Avengers: Endgame 2019
The Russo brothers' three-hour, two-minute cap to the Infinity Saga, which Sean and Mallory caught at a Tuesday-morning Disney screening in Burbank. They both liked it and both rate it below Infinity War, which Sean frames as the series' 'Empire Strikes Back.' Most of the discussion circles the time-travel 'time heist': the rule that your past can't change your present, the tree-of-timelines chalk talk between Bruce Banner and the Ancient One, and the six-stone heist that revisits The Avengers (2012), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Thor: The Dark World, Vormir, and a 1970 stop for Peggy Carter, Howard Stark and more Pym particles. Set pieces they single out: Black Widow's balletic sacrifice on Vormir (Sean was sure Hawkeye would die), Cap wielding Mjolnir against Thanos, the portals-open 'splash page' assemble, and Tony Stark's death. Recurring complaint: the film 'rules' in moments and baffles in others (Cap left worthy but not in Age of Ultron; how Hulk and Iron Man can snap with intent where Thanos couldn't; the aged-out Steve Rogers timeline). Fat Thor, Paul Rudd's Ant-Man, Bradley Cooper's Rocket, Nebula as the plot's hinge, and a hammer-forging sound in place of a post-credits stinger.
