Avengers Endgame

For something as massive as the ending to the entirety of the Marvel cinematic Universe, Avengers: Endgame had a lot weighing on its shoulders. This conclusive film that finally ended what was 10 years in the making had to be filled with drama, emotion and comedy all combined together leading up to a gigantic confrontation that was at the moment, their biggest threat. It had a perfect cliff-hanger from the last movie, the advertising was very effective, and it did everything it needed to in order to get people into cinema seats. That why it’s truly deeply disheartening to know that not everything works as well as it was built up to be. Picking up right after the events of Avengers: Infinity War, the remaining heroes that survived Thanos’ snap including Captain America (played by Chris Evans), Black Widow (played by Scarlett Johansson), Bruce Banner (played by Mark Ruffalo), Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), James Rhodes (played by Don Cheadle), Thor (played by Chris Hemsworth), Iron Man (played by Robert Downey Jr.) and Nebula (played by Karen Gillan) along with newcomer Captain Marvel (played by Brie Larson) try to find a way to cope with their loses and right the wrongs that Thanos (voiced by Josh Brolin) has done. Though all seems lost, hope suddenly returns when Ant Man (played by Paul Rudd) returns from the Quantum Realm and shows the heroes a path to fixing everything that’s happened. The Avengers plan to assemble for the last time, prep up for the final fight, and tackle their greatest threat to return those that they’ve lost, whatever it takes. Anthony and Joe Russo (the directors of the movie) had a lot of pressure on their shoulders, bringing to the big screen arguably the most important Marvel film ever made, and because of this, it means that not everything in this movie feels up to normal standards and comes off as foreign to these films’ normal quota. It’s still a good movie with many pleasing moments, provides elements that most MCU film’s offer, and does a decent job wrapping up some of its biggest characters as well as giving us an ending that is borderline perfection, but overall, the film feels largely inferior to its predecessor and after all the build-up surrounding it, it’s hard to find a definite opinion on the whole thing.

You can already tell from the beginning that this movie is going to be different from others of its type, not being as bombastic or grand as other Marvel movies and relying on a much more mellow and somber tone with this great feeling of dread. The opening act does a good job ingraining the audience with this empty feeling of despair and sets the mood perfectly. The problem stems from the fact that the rest of the movie doesn’t support this mood, or at least convey it in an interesting manner. Nothing in the film reaches that same level of intensity that Infinity War, returning to a much safer and risk-averse mindset that even backtracks on a lot of that previously stated stab-in-the-gut in order to wrap things up in a nice little bow. While this franchise is so focused on the big picture, it has left some of the smaller scale events, developments and even characters a little out to dry, which results in decisions made in this picture that, while good ideas to build from, don’t feel earned or even built up to in the least. The film has a pacing issue as well, as would be expected for a three-hour long movie, but the problem doesn’t come from feeling rushed as the movie does know when to provide focus on a moment that needs to breath, and it is a story that is solely focused on its characters and the direct dilemma so there is thankfully no chance of being sidetracked. However, the film takes way too long to get moving after a pretty solid opening, resulting in a middle act that feels repetitive, slow-moving, unengaging, overly heavy on fan-service, and even a little dumb. The writing in this film seems to lack the strength and the timing the other films had, which is especially bizarre when its discovered that it was written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who have written a lot of good stuff for Marvel like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, and even Avengers: Infinity War, so it’s not a problem with different talent. You can feel that the writers want to include as much content from previous movies as they can almost like a ”final hurrah” kind of deal, which is fine on the surface, but the manner in which its delivered just feels like one of those lame ”time travelling” story you’d see in other properties except presenting in a manner that thinks it’s far smarter than it actually is (you don’t get to state that you know the rules, then proceed to break them without any consequences).  It just seems to be a bit lost, particularly in the humor department. Marvel movies have had problems with humor before, and this movie isn’t one that needed to be a knee-slapper as the more aggressive weight behind the content does make it feel more impactful, but whenever a joke is attempted in this film, it doesn’t really fail as much as it does awkwardly perter out.  It’s not a frequent issue and there’s a decent moment here and there, but it is a noticeable element.  With that said though, everything in the last third of the movie is brilliantly done; its poetic, its effective, its genuinely emotional, and it closes the book on a great franchise.

This is arguably the biggest cast these movies have had, and seeing the way some of the roles are mismatched, changed around and even permanently altered is interesting, but maybe not always the most consistent or well written. The movie is thankfully pretty character-focused and it gives a lot of focus on the classic characters as it felt like this would be the last time they would be in a group film all together again, and overall, some of them are given some of the best scenes in the movie, while others are stuck with under-baked ideas and forceful decisions that really don’t seem to make sense or feel emotionally effective. Anytime a character has an emotional moment in this film, they do hit bullseye because of these great actors, and you can feel but this point that each of them have settled into their roles and know how to make them work. Anything connected with Iron Man and Captain America is done very well. Both characters are basically the grandfathers of the series, so it’s only fitting that they’re not only connected to some very emotionally effective moments, but some of the coolest moments in the whole film. It all feels built up and the payoff is exactly as it should, but still in a way that isn’t obvious, both have great endings to their long journeys. This film also makes great use of the character of Nebula. While a fine character in her own right originally, the way Karen Gillian plays her in this film mixed with the writing and story that she’s given in this film gives her some much-needed attention and offers a brand-new appreciation that many others may not have had before. While these moments are nice to see, the remainder of the cast are not handled as strongly, aren’t given much purpose, or they are part of decisions that don’t have much backing or build up to them at all. People like Okoye (played by Danai Gurira), War Machine and especially Captain Marvel feel way too underused to warrant their survival in the film, and while their scenes aren’t bad, they don’t leave much of an impression (which is especially true for Captain Marvel, who has still failed to form an identity despite the level of importance that was given to her previously). Scarlett Johansson is probably at her best as Black Widow in this film and feels like she’s at a point where she finally feels like a properly fleshed out role, but the direction her character goes down just feels lame, pointless, anti-climactic and even a little insulting. Hawkeye (played by Jeremy Renner) is given a pretty tragic story line which could’ve made him more interesting, but it still feels like the writers have no idea what to do with him, so they just shove in a cool idea and never explore it any further. The Hulk and Thor are particularly odd in this film, both containing drastic character changes that on the surface are smart ideas and are pretty funny to begin with, but as the film continues and these jokey personas stay the way they are, it starts to lose that aspect and it just feels like the characters are dumb and annoying now. Thanos transformed from an interesting antagonist in Infinity War into any random stock bad guy in a marvel film, besides from Josh Brolin’s performance and the still impressive effects on him, he’s lost any sense of mystery or intrigue and is instead just another punching bag to overcome due to the way the story tweaks the relationship between the characters, resulting in a large drop in personal tension.

The film doesn’t have much action as you’d anticipate, as its more focused on the build-up to the final conflict as well as allowing the audience to feel submerged in this oppressively upsetting atmosphere that involves a lot of talking. While that could be seen as a problem, it doesn’t feel like the movie requires a lot as not only did Infinity War provide a decent chunk of unique fight scene, but it also knows to build up to this climatic end point and allowing each of the characters at least a time to shine before that moment comes. Thankfully, that wait did pay off as the final fight is easily one of the best things in the movie; it has a lot of fun imagery, some really cool action, a few fun characters interactions, the pacing of the fight is very solid and never gets tiring, the way its shot and constructed by cinematographer Trent Opaloch provides for some really solid shots that feel right out of a comic cover, it’s all worth the wait and feels like a big climatic final finish that does feel like the biggest scale event in this universe thus far. The Russo Brothers do have an idea of how to command and handle action, so it feels like they are in their element during this final conflict in not only showing off the variety of characters in a fun, active and new sense, but also just presenting something that feels high scale, but still carries with it a sense of weight and slight personal conflict. The film’s overuse of CGI is something every Marvel movie nowadays is known for doing, so the constant CG fighting and landscapes, even if they don’t always look great, have a comic book feel when connected to something cool on screen.

Endgame had so much to live up to and in the grand scheme of things, it does manage to succeed. For the films issues, it does still feel like a good ending to this phase of characters and films, delivering an amazing climax not just from an action standpoint (as that fight will live in comic book film history), but just in an overall sense as it does feel like a nice spot to wrap this area of the Marvel universe up. The actors are all still great, the last third is unbelievable, the film has some good characters moments as well as some very well-done emotional scenes, and it feels very final and closes the door on the old in a way that the new can come in and create their own new memories. The film can be tiresome at moments, the humor isn’t up to its usual standards, it feels very rehashed in moments, and some character decisions feel way too out of nowhere and unjustified, but overall, the film needed this much build up and slog to get to the great ending.  Still go see it even though you probably already have, and watch Avengers face their ending.