Avengers: Endgame Review - The End of an Era (Spoiler-Filled)

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 of all time. 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

Next Article: How I would fix Avengers: Endgame’s Act 1.

Feel free to grab your pitchforks now.

Edited out typo

You know what sucks and is really boring? Everyone having the same opinion. Be really boring if everyone liked the same things. I’m glad you have a strong opinion. I give this film 10/10 perfect. I have some nitpicks and complaints for sure, but that’s almost every film outside of maybe 4 I think I wouldn’t nitpick anything.

The films a 9-9.5/10 for me personally, but to each there own I guess.

@chronicplane: I really, really wanted to enjoy it. But for some reason I just didn't.

The last 30 minutes was probably what every comic fan wanted, but getting there might have aggravated some. I thought it was all right and worth the wait.

Great review I share many of your thoughts and I'm glad I'm not the only one, everybody seems to think this film is perfect but in reality Infinity War was better. Act 1 is the worst. Felt rushed and all over the place, with an absurd time skip and reversions of characters. "Mr.Hulk" and Fat Thor seemed like parodies in a movie with an already constantly shifting tone

I am glad that I am not the only one that felt that act 1 was a bit jarring.

My main concern with the movie is Act 1 as well. I might have enjoyed but I definitely did not expect that and it felt a bit lackluster as you said. However, it seems that I enjoyed the movie a bit more than you did, but I can still see your point.

I personally would give it a 7.5-8/10.

It was pretty disappointing overall honestly. I watched it again last night and my opinion has actually decreased. 5/10. WAY too much exposition, and the way the handled some characters and moments was downright irritating. They completely botched the Natasha sacrifice, turning what could of been an emotional moment into some meme like game between her and Hawkeye of who deserves to die. Thor was just turned into a meme basically, and Fortnite? Really? That's not going to age well at all. This is more battle forum gripes, but we couldn't even get a fight out of the Hulk? Like a round two against Thanos where he performs better because of his intelligence, or being the one to defeat Cull? Not a satisfying conclusion to either arc, especially considering Thor gave up kingship and is basically sleeping on Rocket's couch atm. Character development was non existent. The comedy was so tonally off balance at points as to actually break my immersion in the scene. The redeeming quality of the movie is the ending however, where we finally get to see all these characters on the screen at the same time, which was an epic moment, and a pretty action set piece. But it was really disappointing for the conclusion of a ten year arc imo, except for Iron Man, and certainly didn't need the three run time they had.

@mickey-mouse: really??? People agreeing on something sucks?

@chimeroid: If they are just agreeing it be agreeable and mindless drones it does. It can be wonderful if that’s their genuine opinion.

Well, i didn't read a single review before coming to the same conclussion this review came to, so it is a genuine opinion. everyone in my theater got out with a "WTF" face, and not in a good way. It takes a special type of tinted-glasses to see this movie as being "good" the one hour of it when the action happens is amazing, but the 2 hours leading up to it were just pure and utter shit. I mean, they padded the runtime every way they could. They went out of their way to extend every single dumb scene by an extra 3-10 seconds just to make the film longer.

@chimeroid: I love the movie. I wanna watch it 5 more times. My least favorite MCU movies are Ironman 3, Hulk, and Thor2. But I do enjoy the fact that we all don’t like and love the same content. If we did we wouldn’t get much variety.

@chimeroid: @mickey-mouse: Don't forget what I said in the review. I didn't think it was a bad film, it just needed a huge amount of improvement.

Take Hulk for example; if you removed hin from the film, bar the scene where he uses the gauntlet, nothing would change as anyone else could do the exact same thing.

Edit: fixed typos.

I personally really enjoyed the first act.

@cloudguy: True on both counts.

@cloudguy: The ne major problem with the film was hulks forgotten arc.

Honestly I think Thor worked fine, he's the what Robert Brathion trope. What happens when a great man has nothing left to fight for, even though he does. He isn't scared of Thanos. Thanos is just his greatest failure. Hence his conversation with Frigg. It messes up Waititis arc, but we already knew that had to happen. There was too much finality to what Waititi brought.

I think is really obvious that captain Marcel stole Hulks redemtion scene. The way professor hulk was introduced, I thought they were building up Banners refusal to accept they lost. And that would be resolved by him Hulking out on a scale we haven't seen before to delay thanos.

The scene were Marvel is almost prying the gauntlet from Thanos until he powerstones her face should have been Hulks. One big rage to stop the snap and buy iron man the time he needed. They could have just had marvel destroying the ship and blowing through the big flying fish things.

Thisbwould have resolved Hulks arc.

@mickey-mouse: awesome for you, but it is also true that there are a lot of issues with the film, and the movie could easily have been half an hour shorter without cutting out a single scene. Renner acted his ass off but Ruffalo phoned it in with a horrible accent i cant see a reason for.