Film Reviews & Movie Analysis

The Warning
This is going to be a spoiler-ridden review. It’s not terrible but I really couldn’t help myself as my first attempt to remain vague and allow a shroud of mystery failed pretty damn quickly. However, I did manage to pull out a Spoiler Free review from this which is the very next post.

Now that’s been said, make sure you either don’t give a shit or have seen Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame before proceeding.

We now go back to your regularly scheduled review

No matter when you embarked on this saga, it’s still the end of an era, the end of the road, the end of the line…. but our heroes still have one final mission to complete, one last debt they owe not only themselves, but all those who cannot defend themselves, before they can choose whether or not it’s time to hang up their capes.

The Synopsis
Following the events of Avengers: Infinity War, where 50% of all life on earth was wiped clean thanks to Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) gift, the world has yet to recover.

The Avengers are no more, Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) alone fights to hold onto hope whilst the rest of her former teammates have allowed the darkness of their failures to consume. That is until Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) aka Ant-Man, makes a sudden appearance, and with him brings a shot at a second chance.

Getting a reluctant team back together is the first fight, and from there it’s an unlikely and almost incomprehensible journey down memory lane to retrieve the only items that can set things right.

Divide and conquer is the key, and though quick thinking, changes in tactics and sacrifices have to be made when new threats arise, ultimately the same rules still apply when it comes to upholding the fate of the greater good; united we stand or divided we fall.

The Good
What a fantastic story. Seriously. As far as plot, characterisation, story beats and circularity went – it was an amazingly orchestrated movie. Which of course can’t have been easy to accomplish with so many historical accuracies and major characters to juggle. I was never once bored during Avengers: Endgame – not an easy feat for a movie – an action movie nevertheless – with a three-hour running time. It was funny, it was emotional and it was edge of your seat, hold your breath and gasp-worthy.

You can never trust things to go as planned with anything you watch that involves time travel, and still I did not see the twist of Thanos’ return coming in the slightest. An absolutely fantastic way to keep him going as the principal villain after Avengers: Infinity War. Using Nebula (Karen Gillian) to fold him back into the story was a perfect and unsuspected play. Also, it was interesting that in Avengers: Infinity War, I never saw Thanos as a villain, per se – he was just a man with a jaded but selfless plan. Here, on the other hand, is where I finally saw him as a monster.

I thought it would annoy me, the additional members that were brought in to form the Avengers, but it was refreshing to have Scott, Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Rhodey (Don Cheadle) and their distinctive personalities onboard. Also, though not a new member of the team, shout out to the new self-loving Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). It was super weird at first, but then hilarious, and finally right – but it was a shame they removed the idea of a potential triste between him and Natasha.

To touch a little more on the circularity aspect, endings are never easy. Whether it’s a trilogy, an adaptation that has taken on a life of its own or a series that has decided it’s time to pull the plug – it’s so difficult to get it right and please the masses. Avengers: Endgame managed to pull together everything we loved about the movie franchise that began in 2008 with Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man, and still managed to squirrel in a few nuggets to give themselves room to manoeuvre post-Avengers. Everything came full circle in the best possible way, even though it was occasionally painful to watch.

The Bad
Sticking with three points to keep this as brief as possible, I have to first admit how disappointed I was with Black Widow’s character. Natasha is a certified badass, and has always been my favourite Avenger, but since Avengers: Infinity War, her character has lacked in development, substance, and even screen time. Therefore, by the end, it made her sacrifice not close to as meaningful as it ultimately could have, and should have been.

Since Thor: Ragnarok, Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) personality has had a massive upgrade and he has become a lot more likeable and let’s face it; memorable. For me, it was a shame that they chose to run too far with the new traits he now brought to the table to make him the comic relief. It was fun for a while, but I kept waiting for him to come to his senses and become the fearless God of Thunder (loved his new look when he finally did level up).

Finally, call me crazy, but was I the only one who expected to see a lot more of Captain Marvel (Brie Larsen) in this movie? Perhaps it was an expectation the audience brought on themselves as her movie came just before Avengers: Endgame. I can understand that she isn’t one of the original Avengers, but they showed very early on in the movie how unique she was and what she single-handedly brought to the team. It would have been very interesting to watch her dynamics with the team.

The Personal Pet Peeves
So I love anything to do with time travel, meaning that I am aware there are certain rules, loopholes, paradoxes, timelines and no-no’s – it all depends on the world, and its given rules. Therefore, can someone please come and explain to me the rules for Avengers: Endgame, because this is the point that I had the most contention on.

Their initial plan when they went back made sense – get what they needed and then return before it was ever really taken. But then when Thor went and took his past hammer into the future, past and present Nebula came face to face, and Loki took the Tesseract out of their past timeline – I got pretty annoyed that it showed no ripple effect when they went back to the present.

Maybe I missed something during Hulk’s explanation of travelling to the past – but as for now – it created too many plot holes I can’t overlook.

I’m not going to go into it, but my personal grievances with Captain America (Chris Evans) (mostly) aside – I am still pissed that he was allowed to use Mjölnir – Thor’s hammer. I know there were past moments he made it budge and I know it most likely happened in the comics, but I personally don’t understand what makes him so “worthy” above all others. For me: Nordic law doesn’t allow.

The Conclusion
Whether you agree or disagree with my comments and thoughts on Avengers: Endgame, we can all admit that you really can’t fault the movie. Not only in its own right but as a continuation of Avengers: Infinity War, and as the final movie of an epic era.

Enquiring minds want to know what’s next. Are we heading into Phase Four or Book Two? Though rumoured to be moving forwards as ‘Phase Four’, with Spider-Man: Far From Home, coming this summer, and other sequels such as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, Doctor Strange 2 and Black Panther 2, in discussions – I say; let’s not worry about the future just yet.

For now, we should sit back, bask and appreciate what we’ve just had. It was pretty damn great.

Feeling reminiscent after Endgame? Check out a few of my old reviews from the Marvel Cinematic Universe; 
Captain Marvel
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Avengers: Infinity War
Black Panther
Thor: Ragnarok
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Doctor Strange