AVENGERS: ENDGAME (2019) Review

The goal of filmmaking has always been to entertain the audience. “Entertain”, however, is somewhat ambiguous. Entertainment is really just anything that can evoke emotion within you, whether that be sadness, anger, nostalgia, joy or pain. “Avengers: Endgame” has all of those things.

What Marvel Studios has done in the past 11 years was completely unheard of. Most thought it would be impossible; that a long-standing single universe with all of the classic Marvel heroes would never last. Today, the Guardians of the Galaxy are teaming up with Ant-Man to play a pivotal role in what might become the highest-grossing film of all time. 10 years ago, no one knew who they were. Now they are household names, due equal parts to their charismatic actors and the wonderful screenwriting and directing. Pop Culture has been changed forever.

Endgame is like no movie ever made before. To a fan of the universe, it is anything you could have asked for. In no way does it not do justice to the 21 films made before it. Every struggle, every mistake, and every victory our heroes have made up to this point is a part of their character, and every single one of the dozens of characters have their moments. After all, the Marvel Cinematic universe has always been, and will continue to be, driven by the characters. Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson and many more have truly brought these heroes to life, and they will undoubtedly be considered the quintessential actors for their respective characters.

Endgame starts slowly, showcasing the effects of half of all life disappearing on the remaining Avengers. The long build-up is worth it, however, because the movie doesn’t simply use cheap tricks to make the hairs on your arms stand up. It is from a culmination of everything that has went wrong or right, everything that we’ve watched these characters accomplish. A climactic ending like no other- because it ties the knot on over a decade’s worth of films. Avengers: Endgame will never be forgotten.

Dace

Score: 9.2/10

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spoilers ahead!

Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Over a decade of building, brick by brick and quip by quip, a universe fit for the minds, muscles, morals, and misadventures of the galaxy’s most famous and most remarkable defenders. All of the spaces – Asgard to Earth, all of the abilities – super strength to being a talking raccoon, all of the deaths; everything has lead up to this one moment. This 182-minute moment for people across the world to reminisce on everybody we loved and lost along the way. After 22 movies, over two dozen heroes, half the galaxy vanishing, and a mixed bundle of success and disappointment, the Russo brothers manage to create a larger-than-life swan song fittingly titled to satisfy millions and teach us all a lesson in failure.

Leading off of the events of INFINITY WAR, the Avengers are in disarray. They’ve never experienced such catastrophic failure, made worse by the fact they partly carried it along. They were simply out-numbered and out-matched. Faced with a world of questions, all stemming from their defeat, and the biggest is one they’ve faced multiple times; admittedly on retrospectively smaller scales. What can you do when the only ones who can succeed have failed? It’s the core these marvels believe themselves to be – if they fail, they don’t simply fail themselves, but everyone they could not save. Brought about to an unsurmountable emotional scale – majorly due to the fact that otherwise stoic characters such as Johansson’s Black Widow show how broken they have become as a result of their own self-inflicted guilty conscience. Thanos was a man with a mission, and the only thing they couldn’t do was stop him.

The predictability of the movie is completely disintegrated within the first 20 minutes, and it is one of the smartest moves in the history of the MCU. What we’re left with is 2 and a half hours of complete marvel, barely able to grasp onto one precious moment before we are quite literally knocked out with another range of emotion and talent.

We’re taken on a whirlwind trip of the universe, treated as demonstrative yet vital pit-stops in the world’s craziest scavenger hunt. Quite cleverly and remarkably, we are reintroduced to the events of THE AVENGERS, THE DARK WORLD, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, and INFINITY WAR. Call-backs ranging from Star Lord’s opening singing sequence, the assembling of the Core Six in the battle of New York, a 2 second Natalie Portman cameo (justice for Jane Foster!), and an appearance from the Ancient One are enough to make any fan’s heart beat faster. Yet, it was more than just fan service. All of these moments in time were able to seamlessly integrate themselves into the events of ENDGAME, not only as events of the affected earlier films, but also as the lessons learned and cached by the top tier super-humans. While the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes learned time and again they are not physically immortal (while they may be close) – they still needed a little reminder in knowing the limits to their own lifetime, and the value of not knowing every outcome.

What makes this a perfect ending is not that is not flawed, because if we start to analyze the overcomplicated slope of the Quantum Realm time travel, we will probably never stop (thanks, Michael Douglas). No, what makes this a perfect send-off is the realization and subsequent exposure of a culmination of complex and tired characters that cannot stop putting others before themselves. Unsung heroes emerge through Nebula and Ant-Man, proving themselves to be leaders and fighters they never could’ve dreamt themselves to have been. A cavalry of otherwise underused women fighting alongside each other, for each other, and with each other creates an emotional and poignant wave of powerful force that no woman will be able to contain herself within – I definitely openly and unsparingly bawled at the sight (though in hindsight, I was bawling for the entire final hour. I just felt a new wave come in from this arsenal of incredibly bad-ass women). Iron Man and Captain America have always famously been two sides of the same coin. Two completely different character arcs – a man who has everything realizing the gravity of his power and responsibility and the man who values other lives over his takes a moment for himself – resulting in the most satisfying rest and peace both characters will ever have. They rejoice in their set-backs – for they would not have come as far as they did without them. Their advantage against a Titan with a genocidal agenda was their learned fearlessness of failure brought upon by a reminder of loss and a wish for forgiveness and vengeance. When faced with a decision between cathartic connection and throwing blind punches, this movie chose love every time, without even missing a beat of its needed action.

The behemoth's ability to conjure 11 years’ worth of hurt, love, betrayal, tears, death, family, happiness, success, and failure through legendary moments, cunning dialogue, and chilling scenes is enough to make ENDGAME an extremely satisfying graduation ceremony dedicated to a few of the greatest characters to exist in popular culture. Avengers, assemble.

Jade

Score: 9.3/10

9.3/10