Review: Avengers Endgame

In the aftermath of the catastrophic events of “Avengers: Infinity War”, the remaining Avengers go after Thanos (Josh Brolin) but the encounter brings no restoration of things. A few years later, they are given a glimmer of hope from Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) who suggests that the quantum realm has time travel capabilities that might allow them to travel back in time before the almighty ‘Thanos Snap’ occurred and collect all of the infinity stones before Thanos. It’s crazy, but it might just work.

 

As you probably already know I’m not a big fan of the modern day comic book/superhero film. There are exceptions including the previous “Avengers: Infinity War”. This 2019 film from co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo (who helmed the best of these films “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” as well as “Infinity War”) is for me one of the more middling ones. Scripted by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (see the above films), It’s clunky, unwieldy and clearly only made for the initiated. No one else is really welcome this time around. I get it, you likely wouldn’t start with this film – and it’s not like I hadn’t seen the majority of the preceding films, if not all of them – but this is the cinematic equivalent of a Happy Meal. And I say that as someone who felt Martin Scorsese’s criticisms of the genre were factually incorrect. Perhaps there was a kernel of something to the essence of what he was saying, however. These movies still count as films in my opinion (Sorry, Marty), but there’s something perfunctory and fan service-y about films like this where unless you’re already a fan, the films may be useless to you.

 

There’s no reason for this film to be so long. That’s the mistake a lot of these modern superhero films make – even the majority of the better ones – they mistake length for greatness, gravitas, and depth. You can make a great film with depth in under 2 hours guys, especially when it’s already part of a massive franchise of interconnected films with supposedly already established characters. I mean come on, just look at the plot here. The plot is finding the stones and resurrecting the fallen? Really? That should’ve been the final act of the previous film, not a 3 hour film of its own. It’s like 2 ½ hours of padding and only some of that padding is entertaining. The plot doesn’t even make sense to me. Or at least Tony Stark’s objections to time travel don’t. He knows Captain America’s story/situation but thinks time travel is a bad idea? In theory I like the attempt to give gravitas and caution about time travel (and we get a couple of moving moments with Thor and Stark separately), but in a film featuring Captain America, Ant Man, and The Hulk…what exactly is the damn problem with time travel? At best it feels like a few films too late for such concerns about the dangers of science. Although I could cynically call it clever in a way, the use of time travel here is just a way to pay fan service by revisiting the previous greatest hits of the franchise. I get why, but it still has the feeling of leftovers at best. Also, anyone who complained about “The Rise of Skywalker” undoing almost every decision in “The Last Jedi” who then swallows the course correction here is a massive hypocrite (It’s OK, I’m a hypocrite in the reverse situation I suppose). The final battle is lifeless because this entire film feels like largely extraneous padding. It’s not my fault they didn’t want to end it with “Infinity War”. This is such a disappointing film.

 

The performances as always are a mixed bag but this is the first time in the franchise that I’ve liked Robert Downey Jr. and to a lesser extent Scarlett Johansson, whose performance isn’t much but is at least still an improvement over previous films. Downey’s performance as Tony Stark finally – after how many films? – mixes some gravitas with the snark. He finally feels like a character in the story instead of an actor hovering dismissively and glibly above it. It’s a genuine performance from the talented actor and he definitely wipes the floor with Chris Evans, who is as flat as ever. Paul Rudd is as great as usual (and gets the best line in regards to a part of Cap’n America’s body), and although the character is much less interesting this time around, Josh Brolin is still terrific as the villainous Thanos. Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk/Bruce Banner is quite interesting here too and the CGI is genuinely outstanding. The character is also rather funny, as is Chris Hemsworth as ‘Fat Thor’. Normally I find Hemsworth comedic ability to be overly heavy-handed but here his Lebowski-ish incarnation of the character is clearly the best incarnation of the character. I also liked the cameo by Tilda Swinton, however Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel is basically a deus ex machina with an Ellen Degeneres haircut. Worst of all is the wastage of Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury in a mere walk-on. The guy responsible for assembling all of these characters doesn’t get a single word in the film nor more than a few seconds on screen. Shameful.

 

The humour mostly works. Some of the performances work. However, the clunky and unwieldy plotting and gross over-length got in the way of my enjoyment with this one. It’s not terribly good, and the smug and rather exclusionary nature of the storytelling in these films really rubs me the wrong way. Fans are welcome to enjoy it, it was made for all of you.

 

Rating: C+