BY:GENEVA NODLAND, nodlandge@mnstate.edu

For some students, the last few weeks have been fairly normal, besides the overwhelming stress of finals looming around the corner. But for others it has been a rollercoaster of emotional and iconic moments from our favorite super heroes.

If you haven’t heard yet, “Avengers: Endgame,” the final movie in the “Avengers” series, premiered Thursday, April 22. The movie has had a long-anticipated arrival, and it is well-deserved. This three-hour cinematic experience follows the action and consequences of “Avengers: Infinity War.”

Deanna Piatz, a sophomore majoring in photojournalism at MSUM and a Marvel movie fan went to “Endgame” opening weekend with some friends. For her, and others alike, this movie was just as emotional as it was exciting.

“I was feeling scared. I knew I was going to cry a lot,” Piatz said. “I didn’t think I would laugh as much as I did though during the movie.”

Throughout not only the “Avengers” series, but all the characters’ individual movies, fans get to know the backstory of characters, watch relationships grow between characters and see how they develop themselves. “Endgame” is the last time that viewers are able to see the characters they’ve been watching for years work together to try to save the earth, one last time.

Most agree that you have to at least see “Infinity War” to have any idea of what is going on in “Endgame,” but in order to understand the full effect some might argue you need to see all, if not most of, the Marvel Universe movies. Piatz agreed.

“I think you definitely need to have had a tie to some of the core characters to get the emotional
impact it’s suppose to give off,” she said.

Piatz went with a few people who weren’t familiar with the movies, but they were no different from the crying fans in the theater. Marisa Aranda, a sophomore majoring in early elementary education, watched her first Marvel movie, “Infinity War,” just days before going to “Endgame.”

“I was just prepared to be confused,” Aranda said. “Going in knowing it’s a three-hour movie, I thought it was going to take forever, but when it was done I thought ‘that’s it?’”

Throughout those three hours, “Endgame” has not only the action and suspense that Marvel fans have come to love, but also the comedy and even romance. Between the laughs and tears there are scenes that take you back to previous movies, and then there are scenes that wrap up some of the characters’ lives.

One thing Marvel did not skimp on in “Endgame” is comedy, even if it just used as comedic relief in the movie. Without spoiling the movie, I can confidently say there are A LOT of different emotions you will feel while watching, some good and some bad. To offset this, Marvel creators allowed quite a few comedic scenes, and most responded well to these.

“I know Marvel puts in a lot of humorous scenes,” Piatz said, “but I didn’t think they would actually make it that funny.”

Aranda agreed that comedy had an influence over the movie, but thought is was a bit hard to transition from heightened emotions of one end of the spectrum to the other.

“There was a lot of comedy and action, and all of the sudden you’re sad,” Aranda said.

Other than the emotional and funny moments, of course there had to be the action-packed portion of the movie—we are talking super heroes here—and we were delivered one of the best scenes in Marvel cinematic “fight” history.

Since the movie is already three hours long, there isn’t much time for dramatic stare offs or long pauses. No time is wasted on these moments, but they also aren’t too fast-paced to cause confusion. I don’t think there were many people in the theater who knew how the movie was going to end, but there were also not many who were very surprised.

“I definitely was shocked, but at the same time you kind of knew that that was going to happen,” Piatz said. “When you look overall, it’s like it had to happen, and you’re glad it did.”

There is no denying that this bitter-sweet finale had its toll on everyone, super fan or not.

“It was very heart-wrenching, even for someone who is not a diehard fan,” Aranda said.

Even though the “Avengers” series ended with the fitting title of “Endgame,” we can be assured that Marvel will continue creating funny, sad and heartwarming movies for years to come.