Movie Info
Movie Name: Avengers: Endgame
Studio: Marvel Studios
Genre(s): Comic Book/Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Release Date(s): April 22, 2019 (Premiere)/April 26, 2019 (US)
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Who will live?
Thanos (Josh Brolin) has won. With a snap, half the living thing in the universe have been erased from existence. Now, the few surviving Avengers hope that the can finally do as their name implies: avenge! Simply killing Thanos won’t bring back the world that the heroes knew, it is up to a small group of people to save humanity, save the world, and save the galaxy…Avengers Assemble!
Directed by the Russo Brothers, Avengers: Endgame is the twenty-second movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise and part of the Phase Three films. Following Captain Marvel in 2019, the film was released to record breaking box office numbers. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
Who will die?
The Marvel Comics movies are tricky. Growing up, I wanted nothing more to have comic book movies. The X-Men, the Avengers, and Spider-Man would have been dreams (and were dreams). The idea of an Avengers movie (much less 22 movies tied together) would have been the world…but now, the perspective on some of the films is skewed. While I admire the scope and vision of the filmmakers, I didn’t love this entry in the series. A ******spoiler alert****** exists for the rest of the review.
The three-hour movie doesn’t really seem to flow well. There are so many characters (though half had been killed) and there are so many plot threads that the characters don’t really seem to get enough individual screentime. Most of the characters (including Captain Marvel) are just off doing other stuff for a chunk of the film and show up for the grand battle (I did like the keep-away with the Gauntlet though). It feels like it is trying to please too many people and doesn’t feel entirely pleasing as a result.
Yeah…I don’t trust you, lady
The movie spends a large amount of time setting up the time-travel plot, but then promptly throws it all away. I wish that the characters hadn’t invested so much time in the idea that they could screw up history (and therefore had to return the stones to the moment they stole them after the movie). They proceed to kill an earlier version of Thanos (who never “snapped”) and an earlier version of Nebula is killed by herself…with no consequences. Why can’t a baby Thanos be killed, or Tony Stark be saved from death? It doesn’t make much sense with the timeline being destroyed.
The cast is expansive. The movie is largely a swan song for a number of the actors. Robert Downey Jr. continues to be one of my favorite actors in the franchise with Chris Evans a close second…and both actors are finished (of course comic books have a way of bringing people back sometimes). Scarlett Johansson also is sent off (but a solo Black Widow movie is in the works), and Jeremy Renner returns as a better Hawkeye. Paul Rudd continues to be entertaining as a vital part of the plot with Chris Hemsworth having a lot of laughs (but Thor: Ragnarok continues to be his shining performance). Mark Ruffalo gets to be more involved and Don Cheedle also gets to develop a little more. The rest of the cast largely is cameos and crammed in the last sequence…which is a bit unfortunate since I feel Avengers: Infinity War did a much better job dealing with a bigger cast.
Gee, Clint, if you hadn’t been hanging out in the country with your family when Thanos attacked, maybe this would never have happened
The visuals aren’t as strong as some of the other Marvel movies. I liked the scope and clarity of the last Avengers movie with a lot of fighting happening during the day (but that Hulkbuster-Mark Ruffalo was awful). Here, the world is in decline and the battles are grimier and feel more of a rehash of Infinity War.
Avengers: Endgame is a conclusion if nothing else. It is an accomplishment as well. The films did something that had never been done on such a scope, and I admire the commitment to the concept. The plot and story can largely be ignored (like I guess 5 years passed for everyone but the disappeared so you could be older than your younger sister, your high school friends could be out of college, etc). There is room for exploration, but I also get the feeling that a lot of time screw-ups might never be explored because they weren’t thought of (like the impact of 50% of every living thing including microscopic organisms etc. dying). Marvel ended Phase 3 with Spider-Man: Far from Home in 2019.
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