Avengers: Endgame
**I will be attempting to be as spoiler-free as possible about “Avengers: Endgame” in this review. I apologize if that doesn’t become possible.**
“Part of the journey is the end.”– Tony Stark
Intellectually, we know that this is not the end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but “Avengers: Endgame” is the end of a very specific part of it, as original cinematic Avengers (and the actors who play them) look to move on, and make way for a new generation with their own particular gifts. This movie has a lot on its plate; oh, and it also has a story of its own to tell as the team struggles with the aftermath of Thanos’s snap at the end of “Avengers: Infinity War.” I seriously doubt anyone could nail down every beat of this story completely, and honestly, I’m grateful for that, because it allowed me to be surprised by the choices Anthony & Joe Russo made with the film, and it was a powerful reminder of what these are capable of at their best.
“You think you’re the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you’ve become part of a bigger universe. You just don’t know it yet.”– Nick Fury
When Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury uttered these words during the end credit scene of the first “Iron Man” in 2008, only the die-hard Marvel fans knew what it meant- that producer Kevin Feige was looking to build an interconnected series of films that led to a massive team-up film, “The Avengers,” that brought together those heroes in a larger story. But I don’t think even the biggest Marvel fans, who had tracked the start of Marvel Studios after years of seeing their characters mismanaged by the studios they licensed them to, expected every meaning of that phrase. The obvious meaning was akin to Jackson’s “Hold on to your butts” line from “Jurassic Park,” as in, “We’re just getting started.” But as the Marvel Cinematic Universe unfolded, it took on more meaning, as we learned that, at the time, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) was still buried in ice from sacrificing himself in World War II; S.H.I.E.L.D. was a shadowy organization that even it didn’t realize contained an even more shadowy organization pulling the strings; Wakanda, a seeming 3rd-world country, had a secret it was keeping from the world; and, somewhere out there, Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) was protecting the universe from threats Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) couldn’t even comprehend when he made his Mark I suit in a cave with a box of scraps, just to name a few of the things we would come to discover over the course of 11 years, and 22 films. As each film introduced a new wrinkle in the MCU, the audience grew, and a comic book franchise unlike any other would become as rich and exciting as the rarefied phenomenons like “Star Wars” and “Harry Potter,” where each film was an event on to itself, along with a new piece of the puzzle. It became the template for studios in the decade to come, with detractors wondering when “comic book movie fatigue” would set in. Never. Never is the answer they were looking for, and only Marvel Studios had cracked the code on how to prevent that.
“We’re in the endgame now.”– Stephen Strange
Thanos got all six Infinity Stones in “Avengers: Infinity War” not just because of the things he did throughout the film- wiping out half of the remaining Asgardians, destroying worlds, sacrificing his daughter Gamora (Zoe Saldana)- but because he needed to have all of them, and do his Snap, so the Avengers could win in “Endgame.” Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) saw 14,000,605 futures with the Time Stone in “Infinity War,” and only one path to defeating Thanos, and that, evidently, required the sacrifice of the Infinity Stone he had sworn to protect. Why didn’t he tell Stark this? We find out in “Endgame,” as the remaining Avengers- Tony, Steve, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Bruce Banner, Nebula, Rocket, Scott Lang, Carol Danvers, War Machine, Okoye, Wong, and M’Baku are left to figure out how to reverse the Snap. Thanos (Josh Brolin) has taken refuge on his planet, Titan II, resting after the journey that resulted in his victory against the Avengers; Tony and Nebula (Karen Gillan) are adrift in space; and Steve, Natasha (Scarlett Johansson), Bruce (Mark Ruffalo), Rhodey (Don Cheadle) and Rocket (Bradley Cooper, with performance capture by Sean Gunn) are on Earth surveying the wreckage. Our opening image, however, is of Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), at his farm house with his family, and we see what will transpire to get him in the game with the remaining Avengers as they try and undo what Thanos did. Every one of them has a cross to bear in the aftermath, however, so they will have to move past their grief if they are going to win.
“If we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damn sure we’ll avenge it.”– Tony Stark
“Endgame,” written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, is a difficult film to discuss in terms of story if you’re goal is to preserve the experience for those who haven’t seen it, and satisfy those who have, and this is where it seems to get tricky. That said, we can discuss ideas, and specifically, the concept behind the Avengers themselves. As laid out by Nick Fury, the Avengers Initiative was a radical notion of taking a group of remarkable people, and seeing if they could put aside their personal wants and desires for the greater good, as a way of protecting humanity from any threat it faced. In the first “Avengers,” written and directed by Joss Whedon, it was a cosmic threat, as Loki (Tom Hiddleston) came to Earth to retrieve an object S.H.I.E.L.D. had been experimenting on for decades- which contained the Space Stone, as it turns out- prompting Fury to brings his team together for the first time. In their next outing, Whedon’s “Age of Ultron,” the threat came from them, as Stark, haunted by what he saw as he took a nuke into space in the Battle of New York, hopes to create a security system that will mean the Avengers are no longer needed to be “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” When it backfires, the wreckage in Ultron’s wake will be part of what leads to the breaking up of the Avengers in “Captain America: Civil War,” as the question of how best to protect the world, and use the power of the Avengers, is called into question, and what transpires divides the team irreparably. Not the best place for the Avengers to be in when Thanos, who had sent Loki originally, comes knocking to complete what he sees is his destiny to wield the Infinity Stones. They gave him a good fight, however; at the start of “Endgame,” they’re ready for another one. What they aren’t ready for, however, is what happens after that.
“Avengers: Endgame” imagines a world which needs the Avengers, but they don’t know how to operate in. They’re thrown for a blindside not long after the Snap by not just Tony’s return, and the arrival of Carol Danvers, but also in Thanos’s choices post-Snap, which signal a larger failure they don’t seem capable of coming back from, even with Captain Marvel in the fold, now. It feels overwhelming, and while the rest of the world is slowly starting to adjust to life after the Snap, Steve, Natasha, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Rhodey, Rocket, Nebula, Okoye (Danai Gurira) and Carol are just trying to keep it all together, and struggling with their failure by trying to do something, as Tony, Bruce and Hawkeye have gone their separate ways. When Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) pulls up at their front door, though, they find that maybe a chance exists to change things, though convincing the entire team to get on board will be tricky. There have been many theories floating around about what the mission will entail here; all I will say is some of the things we’ve theorized are right, some are wrong, and some transpire in ways we don’t expect, and the Russos suck us in at every turn. It’s easy to see why people who have ridden with the MCU since 2008 are loving this movie- it builds to a tremendous crescendo that is a summation of everything the Avengers are about.
“I know I said no more surprises, but…I was hoping to pull off one last one.”– Tony Stark
As the Avengers go on their mission to try and undo Thanos’s snap, they have some compelling choices to make that bring new status quos to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and makes what we know about probable future MCU projects wonderful in their possibilities. To go over all of those would be to spoil “Endgame,” but what we have in this film is a work that puts a lid on what’s come before, while also putting into motion events that will play out in the years to come. That it is satisfying on all of those fronts is a credit to everything Feige, the Russos, and every filmmaker that has contributed to the MCU has been building over the past decade, right down to Alan Silvestri’s wonderful musical outing here. This is worth every minute of its three-hour running time as we witness the most audacious story Marvel has told on-screen yet, and done so in a way that is exciting, funny, and pulls on the heartstrings in ways we expect, and ways we really don’t. This is a film of remarkable vision and imagination. I don’t know that Marvel will ever be able to top it.
“Tony- trying to get you to stop, had been one of the failures of my entire life.”– Pepper Potts
By reaching the end of Marvel’s grand experiment, so to have many of the people who have brought it to life. Not every actor in this franchise is a great actor, but they are great in the roles they have been given to play. The actors who have been around the longest were always the most likely to see their times as these characters run their course with “Endgame,” but it’s the how we were unsure about. I’ll leave that to the film to show you, but if this is to be the end for many of these actors, they are giving it their all, and making every moment count. Whatever it takes, is the Avengers’s battle cry in “Endgame.” It extends to the cast itself. The result is probably the greatest summation of a franchise in film history*.
*I reserve the right to change this when “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” comes out in December. It has a tall order to elevate to, though.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe: The Infinity Saga
“Iron Man” (2008)
“The Incredible Hulk” (2008)
“Iron Man 2” (2010)
“Thor” (2011)
“Captain America: The First Avenger” (2011)
“Marvel’s The Avengers” (2012)
“Iron Man 3” (2013)
“Thor: The Dark World” (2013)
“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014)
“Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014)
“Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015)
“Ant-Man” (2015)
“Captain America: Civil War” (2016)
“Doctor Strange” (2016)
“Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2” (2017)
“Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017)
“Thor: Ragnarok” (2017)
“Black Panther” (2018)
“Avengers: Infinity War” (2018)
“Ant-Man and the Wasp” (2018)
“Captain Marvel” (2019)
“Avengers: Endgame” (2019)
