As @blowryontv points out, this weekend is the year anniversary of Avengers: Endgame. A lot has changed, obviously, including the film itself.

I rewatched it while stuck inside, and the one thing that stands out is it's really a film about failure. https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/24/entertainment/avengers-endgame-one-year-later/index.html

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is about success. Heroes assembling to defeat an evil from robots to wizards to even gods.

Tony, Cap, Thor, etc. struggle along the way. They get battered emotionally and physically, but always save the world.

That is, until Thanos arrives.

Thanos seemingly comes out of nowhere, but he was always this lingering threat. Tony is afraid of him without even knowing him. Stark does everything to prepare, which leads to its own folly.

Thanos is a symbol of an unknown evil and the preparation we take for it.

So we get to Infinity War, which is Thanos' film. He's the main character. Our heroes are just reacting to him and his journey for the stones.

They have him under control, until, well, they don't. This leads to unimaginable failure, which the MCU never really presented before.

Enter Endgame, which for the first hour is really about our heroes being failures. How do they deal with that?

Tony moves to the woods, Cap finds the silver linings talking about nature returning, Thor eats too many snacks and plays Fortnite.

They become human in their failure.

Obviously the film undoes all of this with the time heist. There's battles and victory (not without sacrifice), but the film is unlike most superhero films.

It's not about saving the world because the world has already been destroyed, it's about returning it to normal.

Endgame is a superhero film by the end but that first hour is really interesting comparatively to other work in the Marvel brand.

It's not about saving anything. It's about finding a way to live after everything falls a part. It's about doing what you can to bring back normalcy.

Endgame is about finding a way to move on without forgetting about what you're moving on from. It's about working together to create a bright future from our past failures.

And that’s a message that brings me a lot of comfort right now because some people move on...