13 minutes ago, ArcHammer said:

So 14+ hours of movies to enjoy the newest one. Endgame is gonna be out of theaters by the time I can watch all that. Doesn't seem worth the effort I guess. Too late to get into it now, I guess.

You could rent Infinity War and then roll into watching Endgame if you want to. Just have to accept that there will be a lot of moments things that are not fully explained. I did mention there may be a wiki or summary online somewhere you can read up on. I'm just not aware of it. Maybe some Google-Fu may help, but will need to be careful of spoilers.

Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame are not typical movies in that they are literally the culmination of a decade worth of films leading up to this event. Its like, you could watch Season 8 of Game of Thrones without watching any of the seasons or books, but you're going to be missing a lot of the nuance and reasons for why characters are the way they are and understanding settings and events building to the final season.

Let’s see, to not be lost watching endgame, I’d say you need to have seen

iron man 1

captain America 1

avengers 1

winter soldier

Civil War

guardians 1

infinity war

The after credits scene from ant man and the wasp

doctor strange wouldn’t be out of line, but not super necessary

be aware of the existence of captain marvel, but you don’t really need to have seen her film. (It’s really good though)

that should cover the most things

44 minutes ago, Forgottenlore said:

Let’s see, to not be lost watching endgame, I’d say you need to have seen

iron man 1

captain America 1

avengers 1

winter soldier

guardians 1

infinity war

The after credits scene from ant man and the wasp

doctor strange wouldn’t be out of line, but not super necessary

be aware of the existence of captain marvel, but you don’t really need to have seen her film. (It’s really good though)

that should cover the most things

Extra points for investing in all 20-odd movies, through 10 years.

Just saw Endgame. Really? No one that's ever seen a movie would have trouble figuring out what was going on. The previous movie is explained on screen- space Grimace uses the Dragon Balls to wipe out half of life. Okay, got it, I didn't need another movie to catch onto that and the rest of it is built out of Legos with plot cliches written on them. You've been sold a bill of goods if you think you need to watch all the movies. I've been absent from Marvel for pretty much everything between Avengers 1 with the exception of Guardians 1 and 2. The only things I found confusing were characters that were on screen for a minute or less in the LOTR battle at the end. And the time travel thing more or less negates those movies happening anyway.

It's intermittently entertaining and I don't regret seeing it, but I don't get all the hype on the series. I want to like it. I always wanted to. But it leaves me cold.

You don't need to have watched all of the other movies to see Endgame, you just get more from it if you have.

I did see an interview with the Russo brothers that stated as far as they were concerned the bare-minimum you should see to follow most of it is:

Avengers (effectively introduces the main team)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (introduces Falcon and Bucky, and explains what happens to SHIELD)

Avengers: Age of Ultron (introduces Scarlet Witch, Vision and Clint's family, plus the vision Tony speaks about in Endgame)

Captain America: Civil War (introduces Black Panther, Spider Man and Ant Man, plus explains what state the Avengers are in at the start of Infinity War and a brief glimpse of Wakanda)

Avengers: Infinity War (introduces Dr Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy and sets the scene for Endgame)

16 minutes ago, JudgeDeath said:

You don't need to have watched all of the other movies to see Endgame, you just get more from it if you have.

I did see an interview with the Russo brothers that stated as far as they were concerned the bare-minimum you should see to follow most of it is:

Avengers (effectively introduces the main team)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (introduces Falcon and Bucky, and explains what happens to SHIELD)

Avengers: Age of Ultron (introduces Scarlet Witch, Vision and Clint's family, plus the vision Tony speaks about in Endgame)

Captain America: Civil War (introduces Black Panther, Spider Man and Ant Man, plus explains what state the Avengers are in at the start of Infinity War and a brief glimpse of Wakanda)

Avengers: Infinity War (introduces Dr Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy and sets the scene for Endgame)

I don't know who the Russo brothers are but they must think the average filmgoer is an idiot. Out of those I've only seen the first Avengers and had no trouble catching on. The film explains most things and the rest you can infer if you have half a brain.

4 hours ago, ArcHammer said:

Just saw Endgame. Really? No one that's ever seen a movie would have trouble figuring out what was going on. The previous movie is explained on screen- space Grimace uses the Dragon Balls to wipe out half of life. Okay, got it, I didn't need another movie to catch onto that and the rest of it is built out of Legos with plot cliches written on them. You've been sold a bill of goods if you think you need to watch all the movies. I've been absent from Marvel for pretty much everything between Avengers 1 with the exception of Guardians 1 and 2. The only things I found confusing were characters that were on screen for a minute or less in the LOTR battle at the end. And the time travel thing more or less negates those movies happening anyway.

It's intermittently entertaining and I don't regret seeing it, but I don't get all the hype on the series. I want to like it. I always wanted to. But it leaves me cold.

Weird flex, but ok.

20 minutes ago, kris40k said:

Weird flex, but ok.

Not flexing, just saying that you absolutely don't need to watch the other movies to understand Endgame. You may need to watch them to like/enjoy it, though. I was pretty bored.

Endgame wont have nearly half the emotional payoff if you've not invested time (and enjoyed) the rest of the MCU. Its a great film in its own right but so much of the enjoyment comes from the callbacks to the other movies and wrapping up several significant characters' arcs.

I've tried really hard to like these movies. I've seen half of them by now (watched all of them from Iron Man to the original Avengers) and there's just nothing to that makes them special as far as I can see. I feel like maybe I'm too old- Iron Man didn't come out until I was in college- but I know people in their 50's that are into these movies and I just. Don't. Get it. What am I missing here?

Guess I'd like to understand, but I'm getting tired of trying. I don't get why people like watching sports either, I'm not sure why that doesn't bother me but this does.

On 5/8/2019 at 11:48 PM, LTuser said:

So i've been hearing some chatter on other sites, about the Oscars REALLY needs to give this film some major lovin, MORE so than just the 'a-typical spec effects/soundtrack/costume, crap they mostly give to fantasy/action/sci-fi films..

If Return of the King can score Best Picture (and a bunch of others) I don't see why Endgame couldn't.

8 hours ago, ArcHammer said:

I've tried really hard to like these movies. I've seen half of them by now (watched all of them from Iron Man to the original Avengers) and there's just nothing to that makes them special as far as I can see. I feel like maybe I'm too old- Iron Man didn't come out until I was in college- but I know people in their 50's that are into these movies and I just. Don't. Get it. What am I missing here?

Guess I'd like to understand, but I'm getting tired of trying. I don't get why people like watching sports either, I'm not sure why that doesn't bother me but this does.

That's understandable, especially considering I believe you said that you were not into the comics at all. I'm 41, and have been an avid comics reader since my early teens, I stopped collecting a few years before Iron Man came out, as being a family man meant funds had to be re-appropriated elsewhere. But I still have a connection to the characters and the stories.

Iron Man was widely seen by comic fans as a great adaptation of the material, compared to previous attempts to adapt comics to the screen, many failed to grab the feeling that comic fans were looking for. The MCU was a series of hits with fans, with a couple stumbles, but overall they kept to the feeling that fans were looking for from the characters and the growing interconnected universe.

The Infinity Gauntlet series was originally written in 1991 , and was a major comic event back in the prime of my comic reading days, I was probably around 13-14 at the time. Realizing early on what the background story that was slowly burning was exciting and getting to see the payoff with awesome special effects and good actors was a huge thing for me, but I have many years of being a fan. Infinity War and Endgame were the big stories and heroes of my childhood adapted pretty faithfully to the bigscreen.

If you didn't have that same kind of emotional connection to the comic stories, its understandable that there would not have been the same emotional connection to the movie characters and the story like others might have. As well, there is nothing that says you need to like all pop culture, there is no need to try to like them. I mean, I don't like Dr. Who , but it has a huge fanbase and I don't begrudge them enjoying something I don't.

4 hours ago, kris40k said:

That's understandable, especially considering I believe you said that you were not into the comics at all. I'm 41, and have been an avid comics reader since my early teens, I stopped collecting a few years before Iron Man came out, as being a family man meant funds had to be re-appropriated elsewhere. But I still have a connection to the characters and the stories.

Iron Man was widely seen by comic fans as a great adaptation of the material, compared to previous attempts to adapt comics to the screen, many failed to grab the feeling that comic fans were looking for. The MCU was a series of hits with fans, with a couple stumbles, but overall they kept to the feeling that fans were looking for from the characters and the growing interconnected universe.

The Infinity Gauntlet series was originally written in 1991 , and was a major comic event back in the prime of my comic reading days, I was probably around 13-14 at the time. Realizing early on what the background story that was slowly burning was exciting and getting to see the payoff with awesome special effects and good actors was a huge thing for me, but I have many years of being a fan. Infinity War and Endgame were the big stories and heroes of my childhood adapted pretty faithfully to the bigscreen.

If you didn't have that same kind of emotional connection to the comic stories, its understandable that there would not have been the same emotional  connection to the movie characters and the story like others might have. As well, there is nothing that says you need to like all pop culture, there is no need to try to like them. I mean, I don't like Dr. Who , but it has a huge fanbase and I don't begrudge them enjoying something I don't.

That's a fair assessment, although I'd wager a lot of fans of these films have probably never picked up a comic. I think some of the movies are fine on their own, and I liked some of the first wave as standalone movies but once it requires you to start seeing everything to enjoy one movie it feels like homework instead of fun to me.

My question, and for some reason I obsess over it, becomes "Why don't I like this thing almost everyone else loves? What am I missing?"

This is exactly one of the things that kept me away from comics- events that required you to grab issues of a dozen series to understand what's going on. At some point you get conitinuity lockout and the franchise becomes bloated and impenetrable to potential fans.

14 hours ago, Dr Zoidberg said:

Endgame wont have nearly half the emotional payoff if you've not invested time (and enjoyed) the rest of the MCU. Its a great film in its own right but so much of the enjoyment comes from the callbacks to the other movies and wrapping up several significant characters' arcs.

I agree. If you never saw any of the Iron mans, seeing stark do what he did in the end, may be enjoyable, but to ME, won't have the gravitas it would have, if you saw all the others, and his character development through out. Same with Capt A, when he lifted Mjilinor..

6 hours ago, papy72 said:

If Return of the King can score Best Picture (and a bunch of others) I don't see why Endgame couldn't.

I agree.. I'd like to see it get best pic, best actor (RDJ), Best supporting actor (Rudd), Best actress (Scarlett johansen), Best supporting actress (Gillian), best pic and best ensemble..

3 minutes ago, LTuser said:

Best supporting actress (Gillian)

Gillian really did well with the character, a lot better than I felt about her in GotG 1. Speaking of Nebula, this was one of my biggest things I feel they missed not having in the movie:

But they probably didn't want to have to have everyone turn on Nebula again after building her up as a sympathetic character.