Directed by: Anthony and Joe Russo.
Written by: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johannson, Jeremy Renner, and EVERYONE WHO’S EVER BEEN IN A MARVEL MOVIE!
After the devastating events of Avengers: Infinity War (2018), the universe is in ruins. With the help of remaining allies, the Avengers assemble once more in order to undo Thanos’ actions and restore order to the universe.
Please note, that if you haven’t seen Avengers: Infinity War there may well be spoilers for that movie in this review. You have been warned.
Well. This is it. The 22nd movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There’s an awful lot to say about this movie, and to do so without spoilers is going to be tricky.
There’s a lot to like about this movie. And there’s a lot not to. It’s an ambitious piece, to be sure, creating a narrative structure of the Avengers after the events of Infinity War. The story picks up our disparate heroes mere weeks after the snap as they struggle to come to terms with those events. Revisiting those characters at that time is essential as I, as a viewer, am still coming to terms with the sheer weight of Thanos’s actions. Seeing those characters, broken and drawn, mourning their losses is huge.
The main narrative, though, is set five years later. However, the timing of the title card announcing this comes at an odd time. We get the triumphant Avengers theme – composed by the movie’s soundtrack composes, Alan Silvestri – as the team locate the Mad Titan and enact a plan. What feels like it should be the movie’s prologue is placed after a prologue featuring the house-arrest bound Clint Barton and family. The Five Years Later title card feels like it should be the start of act two, but it comes way too early in the film, and the narrative, to be so.
And this is an issue I had with the first half to two-third of Endgame: its pacing and timing feel inconsistent. The narrative is densely packed, but there’s a lot of character work that feels like it was written, but edited to keep the story ticking along. In that, we get scenes that are incredible flabby, and other scenes cut to the quick. Tony Stark, after being visited by the team, makes a huge discovery with seemingly little work. Yes, we know he’s a genius but even the creation of the original Iron Man suit took him a while to develop.
And then there are narrative contrivances that are written in to the story to push the story forward that don’t necessarily make sense. You have to solve the problem of the all powerful Captain Marvel who, if given the space and time to enact her own plan, would have had this movie wrapped up in about ten minutes, so getting her out of the way early on was essential. You have the Banner/Hulk problem resolved with a few hastily delivered lines of dialogue. You have the discovery of Thanos by virtue of him destroying the stones on the same planet he was living on.
But, once the movie turns the corner in the second act is where it really starts to sing, and that’s where it got really ambitious. Tying up loose ends. Connecting movies and characters that were previously unconnected. Easter eggs for the fans. Callbacks to lines of dialogue from previous movies. The orchestration of the last half of the movie was simply breathtaking. Which made it such a shame, then, that the first half felt more awkward by comparison.
I guess I’ve been spoiled a little by Markus and McFeely’s writing, and the Russo’s able direction. With the exception of that massive scene at the airport in Captain America: Civil War, I’ve been really impressed with their work. Don’t forget, this is the team that brought us Captain America: Winter Soldier, and Infinity War, two of the standout Marvel movies of this whole saga. It really did feel like they didn’t know how to get the story kicked off properly, or how best to edit it together to create a good flow into the second act. I’m not sure.
What I can say, is that for the first half of the movie, I felt oddly disconnected. Distanced from a property in which I have much invested. And it wasn’t due to poor acting, or a weak story. It was that I could see what was trying to be achieved, and it was just poorly executed. Take the diner scene with Banner. There’s a lot of comedy derived from his interaction with a couple of fans, but the scene plays out over several minutes, where a taut thirty seconds would have done it. Perhaps this is an editing issue, and perhaps this is studio interference. I don’t know. I’d like to think there is a director’s cut somewhere that actually addresses what I wished was there instead.
Please don’t misunderstand. I watched no trailers, saw no reviews, embargoes my friends, colleagues, and students from talking about it so I could come to the movie without expectation or having crafted my own version of the movie. There was a movie in there that was the equal, if not superior to, Infinity War. But the first half of the movie was not it.
The same, however, cannot be said for the second half. It was full of air-punching, dialogue quoting, laugh out loud, cheering, crowd pleasing moments. That’s where the movie picked me up and carried me along, joyous in the experience. Again, some baggy moments, some too quickly cut; but these were much fewer and further between.
Avengers: Endgame is something of a mixed bag. I’m sure there are fans who will love it, and those who won’t. I’m in the middle. There’s a great movie in there somewhere that just didn’t make it to the screen. While this is far from the worst of the Marvel saga, it is also not the best. But this is a fairly worthy follow up to Infinity War, if a little disappointing.
4/5
Please be warned, below lies spoilers. Read on at your peril and only if you’ve actually seen the movie.
Seriously. Spoilers on the way.
Last chance.
Just to be on the safe side, the text is coloured white. Highlight between the lines to reveal it.
The decision to pitch the second act as a time-heist movie was bold. However, the inconsistency of the time rules – 5 years for Scott Lang felt like 5 hours, Janet van Dyne was stuck in the realm for 20+ years and it felt like 20+ years – was another little irk. That the teams could be away for however long they needed to only have a few seconds pass in the present was a tad weird. Now, you could gloss over this as quantum realm has own laws, but still. The technological and scientific breakthroughs that Banner and Stark have to enact this plan are heavily truncated.
Once the movie actually starts to go back in time, the movie makers have done brilliantly to reunite cast members, resurrect characters, and fill in the gaps between films. It really does have a sense of holographic story telling that something like The Horus Heresy series of novels has attempted. And this is really where the whole movie started to move along.
However, given that a certain number of contracts were up, there were character moments that needed to be given to allow the characters the exit from the franchise that they had earned. As such, the interaction between Starks Jr. and Sr. was necessary, but was over long – especially compared to the time Cap doesn’t have with Peggy Carter. Yet, even in those moments, the heartstrings – yes, I have some – were tugged at by seeing actors come back and reinvigorate those roles. Even bringing back James d’Arcy for a cameo as Jarvis was inspired.
Another thing that the movie did well was to show how the characters were still grieving after five years and dealing with it in their own way: Widow’s denial, Stark’s repression, Barton’s descent into vengeance – they’re all consistent with the characters we’ve seen on screen before. Tension is derived from the lives that have been chosen – Stark is living Cap’s advice to his support group that he cannot follow himself – to avenging the fallen family that one has lost.
I won’t lie, at the point when the fallen heroes and armies reunite with Sam Wilson’s radio broadcast – On Your Left – is where I forgot about all the issues I had with the movie. There are more than enough moments in that final, apocalyptic battle sequence that make up for what has come before. There is one moment – the don’t worry she has help – moment that really did light me up. However, on reflection, this is one small scene – granted, longer than we would expect for a movie like this – in a three-plus hour movie. You could accuse it of tokenism. But I still loved seeing all those heroes on screen in that moment.
And all of that without mentioning that the very time-heist our heroes enact is a plan that is so quickly understood and overturned by Thanos, that the very fabric of the universe could be undone. I didn’t think it was possible to up the stakes from the previous movie, but somehow they did it.
It will be interesting to watch the movie a second time – potentially back to back with Infinity War. I think the effect might be different. I can’t fault the studio, writers, or directors for their vision and ambition; and I would rather see them make bold choices: like opening the movie with Barton losing his family, like stealing the stones before Thanos can get them – than play it safe and retread old ground.
What I loved more than made up for what I didn’t. And kudos to the actors from previous movies who came back. There are too many to list, but I’ll mention a few: Tilda Swinton, Ty Simkins (that kid who looked out of place at the funeral), Jon Favreau, Frank Grillo, Robert Redford, Tom Hiddleston – although I think the door is open for Loki to come back now – Tessa Thompson. And I was utterly thrilled that Korg was on screen at least once.
Hey man!
It was also a really nice touch to give the actors a character moment over their name in the credits, with particular attention being given to the six original Avengers by adding a signature. It’s a classy touch.
There’s a lot to love in the movie. There really is. And I did. It’s just not as well-constructed and delivered as other movies in the saga.
EJ Davies 