Film Review: Avengers - Endgame

Sexuality/Nudity Acceptable
Violence Acceptable
Vulgarity Acceptable
Anti-Catholic Philosophy Acceptable

It has all come down to this.

11 years and 21 movies have led to the culmination here in Avengers: Endgame.  This movie feels like the finale to a TV series, but on a much larger scale.  And like a series finale, the goal has to be to give a proper send off to what has come before. 

So does Endgame succeed?

Emotionally?  Absolutely!
Character Arc?  Yes (for the most part).
Story?  A mixed bag.

This is an incredibly difficult movie to review because (if you haven't seen it yet) it is not the movie that you are expecting.  I have to hand it to Marvel's marketing department for keeping the main plot completely under wraps.  Some of the early decisions were bold and shocking and made me immediately re-adjust my expectations for what I was going to watch.

I am going to endeavor to avoid any spoilers here.  This is a movie where a great deal of the enjoyment comes from the myriad of surprises that are in store.  To give those away is to give away some of the joy that comes from watching this epic film.

The movie begins less than a month after Avengers: Infinity War (SPOILERS FOR INFINITY WAR BELOW).  Half of all life in the universe has been eradicated by Thanos and his Infinity Gauntlet.  Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Nebula (Karren Gillen) are floating in the Guardians' space ship, marooned and losing life support.  On Earth, the rest of the Avengers are dealing with the aftermath, trying to deal with their failure.  This is the first five minutes of the movie and I honestly don't think I can speak any more of the plot without spoiling some real surprises. 

There is so much to admire about this movie, but I am going to start with the negatives, of which there are a few.  This movie is not perfect.  And those who are expecting this movie to be like Infinity War may be disappointed.

The biggest issue is the plot and its structure.  Infinity War was a long movie with dozens of characters to juggle, but it had a really tight story that had a straight, strong through line.  Endgame meanders a lot in the first hour.  It feels like the writers were so constrained by the forward momentum of Infinity War's story that once they got past that, they felt like they could relax and make their scenes feel more leisurely, letting them scenes go on, some a bit too long.  The movie is over three hours long, but there was quite a lot that could have been trimmed, especially in the first hour.

The main quest is also incredibly complex.  In order to achieve their goals, the heroes have to do something bold, but there are some very specific rules that they have to follow.  The problem is that the rules are never adequately explained.  On top of that, the rules do not make much sense.  They are all immediately broken.  But when it really matters, the heroes refuse to break them.  The rules are there as a plot contrivance in order to complete some character arcs. 

And while the movie does an incredible job with some character arcs (more on this later), there are some characters that feel ill-treated.  The two who are brought to mind are Thor and Hulk.  In the original Avengers, these guys were the heavy hitters and had one of the best moments in the entire film.  In this movie, they have been reduced to comic relief.  This is particularly annoying when it comes to Thor.  I just rewatched the original Thor, and that character is nothing like the one found in Endgame.  Both Thor and Hulk have been tainted by Thor: Ragnarok, which was basically a full out action-comedy.  As a result, Thor is essentially a punchline throughout all of Endgame, which tarnishes his grandeur.

The last complaint I have is a minor one, since it is a major part of the movie.  But now that the this film series is coming to a major endpoint, the filmmakers feel like they can insert subtle political messages in Endgame.  They are free to do whatever they want with their story, but it is annoying, because it immediately takes me out of the movie and causes me to roll my eyes.  One of the standards of film criticism I have (adopted from the mighty John Nolte), is that a movie should cast a spell on you and never let go.  If the movie causes you to breaks that spell for any reason, it is a problem.  And these moments were like that for Endgame.  Though thankfully, those were few and far between.

I lay out these criticisms, because I think it is important to note that Endgame is not perfect.  But it is still a great movie. 

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo, as well as writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely understand that the core of this movie is the emotion.  The opening scene is completely devastating and that is tone for most of the film.  We sat at the edge of our seats because the filmmakers make us care deeply for these characters.  Think about this: people graduating high school this year have been growing up with Iron Man since the first grade.  The filmmakers tap deeply into this vein and let the emotions flow.

The plot structure is simply the connective tissue that leads to some truly amazing moments.  I cannot share any of them with you, but there are so many wonderful scenes that I cannot remember them all.  There are callbacks to some of the best moments of the MCU.  It also constantly reminds us how utterly expansive this film franchise has been and the cinematic miracle of bringing them all together.  There were moments I laughed out loud and cheered.  There were others that twisted my guts and broke my heart.  There was one moment in particular that had been oh-so-subtly hinted at in an early Marvel film that comes to fruition during the climactic fight.  And it was pure comic book fanboy joy!  And based on the reaction of the people in the theater with me, most people felt the same way.

The Russo Brothers once again prove that they were the correct choice as directors.  As a big CGI spectacle, they know when to move to Steadicam work to make the emotions feel more raw and upsetting.  But then they can immediately flip the switch and create an amazing hero pose moment that stays with you in your memory.  Yes, they choose not to tighten the story with editing, but they decided fans who have taken this journey over the last eleven years would want more, rather than less time to say goodbye.  And the action set pieces are incredible.  There are many of these types of movies where the long clash at the end goes on too long.  But as long as the final battle is, I never felt it drag.  In fact, they dot the scene with so many small but emotional character moments that each of those snippets were like sweet chocolate chips inside of an already sweet cookie.

But the three characters who are at the center of this movie are Tony Stark, Steve Rodgers/Captain America (Chris Evans), and Natasha Romanov/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson).  The emotional stakes for all of them are the heaviest, even though the movie balances most of the other characters incredibly well.  This might be Downey Jr.'s best performance, not just in a Marvel movie but of his career.  He reaches emotional levels I have not seen, all the while trying to cover it with Tony's cool veneer.  Downey Jr. can devastate with a single look and express more with his eyes than with a page of dialogue.  Because the Oscars don't take this genre seriously, they will not give him the Best Actor nomination he deserves.  Evans also brings his A-Game, as we see the weight of his failure crushing him as he is expected to be the pillar holding everyone up.  The same is true of Johansson, who takes a reluctant leadership role.  We can see how the responsibility has drained her spirit and the desperation she feels to set things right.  The other person who deserves note is Gillen who has to do a number of complex performance moments all while keeping within the confines of Nebula's cold exterior.

Once again, we see laid out in a super hero film what Pope John Paul II called the war between the Culture of Death and the Culture of Life.  Thanos (Josh Brolin) is the perfect embodiment of the Culture of Death.  The lives of others are weighed only in proportion to their value to "society" and can be extinguished for the sake of convenience.  And when the perfect result does not occur, the solution is more death.  The Culture of Life values persons and does not look at anyone else as disposable.  In this Culture of Life, death is an accepted reality.  But instead of something to be taken from others for my gain, life is something given away for others their gain.  This very Catholic idea of Christological giving has been present throughout the superhero genre and we find it again here in Endgame.  This is both emotional and inspiring.

One of the best compliments I can give is that this movie is sticking with me days after I left the theater.  I am replaying the scenes and refeeling the emotions.  I will see this movie again in the theaters because I want to spend a little more time with these characters that I love.

Avengers: Endgame may be a bit confusing at times.  But if you let it, it can make your heart glow like Iron Man.