Avengers: Endgame

I’ve spent a while now staring at a blank page wondering how to start this review, because I feel that it will become an outlier in the grand scheme of reviews Avengers: Endgame will get.

First, I need to clarify something before people grab their pitchforks and torches -- I've enjoyed almost every film in the MCU. Hell, Infinity War was one of my all-time favourite superhero films to be released. The performances from everyone were fantastic in that movie. Endgame... I’m not so sure.

With 2019’s Avengers: Endgame set to conclude what has been dubbed as the “Infinity Saga” I was on the edge of my seat with anticipation. I avoided as many trailers, leaks, and theories as I could so I would be blind and expect nothing, and (hopefully) be amazed by what I saw. With how spectacular Infinity War was, I was hyped for what might have ended up as one of my favourite films of the year. Yet, I was disappointed beyond belief with Endgame.

Now hear me out. Hold off with those pitchforks and angry comments - this is just one persons' opinion.

The Good

Act 3

Act 3 is where the action really kicks in - all eleven years of build up finally comes to a close and ends with a bang, bringing an all-out war scene to the MCU and it’s magical. We see the return of those who perished in Infinity War and many join forces for a fight to end all fights. My only problem with this act is that we don’t get to see Hulk fight Thanos (Josh Brolin). Thanos really brought his A-game to the final fight as well, nearly beating the MCU's original Trinity of Heroes singlehandedly.

The conclusion to Captain America’s (Chris Evans) and Iron Man’s (Robert Downey Jr.) stories were perfect - the mantle was passed on and a generation was inspired. I'll admit, seeing how Steve’s story closed did make me sad, but I know that the story of Captain America may not be over just yet.

Acting

Everyone brought their A-game to this film, most notably Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and Karen Gillan (Nebula) who both stole the show for me. Line delivery was mostly on point with everyone, with the occasional dud, mainly coming from Mark Ruffalo (Hulk/Bruce Banner) or Chris Hemsworth (Thor). I'm not sure how I would describe Hemsworth's portrayal of Thor in Endgame, it was a version of Thor that's never been seen on film. A drunk, overweight mess who shivers hearing Thanos' name. He didn't pull it off badly, it was just strange to see him that way.

The Okay

Cameos

The cameos from various characters from throughout the franchise were a nice touch, thanks to the power of time travel. Seeing Rene Russo return as Frigga was wonderful. Smaller cameos from Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) really made it feel that they were going all out to make the time travel seem real and not just a commonly over-used gimmick half-arsed.

Story

I didn’t know what to expect from Endgame - from what little I read concerning theories around time travel, I wasn’t surprised when most of them turned out to be true. On one hand, I slightly hoped that the story would tie-in a little more with the original Infinity War/Gauntlet story, but on the other I was pleased that they went their own route involving time travel and retreading through their past, seeing events from a new angle.

I will say that the time-travel plot does get a bit confusing as to what’s going on, but it manages to explain itself in a decent way. Acts 2 and 3 are where the writing shines as we learn how far people are willing to go to fix the mistakes they made in Infinity War. Act 1, on the other hand, could have been condensed down or changed in such a way that we didn’t need such a drastic time skip that seemed so forced.

So, who got the best story moments? Captain America, Iron Man, Nebula, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye. They all had their moment to shine without overshadowing each other. Personally, I think Hawkeye, Nebula and Black Widow stole the show for me.

One sad thing is that we never really got to see how the world reacted to The Snap, outside of everyone’s re-introduction and Ant-Man being brought into the new world order. Another would be how little screen time other important characters got - Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and Okoye (Danai Gurira) had next to no screen time.

The Bad

Pacing

My problem with Endgame is that the pacing seems off in Act 1, which proceeds to throw it off for the rest of the film. Each act lasts roughly an hour, which is fine, but the problem with Act 1 is that it drags on way too much, making the hour seem a lot longer than it is.

What I found odd was that even with a much smaller cast compared to Infinity War, some characters didn’t get their moment to shine. Hulk for example, may as well not been in the film, apart from one vital scene, and it wouldn’t much impact the film anyway.

I was expecting a larger role from Captain Marvel, but to my surprise, she only had around ten minutes worth of screen time. The film's opening and it's final act. I was hoping that we'd see some of The Snap from Carol's perspective in the same way we saw it from Hawkeye's, yet we only saw her in the opening moments of the film and not again until the last 20-30 minutes.

Tone

The tonal issues mainly come from the first act trying to come across as comedic and light-hearted after coming just short of an (almost) extinction event. While watching the film, I couldn’t help but think that the comedy-heavy first act of the film was trying to make up for how dark and depressing Infinity War was. I think it would’ve worked a whole lot better if they spaced it out and didn’t try to make every other moment funny. The tone did even out as the first act ended, though.

A friend mentioned to me after we saw Endgame that since so much of the script was kept secret and actors filmed on their own using green screens, no one knew what they were doing. The interviews with the cast showed that - barely any of them knew the plot of the movie. Nothing wrong with it, but if you can’t trust the actors, things are going to be affected.

Act 1

The opening act of this film had a lot of problems to me, mainly originating from the straight up 5-year time skip. With nothing in-between to help us understand what happened, we learn the results of it at the same pace as Scott Lang. Not that it’s a bad thing, it just ruins the biggest rule of writing - show, don’t tell. The biggest victim of this is Hulk/Bruce Banner since he’s now become Professor Hulk and become some weird amalgamation of him and Mark Ruffalo playing around in a motion capture suit (don’t get me started on Mark Ruffalo as Hulk). Many of the scenes also dragged on way too long to the point it just became uncomfortable. The reintroduction of Thor, post time-skip just felt like it could've been cut down and still given the same feeling of Thor having survivors guilt.

Thor and Hulk

Hulk’s role in Endgame was almost non-existent. Other than wielding the improvised Infinity Gauntlet and bringing everyone back, he didn’t add anything to the film. Honestly, after seeing the beating he got in the beginning of Infinity War as Hulk and then losing again as Bruce Banner at the end, I was hoping for some sort of redemption to show that he’s the strongest one there is. Or at least maybe for him to get the last blow on Thanos. But sadly, we get nothing. Thanos and Hulk don’t even share a scene together, let alone a fight.

Thor on the other hand, he… well… he's the comedic relief of the film, mainly revolving around alcohol or his weight, since he’s gained quite a lot of it since we saw him before the time skip. I’m not sure what I think of Endgame Thor. He became a background character in a weird way - even having his own scenes focused on him, he didn’t feel like the Thor we knew until halfway through Act 2.

Conclusion

What worries me is that I’m being too harsh on the film since it may not have met my expectations, or that I went into it with the wrong mind set. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that Endgame is a bad film. It is a good film. It just could have been handled better and condensed down a good chunk without losing too much.

Endgame was a fantastic conclusion to an 11-year long storyline but it felt lacklustre for some characters and was oddly rushed in certain scenes, even with a 3-hour runtime. But don't go into it thinking it's an action film - it's very minimal on action until the final act. It's more of an adventure film.

Score: 6.5/10