Review: Avengers: Endgame (spoiler free)

April 23rd 2019, 6:00pm

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

SPOILER WARNING – Although this review is spoiler free, be advised that entering the comments section could potentially spoil things. While we try to keep out trolls and the like, we simply can't keep up with it at all times, so if you want to avoid any and all spoilers, stay out of the comments until you've seen the film.

PLOT: The remaining Avengers reunite to undo Thanos’s mad plan which concluded with him eliminating half of all life in the universe. But to do so, they’ll need to work together – and this has become a fractured family not used to working as a team anymore.

REVIEW: Reviewing something like AVENGERS: ENDGAME early can be a tricky proposition. Anticipation for this one has spiked to the point that it’s less of a movie and more of a cultural phenomenon at this point. But, it’s also an experience that needs to be left unspoiled for the millions that will see it this weekend and even giving away tiny morsels of the story seems like a no go. Even Disney has gone through great pains to cut vague trailers, not to mention the directors, Anthony & Joe Russo begging those who see it early not to give anything away. Seeing this at an early morning press screening was a rare privilege, as I got to watch it totally unspoiled – and so to at least not give anything away on my end, this review is gonna be just like the trailers – vague.

What I can write is this – AVENGERS: ENDGAME is an epic conclusion, and I do mean epic – with this thing coming in at 3 hours (although the run time never feels indulgent). In a nice change of pace from other two-part movies, this does not simply feel like INFINITY WAR 2. It does its own thing and stands on its own two feet. While INFINITY WARS was a war movie, ENDGAME opts strongly for drama and rounding out character arcs in a way that’s clearly been designed to bring this chapter of the Marvel saga – which began with IRON MAN way back in 2008 – to a close. In many ways this feels like a direct sequel to that film, allowing Robert Downey Jr. to be the heart and soul of what’s going on in a way he really hasn’t been since those early movies, and it’s fitting. The MCU is really the saga he launched and if the Avengers are the Rat Pack RDJ is Frank Sinatra. He’s the first one you see when the movie starts up – and much of it centers on his journey.

If he’s Frank Sinatra, Chris Evans’s Captain America is at least his Dean Martin, and so the hero that’s become the (sometimes naïve) conscience of the universe gets a way of furthering his arc. Most importantly, it gives him a lot of screen time with Iron Man allowing them to resolve their differences and bring the team back to its core. The way this is done is surprising, with Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man being pivotal, not only in the sense that he comes up with something for them to do, but the way it’s done itself owes something to the heist mentality of the ANT-MAN films. This is driven home by the composer, Alan Silvestri, who seems to be having a ball playing with heist movie-style soundtracks in his score which alternately harkens back to Henry Mancini’s PINK PANTHER work (lots of saxophones), his own work with Marvel and – well – another movie he scored… but that’s all I can say.

Everyone gets their moment to shine, with big changes in store for Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, and especially Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye. The latter actually gets my favorite action beat early-on in a little throwaway bit (with a neat cameo) that drives home the fact that the action design by the Russo brothers is a tight as always – even if a movie like this has very little room for grounded fights.

Arguably the most controversial arc may be for Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, who’s changed A LOT in between movies, but how is something you’ll have to see for yourselves. If anyone gets short-shifted it’s newer additions to the franchise like Danai Gurira’s Okoye – with her barely prominent, and most surprisingly Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel, making the way they teased her in the last film slightly anti-climactic. That said, ENDGAME was shot before her solo film and it’s probably that the character hadn’t quite been figured out yet. She’s there – but this is really a movie that belongs to other characters, with Karen Gillan’s Nebula prominent in a huge way, so much so that by the time this is over I have a hunch they’ll be talk of her getting a spin-off all of her own. Another surprisingly minor presence is Thanos himself, who gets far less screen time here than in INFINITY WAR. Still, this makes sense. That was very much his arc, but here’s he’s more or less back in villain mode – which is appropriate although slightly disappointing due to the way he comes off as simpler and less morally complicated than he was last time.

Overall though, AVENGERS: ENDGAME is an epic conclusion to the MCU so far which also sets the stage for new ways for the universe to branch off. People who’ve been along on this journey for the last eleven years won’t be able to help getting emotional by the time the credits roll and that’s understandable. It’s an ending of a sort – but also a new beginning which is exciting!

NOTE- As for post-credits scenes – there were NONE on the print I saw, but that doesn’t mean anything as sometimes they’re left off the press screening prints. I also saw this in a conventional, 2D, non-Imax way so take from that what you will. The paid screenings may have bells and whistles we didn’t get!