Movie Breakdown: Avengers: Endgame (Noah)
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Pre-Screening Stance:
It’s the final film in a sprawling 22-movie epic that has dominated screens and box offices for over a decade. There are no words for how excited I am.
Post-Screening Ramble:
I cried a lot during Avengers: Endgame. Like so much so that at as the film’s final hour hurtled towards conclusion, I had to grit my teeth because I was worried about ugly sobbing in a room full of critics and nerds. To say the least, when Jon Favreau’s Iron Man soared onto screens eleven years ago, I did not think that at any point in the future would I watch these characters flit around on screen and fight cosmic space baddies – all while fearing that I was going to cry like I’d just lost a favorite relative. Give it to the Russos though (and to Kevin Feige, the maestro of what seemed absolutely impossible to conduct), they’ve somehow made a film that not only ties up nearly every loose string still remaining in the MCU (including the enormous one of how to get back half of the population of the universe) but caters to both hardcore MCU (and comic) fans but also the general population of blockbuster loving filmgoers. Endgame isn’t surprising as a film, but it’s full of surprising moments that play to the lifelong comic book nerd and the action junkie all the same. They’ve also done all of this while crafting a genuinely touching film that never sacrifices emotional moments for big budget artifice. This is a movie about grief and the struggle to reconcile with failure on an epic scale, and both grief and failure hang heavy on every single character in every single moment. The actors – Scarlet Johansson and Robert Downey Jr. above all – manage to imbue a film about superheroes fighting bad guys with real emotion, a real connection between characters and a sense of impending doom and impossible odds. Don’t fool yourself though, this is a three hour film and though it never drags, there are slower moments, a few too many jokes, a few too many weighty speeches and stares. And yeah, sometimes the music swells a little too much and the humor seems just a little forced. Sometimes, a plot point gets soft or a character beat falls flatter then it should. But, you know, as the final hour played out and I sat in the theater, my face considerably wet with tears, watching the fates of characters I’ve been journeying with for eleven years play upon the screen, it felt worth it. Worth it to spend three hours saying goodbye to this iteration of the MCU; worth it to have spent this last decade hitting the theaters every six months to watch the story take another incremental step forward. I honestly have no idea what happens next in this universe, but at this point, Feige, the Russos and everyone else who’s charted the path so far has gained my trust inherently.
One Last Thought:
If Infinity War was taxing for newcomers, Endgame is just the Russos throwing their hands up and giving up on taking anyone by the hand and leading them into this universe. It’s dense and no one is taking any extra seconds to explain who is who and what is what and why anything has happened. If you’re coming in fresh-faced, just sit back and mainline the ride.
