"Avengers: Endgame" Movie Review

By: James Southworth
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

One would be justified to think that "Infinity War" was an event movie, meant to have huge cultural impact and have an interesting mark left on the cinematic landscape. But the movie almost seems small compared to the monstrous impact that "Avengers: Endgame" is having. This film shattered so many records within its opening weekend, and in the matter of only two weeks, it is already the second highest grossing movie of all time. It won't be surprising to me to see it get up to the number one spot in the next couple of weeks. Though some might say there is fatigue with Marvel films, the amount of success this movie is already seeing proves otherwise. Superhero films are still in high demand, and I don't see them losing traction any time soon. I've had an interesting relationship with the MCU. At their best, these films can be inspiring and heartwarming, and filled with likeable characters. At their worst, the films can be rather formulaic and cliched, with the movies' overall greatest weaknesses being their lack of many engaging villains. "Infinity War" was devoid of most of Marvel's most prevalent problems, and even proved to be a highly risk-taking movie in many ways, including making its villain the protagonist. Now, half of the world is gone as a result of Thanos's snap, and the rest of the Avengers are left with one goal: Avenge the fallen and defeat Thanos once and for all. We are in the endgame now.

I can comfortably say that I highly enjoyed and loved "Endgame". There are so many things to commend here. One of my favorite moments here may actually be the cold open of this movie, which might be one of the most haunting and heartbreaking things in any Marvel movie to date. This opening moment really makes you see what type of atmosphere the movie is going for, at least in its initial moments. Similarly to "Infinity War", this film has quite a few tonal shifts that occur. But whereas that movie's shifts occurred constantly throughout this movie, it feels like "Endgame"'s shifts are neatly divided in between its three acts. The first act could be characterized as the darkest moments in any Marvel movie, with all our characters at their weakest points. I do not want to spoil anything in my review, but it is interesting to see how all of our characters deal with the grief of losing so many loved ones. I like that this movie shows in compelling ways that there is not one singularly right way of coping with loss, and that often times any way of coping with loss can have some harmful implications. I think it was most interesting to see how Hawkeye and Thor dealt with loss, mainly because it was most surprising to see their forms of dealing with it. Something else I love about the first act of this movie (and honestly it's probably my favorite part of "Endgame") is the intimate moments of conversation we have between characters. This movie doesn't want to be just filled with mindless action and over-the-top comedy; the Russo Brothers did great at making us care for seeing these characters in raw and close-up ways. This movie is unlike many other Marvel movies in that regard. In some ways, the beginning parts of this film are some of the quietest moments we've seen in any MCU film.

Probably the best idea this film had was to have a honed in focus on the Avengers we've come to know the most thus far in the MCU. This movie really belongs to them, and there's no debating that. Because of that fact, we get some of the best performances from this cast that I've ever seen. Robert Downey, Jr. is at his absolute best here as Iron Man. Even though I am not the biggest fan of the Iron Man trilogy, I still think that Downey was the best possible choice to play this character. He will probably be compared to Hugh Jackman or Michael Keaton as far as perfect superhero castings go. The audience has seen Tony Stark grow in incredible ways throughout his movies, and so it's undeniably touching to see his character arc come to fruition in "Endgame". Downey does great as always at bringing out the snarky humor typical of Stark, but he might do even better at bringing out the loving nature of Tony that has always been there. This is a bravura performance, and in a more justified world, it would get an Oscar nomination. I'm not counting on that happening, sadly. My favorite performance goes to Chris Evans as Captain America. Wow, talk about a jaw-dropping performance all throughout. Captain America has gone through his own interesting arc as well, from a introverted but loyal Patriot to a rebellious but still principled vigilante. I think his arc has made the most sense, as Steve Rogers has always done what he views as right, no matter what the cost. I got quite emotional at his where Steve ended up in this movie, as his character got the full realization that he truly deserved. There are many, many other performances to point out here as well. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Paul Rudd as Ant-Man. I think this may be the best he's done at the character, as he almost effortlessly balances between absolute goofball and incredibly serious. I also enjoyed Mark Ruffalo here as Hulk more than any other movie. He's absolutely hysterical at many points in this movie, and I really liked what they did with him. It was not exactly what you'd expect, but it was worth it. I'm not quite sure why I initially dismissed Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, as this character has turned into one of the most compelling in the MCU as a whole. He has the hardest character transformation to go through here in my opinion, and Renner hit the nail on the head in regards to portraying this transformation. Even though Josh Brolin as Thanos didn't have quite as big a role to play here, he still exudes chilling menace. He is undoubtedly the best Marvel villain, and I hope the future MCU films are able to see what a great villain can do to make the heroes look more compelling. The only performances that didn't work for me as much was Karen Gillan as Nebula (who I felt was a little too over the top here) and, unfortunately, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel. In fact, it almost felt like the movie didn't quite know what to do with her. I'm hoping we'll see more interesting stuff happen with this character in future films.

There's still more that I could talk about in regards to this film, but delving too much into the rest of it will be treading very closely to spoiler territory. I'll commend the trailers: they did a great job in regards to keeping as much secret as they possibly could. So, I'll just give some brief other thoughts to this movie before wrapping up. The ending of this film is where it really excels. There are just some incredible things that happen here, including one of the best shot action scenes that I've seen in any of the Marvel films to date. The conclusion this movie comes to is ultimately quite emotional and powerful. There's some legitimate weight to it, which made me happy. I was afraid that all the dark things that "Infinity War" did might come undone in this film, but thankfully they don't. Instead, the movie is quite frank about the consequences that past actions have, but this doesn't mean that there isn't redemption to be found in the midst of these dark consequences. Where my main problems come to fruition for this movie lie in its middle portion. Now, the middle portion is not horrible by any means. In fact, this part has some of the coolest moments in any Marvel movie, as well as some of the best comedic moments in the MCU. But, I do have to admit that there are times when it just seems to be there to fill time. It's not like everything that happens here is inconsequential, but there are parts when you're just anxiously awaiting something else to happen. But even at that, what does happen here is far from insufferable. "Endgame" as a whole just doesn't warrant that many criticisms.

I feel like there's so much more that I could say about "Endgame", but I'll leave that for face-to-face discussions with people who have seen it. There's so many moments here that will be ingrained in my memory forever. I have come to love so many of these Marvel characters, and this is quite honestly the best possible conclusion for many of our heroes. This should be breaking box office records, because it is an excellent movie well-deserving of all the critical and audience praise it's received. Most of you have probably seen the movie if you're reading this, but if you haven't then you need to! It's easily the best film of the year so far, and it will take a lot to beat it out!