Review of Avengers: Endgame (2019) by Jcondic — 06 May 2019

Avengers Endgame feels like a movie where Marvel is patting itself on the back, good job! I don’t think there’s been a Marvel movie that has disappointed me more than this one. Last year’s Infinity War was great, everything was put together after ten years and it had a fantastic ending, a cliffhanger that had us all wanting more. The dramatic ending in infinity war is completely thrown away. Like my god, every real dramatic moment that was happening in Endgame was thrown away with humor. Literally would it be so bad for people to just be miserable, they toss in these stupid one liner’s in every scene, maybe its just me and I find it forced and not funny, but the obnoxious woman sitting behind me was cackling throughout. But really 5 years into the future the Hulk would still be dabbing? Really? Are people even dabbing now anymore? Captain America admiring his butt, Thor with anything he said, and Black Widow staring into the distance trying to cry for Clint while holding back a smile. Humor shouldn’t be used to take viewers out of uncomfortable situations, what’s the point of a dangerous battle for a viewer when they are constantly molded to feel safe with some joke to kill the seriousness. Let’s talk feminism and the pat on the back. During the big fight scene, they took time out to have all the woman stand together to fight Thanos, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Really? That’s showing how progressive marvel is, that shot is an insult considering only one of those women has been a lead in her own film. Marvel pat yourself on the back again, yay Girl Power and your trailblazing feminism. That moment could’ve been so much better had they fought him and showcased their strengths, showing woman are equally good fighters to their male counterparts. Captain Marvel is one of the strongest super heroes in the whole MCU and she was probably on screen for ten minutes of the 3-hour runtime. But to literally have them come together during this massive fight for that shot is lazy filmmaking. I want one person to tell me they weren’t taken out of the film to consider all the woman were standing together. It killed the momentum in the battle. Risk and reward, Marvel/Disney usually doesn’t do well in this area. Star Wars Episode 8 was fantastic because things were at stake and viewers weren’t just given what they wanted, look at all the complaint they received for it. I really feel episode 9 will be like Endgame in that it gives viewers everything with little to no surprises. Endgame plays everything safe, even when situations are risky they are still safe. You know everything will turn out fine. Yes, there are a few deaths but nothing we weren’t expecting going in. And most of the deaths have already been reversed. Black Widow gets her own series on Disney+. The Characters, in the ten plus years and twenty plus movies, how many characters can you say have grown? Have changed with everything that has happened to them? No character has really felt or dealt with the fallout of anything that has happened to them in previous films. If they have it was for a short period of time because on the other side of the fallout the characters are right back where they started. On a side note with infinity war they finally made Thor cool. With this movie they took ten steps back and made him a dislikable character.

I’ve always felt that superhero movies are only as good as their villains. (ex. Dark Knight, Spider man Homecoming) Infinity War made Thanos a great adversary with depth, he had purpose. Endgame made him a caricature of a villain we will forgot about after the credit’s role. That ending and another example of dumbing it down for audiences. The perfect ending would’ve been Steve Rogers going back in time and sitting on the park bench as an old man. Boom! there you go; the audience is smart enough to figure out what happened. Instead they drag the film for some talk between Cap and Falcon. Then they cut to show you where other characters are at and that everything will be okay. Everything is spelled out for the viewers so don’t fret we’re all in a happy place. Like my previous paragraph no one seemed to be affected by everything that happened. I could be wrong, but I guess we will see when the next phase of movies starts rolling out. Now don’t get me wrong there are moments and scenes in this movie I enjoyed. The time travel to the 70s with Cap and Iron man was great. It’s not all bad but the things I dislike are overshadowing the things I liked.

The more days I sit with this film the more I dislike it and the hype machine it has become. There’s no substance to anything in this film. When I see people saying this should get nominated for an Oscar, I want people to ponder if they’ll remember anything about this movie in 10 years or even 1 year. In closing here’s one more pat on the back, congrats to the people at Marvel/Disney.