It should probably be said that there are only a handful of very famous movies that feature plots driven by time travel. It is very hard to and harder to do well. After seeing this movie, I can say that, yes, Doctor Who still has the market cornered on the wibbly-wobbly and the timey-wimey. Speaking of…
Captain Marvel is here! Remember her? Nick Fury’s best bud
from space that he sent a pager message to moments before he himself was
evaporated by Thanos’ snap? She appears as the team surveys the damage and counts
the losses and helps them execute their next plan, which involves recovering the
lost Infinity Stones and setting the Universe right.
It is a pretty basic plot, all things considered, even if
the steps taken to complete the thread are numerous. And this is honestly all I
can say about the story without spoiling anything. I suppose the outcome itself
isn’t that hard to wonder at. We know the crew has to beat Thanos. What we don’t
know is what that looks like and how. Especially after the epic drumming they
took in the previous Avengers tale.
This is before getting everyone on the same page, which is a chore in all of
these movies. Because of this, the movie is very slow to start. It’s never
boring, but if we must spend an hour on expository set-up, it would help if it
was more organized. Or, just better, in general.
Thor is depicted as slovenly, unkempt and hideously
out-of-shape, clearly haunted by his failure to kill Thanos and save his family.
I can…look past this for the most part. Even though, making fun of someone for being fat is probably in bad
taste (and also got old a decade ago) and making fun of someone for being fat
as the result of slipping into a depressive
state is definitely in bad taste. Not something I would have done but, clearly,
the MCU has mostly punted on giving Thor any sort of development outside of
being a gag so it is what it is.
Hawkeye on the other hand is proof of how subtlety so often
escapes this franchise. The very first scene of the movie sees Clint Barton’s
family get dusted in front of him. Yes, the same family that appeared from
nowhere many films ago with no prior hint of their existence in a twist so
bizarre that even the characters in movie said, “Where did this farm come from?”
This happy young family that we’ve only seen once is now gone. This, understandably,
leads Clint to his own depressive episode. His appearance changes as well, only
he doesn’t let himself go. He comes out of retirement and continues his first
job as a mercenary for hire. Less Hawkeye more Arrow. This development alone is
fine. What isn’t fine is taking such a cool, likable character and turning him
into every bad boy stereotype from the early 2000s – complete with punk rock
haircut and tattoo sleeve. Thankfully, Jeremy Renner is very good and commits
100% otherwise this would be laughable instead of just bad.
Time for the good news today. If you can make it past all of
that, the next two hours are quite good and highly entertaining. All characters
from MCU past and present join (and re-join) the fray. The final twenty minutes
in particular are highly emotional if you are any kind of fan of these heroes
or this universe they call home. It’s partly why I’m able to forgive somewhat
the length or the uneven pacing of the First Act. It hits at some point during
the final set piece that – yes, indeed – this is it. Over a decade and
twenty-two movies later, we are the end of the line of legitimately the biggest
pop culture phenomenon of this century. If you really must call your movie ENDGAME, you need to earn it. By the
end, I believe they do.
Robert Downey, Jr. has before made the comment that his career
has now been chopped into two sections. Pre-Iron Man and Post-Iron Man. He’s not
wrong to say it, so it only makes sense that the man who started the MCU would
be around to help bring it to its emotional conclusion. For the first time
since maybe the first Iron Man, Tony Stark was the best character by a long way.
Great care has been taken with his arc in the overall universe and it shows
here. It’s not uncommon for an actor – even one with such wide range – to be
remembered primarily for one seminal piece of work. If that’s what happens to
Robert Downey, Jr. it’s not bad at all, because this is a performance he should
be proud of.
We see him at the start of the movie, as well. He and Nebula
are adrift in space to be saved by Captain Marvel, but before they are, Tony records
a heartfelt goodbye message to Pepper who, at this point, he doesn’t even know
is still alive. The whole scene is the window into the mind of a man who is
staring mortality in the face. As he ends the transmission and lies down on the
bridge floor, we see not a hero, but a man. A man who has accepted death.
I liked this movie better than Infinity War even though that one is probably better overall. The
first one-third of Endgame is too
long; specifically, to long without anything happening. I can’t complain too
loud, though, because people actually talk in this movie. They hold genuine
conversations which was my number one, blow-my-stack pet peeve of both Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad. A few of the characters’
resolutions were half-baked, especially considering we’ve been following most
of them for years now. By the end, however, I was wildly entertained which, for
a flick like this, should always be the goal.
The opening stages of this movie show the characters dealing
with the implications of their failure. A darkness has covered their lives.
Navigating through that darkness has been the thesis of the Avengers series (and Civil War). The abstract being: we do
our best when things are at their worst. Cap can do this all day. Not because
he wants to; rather, because it’s his job. And as long as it’s still his job,
dammit all he’ll keep coming.
How annoying it must be for Thanos. A simple megalomaniac
who simply wants to cleanse the Universe of its wasteful ways but he can’t and
it’s all because of this one group of super-powered geeks just will not stop
fighting. Humans can be brutal, violent creatures. But humans also fight. They
resist and they overcome.
Life finds a way.
4 Stars out of 5
Is anyone else upset that Natasha never got to reconcile
with Banner? At all? This question is rhetorical since none of you can answer
me but good grief, how is it that you handwave Black Widow’s feelings about
getting stood up after Age of Ultron
and then et cetera a relationship that had been developed over several movies?
How Sway?! As annoying is that is, though, they still found space to touch on
her connection with both Cap and Hawkeye, the latter of which is literally her
best friend so props must be given there. Platonic male/female relationships
are some of my favorite things to see in a story and I hope the Marvel influence
leads to more.
And as long as we’re on the topic I suppose I should speak
about that scene. Long story short: The Avengers track down Thanos but discover
he has destroyed the Infinity Stones. The act of doing so has left him weakened
and scarred. Not nearly the world-beater he was when we first saw him. The team
needs a fresh set of stones now, one of which is the Soul Stone. If you will
remember class, the Soul Stone cannot be obtained unless the person seeking it
sacrifices that which they love. This is the reason Gamora is gone in the first
place. Naturally, when two depressed and traumatized assassins take this
journey, it leads to a fist fight to see who commits suicide, essentially.
While describing this scene to my partner in crime,
Lunchbox, I said that it was a bit jarring in the “Oh, I guess we’re doing this”
way but that it worked in a vacuum for these two characters. He then brought up
the good point that, most of Marvel’s storytelling “work in a vacuum.” Of
course, Thor, in a short film or vignette, would let himself go and literally
threaten to smite some kid on Fortnite. In an Avengers movie, though? In the last Avengers movie? I guess you can technically, but it’s pretty weird.
I do like the role of a Smart Hulk that has finally
reconciled the conflict between his body and Banner’s mind. I was bothered by
the sight of him apparently being the most upset by Natasha’s death when they
hadn’t said two words to each other previously in the film. Or the last one!
While everyone was in their Five-Year Funk the only one who ever thought to go
visit her was Steve Rodgers. Clint can be upset because she sacrificed herself
for him but everyone else’s reaction seemed very sudden.
The final set piece is everything I love about this genre.
So many callbacks and reunions and shout-outs. There’s the return of Peter
Parker, whom Tony had taken in as his own before he actually had a child of his
own. There’s Captain America saving Thor with Mjolnir, which is a reference to
the best scene of Age of Ultron where
Thor challenges his friends to lift his hammer and Cap manages to move it but
not lift it. Scarlet Witch returns and heads straight for Thanos – a younger
Thanos from a different timeline who has clearly never seen this woman in his
life. When Thanos’ lead destroyer starts raining down pulsing blasts onto the
battlefield, things look bleak until the cannons aim upward to an advancing Captain
Marvel, who single-handedly brings down the ship. Later in the scene, Carol
leads a charge of all present female heroes as young Pete watches in awe.
Doctor Strange uses his wormhole magic to bring in all the
forces from every place the team has ever been. Tony references the one-in-fourteen-million
odds of victory that was apparently sure enough for Strange to help Thanos win
in the third installment. “If I tell you how it happens,” Strange says, “it won’t
happen.” Based upon how time works in this movie, one can infer that this
outcome was less than guaranteed. It was simply the timeline that had the best
chance of working, which means Strange has a tremendous amount of faith in the
team or Lady Fate, either way. It must have been a true Heart of the Cards
moment for him seeing that a scenario so impossible with so many variables
being literally the only chance to succeed.
I do like how it’s made clear that finding the Stones and
going back in time can’t undo everything The Snap set in motion. Tony correctly
makes this point, as he hosts his former teammates at the cabin he promised to
build for his spouse. I appreciate that the resolution was a touch more
complicated than just hitting Ctrl-Z (or Cmnd-Z for you Apple marks). In the
future, don’t name drop several other famous time travel movies, because all it
really does is remind folks that they did it better than you did. Back to the Future is not a bunch of bullshit. Hawkeye channeling
his grief with a Tyler Durden cosplay? That definitely is.
