Jeff’s Movie Reviews – Avengers: Endgame

Earth’s Mightiest

by Jeff Bowles

For more on Avengers: Engame, make sure to check out my full video review.

A wonderful thing happened to me as I watched Avengers: Endgame in the theater. At some point I realized that the worries and concerns that have been plaguing me in recent months are really just a steppingstone to something better, an invitation to move onward and upward in life. It happened around about the same time the core Avengers we met way back in 2012 tried to convince Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man to repair the past. “Well crap,” I said to myself, “if their mistakes are universe-ending, maybe mine aren’t as bad as I thought.”

And that’s the thing about this fourth Avengers movie, the capstone to the first eleven years of the mighty Marvel Cinematic Universe. Both understated and bold, the film urges us to reexamine our past choices. Some people stay stagnant and bemoan what they can’t change, while others look ahead and try to envision a better future.

Or maybe I just really love comic books, and a big, wonderful superhero flick like this awakens something serious and startling in me. Individual mileage may vary, of course, but truth be told, I’ve never seen a motion picture quite like this, and neither have you.

Avengers: Endgame is the second part of a two-part epic, which itself is the penultimate chapter of a series that’s twenty-two stories deep. That’s right, in order to gain a full appreciation for the trials and triumphs of Earth’s mightiest heroes, we need to go back to the very beginning, to the moment Tony Stark first slipped into his Iron Man suit. Readers of Marvel comic books were never astonished at how well this little project pulled together in the end, but audiences unfamiliar with a working shared universe might find themselves surprised by the complex tapestry eleven years of movies can weave.

Thanos the Mad Titan wiped out half of all sentient life in the universe with the snap of his fingers in last year’s Avengers: Infinity War, and now our heroes feel the need to, well, do some avenging. When it becomes clear it’s too late to fix Thano’s bold solution to universal overpopulation, the Avengers scatter and make individually vein efforts to move on with their lives. Captain America runs a support group for survivors of the infamous snap, Black Widow runs clandestine operations to protect what’s left of the world, Iron Man has settled into an existence of perfect domesticity, and Thor … well, don’t let me ruin for you how he’s ended up.

When Scott Lang, Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), unexpectedly pops his little shrinky-growy head out of the aptly named Quantum Realm, it slowly dawns on everyone it may be possible to return the universe to its former state after all, the lives of all those who turned to ash included. The movie focuses on the original six heroes we’ve come to love, which is a wise choice. Avengers: Infinity War sure was a beast of a movie, but it was also bloated with characters. The result here is a tighter, more focused narrative, one that dispenses with unnecessary story arcs in lieu of a clear and present runway to adventure, mind-bending time trickery, and a whole hell of a lot of interpersonal drama.

That’s the thing that’s so surprising about Endgame. Whereas most superhero movies overwhelm audiences with big fights and tons of CGI, this film invests in characters and the changes that have worked their way into every aspect of their personalities. Which isn’t to say big fights aren’t present, but the truth is this is a much more personal film than you might expect. As usual, it’s a long shot to save the world, but really, the adventure is secondary to the people.

Storytelling like this is often brooding and overly serious, but really, a good sense of humor turns out to be the name of the game. It’s not all beat-downs and overwhelming anxiety. These characters care about each other, and it shows. Past comic book movies like The Dark Knight have grappled with similar apocalyptic themes, but the first time The Hulk opens his mouth in Endgame, you’ll quickly realize superheroes rarely work best in their darkest, most imposing manifestations. Filmakers Joe and Anthony Russo and their very capable screenwriting team take some magnanimous risks with the humor, off-the-cuff and casual as much of it seems. It’s all worth it. The sense of good-cheer offsets nicely with moments of world-ending weight.

Additionally, a large section of Avengers: Endgame is devoted to reexploring some of the greatest moments from MCU history. It’s funny to think about nostalgia in a series that’s only a decade old, but for audiences who’re fully invested in the story thus far, it really is a beautiful opportunity to look back. So many great moments in Endgame were earned years ago, and while some movie reviewers and quasi-fans have gotten it into their heads this is the last big hurrah, by the time the credits roll, it’s clear we haven’t seen anything yet.

In movie biz terms, it was always a question how long some of these actors would stick around, but Marvel Studios is playing with eighty years of published continuity. Marvel, the little comics company that could, has been finding new ways to explore and reinvent itself on a weekly basis for longer than most people today have been alive, which means no, Virginia, the MCU will not be running out of ideas any time soon. If you keep showing up to the theater, they’ll keep pumping these movies out, and as I write this review, Avengers: Endgame has already become one of the highest grossing films of all time.

Speaking of writing reviews, it’s tough to describe Endgame without spoiling it completely. Suffice it to say, this three-hour epic will leave audiences breathless and hungry for more. It’s a huge, big-hearted film saturated by personal stakes. Or is that a personal movie containing universal stakes? I can’t imagine a more fitting entertainment milestone. Surely, the quality won’t always live up to the hype, but until such a time Marvel jumps the shark like Fonzie, box-office supremacy shouldn’t be an issue.

The next movie in the MCU arrives in early July. Spider-Man: Far From Home has already promised to explore the fallout from Endgame, and that’s really what Marvel is best at. Each time we come out for one of these flicks, we get more context and more invention. Say what you will about silly superhero movies, but don’t be surprised if in twenty years the film industry is still dominated by capes, masks, and tights. Until then, I’ve only got three words for you: make mine Marvel.

Avengers: Endgame gets a perfect 10 out of 10.

Ka-pow!

Jeff Bowles is a science fiction and horror writer from the mountains of Colorado. The first Wednesday of every month, you can find him dispensing writerly wisdom in Jeff’s Pep Talk, right here on Writing to be Read. The best of Jeff’s outrageous and imaginative short stories are collected in Godling and Other Paint Stories, Fear and Loathing in Las Cruces, and Brave New Multiverse. He has published work in magazines and anthologies like PodCastle, Tales from the Canyons of the Damned, the Threepenny Review, and Dark Moon Digest. Jeff earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at Western State Colorado University. He currently lives in the high-altitude Pikes Peak region, where he dreams strange dreams and spends far too much time under the stars.

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