Endgame is a direct follow up to 2018s Infinity War, following the great Vanishing, the remaining Avengers plan to do something about their situation and get everyone they lost back, whatever the cost. The film stars Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd Brie Larson, and Danai Gurira.
There’s so much to unpack and discuss with Endgame, a climactic closing to the Infinity Saga, all 22 films leading up to Endgame have been more or less a part of the same over-arching story and fittingly, there’s a 3 hour run time to cover the very sprawling and elaborate plot. Things feel familiar, seeing your favourite Avengers back in the fold and in action, with witty dialogue and great character interactions but also immediately different, we get a few time jumps to help with this and we see a very human side to some fan favourites.
Steve Rodgers is ever the unrelenting optimist but let’s just say that everyone doesn’t see eye to eye and seeing the Avengers cope with being otherwise normal humans (and Rocket) each dealing with personal loss is quite tragic and a bit of a gut punch, each person takes it in a different way and it definitely evoked themes from Age of Ultron and Civil War but on a much grander scale.
What happens when the good guys lose and have to deal with it? Well it’s a dark, intriguing question but Endgame faces it head on, as do its characters, with the survivors embarking on daring journey. It’s great to see the original or ‘OG’ Avengers back in the fold again, they’re obviously not the same as they were back in 2012, very much changed in a few and mostly humorous ways but in other more sombre ways too. One thing I do really like about the film is that it keeps up its cheeriness and levity in the way all MCU films really do (apart from Civil War for the most part), the jokes come in thick and fast in some scenes but really help to lift the mood in the darkest MCU film to date, with Hulk/Bruce in particular surprisingly being a great source of it.
While Thor as you may expect brings a lot of laughs again. The performances on the whole are again to a great standard as is to be expected in the MCU but I feel that RDJ, Jeremy Renner and Chris Evans especially really brought some heightened portrayals of their characters. With Hawkeye getting a brilliant character arc in particular, after being pretty much left out of Infinity War. And while there’s also some great drama, the action is also pretty spectacular, not as much as in the previous major film for sure but it’s impressive when it happens.
And interestingly enough, at 3 hours I felt the film definitely flew by, there was a lot to cover in the story and a lot of things had to happen but I feel nothing felt particularly rushed, major characters didn’t feel to sidelined and while not everyone got a tonne of screen time admittedly, the main Avengers all had major arcs – as this was practically a send off for them anyway.
Ultimately Endgame is great fan service, touching on and encompassing all that makes the MCU so popular and enjoyable, with great characters going on intriguing and entertaining personal journeys, with fantastic drama and interactions and equally vivacious and explosive action/visual spectacle for all ages. It’s great for fans and an emotionally charged pay off to expertly crafted long form story telling, adding depth to certain characters that are half as interesting in the comics themselves.
Endgame may be the end of an era for Marvel but what they’ve done to lead up to this point and with this film is nothing short of brilliant storytelling, world building and something to go down well in cinematic history.
8.5/10
. Strong character arcs and pay offs for the main avengers
. Great performances all around
. Brilliant embodiment of the MCU with high stakes, great drama, good levity, great pacing
The Movie knight 