Avengers: Endgame
Original post date: 10 May 2019
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
It is strange to be giving my coveted (and relatively rare) top rating to a movie with such a generic title and premise as this one, but this achievement by the Russo brothers is extraordinary. This is not only an endgame between earth’s (and the universe’s) heroes and Thanos, but it is a literary endgame for one of the most complex and enduring entertainment undertakings ever. At three hours plus a minute, it is a bit long for a popcorn movie, but the extra running time is not merely for additional extended CGI battle scenes. There is actual deliberately-paced drama here. Comic book and franchise devotees might well have expected this sequel to kick off from where its predecessor ended with immediate action, but instead we get an unhurried meditation on life and loss. Surviving Avengers deal with the consequences of defeat. Those who did not participate confront the fallout from inaction. As one would expect, the solution to the universe’s devastation involves time travel, but not exactly in the way you might expect. There is no big reboot that sets everything right again à la Doctor Who. One of the best and funniest bits is when the characters lay down this movie’s rules for temporal shenanigans and every major time-travel movie gets namechecked. We are told it does not work like Back to the Future, and yet it does—at least in the sense that the conceit becomes a device for characters to connect with parents and find their commonality. It also means great cameos from actors from previous Marvel movies and, of course, one more from Stan Lee. He struggles to control his car, and it’s the perfect metaphor for how he and his collaborators have lost control of the magical world they created, that is, how it grew so large as to have an organic life of its own bigger than any single creator. At its high point, the movie’s chaos—involving aliens, Norse gods, African warriors, costumed heroes and a talking raccoon—seems over-the-top, but it’s completely within the Marvel comic book tradition of imagination without limits. It is also amazing how many loose ends from 22 movies over eleven years manage to get tied up—and without it ever feeling like a bunch of boxes being ticked. Am I being too glowing and uber-fanboy? Okay, I could do without they way they have treated the character of the (once) mighty Thor. He deserves better than to be mere comic relief. Also, in an ensemble piece like this one, the problem with the Captain Marvel character becomes all too obvious. She is simply too powerful, so they have to come up with excuses to keep her away for long periods of time so she does not solve everything all by herself. But those are relatively small quibbles. There is too much else to like, including a seemingly throw-away scene where kids want a photo with the Hulk but not Ant-Man, slyly acknowledging that there was always a hierarchy among fans as to which were the really cool characters. Unlike most movies that involve superheroes and time travel, there are real stakes here and real tragedy. I defy even the snidest cynic to not shed at a tear at what may be the most well-attended funeral in cinematic history. Because this movie marks the end of the third phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and farewells to several well-established characters, it is has the feel of an elegy. My own sentiment was that—in its inclusion of so many beloved characters from my generation’s youth and nostalgic visits to points along the timeline of us and our parents—it was also something of a requiem for the creators and fans of the so-called Silver Age of Comic Books. It was as though one’s own childhood had been wrapped up with a beautiful bow and preserved for all time. God how I wish my friend Eric had lived to see this.
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
It is strange to be giving my coveted (and relatively rare) top rating to a movie with such a generic title and premise as this one, but this achievement by the Russo brothers is extraordinary. This is not only an endgame between earth’s (and the universe’s) heroes and Thanos, but it is a literary endgame for one of the most complex and enduring entertainment undertakings ever. At three hours plus a minute, it is a bit long for a popcorn movie, but the extra running time is not merely for additional extended CGI battle scenes. There is actual deliberately-paced drama here. Comic book and franchise devotees might well have expected this sequel to kick off from where its predecessor ended with immediate action, but instead we get an unhurried meditation on life and loss. Surviving Avengers deal with the consequences of defeat. Those who did not participate confront the fallout from inaction. As one would expect, the solution to the universe’s devastation involves time travel, but not exactly in the way you might expect. There is no big reboot that sets everything right again à la Doctor Who. One of the best and funniest bits is when the characters lay down this movie’s rules for temporal shenanigans and every major time-travel movie gets namechecked. We are told it does not work like Back to the Future, and yet it does—at least in the sense that the conceit becomes a device for characters to connect with parents and find their commonality. It also means great cameos from actors from previous Marvel movies and, of course, one more from Stan Lee. He struggles to control his car, and it’s the perfect metaphor for how he and his collaborators have lost control of the magical world they created, that is, how it grew so large as to have an organic life of its own bigger than any single creator. At its high point, the movie’s chaos—involving aliens, Norse gods, African warriors, costumed heroes and a talking raccoon—seems over-the-top, but it’s completely within the Marvel comic book tradition of imagination without limits. It is also amazing how many loose ends from 22 movies over eleven years manage to get tied up—and without it ever feeling like a bunch of boxes being ticked. Am I being too glowing and uber-fanboy? Okay, I could do without they way they have treated the character of the (once) mighty Thor. He deserves better than to be mere comic relief. Also, in an ensemble piece like this one, the problem with the Captain Marvel character becomes all too obvious. She is simply too powerful, so they have to come up with excuses to keep her away for long periods of time so she does not solve everything all by herself. But those are relatively small quibbles. There is too much else to like, including a seemingly throw-away scene where kids want a photo with the Hulk but not Ant-Man, slyly acknowledging that there was always a hierarchy among fans as to which were the really cool characters. Unlike most movies that involve superheroes and time travel, there are real stakes here and real tragedy. I defy even the snidest cynic to not shed at a tear at what may be the most well-attended funeral in cinematic history. Because this movie marks the end of the third phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and farewells to several well-established characters, it is has the feel of an elegy. My own sentiment was that—in its inclusion of so many beloved characters from my generation’s youth and nostalgic visits to points along the timeline of us and our parents—it was also something of a requiem for the creators and fans of the so-called Silver Age of Comic Books. It was as though one’s own childhood had been wrapped up with a beautiful bow and preserved for all time. God how I wish my friend Eric had lived to see this.
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