Rewards for the Faithful

Rating: 10/10 (18 May 2019)

I have scrolled through the reviews for this movie and been gently and mildly amused at how opinions about this film yo-yo much the same as this cinematic presentation. I could detail a whole laundry list of things I enjoyed about this movie, but I have observed that other reviewers have done this extensively and so I want to concentrate on personal impressions at this time. Later on, we can talk about scientific howlers concerning Time Travel and relativistic physics and quantum mechanics.
First of all, I am a member of the group who grew up with and lived through the Marvel Age of Comics. I fully understand and remember vividly how this all started and now where it has finally arrived. I understand with absolute clarity and certainty how Darth Vader is actually an extrapolation of Doctor Doom and in the end a recapitulation of his origin story. This being true no matter what George Lucas says about the benefits he derived from his mentor Joe Campbell, which is also evidently beyond dispute.
I remember idly considering while collecting DC comics how I wished there was a style of comic book writing and illustration that was more dramatic, structured around greater conflict and a bit more virile and witty. That was when I discovered Marvel Comics. I felt like life was giving me what I was dreaming about. Following the chronology and evolution of the Marvel Experience has simply affirmed and strengthened my conviction that what you imagine can actually come true.
AVENGERS: ENDGAME is everything a bunch of scrappy ghetto kids cracked wise about and exulted over between games of lob baseball. This while hearing some neighborhood child from across the street tell us that our mother just said we should come home now that it was getting dark. We who started out with this experience are simply amazed and delighted with how far and wide this phenomena has expanded. We remember the cheesy fan buttons and the little red vinyl records for the Merry Marvel Marching Society and Stan's Soapbox. I remember how, reading about Doctor Strange and his redemption from his own arrogance, as well as Prince Namor: The Submariner finding his way back to his long lost Kingdom, helped fuel and catalyze my own desire to be a writer. I also remember the Pandora's Box I opened up when I first assayed to learn How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way. Through it all, Stan Lee kept promoting and building with others what is now a vast public relations machine and went on to the Great Beyond having conferred to us a profound legacy in Literature and Art along with Jack Kirby and an immense cadre of other artists and writers.
I finally can say this while now in my advanced age; being willing to admit after taking Ann Wilkinson's class in Child Literature at Wayne State University that almost any good children's book is usually superior in thematic content to your average comic book. The fact that I can now say this without anyone having to wrestle me to the floor, strikes me as a major turning point in my own maturation.
I watched AVENGERS: ENDGAME and felt a significant chapter of my life coming successfully to a close. The baroque ranging in Time and Space between screams and witty asides was everything I dreamed the Marvel experience could be in my youth and then some. Even the speculation of Captain America about what life would be like simply married to Sharon Carter as an ordinary Joe seemed oddly fitting in this wacky universe where anything can happen and you can hear the Mighty Thor burping over his beer belly from too much ale.
I also found myself reflecting on Rob Bryanton and his ideas in IMAGINING THE TENTH DIMENSION: A NEW WAY OF THINKING ABOUT TIME AND SPACE as I was watching this movie. This is the spirit of the best of Juvenile Science Fiction. That it lightly touches on ideas and themes that can be explored more deeply later in a salutary way and lead to greater growth and development.
When we came to the rousing finale, I felt that my conviction that life can be what you imagine it to be was finally successfully rewarded and my faith in this belief irrefutably validated.
The Marvel Universe has landed, and so can yours, too.
Deal with it.