Endgame is the culmination of over 10 years of films and planning. It is the closing of a chapter that started with an Iron man film. A film that released unbeknown to itself, or any of us, that it would play such a pivotal role in creating what has become one of the biggest grossing collection of interconnected films. Love it or hate it, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a game changer. And the film to bookend its first chapter is no different. It sets a standard and does unprecedented things. But as groundbreaking as the MCU has been, the films that make it up have been patchy, inconsistent and formulaic. And therefore, Endgame ends up being a byproduct of that.
Oh. And this review is filled with spoilers from front to back.
We all left Infinity war screenings knowing that time travel was the only way that everybody was going to be brought back. We knew Thanos would be defeated. We knew Cap and Tony would reconcile. So, Marvel had to make sure that the journey to and through these points was interesting and felt like a ride, and it did. For the most part. I guess.
Endgame's first act was very unexpected and is probably the bravest part of the movie. Endgame slaps you right in the middle of everything post snap for a long ass time and it's kind of amazing because of it. And just when it seems like things can be fixed, NOPE. Everybody still dead. They gon' stay dead. You get a Spongebob style time card with '5 years later' and everybody is still ash blowing in the wind.
Everybody feels helpless. Everybody feels like shit. Nobody has anything to go on in terms of how they will reverse what Thanos did. Captain Marvel is not the golden ticket for the express to the solution that many of us thought she would be. It's the most relate-able part of the movie, because you're watching characters deal with loss and being utterly lost because of it. Marvel often downplays death and the impact that it has on people, and rarely gives us darkness. But we get that here and it's SO good. (I like me a little darkness). Thanos also dies during the first act, which was a shocker. But Thanos' death is irrelevant and him being alive wouldn't have changed the course of the story anyway. And it was clear he wasn't gonna stay dead. Because, time travel y'all.
The act of killing Thanos so soon into the film was a P.S.A. Infinity war may have been Thanos' movie, but this shit right here will not be.
I only wish the same ruthlessness was applied to other parts of the film which bog it down and bloat it unnecessarily.
The second act is where the superhero shenanigans get going and things start to get a little messy. Partly because of pacing issues and some clumsy writing here 'n' there, but also because we get time travel. A premise that is always narratively (Is that even a word!?) messy when committed to film, even when its done well. And Endgame...does an okay job with it. BUUUUUUUUUT they simplify the shit out of it for the sake of taking a lot of focus out of the ramifications and implications of it. This makes sense for the structure of the movie, but there's holes in every single part of it.
The first part of the second act is incredibly boring. I was deadass bored and restless. Having the Avengers discover that they can time travel, realising that they need Tony, Tony being petty to Steve, Tony saying no to helping, then Tony turning up to help, then the Avengers being reassembled - it's all so boring when you already knew this was exactly what was going to happen and how it was going to play out. Watching this part of the film is tiresome, because you're waiting for the film to catch up with what you already knew was going to happen and how. When I go to watch this film a second time, I'll be using this as my cue to go and take a shit.
The second part of this act is when the time travel actually comes into play. And despite it also playing out predictably and as you probably figured it would, it's at least still fun.
Endgame has great action scenes because...obviously. But the film honestly shines just as bright when it focuses on the human emotion of the characters. It was important for Endgame to place the focus here. As regular-degular ass people with no form of powers, emotion is what we (well...some of us bitches with feelings) can relate to. But as fans, we've been on this journey with some of these characters for over 10 years, so there had to be that connection to them, what they're doing and the stakes that they're potentially facing. Endgame manages to ground its characters during their time hops, when it would have been easy to have had them flying through worm holes, shooting up the place and doing all of that superhero shit. It works better for it, because it makes the final fight scenes so much more satisfying.
The time travel scenes are, of course, for the sake of the plot and for the heroes to undo 'dat snap'. But it also gives each of the heroes time to reflect and reconcile with themselves. The issue here is the brevity of the latter, as we only really get that moment driven all the way home with Thor and Tony.
Tony has to jump back to a time before he was born and coincidentally ends up bumping into his father. A large part of what makes this moment in the film work so well is that Robert Downey Jr. and John Slattery are both so charming and have such a good rapport. Robert's acting here is understated and perfectly played. We seldom, if ever, see Tony speechless or in awe; but he is completely disarmed by the presence of his father, who is none-the-wiser that he is talking to his son from the future. Howard sucks all of the air out of Tony's bravado, and Tony revels in that, because he sees sides to his father that he never knew existed. He realises that his father was compassionate, that he cared about his family, and that despite his decisiveness as a scientific genius, he still had doubts and insecurities. I think Tony always knew deep down that his father was a good man with a good heart, but he let his resentment towards him always putting his work first cloud all of that, because it was easier for him to do. All the while not realising that he was becoming everything that he hated about his father. It's a great moment, which comes full circle by the end of the film, when we realise that Stark men are destined for greatness, but will die once they achieve it.
Thor has to jump back to the day his mother was killed. But as he is unable to mess with the events of time, he can't intervene and save her. Thor is actually in the past for Queen Amidala, but ends up being spotted by his mother despite his worst efforts at not being seen. Thor's mother acknowledges full well that the son that stands before her is from the future, that she feels his pain and that she's essentially okay with dying. It creates a necessary arc for Thor to become the warrior everybody needs him to be when the time comes. Despite everybody around him telling him that they need him and that he has purpose, it took for him to hear his mothers' words to truly believe it. It wasn't something I saw coming and it's nice to see redemption for Thor's character where writing is concerned. He's gone from being an unlikable, arrogant asshole, to being an endearing, likeable asshole.
Bruce / The Hulk (who is one person now: Hulk looks, with Bruce personality) meets with The Ancient One in order to acquire the time stone. Now, this whole set-up is weird, because you would think that somebody as smart as Bruce would have opened with a better line than what was essentially 'Bitch, gimme the stone'. What's also weird is that Bruce only mentions Stephen Strange after numerous failed attempts at trying to convince bald Tilda to hand over the time stone. It just made no sense to me that Bruce would meet with her, but not lead with the fact that he knew Stephen and that he's dead in the future. Bruce also seemed wholly unfazed by the fact that white Monk woman managed to knock him out of the Hulk with her magic palm thing. It's just a really odd scene and a set-up which goes on for far too long and seemed to serve no purpose than to have Bruce explain the plot of the movie to another character who is knowledgeable of alternate realities. Something which was not needed, because Endgame already established by this point that it's linearised the shit out of how time travel works.
Steve isn't given such a grand moment during this act of the film, but he gets it far later. And once again, Black Widow gets the short end of the stick. There is no real moment for her, despite featuring in what is one of (or was supposed to be one of) Endgame's 'big' character moments.
Part of the issue with Endgame is that it doesn't always zone in and put its foot in the things which are the most compelling, even though it acknowledges them. Or it completely downplays these moments and turns them into jokes, which it does with Thor.
A common theme in many of these MCU films is PTSD. Tony hides himself away and experiences panic attacks after almost dying during the invasion of New York, finding out that an exceptional student died in Sokovia and now feeling responsible for the death of Peter Parker. Tony is FUCKED. UP. The Hulk isn't just a manifestation of Bruce's anger, but his own PTSD. Cap suffered from it as a result of losing the two loves of his life: Bucky and Peggy. In Endgame we see that PTSD has hit Thor like a freight train. But the way in which his PTSD is handled in this film is a mess, because its all for laughs. Thor turns up looking like The big Lebowski. Sweats, shorts, sliders. A gut. No pecs. No muscles. Having Thor let himself go would have been fine, because, hey. It fucking happens. But his weight gain is used as a punchline. I don't know why Marvel went there, but they did and it felt unnecessary. Weight gain as a result of PTSD is a very real thing. But there are many guys who just are bigger and 'out of shape'. To make a joke of it was just low. Plain and simple. Thor is funny in this film, period. They could have had him dressed like a bum, with his hair grown out and a beard, with no change to his body and he still would have been just as funny, because Chris Hemsworth IS funny. Marvel really seemed to think that fat jokes were more compelling than honing in on loss. Thor has lost a lot over the course of these films. His entire family. His home. His people. His hammer. His fucking eye. Hope. The magnitude of this should have been brought home and manifested itself into more than just a setup for fat jokes. Having Thor be out of shape, but still do all that cool Thor shit could have been an amazing message; debunking that Thor is only able to do what he does because of his physique, and that having the body of a Greek God (yes, I know Thor is Norse mythology; but Norse men didn't quite lift how Greeks did) is a criteria of being a superhero.
This is the Endgame y'all. So of course some heroes gon' die. There are two major deaths in this film. One which surprised me, but had no impact whatsoever. And another which was to be expected, but had heavy emotional impact because of who it was and their arc not just in this film, but across the MCU as a whole.
Black Widow dies. And yo... I didn't feel a damn thing. Black Widow has been squandered in near enough every film she's been in, with Marvel making no attempt to consistently write her as a good character. The only film that bothered to was The Winter soldier (best film of the whole entire MCU, e-mail your location so we can fight if you don't agree). I genuinely wanted a Black Widow film after watching her in that shit. But, now? I could not care less. We get something...I guess, in the first act, where Nastasha / Black Widow is open about not knowing where her place is in this post Thanos snap world she's having to live. But this doesn't feel specific to Black Widow, because it's literally what everybody who survived the snap and lost somebody is fighting with, including the people who know her best; two of whom ARE STILL ALIVE. Steve / Cap has constantly had to adjust to fit into this world that seems to keep changing and he never truly stops struggling with that. But he keeps fighting because it's what he was made to do and all he knows how to do. This is what makes Natasha and Steve close and why they trust each other. It's also why Natasha and Clint are so close. But Steve has an existence separate from Nastasha and a story branch which has nothing to do with her. Even Hawkeye, FUCKING HAWKEYE has a story branch which has nothing to do with her. Nastasha / Black Widow only feels relevant by proxy of her affiliation with two other characters who happen to be men.
Black Widow's lack of...well...anything in this film speaks to a bigger problem when it comes to how Marvel writes its female characters.
It's incredibly disappointing that after Captain Marvel and Black Panther, we get a film with one of the MCU's first female heroes, who after 7 films has received nothing but new wigs. (Horrendous wigs by the way). And because of how badly the ball was dropped concerning the writing of her character across so many films, there's just no emotional attachment to Black Widow when she dies - to the point where she may as well had not been killed off in the first place. Black Widow getting a solo movie post Endgame makes even less sense to me now. Had Marvel given her a movie back when it made sense, then maybe her death may have been more impactful. But instead it just feels cheap and nonsensical.
The circumstances under which Black Widow dies is also stupid. Endgame isn't a smart movie. This isn't a necessarily bad thing. A movie doesn't need to be smart in order for it to be good. But when logic eludes and causes plot holes, it's a problem. There are many instances of things just happening, for the sake of happening and Black Widow's death was the absolute worst offender of this.
When the Avengers travel back in time they all pair off and go to a different point in time where they know the location of an infinity stone, so that they can retrieve it before Thanos can get it, bring it to the present, slap it into a new gauntlet and pull a CTRL+Z on dat snap.
Hawkeye and Black Widow go to Vormir for the soul stone, completely unaware of what they'll have to do to acquire it. Now... There was a WHOOOOOLE montage in this film of the team coming together and pulling all-nighters to piece together their first encounters with an infinity stone and their knowledge of where the stones were and could have been. For the whole team to know where the soul stone was and to send Hawkeye and Black Widow there, Nebula must have not only told them where it was, but what possibly had to be done in order to obtain it, or at least what she 'thinks' based on what she pieced together. Nebula is not about that villainous life anymore and she's fucking DONE losing people around her, so she would not have left the part out about Gamora dying, even if she wasn't 100% sure that she was sacrificed to get the stone. And even if she had 'forgotten', she stood there in front of an audience on Titan in Infinity war, which included Tony Stark, and said 'Gamora... He took her to Vormir. He came back with the soul stone. She didn't'. And when Quill asked Thanos why he killed Gamora, Thanos replied 'I had to'. Therefore, Tony also knew...kinda. So, I was baffled as to why Black Widow and Hawkeye were so shocked when the Red skull threw his cape back over his shoulder and said 'One of y'all gon' have to jump from here'. This was also a large part of why I rolled my eyes when Black Widow died. It was just a case of Marvel lazily pulling shit together for convenience, even though there's so many holes in how we got to this particular point. So much of Endgame is handled in this manner and it just made me cock my head to the side and go 'Really!?'
Tony also manages to nab all of the stones from Thanos with ease, yet in Infinity war it took 6 people to try and get the gauntlet off Thanos whilst he was half-asleep. So, I'm like 'How, did you even-?!'. Granted. Thanos had 5 of the infinity stones back then. But even without a single stone, he's formidable as fuck.
Endgame just doesn't feel narratively and logically tight, even within rules of the world it's built for itself. Directors and writers turning narrative blind eyes to get the plot to a point is something that's become synonymous with the MCU in almost every single film. The Black Widow situation would have had greater impact if all of the Avengers were aware that somebody would die beforehand, because it would have made the weight of the sacrifice even greater and added to the helplessness. The fact that they are going back in time to save lives, but knowing it's going to cost them one and that they won't be able to get it back. For a character to get killed off under surprise circumstances that shouldn't have really been a surprise just cheapened the moment even further. Especially for somebody like Black Widow, who is calculated, over cautious and all about knowing what she's getting herself into. For her to just jump back in time, hop into a spaceship, fly through space to some planet without really knowing what she'd do once she got there was out of character. Even for a character that has no character. And to add insult to injury; for Black Widow to not get a funeral, even in a post credit scene was a whole other mess. But then again, the way she died and her lack of funeral felt fitting, given how Marvel have treated her across almost all of these films.
The deal with Tony and the gauntlet only gets a pass because the moment we saw Tony with the infinity stones, we knew what was going to happen and the payoff paid off. Also, the gravitas and physical stress of one person using all 6 infinity stones is something that we as viewers are aware of and the Avengers themselves know full well. We all saw how that snap gave Thanos an infinity stroke that left him limping. Then we saw how Bruce doing the snap left his right arm looking like a burnt hog, having volunteered himself to do the snap that brings everybody back because he knew he was the only one that could physically survive it. So, this made Tony's sacrifice even more emotional, because he knew he'd have no choice but to do the snap and that he'd die once he did.
It seems like I'm shitting all over this film. But for all of its issues, Endgame did a decent amount right.
Ant-Man and Nebula, both feature far more prominently in this film that I expected and play huge parts in this story, which was a pleasant surprise. It helps retain the fact that this film is a crossover outside of just the Avengers, before everybody returns at the end; but without the film having to account for too many characters, as was the case with Infinity war. Nebula gets more screen time in this film than she did in either of the Guardians films. I really like the arc that she's gotten over the course of these films. She comes off cold, but its justified. And even so, she knows compassion. She knows about loss, the breakdown of relationships, never being good enough and feeling completely broken; which makes her relate-able in so many ways. She has a really touching moment with Tony at the start of the film and another with Rocket mid-way through. Nebula is the unexpected heart of this movie and she's a far better character than Gamora, whom I couldn't stand. And it goes without saying that she's handled far better than Black Widow. I just wish that they'd write abuse and torment out of Nebula's arc. I do not want to see Nebula being pulled apart, having to kill herself or fight for anybody's affection in phase 4. Leave that shit behind with all of the other problematic handling of female characters that phase 1 to 3 has been riddled with.
The time travelling in the second act is a lot of fun and very nostalgic. We get scenes pulled from the first Avengers movie and get to see the present versions of the characters interact around and within all of that; which means we also get to see fan favourite Loki. There's a callback to the elevator fight scene from The Winter soldier. There's even a nod to the Agent Carter TV series, as we get to see the very same Jarvis, which made me feel a type of way, because I fucking loved that show. There is fan service sprinkled throughout this movie, but a lot of it is in the second act when the time travelling kicks off. The tonality shift could have felt odd coming straight after an act that was so dark. But, it manages to work because it matches the heart of the first act, only with the heroes' despair flipped into hope and a belief they can actually change the world.
A glaringly notable difference with this film in comparison to Infinity war is that it's actually an Avengers film, which I love. Infinity war was a Thanos film which guest starred the entire MCU and I was fine with that. But it's nice to have a story which places the Avengers at the centre of it. We also get a lot more Captain America in this film, after we got little of him (and well, anybody) in Infinity war, and Civil war ended up being an Avengers movie in which he was side-lined by appearances from Spider-Man, Black Panther and a story which placed Bucky at its centre. Captain America has a greater presence in this film. He swears on a few occasions, he makes jokes, he's supportive, he's pensive. We've seen Captain America become hardened and cynical over time, to the point where his stubbornness has made him occasionally unlikeable, even in the midst of thirst for Chris Evans. But with him having nothing else to lose here, his energy is different and Captain America becomes fun, because he's hopeful. Not just about winning the fight, but getting his life back. This could be taken as a nod to current world affairs, especially when you factor in who Steve hands his shield to at the end of the film.
The final battle sequence is just insane. Give the VFX team every award, because BIIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH. It's everything. We're probably not going to see anything like this again. Now... The final battle does fall into the third act-itis that every MCU film always falls into. We also get the whole 'enemies pouring in through portals' nonsense that superhero films love doing; as well as the battle taking place in a characterless, muddy setting that looks indistinct and a lot like the same place that Tony and co. fought Thanos in Infinity war. But the scale and the spectacle of what's happening is so insane and enjoyable, that you just let that shit slide. We get to see every single hero from the MCU fuck up Thanos and his monstrous hoard. However, there was no point in this battle where I felt like the heroes were in any danger. It's a difficult thing to try and build suspense around a moment that everybody knows the heroes will ultimately win. But it truly felt like the more that Thanos' nasties poured into the fray, the lower the stakes became.
The final battle is split into two parts, the first being Iron man, Captain America and Thor going up against just Thanos. The first part of this fight is far more tense than the second, because it feels like the point at which one of these characters is going to die and there are moments where each comes close. This first square off also gives us what is hands-down one of the best moments in the film: Captain America wielding Mjölnir. A beautiful callback to the scene from Age of Ultron where everybody attempted to lift it and fail, but Captain America managed to make it budge, something that only Thor noticed and looked extremely worried about. When that hammer flew in, went upside Thanos' head and flew out of shot and the camera panned to show Cap holding it, the entire cinema erupted. People jumped out of seats. Phones came out. Popcorn flew. Wigs flew. Then Cap went crazy, spinning that shit, summoning lightning, leaping all over the place and all sorts. My wig is still burnt from that reveal. To a fucking crisp. I wanted projector man to roll that shit back so I could see it again, because I was not ready for that. AT ALL. There are multiple theory videos on YouTube of people talking about how Captain America using Mjölnir is impossible, and the Russo brothers took the biggest doo-doo on all of them and told them to delete their accounts.
Then there's Tony's death. Not much of a surprise, but still a shock. As the character that kick started the MCU, it made complete sense for this chapter of it to end with Tony. His death was incredibly touching. Not just because Iron man / Tony Stark has been the backbone of the MCU, but because Robert Downey Jr. has too. Tony's rise and fall and rise again arc of redemption mirrors RDJ's own personal journey. We all accept these actors as the characters they portray, because they've all been so well cast and done decent jobs. But I truly feel like it was different with Robert Downey Jr., because he was the first. He had the tough job of selling this character and winning over us sceptical motherfuckers over who doubted whether this shit would work and had already turned our noses up at Iron man, because he's not the most loved character in the Marvel universe. But we didn't just accept RDJ as Iron man, we accepted him into our hearts as well. Robert Downey Jr. is so damn likeable, full of character and charisma, that Tony's death was so much more than the MCU losing a character.
And then there's the end of Steve Rogers as Captain America. The one character we all felt would probably die, didn't. Steve gives up being Captain America in a cool twist which sees him return to a point in time and choose a different path where the marries Peggy and gets to live a normal life. How this was played out felt a little rushed. The scene of Steve Rogers sat as an old man would have made a great post credit sequence, especially as it sets up a huge character change that we'll undoubtedly see in the next phase of the MCU. Just having Steve Rogers seemingly not return from going back in time to return the infinity stones and then rolling the credits would have left the audience in a state of 'I cannot take this' and wondering 'what the actual fuck', and made the post credits reveal that he's alive, old and giving up being Captain America all the more rewarding. But it's still a cool scene and a great way to end a character's run without killing them. Even if it, once again, exposes all the holes in how Endgame handles time travel.
It was nice to see a character get their happy ending after the way Infinity war ended and how this film could have ended if was just Iron man dying and the credits rolling.
Endgame succeeds in feeling wholly satisfying, even though it makes a lot of missteps, because ultimately, it did what it needed to. It also provides many great fan servicey moments that even I smiled and jumped out of my seat at. Endgame very clearly concludes a chapter of the MCU indefinitely and in the neatest and most masterful way possible. Endgame leaves just enough for Marvel to continue to create films and TV series' based on some of these characters and things that occur as a result of the events of this film. But ends so resolutely that it could have been a mic drop and a bow to there never being another film.
I like Endgame, because there is a lot here to like and it does what it set out to. I'm critical of it, because I'm critical of every-damn-thing. And when it comes to the Russo's in the MCU, I hold them up to the standard of The Winter soldier, which did everything so right that it gives me feel good chest pains.
Endgame could have been paced a bit better. Especially after the briskness of Infinity war, which featured no dead air and covered a heck of a lot; almost too much to a point where I felt it probably should have been 2 films. Not every film has the luxury of being able to have a 3 hour running time and I feel that the Russo's bloated numerous scenes unnecessarily. There is a lot that could have been cut from this movie. I also would have loved for each of the original Avengers to have gotten their moment and for Thor's PTSD arc to have been handled with more care. And (yes, there's more) the cinematography was kinda boring. I cannot recall a single shot that made me go 'Wow, that's amazing' and remained as snapshot moment in my mind. Where-as The Winter soldier had several. Civil war had a few. Infinity war had a couple. There's no one shot from a cinematographic stand point that stood out, even though what happens in shots is great (i.e the final battle sequences).
The thing I have to remind myself of with Endgame is that its purpose was to conclude. To bring things to an end. It's in the damn title for God's sake. Yet, I have to remind myself of that fact when my mind goes off trying to look at this film in isolation of what it's tethered to and what allowed it to be in the first place.
Endgame's purpose is to bookend a chapter in not just Marvel cinematic history, but cinematic history, PERIOD. Taking it as a standalone film is difficult to do when it's essentially the second part to 1 film, but the final chapter of 21. But this doesn't make Endgame exempt from issues. Endgame is fun. It's full of emotion. It's got heart. It ties things up really well. But it's safe as hell and too formulaic.
Endgame highlights the issues with the MCU as much as it highlights its triumphs, and the MCU is most certainly a triumph. Not all of its films are good, but there was a point in time when something like this, of this scale, just wasn't conceivable. The Marvel-hero-on-screen buck kind stopped at Spider-Man and that ended up falling to shit until the MCU took it under its wing. The impact of Endgame is not lost on me. But the ground breaking achievements and the making of cinematic history as a result of the MCU does not eradicate the fact at Endgame could have been a far better film. But for all of its faults, it really did do a grand job of bookending an 11 year story. For it to draw a line where there's no Chris 'Cap' Evans or Robert 'Stark' Downey Jr. to fall back on was brave and necessary to forge a new path with new characters and shed some light on some of the existing ones. I certainly came out of the screening feeling content and far more satisfied with the way things wrapped than I did say Harry Potter and the deathly hallows, which I just- I won't go into that.
From a cinematography perspective, Endgame was fine. As a story, Endgame was alright. As a superhero film, Endgame was fun and enjoyable. But as a love letter to fans who have been rockin' with the MCU since day one, it was bloody perfect.
Verdict: Watch it and have you a good time.