Avengers: Endgame (2019): Review

AVENGERS: ENDGAME

Wow. Just, wow.

Guys, I think this is gonna be a particularly difficult film to review, mostly because there’s no way to talk about it without potentially giving away spoilers. So, if you don’t want to be spoiled on anything, here’s the short version. It’s great! A nice sendoff for this stage of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that opens up all sorts of new possibilities for going forward. So, if you don’t want to know anything else, stop reading because two potential spoilers are coming now.

So, after the ordeal on Titan, Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) are adrift in space but are rescued by Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). They reunite with the rest of the surviving Avengers including Rhodey/War Machine (Don Cheadle), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Natasha (Scarlett Johansson), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Cap/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). They all decide to find Thanos (Josh Brolin), who has destroyed the Infinity Stones.


Five years later, Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) escapes from the Quantum Realm and finds the remaining Avengers, stating that he may have found a way to reverse Thanos’s actions. The Avengers enlist the help of a tragedy-stricken Clint (Jeremy Renner) as they all make one final stand and save the world.


Watching this movie made me feel like a child all over again. In my early years, some of my favorite episodes of certain TV shows involved team-ups and interacting with alternative versions of oneself, and the film delivers there with aplomb. The action is great – it’s a Marvel movie, so of course – the humor is on point, and all the actors look like they are having the time of their lives making this film. The character interplay is also as good as it’s ever been, the best of the bunch probably being Nebula and Rhodey bonding over their levels of disability.


In terms of the humor, however, I was shocked as to how funny this movie is. Being that it’s the finale for this portion of the MCU, I was almost expecting it to be devoid of humor or at least having the humor be pulled back. But no, this contains some of the funniest jokes in the entire Marvel canon. Alan Silvestri’s musical score is also the tops, being appropriately action-packed, thrilling, and melancholy at all the appropriate times.


The only gripe I have with it is the length. There are a few sections of the movie that go on a bit and could have either been trimmed down or cut out entirely and left as a deleted scene for the DVD/Blu-Ray release. I also would have liked to have seen a bit more of Thanos, although he did go through an entire arc in the previous movie, so I guess there really isn’t much left for him to do outside of fighting against the Avengers.


Bottom line: ….wow. I know this review is a little on the short side, but again, I can’t talk about it much without getting into the spoilers. I may just have to outright make a companion spoiler-heavy piece, whether it be written or on video, so be on the lookout for that.


The only way I can conceivably end this review of Avengers: Endgame is by saying…what a ride this has been over eleven years. All the props to Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, and the murderer’s row of screenwriters, actors, directors, and crewmen and women who were able to pull off something of this scale. They have finally shown us that you can make a consistent line of great superhero films where even the “bad” ones aren’t nearly as bad as some of the genuine duds of the genre.


What guts it must have taken for Marvel to do this. What confidence, what…audacity! But they did it. Good Lord, they did it. Marvel has pulled it off. They have successfully brought the grandiosity and interconnectedness of the comics to the big screen. And not only that, but they have managed to bring adoration for comics and superheroes – something that was considered only a geek thing to do for the longest time – into the mainstream. Nowadays, if you know comics lore, you are the cool guy. And I am so excited to see where the MCU goes next.


Just…good job, Marvel. You’ve done us comic book geeks and geekesses proud!


(You can also find this review here on Letterboxd.com)