Avengers: Endgame (2019)

I cant recall a film having higher expectations than this. I saw the film two weeks after the film came out when I knew the buzz would have died down but when I went to see it, the Box office takings had crossed the $2billion line and James Cameron sent a half-hearted tweet congratulating Marvel for surpassing Titanic. He really will be annoyed if it beats Avatar’s $2.7billion. At the time of writing it stands at $2.3billion.

So basically the plot is that the remaining Avengers go back in time to get the stones and stop Thanos from collecting them. It’s a simple enough idea which is handled well and doesn’t feel like its dragging its feet to much although I personally thought that it was about 30 minutes too long. All the stuff with them back in time trying to get the stones went on a bit too long but apart from that the film worked very well. Bearing in mind that its 181 minutes (not including the trailers they stick on at the beginning), it didn’t feel like a 3 hour film. So much happens and you are never allowed to really stop and think about what is happening.

There are a few MECU films that I haven’t seen like Black Panther and the Ant-man films so I found Ant-man to be useful to the story but I just found him to be the least important of the characters.

I’m sorry but I still find Brie Larson rather smug. She is less smug in this but I just find her to think she’s above everyone even though this is only her second film in the MECU. I’m glad she’s not in it for very long but when she does come in towards the end its like she’s saying to everyone ‘You can rest now, I’m here to save the day’. It makes everyone look silly and asks why we should care about them if Captain Marvel can save the day in two seconds.

I liked how they came up with a line that allows them to go back in time but doesn’t screw with the films that came before it and doesn’t say to you that you wasted your time in watching them because they still happened. They use the line that just because you go back in time and change whats happened, doesn’t mean that it changes the future. What did slightly ruin the discussion for me is when they mention films and TV that deal with time travel that they didn’t mention Doctor Who. This film has a former Doctor Who companion in it FFS and yet it didn’t get mentioned. Oh well. Another thing I was very impressed with what how they managed to make Michael Douglas look about 40 years younger and Chris Evans look 40 years old. Both effects were very well done and show that this sort of thing will be happening more and more in films.

Despite having so much riding on it and having to achieve so much, the thing that most impresses me about this film is how it works. It wraps up 20+ films and still manages to start threads for new films. It says thankyou to those that came before whilst putting over the new stars. Credit has to go to the Russo Brothers for directing a film that does so much. The final scene where all the Avengers return and Thanos realises that he is in trouble is one of the best moments I have felt in a cinema since The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers when the wall at Helm’s Deep blows up. Seeing everyone charging is a great sight and does what its suppose to do in a film and that is deliver a moment that cinemagoers can cheer on and enjoy and boy does it achieve that.

I think that this is the point that I am bowing out of the Marvel films. I have enjoyed them but figure that now is the time to stop going to the cinema to watch them unless something stands out but as it looks like Brie Larson is going to be the spearhead from the next generation, I don’t think I will be watching.