years now, and I may have mentioned a time or twenty that he and I share an MBTI type, ISFJ.  While I actually identify more with Thor than Cap, I really understand him a lot, and I love that he stepped up and was just... exactly who he needed to be, who he could be.  In fact, the only character arc I was more impressed by was Tony Stark's.

And now here come the tears.  Man.  Maaaaaaaaaaan.  I never would have imagined that I'd love Tony this much.  That I'd be this affected by his loss.  Because I never expected that this is how much he'd grow.  Still the weisenheimer, still the genius, but gentler now.  Matured.  At peace with himself.  Ready to rest.  Wow.

Okay, but back to Cap.  Of all the things that happen in this movie, the absolute biggest surprise for me was that Cap found a way to be with Peggy at last.  I did NOT see that coming.  I could NOT be happier about it.  It was something I never thought they'd try to do, much less make work, and I'll never be able to listen to the song "It's Been a Long, Long Time" without tearing up again.  I mean, that song always made me kind of misty as it is, but now?  Find me a mop.

So many things I love in this movie.  That Sam gets to be Captain America now.  That Bruce found a way to make peace with the Other Guy.  That Black Widow wiped all that red out of her ledger.  That we get Gamorra back, but only sorta.  That Loki is now maybe not dead or something?  That Thor and Tony got to interact with their lost parents one last time.  That Happy is there for Morgan.  That we got that random cool shot of all the Marvel Superheroines together.  Just... so much perfection in this movie.  So much of it.

Okay, okay.  I think I'm done.  For now.  If I manage to see it again this weekend, I might have more thoughts, but basically... yay.  Yay, yay, yay.

And also whew.

(Look how severely sad he is!  Want to hug!)