Avengers: Endgame (2019): ‘The Cinematic Universe Climaxes’ – A Film Review

Introduction

The breadth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe saw a climax last year with Avengers: Infinity War, a part one to an end that has been 20+ films in the making. Hitting a lot like an Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Avengers: Infinity War was a huge downfall for the Avengers team. Coming back from such a defeat has been building a lot of anticipation. How can they come back from this? What will happen? Will they manage to defeat Thanos? Avengers: Endgame had a tough act to follow, as Avengers: Infinity War was a huge success and seemed prime to lead the Marvel Cinematic Universe to its end.

Being Defeated

Fortunately, and unfortunately with a film of this magnitude, there are many risks and many differences. After Infinity War, characters are, quite rightly, deflated, grieving and shaken to say the least. Rather than the happy excitement that accompanies most Marvel films, Avengers: Endgame has most of its first half with a lot of this sad drama, and then chooses to follow this into the logical but surprising conclusions. In some ways this is refreshing, emotive and powerful, in other ways it feels like too much of a change like how Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi hit. After such a decisive cliff-hanger as what Avengers: Infinity War left, it was really difficult to come back from. Though cheesy, and although it was never going to live up to the hype, their solution gives a lot of chance for humour as well as well thought out drama and fan service. Whilst the Avengers: Endgame’s running time does hold it back at times, as events start to stretch, it’s never too much to be overpowering. The final problem with the film seems to lie in characters that verge on invincible: they just remove the tension from scenes as they have no obstacles to struggle with.

All the Heroes

With all that being said, Avengers: Endgame boasts its cast of many stars and they really bring a powerful emotional presence to the film. Characters are interesting and well developed, each exploring different areas of grief and hope and determination: to heavily imbue the film with intrigue. The sacrifices that the characters then have to make gives Avengers: Endgame its highs and lows. Whilst the visual style, effects and CGI are on point. Making for a visual experience as the characters guide you through the journey – long though it is. A lot has to be said for the side-line characters, which again is thanks to the star power presence within the film. Whilst it is an Avengers film about the four Avengers, characters like Nebula (Karen Gillan), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) also throw in their lot. This keeps it varied, and it’s perhaps the best reason for the running time as Avengers: Endgame devotes a lot of time to make it about all our heroes, as an almost antithesis of Avengers: Infinity War.

Conclusion

There was always a huge amount of pressure on Avengers: Endgame to be as good as it can be; to be as ground-breaking as the end of a huge franchise wants to be – ten years and 22 films in the making. This amount of hype is hard to live up to. Though Avengers: Endgame isn’t devoid of problems, it had to take those risks and it still manages to have witty dialogue, emotive performances and exciting fight scenes. This leads to a powerfully entertaining film, if you can handle the pacing, but not necessarily Marvel’s best. It is a satisfying end to the franchise though. Marvel, however, will be back.

Synopsis

After Thanos (Josh Brolin) clicked and removed half of humanity, including many of our superheroes, the avengers are seriously grieving and desperately attempting to find a way to bring everyone back. Unfortunately, Thanos destroyed the infinity stones, leaving them hopeless until Ant-Man came back from the quantum realm with a theory for time travel.

Ratings

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A Note on My Reviews

Please read ‘On Reviews‘ for a guide to how I write film reviews. Any spoilers are appropriately marked and, though I personally prefer to know little about a film before seeing it, there is a synopsis below the review for any who wish to see one.

Films Mentioned

Avengers: Endgame (d. Anthony Russo, Joe Russo USA 2019)

Avengers: Infinity War (d. Anthony Russo, Joe Russo USA 2018)

Captain Marvel (d. Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck USA/Australia 2019)

Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (d. Irvin Kershner USA 1980)

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (d. Rian Johnson USA 2017)

Avengers: Endgame (2019): ‘The Cinematic Universe Climaxes’ – A Film Review

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