The Marvel Cinematic Universe has spanned 11 years, starting with Ironman and built several billion dollar franchises as new movies have been released each year. All of these movies have accumulated into major crossover event films known as The Avengers. Endgame is the fourth and biggest of these Avenger films. After the major cliffhanger in last year’s Avengers: Infinity War, this movie seeks to conclude the Infinity War arc. Have the years of build up over a decade of films lead to an epic finale, or did it devolve into a convoluted mess?
The Good:
- Since the great “ah snap” moment from Infinity War, the cast was reduced significantly from the last film which actually worked to its benefit. My problem with the last movie was that there were too many people interacting with interacting plot points. Granted, Infinity War was more cohesive than it should have been; but Endgame was a lot more focused and structured than the previous movie.
- Due to the focused narrative and structure, it doesn’t feel like a 3-hour long movie. I know many people worry when movies get that long, but it doesn’t feel it’s length.
- You get some great character interactions and solid jokes here and there. While the bulk of the main cast is OG Avengers (Ironman, Captain America, Thor) you do get a few of the newcomers like Antman, Rocket, and Nebula adding their own flair to the OG cast.
- Get ready for some major hype moments, the third act climax is easily the most epic sequence in any Marvel movie.
- I thought the conclusions of many of the character arcs developed over the past decade were quite satisfying. And no, I don’t count that as spoilers since “conclusions” is still ambiguous.
The Bad:
- Not all the characters were treated equally as there was one I felt may have regressed a bit (even though I understand why, it only feels like they haven’t learned anything in the past films).
- Due to the nature of the movie, there’s a lot that is open in the way of plot holes. It can’t be avoided though, they made a fine effort to plug in the holes that they could.
Awkward Walk-In Rating: 2/5
I would say that its a far darker film than we have seen before, especially the first act of the film. If you saw Infinity War you would know why. It also seemed to be much more violent than past Marvel films, with a bit more gratuitous details that might be pushing it for younger kids.
Overall:
Endgame is much better than Infinity War was. Due to the aforementioned structure that the previous movie was lacking: it was easier to follow, everything flowed better and the cast had more time to develop their characters with a clear goal in mind. It isn’t a perfect movie but I am much more impressed with this film then I have been the other Avenger films. The first one is fun and novel as it was the first movie of its kind on that grand a scale. But I’m not as enamored to the other Avenger films. This one may be the best one overall though. But time will tell if this movie becomes a classic.
I tried to be as vague as possible to avoid any major spoilers. There is much more I could talk about. But as we are this close to opening, I won’t mention specifics. One spoiler that I will give you is this: there is no post-credits sequence! Shocking I know, but I also saved you 7 minutes. You’re welcome.
