Avengers Endgame Review

Well, for the first time in ages, I figured it was time I review a brand new film, which I recently saw at the cinema and the film in question is Avengers Endgame, which sees the conclusion of The Avengers films as we know them so to speak.

So, after Infinity War, does Endgame live up to expectations? Well, let's take a look...

And even though I will not say much about the plot I will still give the usual warning...

THERE MIGHT BE THE ODD SPOILER AHEAD!! (BUT HARDLY ANY HONESTLY!)

STORY

WARNING: THIS FIRST PARAGRAPH HAS A SPOILER IN IT!

So, the story begins 23 days after Infinity War ended with the villainous Thanos (Josh Brolin) having wiped out half the universe's population and we begin with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) trapped on a ship in deep space with Nebula (Karen Miller) who face the fate of dying from loss of oxygen. However, just as their fate appears to be inevitable, they are soon rescued by Captain Marvel (Brie Larsson) and taken back to Earth. So, they reunite with the surviving Avengers, who weren't wiped out by Thanos including Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Natasha Ramamoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson).
 So, together they decided to track down Thanos and recover the infinity stones only to find that he has destroyed them to prevent any further use of the stones, which prompts Thor to kill Thanos in a fit of rage by beheading him.

The story then shifts forward by 5 years where Scott Lang/Ant Man (Paul Rudd) escapes the quantum realm he was trapped in and meets with Steve and Natasha. Scott tells them that there might be a possibility that they could use the quantum realm to travel back in time to recover the infinity stones and bring back the fallen Avengers and the rest of the population. So, Steve, Natasha and Scott pay Tony Stark a visit, who by now is married to Pepper Potts (Gwenyth Paltrow) and he has a young daughter. Tony refuses however to go along with their idea as he is afraid of losing his family in the process and also suggests it would be impossible.

However, not long after they go, Tony out of curiosity with some calculations, discovers that it would be possible to use the quantum realm and its not longer before he decides to go and help out his team mates to bring back everyone else... 

THOUGHTS

As a conclusion to the Avengers films as we know them, Endgame is an excellent Marvel film and it sees the Avengers series film end with fine style as there are plenty of moments of excitment, drama, suspense and of course fun. The film also continues on from Infinity War's intense themes but along with brings a stronger sense of hope as you could say that Infinity War was the Avengers answer to The Empire Strikes Back where the bad guys win, so here things have to be put right. The film also has plenty of laughs but its not without its emotional weight either and by the end you know things in the Marvel film universe will never be quite the same again.

PERFORMANCES (Warning: some minor spoilers might be mentioned but nothing major and there won't much in the way of notable scenes this time!)

As for the performances, well the Avengers ensemble (or assemble!) cast are all in fine form here as are the rest of the cast.

Starting with Robert Downey Jr who is great once again as Tony Stark aka Iron Man, and he provides the film's main emotional anchor (sorry for the cliche!) with Tony being a married man with a daughter and is now afraid to lose what he has but makes the tough decision to help the other Avengers to bring everyone else back.  I won't say how the film ends of course but this was to be Robert Downey Jr's final performance as Iron Man and he certainly puts in a fine one to end his run on the series.

Chris Evans next up is excellent again in his role of Steve Rogers/Captain America and this too is to be his final appearance in the Avengers series but don't worry I won't mention anything about the final moments of his performance either. Evans here also has one of the film's most notable lines where the Avengers put their plan into play to rescue the other Avengers and bring back half the universe's population that was wiped out. So, in the scene Natasha says to Steve "This is going to work" and Steve tells her "I know it is, because I don't know what I'll do if it doesn't".

Mark Ruffalo is also pretty good again in his role as Bruce Banner/The Hulk and this time around we get a different slant on his character as Bruce has now permanently taken on the form of the Hulk but managed to balance his own intelligence with the Hulk's physique.

Chris Hemsworth does great once too in his role of Thor, God of Thunder, but this time round, Thor has become a drunken overweight mess as he rules over his people in the New Asgard. Hemsworth also get's one of the film's funniest lines as one of his friends get's abuse from an online gamer playing Fortnite. So, Thor speaks to the gamer online and warns him "Hey, this is Thor, you know God of Thunder. If you don't log off this game right now, I'm gonna fly over to your house, find what basement you're hiding in, rip of your arms and shove them up your butt!! Now go and cry to your father, you little weasel!!".

Scarlett Johansson also reprises her role very well as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow and this time Natasha leads several teams around the galaxy and feels great regret for her fallen Avengers and later on is forced to make a tough decision (which I won't say anymore about!). This I think is also to be Scarlett's final film in the MCU but I'm not 100% certain on that as I'm not a big aficinado of the series.

Jeremy Renner does well also in his role as the Avenger, Clint Barton/Hawkeye who has become a vigilante in the film before he is approached by the Avengers to come back to the team. Renner also plays an important part in the film later on during their mission to try and retrieve the infinity stones in their plan to ressurect the others.

Paul Rudd is also excellent again in his role as Scott Lang/Ant-Man, who helps the other Avengers in their plan to retrieve the infinity stones and is instrumental in putting the plan into place. Rudd also provides alot of humour to the film as he keeps referencing Back to the Future as an inspiration for the Avenger's plan only to be told that Back to the Future's take on time travel is nonsense!

Brie Larson does pretty well too in her role as Caron Danvers/Captain Marvel who (SPOILER!!) while she doesn't have a great deal of screen time here, she till plays a pretty big part in the Avenger's plan. Her limited screen time was deliberate by the film makers because they wanted to place more emphasis on the Avengers story and Larson herself would shortly after filming her scenes start work on here solo film as Captain Marvel.

Karen Gillan also reprises her role very well as Nebula, the adopted daughter of the villainous Thanos but this time around she has turned into a goodie after the events of Infinity War change her perspective and she fights as one of the Avengers. However things become complicated for Nebula in the film as her alternate universe counterpart from the past soon becomes apparent to Thanos but I won't say anymore than that!

Bradley Cooper also reprises his voice role of the CGI character, Rocket, a genetically engineered raccon and former Guardians of the Galaxy member, who helps the Avengers out with their plan also. Cooper's voice acting here is pretty good and he too get's some fun moments in the film but his character too has suffered as most of his crewmates have died to Thanos's act.

And while there are still quite a few other cast members to mention, I will finish by mentioning Josh Brolin who does a great job once again as the film's primary villain, Thanos, however this time around his screen time is a little more limited than in Infinity War even though he plays a central part here. I was also somewhat surprised to learn (or maybe not I guess when you think about it) that Brolin's performance as Thanos was a motion capture one in both films rather than an extensive make-up job.   

DIRECTORS AND MUSIC 

As for the film's directors, Anthony and Joe Russo, who are of course brothers (also referred to as the Russo brothers funnily enough!) do an excellent job here with the film as they have alot to juggle here with different storyline and so many characters. They also handle the film's epic action scenes really well, which easily rank among some of the most amazing and impressive ones that the MCU has ever seen. The Russo brothers also directed some of the most previously acclaimed MCU films such as Avengers: Infinity War and Captain America: Winter Soldier.

Last of all is the film's score by Alan Silvestri, which is a very fine one overall and I have to say that Silvestri's music has changed quite alot over the years as I really didn't recognise this as one of his scores. Back in the 1980's, Silvestri's scores were very recognisible as they always had those fast rising tempos but there is really not much of that going on here, which is to his credit that he has changed his music style over the years.

FLAWS

As for flaws...well I can't really go into the flaws here without spoiling anything but I guess the main one would be is that the film's running time at just over 3 hours is a pretty extensive one and it crams so much and does feel just a bit too overlong. The film's pacing however for the most part is pretty good but even at 3 hours, I think that MCU is taking things maybe a bit too far as every "epic" film nowadays has to have a super long running time and Endgame here is no different. So, perhaps if they trimmed the run-time just a little too even 2 hours and 30 minutes, it could have tightened up things a little bit more.

The only other flaw I will mention here however is that I think some of the film's characters are a little sidelined here, especially Thanos, as the main villain, his screen time does feel surprisingly limited. I would also have to say that Thanos's presence this time around just isn't quite as menacing even if Josh Brolin's performance is still very much praiseworthy. I feel the film's main driving story is the Avengers plan to retrieve the infinity stones and everything else, even Thanos, plays second fiddle to that.

Anyway that's all I'm going to say for now on the flaws.

SUM UP

So, in summing up, Avengers: Endgame is an excellent conclusion to the Avengers films as we know it and its a film that is both alot of fun but also has quite alot of emotional weigh to it. The cast are all on fine form too and the film's visuals and action scenes are pretty epic and awesome looking as you would expect from a film with a meagre 356 billion dollar budget! ;-)

The runtime does feel a bit too long however and maybe there are one or two other niggles I could mention but I won't go into them here (but I won't) but that's me just nitpicking and to be honest this is still a fine film overall and one that's well worth checking out if you have seen the previous Avengers movies. 

So, that's it for now and I'll be back hopefully soon with another post. Till then that's me off.

Ciao for now!