I don’t need to give a huge intro for this film. You know exactly what is going in: half of all life in the universe has been wiped out by Thanos, who, in Avengers: Infinity War, proved himself to be a more complex character than one may have originally imagined. This was one reason why I loved Infinity War, despite not being a huge Marvel fanboy. We saw creative narrative choices put to great effect to allow an unprecedented amount of sympathy from Marvel fans for a truly horrible villain. I walked out of Infinity War so shocked but thoroughly satisfied that I expected its successor, Endgame, to be incapable of topping it. I am pleased to say, however, that Endgame is near-cinematic perfection. Although flaw-filled and sometimes vulnerable to plot holes, it succeeds immensely due to excellent character development, creative plot and narrative choices, epic battle sequences, and nail-biting conflict development.
I was worried that our surviving heroes, the original Avengers team (plus Rocket Raccoon, Nebula, and Captain Marvel) would quickly become uninteresting. After all, we already had two Avengers films (plus the pseudo-Avengers movie Civil War), and after the impressive introduction of Thanos, I couldn’t see how each character could be further developed over the course of one film. I was immensely wrong. The Russo Brothers somehow managed to wizard up some truly creative plot decisions for where our heroes ended up after the cataclysm, while even further developing them in unexpected ways throughout the film. I’ll stop the details here lest I end up in spoiler territory, but overall, I enjoyed nearly every moment with our protagonists on screen, and didn’t feel as though anyone was under utilized or out of place.
A big concern for many movie goers is the three hour run time. I’ve heard drastically differing opinions on whether or not this movie feels as long as it is. I personally enjoyed the movie’s pacing: yes, it is a slow-burner. But in my mind, the sheer creativity, twists and turns, and emotional gravity kept the movie interesting, and felt like it consistently rose to a truly climactic and epic finale. On that note, the last 45 minutes or so of this movie are mind boggling. Again, I’d love to keep talking about the monumental feat of cinema that this movie amounts to, but I have no desire to ruin the fun.
Yes this movie is flawed. Due to the nature of its plot, perhaps even more so than Infinity War, it is easy to poke holes through certain events that occur. I didn’t mind though, which introduces what I think is a good metric for plot holes in movies: if a movie executes the rest of the narrative with artistic precision and brings quality emotional weight to its characters, it can get more free passes on plot holes. Endgame falls in this category. There are only a few exceptions to this with some plot choices that I disagree with. However, I don’t consider them to degrade the film’s overall quality.
Perhaps the most important question that fans may have is how well does this film wrap up the 22-movie saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and therein lies Endgame‘s most impressive feat. I cannot imagine a better way Disney/Marvel could’ve brought such excellent closure. I personally rate Endgame‘s conclusion as the second best in film-saga history, beaten only by Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. I can already tell that many movie-goers won’t agree, perhaps especially the original Marvel comics super-fans, but as a casual consumer of these films, I walked out of the theater majorly impressed.
Every time I try and continue expressing a train of thought I run into a fine line bordering spoiler territory, so it’s best if I stop here. Overall, since you will undoubtedly be seeing it like the rest of the world, I hope that you’ll be as satisfied by this epic conclusion as I was. 9.2/10
