Movie Review- Avengers: Endgame

On July 1, 2019July 1, 2019 By Elisha McFarlandIn Blog Posts5 Comments

I’ve wanted to do this for a while, but only received the chance after watching Avengers: Endgame for a second time. Alright, here’s how I’m going to do this. I will do this in imitation of the Christian movie rating website PluggedIn. I will go through all of the negative content, discuss the positive content, then give the movie a final rating. Alright, let’s do this!

Also- WARNING! Spoilers ahead! (I’m getting tired of typing that sentence, but I don’t have a choice)

Movie Review

Taking a loss is one of the most difficult experiences one can possibly suffer through. The Avengers, after suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of Thanos and his Black Order, attempt to restore peace and order to Earth, which reals in the shock of losing 50% of all living things. Loki, Heimdall, Gammora, Vision, T’Challa, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, Scarlet Witch, Drax, Star-Lord, Groot, Mantis, Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Hope and Hank Pym, Janet Van Dyne, and Shuri all perished in Avengers: Infinity War. The few Avengers that remain attempt to keep Earth intact, but after the quick, unexpected death of Thanos, the Avengers are left with one question: How can we fix this? Without Infinity Stones, how can they even hope to bring back their fallen companions? The answer, found in the theories of Scott Lang and the intellect of Tony Stark, plunges viewers into a difficult journey of redemption and hope.

Negative Content

Sexual Content: 2/10. A few couples kiss. Scarlet Witch wears her regular low-cut top. A few jokes are made about Captain America’s rear end.

Violent Content: 7/10. After Avengers: Infinity War, the violence in Endgame seems to be far more muted. Yes, there is the final battle, but most of the movie is quite mild. People are stabbed, cut, decapitated, squished, blown up, and more. It’s rated PG-13 for a reason.

Alcoholic Content: 3/10. Thor is essentially drunk for about half the movie. We seem him drink quite a few beers, proving how far he’s fallen in the five years after Thanos’ snap.

Positive Content

Heroism and Bravery. These themes exist throughout the entire movie, showing just how far humans can go in the pursuit of freedom and righteousness. Just as Christ, our hero, showed bravery in dying for us, so also do the Avengers attempt to bravely right the wrongs set by Thanos. A noble cause indeed.

Final Words

“But if you’ve already invested in this cinematic saga—if you laughed through Thor: Ragnarok and cried through Infinity War and occasionally shouted “Wakanda forever!” be assured that Endgame is eminently satisfying. This finale reminds us of movies gone by, celebrating the heroes we’ve come to know and giving them, I think, a fitting coda. And the heroes here are heroic—sometimes displaying qualities that perhaps we could all stand to embody more: courage. Sacrifice. Humility. Redemption.” —Paul Asay, Plugged In.

Avengers: Endgame was, in my own opinion, the greatest Marvel movie to date. Nothing, not even Black Panther, comes close to the well thought out plot demonstrated in Endgame. I raise my fingers in a salute to a masterpiece worthy of its status as the best Marvel movie of all time.

Once again, thanks for taking the time to read this post. It means a lot to me!

Avengers Theory: Loki’s Death

On June 26, 2019June 26, 2019 By Elisha McFarlandIn Blog Posts7 Comments

Hey guys! Welcome back to another episode of the Avengers Theories. As always, this post will contain spoilers, so read at your own risk!

This theory talks about Loki’s death, and I must say: I wholeheartedly agree with it. Here is the link to the theory itself, and my quote from it is in italics.

In the film, some of the Avengers travel back in time, stealing the Tesseract from Marvel’s The Avengers. The Infinity Stone is dropped and picked up by Loki — who at that point had already been defeated by the Avengers and was in custody. He uses it to teleport away.

From that point on, it is not exactly clear what happened. In-story, it is explained that removing an Infinity Stone from a universe will cause irreparable harm, leaving the universe defenseless against certain kinds of attacks and fundamentally changing reality itself. The desire to avoid creating a tangent reality is a big part of why, at the end of the film, the borrowed stones all have to be returned to the exact moment they were taken. From this perspective, it is likely that Loki created an alternate timeline by absconding with the Stone, and that he may have left the timeline he abandoned in bad shape.

Eman, though, thinks that a character as ancient and clever as Loki would likely see the danger inherent in that, and would have done essentially what the Avengers did: used the stones to accomplish a specific end and then returned them to where he got them. The theory here says that he likely would have used a Naruto-style “shadow clone” of himself to send back with the Tesseract so that he could go on about his life unmolested while everyone believed him to be in custody. In this theory, it would be Loki’s double who appeared to die at the hands of the Dark Elves, and the real Loki who reemerged to take on Odin’s visage and rule Asgard. That gives him five years, from 2013 until 2018, to rule Asgard while having unlimited access to the Tesseract. That alone could serve as a pretty solid jumping-off point for his series.

The theory further holds that Loki would have done the same thing again in the moments before Thanos attacked in Avengers: Infinity War, faking his death to avoid the consequences for failing Thanos. The argument here is bolstered somewhat by Loki’s extremely feeble attempt to attack Thanos in Infinity War; in this case, he wanted people to believe him dead — especially Thanos — and so he might have essentially “thrown the fight.” This would allow him to re-emerge again now that Thanos is gone.

This theory is very simple. During Avengers: Endgame, when Loki picks up the Tesseract during a period he never should have had it, a few people theorized that Loki essentially destroyed the timeline he was in, but in teleporting away, created a new timeline in which he had the Tesseract and was never captured by the Avengers. The author, however, believes that Loki would have foreseen the dire consequences of his actions, and would have returned the stone to the exact point he took it, thus restoring the timeline and destruction he may have caused. He would have sent the Tesseract with one of his clones, which would have pretended to later be in custody while the real Loki still lurked. It also would have been this double to die at the hands of the dark elves in Thor: The Dark World, while the actual Loki would have had five years to rule Asgard in the place of Odin.

This theory also gives birth to another theory, one that I like much more. Loki, upon seeing the Hulk’s defeat in Avengers: Infinity War would have known that Thanos would not allow the Asgardians to live. Because of this, he would have faked his death (for the first actual time in the movies), while the real Loki hitched a ride with an unconscious Hulk, who had been sent back to Earth by Heimdal. This would have explained Loki’s absolutely pitiful attempt on the Titan’s life. Essentially, he threw the fight. Thus, after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Loki would have been free to come out of hiding.

What do you think? Is Loki really dead? Or do you agree with the theory above?

Ranking the Top 10 Marvel Avengers

On May 30, 2019May 30, 2019 By Elisha McFarlandIn Blog Posts7 Comments

Warning! There will be spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk.

While I expect much controversy on this subject, I want to rank what I believe are the top 10 most powerful Avengers. Having seen every single Marvel movie, save for the Incredible Hulk, I know a decent amount on this subject. As such, here are the top 10 most powerful Avengers.

10: Winter Soldier. While not (yet) receiving an individual movie, the one-armed Super Soldier has gone through quite the ordeal, mostly involving fights with four different Avengers. Despite his rough past, Bucky Barnes, aka. the Winter Soldier, has finally become a force for good, as seen during Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. Fighting alongside his best friend, Bucky Barnes and Captain America prove to be quite the duo. Armed with super strength, enhanced speed, reflexes, stamina, and agility, along with semi-immortality and a lifetime spent learning battle tactics and martial arts, Bucky Barnes is a force to be reckoned with. Also, I’m sure that metal arm comes in handy when opening bottles.

9: Black Panther. The king of Wakanda, son of late King T’Chaka, T’Challa finds himself thrust into the role of King after a failed attempt to save his father from a bomb explosion. Reprising the role of the “Black Panther”, T’Challa, with the help of the Heart-Shaped herb, is gifted with enhanced speed, durability, strength, agility, stamina, and reflexes. He is a gifted tactician and martial artist, having trained in these areas for his entire life. Supported by his general, Okoye, and his genius sister Shuri, T’Challa is an extremely powerful man.

8: Iron Man is, in his own words, a “genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist”. It also goes without saying that he is quite humble (sarcasm). Born to super-scientist Howard Stark-developer of Captain American’s shield- Tony was raised in a home of geniuses. After being kidnapped by the “Ten Rings” in Afghanistan, Stark put that genius intellect to good use and created a suit to help him escape. Instead of forgetting about the suit like a normal, sane human being, Stark continued to update and develop the armor, eventually installing upgrades such as Nano-Tech, remote control capabilities, and near invulnerability. As CEO of Stark Industries, Tony Stark is quite possibly the richest man on earth and the main funder for the Avengers. The only reason I ranked him above Black Panther was that Iron Man successfully went toe-to-toe with Captain America, while Black Panther found it difficult to even keep up with the Star-Spangled Avenger.

7: Captain America. My favorite Avenger, for, in the words of Ultron, he is “God’s righteous man”. Born in 1918, Steve Rodgers attempted to enlist in the US Army during World War II, only to find himself rejected because of his lack of physical strength. After meeting Abraham Erksine, Steve found himself the only (at the time) man with a successful Super Soldier Serum administration. The Serum gifted Steve with enhanced intelligence, strength (it is said he was able to bench press 1,000 pounds as a warmup), durability, speed, agility, stamina, reflexes, healing, and senses, as well as insane skills in hand-to-hand combat, and the ability to use almost any weapon, including rifles, swords, spears, Mjolnir, and, of course, his shield. Captain America is a superhero of epic proportions.

6: Vision. An Android with a body made of Vibranium, Vision is nearly invulnerable. His body was created to be the ultimate body for Ultron, although this plan did not work, as the Avengers stole the body, and Tony Stark and Bruce Banner incorporated the remainder of J.A.R.V.I.S’s conscience into the body, thus creating Vision. Vision’s abilities include superhuman strength and durability, as well as density manipulation, flight, energy blasts, synthetic skin, and computer interaction. Vision would be higher on this list if not for his abysmal attempts at fighting during Avengers: Infinity War. Because of the fact that he had to be babysitted like Peter Parker, Vision only ranks 6th.

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5: Scarlet Witch. The girlfriend (and wife, in the comics) of previously mentioned Vision, Scarlet Witch, aka. Wanda Maximoff, is the twin sister of Pietro, or Quicksilver, who did not make this list. Wanda received her powers as the result of H.Y.D.R.A’s experiments on humans using Loki’s scepter. Wanda’s abilities include (but are not limited to) telekinesis, levitation, psionic force generation, telepathy, and mental manipulation. Wanda almost killed Thanos during Avengers: Endgame, breaking his sword and armor. In the original comics, it was actually Scarlet Witch that played the main role in defeating Thanos and restoring the Earth. Because of this, she receives number 5.

4: Pre-Endgame Hulk. Obviously the Hulk from Avengers: Endgame doesn’t even make the “Top 20” list, owing to his general dislike of combat. However, the Pre-Endgame Hulk is quite powerful, proving to be completely invulnerable. Mild-mannered scientist Bruce Banner did not want superpowers, but after being doused by a large amount of Gamma radiation, he found himself in (partial) control of his other personality: the green, muscular beast known as “The Hulk”. He eventually learned to contain his power, calling upon it in times of need. When his superhuman strength, speed, leaping power, and intellect are combined with his penchant for combat, Hulk is easily the most difficult Avenger to kill.

3: Dr. Stephen Strange, the only Avenger to keep his given name, had everything going for him. M.D, Ph.D., accomplished neuro-surgeon, he had almost everything he wanted. When a car accident left his hands crippled, Strange eventually came under the tutelage of the Ancient One, who trained him in the mystic arts. After the death of his teacher, Strange became the “Sorcerer Supreme”, leading his group in the protection of Earth from many outside threats. Strange also helped Thor to find his father, Iron Man to defeat the Black Order, and the Guardians of the Galaxy in an attempt to defeat Thanos on Titan. His abilities include transmutation, atmospheric manipulation, flight, dimensional warping, teleportation, astral projection, conjuration, duplication, and time manipulation. Because of his many powers, Strange receives number 3 on the list.

2: Captain Marvel. Not much is known of the blond-haired, space flying superhero. We have only seen her in two movies, although the first was completely about her (see Captain Marvel: the movie). Captain Carol Danvers was an Air Force pilot until an accident exposed her to the powers of the Tesseract. After having her memories wiped by the Kree, she received an infusion of blood from Yon-Rogg, turning her into a Kree-Human mix. This combination proved to be nearly unstoppable, as Danvers became the Kree’s most valuable weapon. After learning of the Kree’s deception, Davers befriended a young Nick Fury, who was the sole reason for Danvers’ joining the Avengers. Captain Marvel is gifted with superhuman strength, durability, reflexes, speed, agility, flight, speed-healing, longevity, cosmic energy manipulation, and highly honed combat skills. Captain Marvel is an insanely powerful superhero, receiving a well-earned number 2.

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1: Pre-Endgame Thor. “The strongest Avenger”, as he calls himself, is a literal god (lower case G) of thunder. The son of Odin, the All-Father, and Frigga, the Queen of Asgard, as well as the brother to Loki, the god of mischief, Thor is part of a family of gods. Being one of the core three members of the Avengers (Captain America and Iron Man are the other two), Thor is an important member of the group. He is easily the most powerful Avenger, armed with INSANE strength (he was able to rip apart Hela’s berserkers with his bare hands), durability, healing, speed, reflexes, agility, longevity, weather manipulation (including calling down massive blasts of lightning), flight, teleportation, energy projection, armor generation, weapon summoning, and near-resurrection, as well as a mastery in hand-to-hand combat, hammer, sword, spear, and axe mastery, Thor was able to go toe-to-toe with Thanos, nearly killing the Titan in Avengers: Infinity War and actually killing him in Avengers: Endgame. Thor’s powers are not limited to his weapons, however, as he shows in Thor: Ragnarok when he blasts Hulk with lightning after Mjolnir was destroyed. Later armed with Stormbreaker, the indestructible weapon created to combat Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet, Thor becomes an unstoppable force and is quite literally the god of thunder.

Alright, that’s it. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you thoroughly enjoyed this post! As always, if you really like my blog, please be sure to click that “Follow” button on the side of the page. Thank you so much, and have a blessed day!

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