How lucky are we? I got to be alive at the same time as Avengers Endgame and Harry Potter. I was reading some articles on why Endgame is the best movie of all time, and honestly, it made me realize how lucky I am to have been old enough to live through the release of Endgame. Endgame and the MCU is to my generation what Star Wars was to my parents' generation. I particularly admire what the MCU did with those movies because it is a feat of writing and storytelling. It's "a once in a lifetime accomplishment". You can watch all 23 as stand-alone films, because they work that way, or you can do a marathon and see the interconnectivity of it all as well. It works that way too. And I've done both. I have to say, I think I prefer watching them stand-alone, irregardless of the little nitty gritty easter eggs from other movies. Granted, Endgame basically asks the audience to watch 2012 Avengers, Thor:The Dark World, Age of Ultron and Guardians Of The Galaxy, but it still works really freaking impressively as a standalone film because it has its own plot. It's a series finale, but unlike a TV show series, you could watch Endgame by itself and still understand what's happening thanks to its incredible yet classic 3-act structure. In the first act, we see the snap itself again and Black Widow exposits what happened. Then we get the Avengers assembling, the Time Heist, the battle in 3 clean-and-clear-cut acts. All credit to Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus, those geniuses. I know, I know, maybe a superhero flick "isn't that deep" or whatever, but I think Endgame is a groundbreaker in visual effects and storytelling.
I don't think even Star Wars did that with Return of the Jedi. To fully understand that movie, you'd have to watch the other two to get the whole plot and backstory between Luke and Anakin/Vader, dark and light sides of the force, Leia and Luke. Return of the King is another legendary, epic finale movie. Buuuut it's also necessary to watch The Two Towers and Fellowship to fully get it, since it's about Aragorn's arc. And LOTR is about the journey to Mt. Doom., so it would be discounting Frodo and Sam's journey to not watch all 3 of them. I tried to watch all the Marvel movies because I thought I had to "fully get" Endgame, but what's so wrong with taking it at face value? I mean, really. I am a Marvel fan, so I know the moment exists where Steve basically lifts Mjolnir but actually refuses to for the sake of Thor's pride. Yes, that's where I am in that debate. Steve could always lift the hammer. He just didn't at that moment. But I saw Endgame twice before I watched any of the other MCU movies, and it works super, super well as a stand alone film! If you just take it at face value-(Time travel! Infinity stones! Cap lifting Mjolnir! Quantum realm! Purple bad guy! The portals scene!)-it's still amazing. I bought it on Youtube just so I could watch it any time I want. It won an Oscar Nomination for Visual Effects. If there was an Oscar for Best Film of the Decade, Endgame wins it in my book.
If you don't believe it's "the Star Wars of the 21st century", with the same caliber of cultural phenomenon and fame, you would be wrong. Here's why:
Let me take you back to the week of April 26, 2019. I was in my english class. I was a quiet kid, but everyone else was freaking the f*ck out. It was the week when Endgame was released in Chico, and for the sake of story, I'll say it was the 27th or 28th. I remember students in my class yelling at each other about Endgame and how amazing it was. Like, it was loud and people were yelling things like "No spoilers! NO SPOILERS!" while others who'd already seen it gushed over it. I think someone tried to stand up and ask the class what we all thought of Cap lifting Mjolnir or something like that. The atmosphere in that room was frenetic, excited, enthusiastic. All because of a movie. Endgame was one of the best movies of my generation where people actually got excited about it. Where ticket sales sites crashed. Where it just broke all the records. I've seen many headlines saying it's "The biggest movie of all time", with the biggest domestic opening weekend of all time, beating James Cameron's Avatar. But since its release, new movies have come out and Endgame's record was beat by Rise of Skywalker. Endgame was the movie that took over society for a while. It was all anyone talked about. It was amazing to see something like that. If I had had the chance, I would have gone opening weekend for dang sure. Ever since I watched that movie, I wanted to watch it over and over again because it's just that good. It's a classic. Like how my family and I marathoned Star Wars, someday I would show my kids The Infinity Saga. But as it stands now, I'm a Marvelite.
I want to touch on Harry Potter, particularly Deathly Hallows Part 2 (hereafter written as 7.2). I grew up with HP. It's why I love writing and movies. I have all the books, random quotes from really obscure, non-iconic scenes pop into my head sometimes, and I read a huge book on the filmmaking of Harry Potter. JK Rowling inspired be to be a writer (disclaimer: I know she's transphobic and I don't like her for it, I just like the fact that she wrote 7 awesome books that turned into 8 awesome movies.) Love the story, don't like the author. But my point is that I remember when 7.2 came out as well. There's a Tumblr post out there with a picture of this HP billboard. The caption on said post is: "When you know exactly what movie it is without the title." I couldn't find the actual post. HP 7.2 was the first major-release movie I remember seeing. I remember that feeling of being swept away like I was on that Gringotts roller coaster ride. I think I saw it more than once, even. If you look up "potterheads", you're likely to find pictures of people dressed up in our House uniforms (and I still don't have one!), in glasses and fake forehead scars, posing with new books or at Universal's Hogsmeade/Hogwarts site. I feel insanely lucky to have been a part of that. It brought me to some of my closest friends, it inspired my love of words, and I grew up with Harry like scores of other kids did. When I went to Universal Studios, I actually hyperventilated in the car because I was so excited to see Hogwarts! And it was so fun!
I'm a sucker for movies with epic heros and villains, big speeches like Aragorn's "It is not this this day!" speech (or just "Avengers! assemble") and there's something about the original Star Wars, Endgame, and Harry Potter that is just so classic, so loved by society that I can't put my finger on it. But even though Endgame had its record-shattering 15 minutes of box office fame, it still lives on as an epic for my generation.
"When you know exactly what movie it is without the title."
"Avengers! Assemble."
"Use the force, Luke."
"It's like the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end....because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that meant something, even if you were to small to understand why. But I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. There's some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for."
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