Avengers: Endgame - Review

After suffering a catastrophic defeat at the hands of Thanos that has left half of all living things to turn to dust, the remaining Avengers team up with a new space superhero in order to find a way to reverse the organic cleansing and ultimately defeat the genocide king. The plot obviously goes beyond this simple description but any more talk of the story will rob the juicy surprises it has in store for the long-time Marvel viewer. As for the movie as a whole, AVENGERS: ENDGAME is a great series finale to the integral component of the MCU, i.e. the original core members of the Avengers, but there in lies its central issue. I'm not using television terminology by mistake; ENDGAME feels more in line with as a final season or a miniseries than it does as a slam-bang, concluding blockbuster. RETURN OF THE JEDI and RETURN OF THE KING it is not. The majority of the pic is relegated to dialogue, Marvel witty or otherwise, and scenes of bonding that nicely put a bow on hidden nuggets throughout all of the Marvel movies. These substantial moments do help make the three hour running time flow very fast but at the expense of pure action excitement that is heavily expected with a final chapter. The brief melee bouts sprinkled throughout do not generate much thrills so the audience will still have to patiently wait until the finale. But boy howdy, what a conclusion the Russos have in store. It is near boundless in its goosebump-inducing action theatrics and purely acts like a real comic book event. Everything that follows afterwords will be forming up some tears in your eyes, save for the very last scene which is a head-scratching decision and a total mood killer. Most of the criticisms I levied at the movie are things that fans can forgive for the most part and/or not be too bent out of shape by. If you can do that, more power to you. However, please agree with me at least that the stupidest elements stuck forever in the fabric of the celluloid are the film's soon-to-be-or-are-now dated references, namely the use of dabbing, the appearance of the video game Fortnite (played on a PS4 no less which brings up a whole can of worms), and some completely unnecessary product placement. AVENGERS: ENDGAME is a fine farewell for some of the heroes that have been with us yet it is hard to feel the true weight of it all when the film treats itself as just another chapter in the MCU. Marvel has more films and even some digital television shows down the pipeline and given some elements in the plot, as well as what normally springs up in superhero comics, anything can happen including negating all of the drama you were affected by in this movie.


FINAL REVIEW: 3 / 5