Well, here we come: Endgame review (spoilers galore)
Endgame is essentially two different movies for me: the one up until the last three minutes and the one that includes those last three minutes.
The first is a decent movie – riddled with stupid crap, plot holes and the occasional nonsense, but on the whole pretty good.
The second is a waterfall of crap that makes me seethe in anger.
If you liked that ending, I seriously discourage you from keeping on reading. Otherwise, let us discuss the good, the bad, the wtf and the “How dare you?”
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I definitely see the issue with Cap’s ending, but I think there might be a way to semi-justify (or at least explain) it.
Every change made in the past creates an alternate universe/timeline which operates separately from the main or prime timeline (let’s call this Timeline A). Every time they travel back in time, they create a divergent timeline. When Cap went back to return the stones, he created Timeline B. Timeline B is totally disconnected from Timeline A. They run parallel to each other. Changes in one don’t affect the other. In Timeline B, Cap can do whatever he wants without worrying about keeping Timeline A intact. Joe Russo confirmed this by saying “the old Cap at the end movie, he lived his married life in a different universe from the main one. He had to make another jump back to the main universe at the end to give the shield to Sam”.
So I like to think that in Timeline B, Steve rescues Bucky right away, tells Peggy about Hydra infiltrating SHIELD, and continues to fight for the greater good as Captain America. There’s still a Steve trapped in ice, which makes things more complicated when he melts away in 60 years, but at least things should be fine and dandy from 1942 to 2012. Here’s what Joe Russo said on a Reddit Q&A:
He chose to go back to past and lived with the one he loved for the rest of his life. The time travel in this movie created an alternate reality. He lived a completely different life in that world. We don’t know how exactly his life turned out, but I’d like to believe he still helped many others when they were needed in that world. Yes, there were two CA in that reality, it’s just like what Hulk said, what happened in the past has already happened. If you go back to past, you simply created a new reality. The characters in this movie created new timeline when they went back to the past, but it had no effect to the prime universe. What happened in the past 22 movies was still canon.
While this sort of fixes Cap’s ending, it messes up the “put the stones back so nothing changes” thing. Ignoring the fact of how the hell-do-you-put-the-stones-back (re-inject the Aether into Jane? Go to Red Skull’s Returns and Exchanges desk?), the stones are only back in Timeline B. Timeline A doesn’t have the stones. The Ancient One is still waiting for her Time Stone. The Orb is still missing. Even the Russos said that changing the past doesn’t not change the future.
Joe said “Every decision you made in the past could potentially create a new timeline.” So it’s that potentially that you really have to focus on if you want a good ending all around. That potentially is an easy, fix-it way to make everything work. Sometimes an alternate universe, sometimes not, I guess? Either way, it’s weak writing.
