Marvel Studios
It’s been many years and many movies. After Infinity War I was curious whether or not the sequel could close the loop without screwing something serious up. There were too many think pieces about ‘was Thanos right’ and thankfully this movie doesn’t pretend that’s at all moral or right.
Avengers: Endgame returns us to the world essentially right after the last one ended, and with the surviving heroes trying to figure how to find Thanos and undo his apocalyptic massacre. The very first scene sets the stakes, emotionally and otherwise, and we’re off to the races.
The movie races to the expected plan and when things don’t go as planned, instead there’s a time jump and we get a chance to go inside the characters. Captain America is the same as always, trying to move on while not really doing so at all, while Thor and Tony have their own traumatic problems to deal with. Marvel post-Thor Ragnarok really knows how to utilize the comedic gifts of Chris Hemsworth, and this movie is no exception. He consistently has some of the funniest bits of the movie, often without saying anything at all.
But at the center of things is Scarlett Johansson as Natasha or Black Widow, and she is phenomenal here, a standout among standouts. At times emotionally hurt, broken, inspired or happy, there were more than a few ‘damn she’s luminous’ moments. Her connections to Hawkeye or Steve or Bruce drive and complicate many interactions over the course of the film.
Of course I won’t spoil any plots or character moments, so I will speak in generalities. The Avengers devise a plan, and it leads to a grand adventure. Over the course of the movie, homage is paid essentially to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole, and many, many crowd pleasing moments. There are few grand action scenes, but there are enough to put some of the older Avengers ones to shame.
What is great is that nearly everyone gets a very important time to shine from both an action and emotional point, with really the exception only being newcomer Captain Marvel, who really only gets into things as a superpowered jackhammer and less on the characterization we saw from her solo movie, which was actually filmed later than this one.
Of course, not everything always goes according to plan, but it’d be a dull movie if it did. Some of the choices here and there don’t always work consistently logically even in the context of the rules the movie makes, but enough care is made so that it feels narratively right. Essentially the middle hour of the movie is an extended love letter from Marvel to itself, but honestly, they’ve earned it, and I found it delightful and actually fulfilling.
The actual ending, again no spoilers here, worked on nearly every level, with the sacrifices and choices made staying done and without any cheats. The movie even borrows thematically from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 by ending on precisely the most emotionally impactful scene you needed to see.
Some of the characters live, some die, and enough question marks are introduced to ponder highly about the future. There is officially one more movie announced, the Spider-Man sequel later this year, but otherwise that’s it ‘officially’. A Black Widow movie is in preproduction with a screenwriter and a director, and there’s also the mysterious The Eternals movie announced with Angelina Jolie starring with Shang-Chi about the obscure martial artist character.
There are ‘unofficial’ announcements of a sequel to Thor, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther, and James Gunn is supposed to come back to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. All this together means very little in the scheme of things, because plans can change and who knows when movies will be set chronologically.
Avengers: Endgame doesn’t play it safe, except for a few crowd pleasing applause triggers, and it also doesn’t make things easy on its players. I could write another few pages breaking down some of the emotional conflicts and payoffs, or the moments that moistened my eyes, or even the character arcs. But honestly, this movie needs to be seen to pay off everything else. As a fan of these movies, I felt this film sparked with joy often and sadness when it needed it. Top of the heap of Avengers movies by far.
Want to see Avengers: Endgame and judge for yourself? Click below to see the movie, and be sure to come back and tell us what you thought!
Avengers: Endgame has a run time of 3 hours 1 minute and is rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and some language.
Marvel Studios
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