Review

Avengers: Endgame Review

A love letter to the fans

Reporter Austin Kent

Joe and Anthony Russo’s Avengers: Endgame stars Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, and everyone else that you know and love, and is exactly what the title says it is: the endgame. The grand finale, the epic conclusion, the culmination of 22 films spanning across 11 years.

After the devastating events of Infinity War, where Thanos successfully wiped out half of all life in the universe, the remaining heros scramble together a plan to set the universe right.

This movie was, to be quite honest, I can’t seem to find a word to describe this movie. It’s not fantastic, it’s not amazing, it’s not spectacular. No, I’m not saying it’s any of those things because it is something more than that. It’s beyond spectacular, amazing and fantastic. I was truly at a loss for words.

Avengers: Endgame was a thing of beauty. It was something so empowering and visually stunning, it had me on the edge of my seat, cheering and clapping until my hands hurt. It truly is an emotional rollercoaster, no spoilers of course, but if you go to see this movie, prepare emotionally at least a day ahead, unlike me, who was completely blindsided.

Movies of this caliber always make me a little weary going in due to the major amounts of hype that follow it, because in some cases, hype can ruin a movie (I’m looking at you, The Nun.) This is why I had stayed away from theories, leaks, and even most trailers and TV spots until I saw the film. If a film like this comes around, I like to stay as disconnected as possible, as I want to be surprised. Also I have had experiences in the past with trailers that give away a majority of the films plot, such as Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom. The trailer for that film gave away so much from that movie, so I decided to see as little as possible for this film. And it was worth it, going into this movie as blind as possible was such a great experience.

On that note, this was such a satisfying film that brought tons of storylines to a fantastic conclusion, and despite being three hours long, it didn't overstay its welcome. It definitely needed this extensive run time because the script for Infinity War had been written into a corner, so to speak. And they needed to resolve those events without rushing anything. They needed an entire first act to deal with what happened, which can lead to the first act feeling kind of slow. Purposefully. And when I say slow, I don't necessarily mean that as a bad thing. It’s a very grounded and somber experience. There's a feeling of desperation and worry, and that’s not something you usually feel during a superhero movie. Usually there's a lot of punching and excitement, and trust me, theres alot of that. But there's a lot of which the Avengers are seen as just normal people.

The Avengers in this movie feel the most human they have ever been. After the ending of Infinity War, you realize how expendable these heroes are. Picking up at this point in time, it really does make them feel like normal people, which is really refreshing. They aren't doing superhero stuff the whole time, they really feel like they’re desperate, they’re scrambling to get anything they can get their hands on that’ll give them an edge, and you get a sense of urgency from that in almost every scene. Which is a writer's absolute dream.

When you feel like your characters are in a place where they’re always in motion towards a goal and it feel like there’s no hope the whole time, that’s really exciting.

Every act trumps the other. The first is the buildup, the second is where the action kicks in and their plan goes into motion, and the third is the final payoff ,which is, spectacular. The final action set piece is honestly movie magic. It’s everything that you hope to happen when you buy that ticket and sit down in that theater and its truly awe inspiring.

As for negatives, the first act is paced a little slowly, which is needed, and there are a few scenes that they could have done without. Compared to Infinity War, Endgame was a little less of a superhero movie and a more of a drama-esq film, but that's not saying it wasn't a superhero film, it definitely was.

All in all, Avengers: Endgame was everything I could've asked for and more, and is now my favorite superhero movie and honestly one of my favorite movies of all time, and of course I highly recommend it.

Avengers: Endgame is in theaters now.