Avengers: Endgame

"We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the live long day, but that, up there, that...That's the endgame." I didn't think that line from "Age of Ultron" would find double meaning. "Infinity War" is sure to become another famous Hollywood cliffhanger ending, on par with "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest", "The Fellowship of the Ring". "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" and of course "The Empire Strikes Back". Speaking of "The Lord of the Rings", "Avengers: Endgame" is for certain the "Return of the King" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is three hours long and has a lot of resolutions that happen at the end. I didn't think I would ever see a film with an epic scale to match "The Return of the King" and find it entertaining. While "Endgame" wasn't as good as that Best Picture winner, it was still an experience at the IMAX 3D theater that I won't soon forget. Because this is basically the end of the Infinity Saga that began with the mid-credit scene in the first "Avengers", another comparison can be made with the Harry Potter Franchise. The last book was split into two movies because the story demanded it and the Infinity Saga demanded a three-hour "Endgame". Just as I liked "The Deathly Hallows: Part 1" a tad more than "Part 2", I liked "Infinity War" just a bit more than "Endgame". Nevertheless, "Endgame" had a great story at its center with amazing one-liners, eye candy, comedy and drama to back it up. With some movies that I review, I can write without spoiling anything. This is a case though where there is no way to explain why the movie is good without spoiling anything.

Before I get into the meat and potatoes of what is "Endgame", I wanted to recap some of my thoughts about "Infinity War". When I wrote about that movie, I was able to avoid mentioning any spoilers so I need to get a few things off my chest. I remember how spellbound the audience was during the climax of "Infinity War". All the knowledge of the upcoming Marvel movies already announced was completely forgotten at that moment. A large group in the bottom of the theater I was in couldn't help but scream multiple times and louder each time a character was purged from existence. The resulting cliffhanger ending also got a vocal reaction. To have the original Avengers survive was noteworthy. It was like the filmmakers were hitting the reset button. I was quite sad that most of Guardians of the Galaxy vanished. Tom Holland's lines when he disappeared were improvised by the way and it made for a moment that was very hard to watch. The audience on opening weekend went nuts during that moment as well. After a "Civil War" in the MCU, I was expecting "reconstruction" to happen in "Infinity War" but only a little reconciliation happened. It turns out that it would take another five years to get to the point where Tony and Steve could team up again. I have been trying to ignore the various plot holes in the first movie but one I couldn't shake for a while is whether Doctor Strange knew that Star Lord was going to lose it with Thanos killing Gamora. Strange had to of known so I guess if Strange had stopped Star Lord (or told him about Gamora ahead of the battle) and the Avengers got the gauntlet off, Thanos would still have won somehow eventually. We weren't the ones to see all fourteen million alternate futures so we had no choice but to trust Strange as we waited a year to see "Endgame". Strange also gave up the stone to save Tony so it is obvious that he foresaw something that changed his mind about Iron Man. One line that stood out to me in "Infinity War" was "All this, just for a drop of blood". Thanos may have thought that one drop of blood was as far as the Avengers would get but I interpreted that moment differently. Just as on "Rocky IV", that drop of blood proves that this antagonist isn't invincible. They almost got that gauntlet off after all. This line gave me hope instead of despair. Another great Thanos moment in the previous movie was his reaction to Cap's strength. His face seemed confused that a human man could offer such physical resistance. There were many fan theories offered in the year between "Infinity War" and "Endgame" about how our heroes would get out of this but I was more concerned about how Ant-Man was going to get out of the quantum realm. In some ways, that was more concerning for me than the ending of "Infinity War". As a final note on "Infinity War" (one that I couldn't say without spoiling the movie): Thanos has a green thumb. Now that I got that joke off my chest, I will get into "Endgame".

There are some common mistakes that comic book movies make that ruin the experience. Many of them have to do with offering the audience too much of a good thing and with a movie like "Endgame", any of these mistakes could have easily happened. There is so much that this film has to offer and it is so epic that there was a serious chance that congestion alone could have been this sequel's undoing. Congestion did take its toll on the enjoyment level of this movie but compare it with say "Ralph Breaks the Internet" and you realize that things could have been worse. There was so much happening in that animated film that you had trouble enjoying the show. Any major congestion problems were solved with the three-hour running time of "Endgame". Also, because this film is the end of the Infinity Saga, it did not have to worry about an excess of foreshadowing. Another aspect that this movie had to be very careful about was forcing supporting characters into the film that don't contribute to the story. "Endgame" takes the cake with how many supporting characters show up in the climax but this is a war after all and most of the characters show up in the climax only. Because this is a time travel story though, we also get to see characters that died earlier in the MCU. I saw a great balance between subplots, one-liners, CGI shots and exposition. The film was far more dramatic than previous installments in the MCU but I can't call it dark. Many failed movies based on comic books try to go for a darker tone and fail by doing so. The plot of this movie was pretty original even though the concept of time travel has been told a lot by Hollywood. The film even pokes fun at itself by naming all the famous time travel movies it can. The filmmakers know that the fans will put this movie under the microscope to find all timeline paradoxes. By being self-referential in the scene between Scott, Rhodey and Bruce, the filmmakers are answering these criticisms in advance. By using the quantum realm, our heroes aren't really going to change their future. What the scene between Bruce and the Ancient One explains is that even though the Avengers aren't screwing up their timeline, they are still going to return the stones so that they don't cause a mess of alternate realities. Also, remember that there is a multi-verse introduced in "Doctor Strange" and who's to say that our time travelling heroes aren't just visiting other dementions using Hank Pym's technology. What I am grateful for is that this show feels like an original time travel story because the Avengers are undertaking a "time heist". Unlike the heist in "Back to the Future: Part II" however, the time travelers are splitting up into teams and visiting different times and places. All this, plus the entertainment level, allows me to forgive any potholes. I could also get a sense that "Endgame" was slightly addressing the criticism of time travel being a deus ex machina. I actually feel that painting us into a corner at the end of "Infinity War" and then more so with the passage of five years in the story helped us accept this solution. As audience members, we can't really think of a different solution ourselves anyways. If you go back and look, "Ant-Man and the Wasp" actually sets up the idea of time and space acting differently in the quantum realm so time travel doesn't really come out of nowhere in the MCU. Besides, thanks to this plot device, we do get to revisit many great moments in the Infinity Saga before its concluded. "Endgame" also honors its source material and this usually results in success. You can change some things but you have to tread lightly when adapting a beloved comic universe. Professor Hulk and the passing of the shield to Sam are both from the comics so thumbs up on staying true to the comics. This sequel does a good job in avoiding the mistakes of other comic book films.

There are many miscellaneous reasons that made this sequel enjoyable and resolving. If you noticed, during the Marvel Studios logo, all the characters that were eliminated by Thanos were missing from the logo. Before seeing "Endgame", I was wondering how you would use comedy after the ending of "Infinity War". It's the passage of five years since Thanos' purge that makes it okay to have a few laughs again. One thing I correctly predicted in the month leading up to this movie was that Captain Marvel was going to save Tony and Nebula. I was expecting the mid-credit scene from "Captain Marvel" to re-appear at the start of "Endgame". Even though that didn't happen, I think it is safe to assume that she was sent by the surviving Avengers to rescue Tony. I think the best use of special effects in the film was making Tony skinny after being rescued. As a quick side note, I love Tony's nicknames that he gives others in the MCU and Blue Meanie/Lebowski are good additions. Ant-Man's five hour/five year experience provides some great drama, especially when he finds Cassie. When the Avengers go back in time, it also makes for some great drama as well as comedy and storytelling. The gag of seeing the opening credit scene from "Guardians of the Galaxy" from another perspective is genius. On the other hand, I haven't felt this much anxiety watching a time travel story since seeing the "Back to the Future" franchise for the first time as a kid. The scene between Tony and Howard was suspenseful at first but then Steve and Tony both succeed in obtaining the Pym Particle and the Tesseract. Then the scene became about Tony getting a moment with his dad that he never got. The climatic massive battle is something that you would see in the comic so why not on the big screen? Part of me wishes that they had saved the title "Infinity War" for this film. In terms of Steve's worthiness, it is amazing how some little joke that seems so long ago in "Age of Ultron" came to mean so much in this film. On a similar note, this whole Marvel Cinematic Universe began with an end credit scene staring Nick Fury and also with the line "I am Iron Man." The phrase that kicked off this whole thing is now the line that ends it and I love the poetry of that. I heard sobs and/or utter silence when Tony dies. This film really touched a nerve for every fan. The fact that the Gamora we see at the end of the film is from 2014 makes for a great third "Guardians" film because she doesn't know her friends anymore.

Besides the congestion, there are some aspects of "Endgame" that interfered with the film's entertainment value from my perspective. Before a new Avenger movie, we used to get a great MCU film to precede it and get us excited. Those preludes include "Captain America: The First Avenger", "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Black Panther". "Captain Marvel", at least for me, was not the movie to get me fired up for "Endgame". After seeing "Endgame", I was left wondering if Captain Marvel's role in this sequel was altered after the backlash from her solo film. Brie Larson was filmed for "Endgame" before she was filmed for "Captain Marvel" and that is evidence of no alterations. Carol is so powerful that she could have easily overcome a lot of the hurdles that our heroes encounter back in time therefore the writers might have gave her a small role in "Endgame" in order to properly entertain the audience. On the other hand, once the passage of five years happens in "Endgame", you only see Carol via holographic communication and at the climax. Maybe she originally time traveled with the others but special effects and editing were used to reduce her role in the story. Either way, I like how much screen time she had because as I said, a larger presence in the film would have made things too easy for our heroes. Lately, political statements in Hollywood movies have been a distraction for me. Going into "Endgame", I was curious if Marvel was going to make further statements. Thankfully, any such statements were not too distracting. Co-director Joe Russo's cameo was one such moment and the female Avenger group photo was another. My biggest problem with "Endgame" took place during the diminuendo after the climax. Don't get me wrong: drunken Thor was funny and his gut reveal was awesome cinematography. It got a very definite reaction from the audience. In the same scene, we also to see beloved characters from "Thor: Ragnarok" that were missing in "Infinity War". What bothers me is that Thor forsakes the leadership of the Asgardians in favor of joining the Guardians of the Galaxy. It is perfectly understandable that Thor hits rock bottom over the course of the five years but what good is hitting rock bottom if you don't rise out of it? Can you imagine if "The Lion King" had ended with the Hakuna Matata sequence? Disney has already had one of its characters forsake responsibility recently on the movie screen (Vanellope) and now Thor does so in "Endgame". It is out of character for him. Even in "Thor: Ragnarok", a film which is different from its predecessors, Thor ends up on the throne. Maybe Marvel saw the success of "Ragnarok" and decided to make Thor a comedic character from now on. To me, it feels like Thor has resorted back to his immature state at the start of his first solo movie. All the other original Avengers got an honorable send off: Iron Man and Black Widow sacrificed their lives and Cap and Hawkeye got their simple lives. Are you telling me that Thor ends up a drunk, fat Guardian of the Galaxy? I don't think that is following the source material. Even though I love the Guardians, Thor was never established as similar to these characters despite "Ragnarok" taking pages out of the "Guardians" films. Another minor moment that rubbed me the wrong way was Ross at the funeral for Tony. To me, he is an antagonist in the MCU.

All the actors in this film get a big round of applause from me. Robert Downey Jr.'s best acting came when he returns to earth and makes his point with Steve. The curtain call during the end credits was pretty rad. I expected the cast list to be huge for this movie but what I wasn't expecting was to see some big actors from past MCU films such as Tilda Swinton and Robert Redford among others. It was so amazing to have them show up, even briefly. Natalie Portman only had to record voiceover for this film. All her scenes were unused footage from "Thor: The Dark World". In the first seven months of 2019, Samuel L. Jackson appeared in five movies. Four of those films are in the superhero genre and even though he has a small cameo in "Endgame", it still counts for me. I love how James D'Arcy reprises his role as Jarvis from the "Agent Carter" TV series. I did not expect to see Ty Simpkins at Tony's funeral but his character's presence makes a lot more sense than Ross' presence. This is probably Stan Lee's last cameo and it was funny thankfully. With the filmmakers going all out with these cameos, it truly feels like an epic conclusion of the Infinity Saga. We feel like we get our money's worth. Speaking of that, the box office records that used to be held by "Avatar", "Infinity War" or "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens" were smashed by "Endgame". To name a few of them, "Endgame" is twice as successful as "Infinity War" because it took 11 days for "Infinity War" to make a billion dollars but "Endgame" reached the two billion dollar mark in the same amount of time. It took "Avatar" over a month to make two billion! "Endgame" also has the highest opening weekend gross. It was inevitable (pun intended) that "Endgame" would surpass "Avatar" as the highest grossing film of all time. Some believe that Marvel and Disney cheated to reach this milestone by releasing a version of the film in the middle of the summer that included a tribute to Stan Lee and a deleted scene after the feature film. I would argue that if you were gullible enough to return to the movie theater to see something that would have been on the Blu-ray disc and internet eventually, then Disney and Marvel deserve the accolade of making the highest grossing movie ever.

Cliffhanger endings are used so that the time in between installments will equate to monster financial earnings in the future and the MCU accomplished this tactic. To put it simply, it delivered. The audience reactions throughout the film were further evidence of this. "Endgame" cost 40 million dollars more to make than "Infinity War", making it the third most expensive movie in history behind "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" and "Age of Ultron". "Endgame" may not be the best MCU film but it sure was memorable and historic. A film doesn't have to be the best or perfect in order to conclude a saga in a satisfying way. "The Return of the Jedi" is another example of this. There was a decent balance of cinematic elements in "Endgame", all things considered. I don't know if Phase Four will begin something even bigger and better than the Infinity Saga but we have doubted the MCU before only to be happily proven wrong. Now that Disney owns Fox, there are more famous characters that can appear in the MCU and that is something to be excited for. I am still sad though to bid farewell to Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff. I would say that it is only a movie but two billion dollars says otherwise.

4 Stars out of 5