New OK MCU Media Diary Part 2: Playing the Endgame

//Just this start of my deep dive into the Avengers: Endgame ended up being over two A4's long so I decided to release this as it's own thing. This is me watching the film, without going too much into the details. But there are SPOILERS//

I don’t think I ever was this excited for a film. I mean sure just a year before I was extremely excited for Avengers: Infinity War (2018) but after that ended with such a powerful cliffhanger it definitely lifted the hype for a sequel. How could Marvel Studios ever top such an amazing action adventure that represented 10 years of their film making?

I don’t often do plans ahead because commitment gives me anxiety. For the first time ever I bought a movie ticket the minute they became available. I wanted to see the new film as soon as possible. It was crazy, I was disappointed to notice later Finnkino adding more screenings for the premiere day. One of which was earlier than the one I had my ticket for. I seriously considered buying another ticket for that earlier screening. I didn’t, but it tells you how much I wanted to see this film.

Despite hating being in a crowd I chose a pretty nice people from a screening that would soon be almost filled. When waiting for the film I was anxious about million things. What if I get anxiety attack middle of the crowd? What if I get some stomache issues and have to go out? Can I survive without peeing for a film that is over 3 hours long? All these thoughts bother me all the time and especially as I was about to see the most important film ever.

I finally got to my seat maybe a minute before commercials started playing. I enjoyed the atmosphere in the theater. Especially the kids who were speculating, laughing for theories of Ant-Man in Thanos’ anus. Many were wearing Marvel related clothes (I was representing daddy Captain America). As the commercials kept going I was still nervous. I was getting anxious, wishing that it wouldn’t get unbearable.

The film begins. Everybody gets silent. I forgot all of my anxiety. I’m watching a new Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film. I laugh with the audience. I tear up time and again. I’m enjoying myself. I applaud first time in my life in a movie theater with the audience just as invested as I am. I cry with people. I feel the energy of maybe 200 other fans in the room.

Avengers: Endgame (2019) is everything I needed it to be. It’s everything I wanted it to be and so much more. It is bigger than Infinity War. Avengers: Endgame is a true celebration of 11 years of the MCU. The bigger fan you are the more it rewards you for it. It made me go through the emotions from full laugher, to devastating sadness to the child-like excitement of awesome action. 

I don’t know if I ever have the exact words to describe my experience, but I try my best. I will touch on possible flaws too, but above anything else this is my love letter to the film. For me Avengers: Endgame is perfect.

3 hours and 2 minutes of Avenging

Three hours is ridiculous length for a film. For most film ideal is around 1h 40 min to 2h 20 min in my personal experience. Depending on how it’s paced and what kind of scenes it’s filled with. But Avengers: Endgame justifies it’s runtime. I’ve seen it twice as I write this and honestly both times the time just flew.

It’s an incredible achievement really. It speaks to my love for these characters that I’m happy to sit there and just listen and watch what’s going on with them. Because Avengers: Endgame takes it’s time with them. After a quick beginning of action the film calms down and slows down for a while. It shows us what is going on with all the characters and how the recent events they experienced have affected them. Reviews I’ve seen have also pointed it out how in this film, perhaps more than ever, these superheroes are allowed to feel more human than ever.

Then when it’s time to get into the action, it truly feels deserved. We feel the stakes when the original six Avengers and few others are finally back together again and ready for their new journey. And what a glorious journey it is. The time travel offers the film a chance to visit the previous installments of the MCU. It makes the previous films all feel important, telling me that I didn’t keep rewatching them again and again for nothing. All the past films seem more important now.

As the characters visit the history of the franchise I get new perspectives to the old films. There are hilarious jokes told and more is learned of the characters. And there are a lot of surprise returns. And also a big, big heartbreaking lost that I honestly did not see coming. Definitely well told and story-wise deserved character death that definitely made me cry. Or tear up. Honestly I’m going to call it crying because that is what I was feeling.

After the amazing “time heist”, as the characters call it, it’s time for the final showdown. And I say wow. It might be all cg and green screen or whatever, I don’t give a fuck. That is the most glorious battle of the cinema history (is it better than for example the airport scene of Captain America: Civil War? Maybe not in all ways, but definitely more emotional). It’s a war against the forces of evil that sees all the heroes (still alive) from 21 previous films combining their forces to get the job done.

Battle is full of iconic moments that made me want to scream out of pure joy. Action film fan in me was happy. Marvel Comics fan in me was happy. Fan of MCU in me was happy. Moment after moment all the characters get their chance to shine. After the film I just wanted to say all the people “your favorite character is a badass” because it truly felt like every character was a star.

And then the battle ends with cinema world’s biggest superhero taking down the villain who killed half of the population of the universe. And that superhero dies for it. I heard so many people crying with me as we were saying goodbye to a friend whose adventures we had followed for so long time. But while it was sad, it was also happy. For just like with the previous character death, this too was deserved by 11 years of cinematic storytelling.

As the film wrapped up, more or less all the characters got some kind of closure. And the last scene had my favorite character getting the happy ending he always deserved. As the credits begun to roll I was incredibly satisfied. 

I sat there watching the names of the actors who brought alive these dear characters of mine. Every single one of them a huge star who could easily carry their own films. Then the six original Avengers get their names shown with their signatures as the Avengers theme tune plays loudly respecting the work these six did for us. It was an amazing experience. 

As the second part of the credits started rolling, I just sat there thinking about the experience I had. It truly was the definitive ending Marvel Studios president and producer of all their films, Kevin Feige had promised. World truly was different after the Endgame.

There was no after credit-scene. Just the beautiful red and white Marvel Studios logo with a sound of an engineer hammering a suit of armor.

Love and respect each other.

- O.K.

New OK MCU Media Diary Part 1: OK Assemble

//So I was thinking of repurposing this old course blog of mine in order to write about Avengers: Endgame. However just the first part ended up this long so consider this a sort of a prologue to the actual post. I will later ad a post about Avengers: Endgame and then sort of a look into the future of MCU. Feel free not to comment on any of my old posts, especially the "homework" ones as I'm not super sure about their quality...

More thoughts about MCU Phase 2 and 3 films can be found at my instagram (at)okspamslife //

Phase One

I actually took a pee break when I first saw Iron Man (2008) in the cinemas. One of the only two times in my life I had to take break from a film I was watching in cinemas (the second happened quite recently with Capernaum). When I first saw Iron Man I didn’t yet know how big of a deal it really was. It was an awesome superhero film for sure, but I wasn’t jumping on to the comics and I didn’t know to stay for the end-credits.

Two years later I saw Iron Man 2 (2010) and thought it was as awesome as the first one. This time I was with friends who were more aware of what was going on with Marvel Studios so we stayed for the end-credit scene. “What the fuck was up with the hammer?” My friends informed me that there was a plan to do a team-up film about a superhero group called The Avengers. Films about Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Captain America would lead to it. That sounded way too much for me. A fucking Thor? Superhero based on an old viking god? Sounded like homework for a film. Overwhelming.

In 2011 me and my friend had both just finished our summer jobs and were able to go see more films than ever before. And 2011 was surprisingly full of superhero films. As we were watching films like Green Lantern and X-Men: First Class this trailer kept popping up. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)look amazing to my eyes. While the “America” part in the name is immediate turn off to many, brightly colored costume and World War II aesthetics of the trailer made me look past that. This film looked really fun.

I remembered how turned off I initially was about the thought of watching films for homework but trailer had me. I looked into it and Thor (2011) still had some screenings left in Helsinki. I forgot my ridiculous prejudice against these ridiculously fun ideas and rushed into a late evening screening of the film. With so little expectations I ended up really loving the film. How could such a mix work so well?

Later me and my friend saw The First Avenger as planned and as the end-credit scene it had a literal teaser trailer for The Avengers (2012). Had I ever been as hyped for a movie? Maybe with The Return of the King or Revenge of the Sith but that year of waiting was certainly new.

I did my research and found out that I had missed one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films, The Incredible Hulk (2011). I watched it as it was part of the series and certainly took notice of how different it was to other films. I still think people should give it another shot as it really stands out among other Phase One (MCU films from Iron Man to The Avengers, 2008-2012) films.

I also forced my sibling to watch all the films with me and got them excited as well. I remember that we ended our marathon a night before The Avengers premiere and I went to bed wonder how the hell could I get any sleep. It’s weird because I have such a strong image of us the next day literally running through the streets of Arabianranta. And we were 19 and 18 so you know that we didn’t. But that is what these films do to you. They speak to that child in your heart that never left and never should. That is kind of why I happily still call these films for children.

The Avengers obviously blew my mind. All these weird characters from their own different adventures came together and fought the good fight together. And it was beautiful. And in the mid-credit scene this weird purple space guy smiled at us promising that these heroes would need to do it all over again. I was ready for the ride of a lifetime.

Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 1

Phase Two

Through the next years I got deeper and deeper into the world of Marvel. Thanks to my sibling I got introduced to the Marvel Comics and fell in love with the colorful superheroes even more. Comics provided all kinds of possibilities where films could take these characters and what kind of characters could be introduced into the mix. Marvel Studios announced their slate for the Phase Two, that would run from 2013 to 2015, consisting of six films.

Iron Man 3 (2013) showed me big time superhero dealing with anxiety attacks as I was starting to deal with my own anxiety issues at the very first time as I had just moved to Raahe. It also showed me how bitchy comics fans can be if they don’t get what they want (The Mandarin Twist). Thor: The Dark World (2013) showed me how annoying it is to live in a little town as for the first time I had to travel to another city to see it.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) was the first time since The Incredible Hulk that I completely missed MCU film in the cinemas. I was doing my internship in Basque Country and only option there was the Spanish dub of the film. Later that year I made my record of seeing a film five times in theaters with Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) which blew my mind as Marvel Studios showed they really can get away with anything (as long as the lead was a white man like wtf?)

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) was the first time I noticed that maybe not everyone shares this unconditional love for this franchise as I do. This was a big disappointment as I kind of do love sharing this with other people. But! Later that year, as Marvel Studios showed they can handle a change of director month before production with Ant-Man (2015), I took my little brother to see the film with me. At the same time I was also dealing with lot of uncertainty as I had just graduated and didn’t get into any universities (I ended up staying in Raahe for another vocational degree.)

Captain America: Civil War (2016) welcomed my favorite comic book character (at least at the time, currently I’m not sure which is my favorite) Spider-Man to the MCU. And he was done right. Funny enough I almost missed Civil War too like I did The Winter Soldier because of exchange. Luckily we left week after the premiere this time.

Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 2

Phase Three

Later Doctor Strange (2016) showed me that Marvel Studios can have the most amazing films but at the same time make very regrettable decisions as they had a huge whitewashing controversy with the character of The Ancient One. Of course Age of Ultron had similar problem but controversy never was big enough to actually be heard outside of Tumblr with that one. In the long run it did make me more critical of the things I love and also taught me that things don’t have to be perfect for me to love them.

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 (2017) made me probably even stronger impact than the first at least retrospectively as I still might get teary eyed as I think of the crying raccoon or the song Father and Son.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) I saw in all three screenings Raahe had to offer. Maybe more than any other of these films I felt like “my character” had been done right as I enjoyed this superhero film set in high-school.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017) blew my mind with it’s combination of silly humor and ballsy politics I didn’t even realize were there on the first viewing.

Black Panther (2018) I got to follow as it became a global phenomenon. The power of representation was celebrated while superhero genre kept proving it’s potential and diversity. It made me invested in the Academy Awards unnecessarily hard like people do with sports. I mean WHAT THE FUCK? FUCKING GREEN BOOK? Green Book has a scene of white man teaching black man to eat fried chicken.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018) was gigantic mega event that was felt around the world. Hype and wait for it was unlike for any other film. It became a huge presentation of the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was ballsy and left people completely silent when the credit started rolling. Could this ever be topped (SPOILER, it did. It’s called Avengers: Endgame)

In summer of 2018 I was dealing again with a lot of uncertainty and anxiety in life. I had graduated from my second vocational studies and I was on a reserve place for a university in Tampere. Waiting to know if I’d get in (Spoiler: I did get in). Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) was a smaller superhero comedy after magnificent Infinity War but for me in my weakened state it became a much needed escape from reality. I truly love it.

Finally March of this year, Marvel Studios released it’s first film with a solo female lead Captain Marvel (2019). Like many other films it was a nice escape from hard first year of university. It also reminded me of the toxicity of some comic book fans, who can’t handle the fact that films are made for some other people in mind as well as them. Captain Marvel was the first MCU film I saw in Tampere, and as it’s much easier here, I saw it three times.

Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 3 (sans Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home)

Highlights

For fun, I figured I highlight a one scene from every film. Just what comes to mind first when I think of them or what really defines the film for me. Or just was funny. Let's not take this too seriously XD
Obviously SPOILERS for the films.

Iron Man: Final line: "I am Iron Man."
The Incredible Hulk: Emil Blonsky juiced with super soldier serum trying to take on the Hulk at the university.
Iron Man 2: Iron Man and War Machine fighting back to back.
Thor: Thor getting his hammer, Mjölnir, back after getting hit by the Destroyer
Captain America: The First Avenger: "I don't want to kill anybody. I just don't like bullies" or basically every scene between Steve Rogers and Doctor Abraham Erskine.
The Avengers: That iconic shot of The Avengers in a circle or the whole Battle of New York.
Iron Man 3: Iron Man saving all the people who dropped from the plain, despite having only strenght to carry four.
Thor: The Dark World: Frigga's death and funeral.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Captain America and Winter Soldier fighting in the helicarrier "To the end of the line"
Guardians of the Galaxy: Groot (Sr.) sacrificing himself, "We are Groot"
Avengers: Age of Ultron: "Like the old man said... together", Avengers coming together to fight Ultron.
Ant-Man: Ant-Man vs. Falcon
Captain America: Civil War: Airport battle scene
Doctor Strange: "It's not about you", Ancient One's final words to Doctor Strange
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2: Yondu's death and funeral
Spider-Man: Homecoming: "Come on Spider-Man!", the scene of Spider-Man getting up under the collapsed builing
Thor: Ragnarok: Thor going full God of Thunder as he starts to take on Hela's forces on the rainbow bridge
Black Panther: "Bury me to ocean like my ancestors who knew death was better than life in bondage", Killmonger's final words.
Avengers: Infinity War: Spider-Man dying in Tony Stark's arms.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Bill Foster staying with Ghost in the end.
Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers shooting Yon-Rogg in the face at the end.

All of this has lead to Avengers: Endgame (2019.) I’m writing this four nights after the premiere and I’ve already seen it twice. My next post will be a deep dive into what I think of the films, all the things I loved about it. And I love all of it. I will touch on at least one major flaw too, but mostly it’s about love.

Love and respect each other

- OK