Avengers: Endgame is the culmination of eleven years of films building the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Phase Three seems to close the cycle that started with Iron Man (2008). Now that that is out of the way, it is fan service, bringing in characters and moments just for you, but not for the story. The MCU has set up rules, but then breaks them here. I have issues of Avengers going back to 1967, but I see that the MCU has to stand apart from the comic books and tell their own story. Still, the fan service got in the way of the story for me. The film is directed by the Russo Brothers, Anthony and Joe, who started in the MCU directing the brilliant Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and then continued through Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018).
Avengers: Endgame was written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the duo who wrote the screenplay for Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and Thor: The Dark World (2013) before working on the Russo Brothers films. The movie opens with the teaser of Clint Barton, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) showing archery. Hawkeye gets more of a showcase than other MCU movies and he is a stand out character for me. It shifts to the world after The Snap, The Snappening?, in Infinity War. Steve Rogers, Captain America (Chris Evans) runs a support group in New York. Captain America is again an inspiration for the Avengers. Natasha Romanoff, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) is in charge of coordinating the heroes. Black Widow has a strong part here and also is another stand out character.
They include James Rhodes, War Machine (Don Cheadle) and Okoye (Danai Guirira). War Machine provides some light moments. There is also Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper). It seems like the Marvel characters ended up in the dark DC universe and the DC characters ended up in light hearted Marvel universe with Shazam! Then, we get Tony Stark, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) trapped in the spaceship running out of fuel and air. Downey Jr. also has a signficant part in this film. He records his message to Pepper Potts. We later see from the trailer other Avengers like Thor, Chris Hemsworth, who is able to bring more humor to the part, Bruce Banner, Hulk, (Mark Ruffalo), and Scott Lang, Ant Man (Paul Rudd) who is also provides some humor.
Then, there is Nebula (Karen Gillan), who is also a survivor of the Snap and an interesting character in this movie, and Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), fresh from her own film. They have to find a way to counter Thanos (Josh Brolin). I kept getting the sense of other movies which I can’t reveal except Justice League (2017). It felt strange to treading the same ground as that film, but with the Marvel touches. There was some weeping around me, but it just didn’t earn the emotional impact for me. The very long run time could have cut most of the beginning and get to the point. Spinning out of this film, I think the Disney Plus show that interests me is The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Note: there is no mid or end credit scenes. I really liked some moments in this film. The Marvel fans will love it.
Two Infinity Stones out of Five!
#AvengersEndgame, #RussoBrothers, #RobertDowneyJr, #ChrisEvans
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