“Is it done?”
“Yes”
“What did it cost?”
“11 years, 19 movies a few of which were
unnecessary, 5 T V shows, a shit load of merchandise, hordes of social media
influencers and critics either bought or brainwashed, stealing the competitions
ideas (Civil war wasn’t planned till DC announced BvS. Also the plot of JL 2
was eerily similar to Infinity war) and ruining the genre to a point that
generic mediocrity is the sole acceptable standard. But hey, you do get to
finally hear Captain America say ‘Avengers Assemble’. “
AVENGERS:
ENDGAME
CAST-
THE ENTIRE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE
DIRECTOR
– THE RUSSO BROS.
The greatest achievement of the Disney’s
Marvel Cinematic Universe is to finally bring super-heroes to the main stream.
Call it easily digestible story-telling or Disney’s marketing clout or some
truly amazing performances over the years by actors like Robert Downey Jr.,
Chris Evans, and Scarlett Johansan etc. But the MCU did what any market player
wanting to build a strong monopoly does- saturate the market with its own
product, often at the cost of quality and also crush the competition with
somewhat questionable means. All said and done, they are currently the only
standing shared universe with a financial and popular success rate unparalleled
in cinematic history.
Endgame is more than a movie. It is a
cultural event with Theatres selling houseful shows at 3:30 a.m. for the first
5 days. Even If I personally started getting disillusioned by the MCU after
Iron Man 3, I am still a comic book and pop culture fan. I was still gonna be
there at 7:00 in the morning wearing my Captain America T shirt. So, like most
comic book movies I had to watch this twice. Once to satisfy my inner nerd. The
second time to look at a movie from a storytelling perspective. So I have tried
my level best to keep all the hype aside and look at this as just a movie.
But that isn’t it, is it? A movie is more
than a set of images with dialogue. Especially Comic book movies these days.
Especially Marvel movies. The screaming, the chuckling at the quips in the
middle of a life threatening battle, waiting for the Post-credit scenes and
checking out the memes later on social media is now a part of our social cycle.
Also, how do you review a movie that’s the last part of a saga? It’s not unlike
Harry Potter and the deathly hollows part 2 but with a much bigger fandom and
an even bigger build up. Walking into this movie without at least a fair idea
of its predecessors would be like walking into the season finale of a popular
TV show without watching any previous episodes. But people do it. For fear of
being left out of such a pop-culture tidal wave. For such people, I have some
friendly advice- either do your homework and come watch this or just don’t.
Nobody wants to hear you ask your friend in the theatre every 10 minutes
–‘Who’s that? Who’s this?’ Frankly it doesn’t matter. No matter what hardcore
MCU fans (many of whom have never even touched a comic book) will have you
believe. You are not missing out on a cinematic masterpiece that can stand on
its own.
However you are missing out on an
experience of people really enjoying themselves. Kids being kids, adults being
kids. People in general having a great time. It’s like a carnival with food and
screaming and laughing. Just like a carnival has no particular artistic value
than enjoyment, I feel the MCU is the same. Oh come at me, all those people
treating this as though nobody ever thought of making a 3 hour movie before
this or that its some oscar worthy movie just because the Russo Bros. managed to not make it a complete
mess are kidding themselves.
Firstly credit where credits due. I really
admire the Russo bros. for what they did in Winter Soldier. After Iron Man 1, Marvel finally made a movie where it feels that the consequences matter. Their mediocre visual and action
skills were pardonable for that one particular quality. Bringing gravitas to a
franchise which many didn’t take itself seriously. They did it again with Civil War.
Which for the most part managed to have some sense of grit to it, until the
airport battle at least when heroes fighting each other to death joke with each
other. But Infinity war was where they got their groove just right. I mean IW
had its fair share of tension puncturing trademark Disney humor but by God that
climax was amazing. In my review of Infinity war I had quoted Ra’s Al Ghul from
Batman Begins – “You have finally learned to do what’s necessary”. That’s how
you make a great saga. An Empire strikes back, where Luke loses his hand and
Han Solo is frozen in Carbonite. A fellowship of the Ring where Gandalf is dead
and the fellowship is disbanded. The fact that it took MCU their 2nd
last movie in a saga to get there is the sad part of it. But better late than
never. There is a reason that IW worked so well, because it had what MCU has
always lacked before. A menacing Villain in the form of Thanos. A villain who
carried with him the impending doom of Destiny. But the bigger achievement of
IW was that it wasn’t a mess. I never thought putting so many characters
together in one movie would work out. Some would overshadow the others (I mean
Hulk got completely overshadowed) and it could just become a great idea in
theory and not in practice. But the Russos made it work and work really really
well. Endgame is a much better movie because of Infinity War.
Because on its own, it has its share of
issues. That’s again not to say that I didn’t enjoy it. It was as I said a fun
experience, but personally just like the previous highest grossing movie Avatar
(whose record Endgame might easily break) it has little replay value. And
that’s also fine, not all movies need to have that. However, what this does is
that it makes certain parts of the movie boring, especially on second viewing.
The movie tries its best to make the consequences matter. But except for two
characters –Hawkeye and Tony- it really doesn’t know what to do with it. I didn’t
wanna make that comparison (fuck it I really wanted to) but real world drama
like this is best left to DC. War, Alien Invasion, Vigilantes, crime, poverty,
Traumatic past- you name it and DC (having the collective DNA of Nolan and Snyder)
have been able to deal with it better. That’s why the dramatic parts in a good
DC movie are the crux, the spectacle is just a bonus. Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy
had some of the most unimaginative action scenes and particularly Batman’s hand
to hand combat skills were weirdly shot. But still, it’s the scenes of dialogue
between characters that are the most fascinating.
Hawkeye loses his family and turns into
Ronin- a shadowy ruthless assassin who murders criminals who survived Thanos’
snap deeming them unworthy of life. Tony and Nebula are in space with only 2
days of Oxygen left, when they are rescued by Captain Marvel (whose only job in
the movie is literally showing up at the last moment and win things without any
struggle. Just like her movie.) When Tony returns he is so weak and already
crippled by the PTSD he has been carrying since the first Avengers (though it
sometimes disappears in Guest appearances in Spiderman: Homecoming) that he
blames Cap for not being there when they needed him the most. In a short but
effective scene by RDJ, he conveys the exact stakes and tone that was needed
for this movie throughout. However other than that, the movie doesn’t do enough
to show how the snap changed the universe or our earth least. How are people,
how are the govts. And societies dealing with 50% of the population just
disappearing. Cap does mention a few things like seeing Whales in the Hudson
river or reduced pollution but its all talk and no show. Things just chug along
until the movie kills its original villain – (Yes Thor decapitates a defeated,
broken, limping Thanos. Somehow Superman stopping Zod by snapping his neck coz
he had no choice doesn’t seem that bad does it?) and takes a 5 year jump. Now
by sheer co-incidence a rat activates a quantum machine where Antman was
trapped during the snap (as shown in the post credit scene of the blandest
movie possible – Antman and the Wasp). He comes back and..well read this- http://ambireviews.blogspot.com/2018/08/ps-possible-spoilers-avengers-infinity.html?m=1
My fan theory as to what would happen in Endgame was proven right.
Now in a large story like this, a few
co-incidences are but expected. Especially when a movie starts dealing with
Time travel…it’s even more expected. Nothing is going to perfectly fit
together. But the amount of questions and glaring pot holes the movie doesn’t address
even till the climax is astounding. As I said, once you remove your hype googles
you might see the holes in the holy (Ya bitches. That’s a BvS reference in MCU’s
swansong.) Yet the best and I say the really amazing parts of the movie begin
when they finally start going into another timeline to retrieve the Infinity
stones from different locations so that they can get all the people who had
disappeared in the snap back.
This is then Marvel at its corniest best.
The jokes are back. The quips are back. The spectacle is back. From then until
the climax, where Thanos from another timeline is suddenly our villain now (Don’t
ask) it’s just pure payback on your Marvel movie investments. There is just
pure fan service after that with some iconic and well shot scenes. And one of
the best third act battles in comic book history. However, I have come to the
conclusion that the Russo Bros. are not great at handling super-powered
characters. Captain America and Iron man are one thing but I really hate the unjust
treatment given to two of the mightiest avengers – Hulk and Thor. Thor the Norse
God of Thunder and protector of Earth is turned into a joke (no surprises
there) but he doesn’t even do anything useful in the movie. Thor could
technically be completely removed and it won’t make a difference to the story.
If you saw Hulk get his ass beat in IW and wanted him to give Thanos or the Titans
some payback then prepare for some incredible disappointment. Captain Marvel shows
up at the end and then again is uselessly thrown away. Dr. Strange is just set
aside and not allowed to exhibit his full magical potential but hey he did
predict this scenario and allow it to happen.
Thanos is somehow able to handle all these
attacks even without one of the Infinity stones (plot armour is the strongest stone)
and finally….finally someone has to step in to stop him. Put on the Infinity
stones themselves and risk taking the huge energy surge on their body to
eliminate Thanos…. Of course it had to be Iron Man. Oops…spoiler alert I guess.
I mean if you were paying attention from Infinity War it had to be him. RDJ
again delivers a fantastic performs as you can see the life leave his eyes
silently. Having left a safer world for his child to live in.
The movie still spends some more time
giving proper ending for almost all the characters- except Hulk coz I think the
Russos really hate him. It has a very confusing end for Captain America-
Satisfying but logically confusing. And that I think is the essence of the
movie. Satisfying… so much epic satisfaction in the final battle but logically (and
by that I mean pre-established logic by the previous MCU movies) confusing
movie. There are weird tonal shifts and sometimes I feel if given free reign
the Russos might have wanted a more serious movie. The movie avoids making bold
risky choices when it’s the only super-hero
movie guaranteed to make those and still win financial and critical acclaim,
for simpler satisfying ones.
But it’s understandable…that’s the MCU way.
They wouldn’t have wanted the end of an era to take any risks. The slight risks taken by Guardians of the
Galaxy 1 or Iron man 1 or Winter Soldier or Black Panther or Infinity war are
avoided here. But the best part is—it’s done. It’s finally done. I mean not
exactly- MCU is coming up with Spiderman Far from Home in 2 months and other
movies already announced…but the original Avengers cycle which started in 2009
is done. We can get back to finally watching other movies for a while. Comic
Book movies can finally get to experimenting again without worrying to match up
to Marvel’s standards. I am not saying we’ll be seeing another BvS or Watchmen
or TDK but still things are gonna be hopefully different. We have Joker coming in
October and who knows if Warner Bros. will finally wake up after Endgame hype
has died down to Release the Snyder cut of Justice League.
All
my criticism for Marvel apart- Endgame was an epic conclusion but didn’t really
need to be 3 hours long. It didn’t have the substance to carry that length. It
is an adequately enjoyable movie and obviously the hardcore fans will enjoy it
a whole fucking lot. As an independent movie or even if combined with Infinity
War, it doesn’t have the same intensity or pace. It is like an exciting new
cocktail which feels and looks very innovative but doesn’t age well like the
whiskey it’s based on.
Since Endgame is such a difficult movie to
rate, I am coming up with a new rating for it.
Endgame is Fun but not gonna age well.
P.S,:-
Endgame is
1) A
long 3 hour movie
2)
Has a lot of violence and death and serious scenes
3)
Heroes have lost and are questioning themselves
4)
The movie has a bloated middle act
5)
It has a scene where one hero stops the other from fighting him by merely
saying a beloved’s name.
6)
The directors have had to frequently explain the movie.
So
the movie is almost everything DCEU movies, particularly BvS was criticized for
and yet this one appreciated.
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