Praise4Media #66 - Avengers: Endgame

We finally come to the payoff to 12 years of Marvel films with Avengers: Endgame

Avengers Infinity War was a massive hit for Marvel, breaking the $2bn mark for the first time, Endgame would surpass it to become the highest grossing film ever, beating out Avatar (though still didn’t beat The Force Awakens in the US) and thank god that era’s over. It was a hell of an investment for Disney but one that paid off nicely, showing how far Superhero movies have come in the last 20 years.

And much with the rest of Marvel films, it was critically successful, 94% on Rotten Tomatoes with 8.42/10 average.

OK, this film is just over 3 hours long, the longest film I’ve done up to now is Batman v Superman’s extended cut and I don’t really desire to do a frame-by-frame plot dump for the opening hour. I’m gonna use this particular film to try something a little new. So, whilst this review may end up being on the shorter side because of this, I am looking to see if this is a worthwhile change because with all the changes going on at the moment, it’s getting tougher to motivate myself to do these anymore.

We open by catching up with Clint Barton, the only major Avenger we didn’t know the fate of. He’s living under house arrest, as Ant-man was but unlike Scott, his house covers several acres so he can play about with his family and kids, who all seem to be demonstrating hints of his father’s accuracy. Of course, the snap happens and everyone is his family is gone. Quick question, Ant-man got his tag removed before the snap, so why is Clint still wearing his?

We move over to Iron Man, in the Guardian’s ship. He’s in rough shape following the battle with Thanos, emotionally drained and wounded, he’s been on the ship for some time, I think the ship was damaged somehow, not sure when that happened. Nebula’s been keeping him alive and he’s been showing her how to flick bits of paper, sounds like a fair trade. 

With oxygen running out for Tony, he records one last message to Pepper, but of course they’re saved by the convenient arrival of Carol Danvers. She brings them back to Avengers HQ as they debrief, Thanos wiped out half the universe, Steve asks Tony if there’s anything Thanos said to him that could clue them in as to where they were.

Tony bring back his dreams in Age of Ultron, and his idea of suits around the world, reminding me that Thanos was supposed to be involved in that somehow but also confusing me because wasn’t Tony stubbornly sticking to the idea, what lead to Ultron and then the whole Civil War in the first place?

Tony collapses and has to be put under for a bit but Nebula chooses now to remind us she knew the whole time where Thanos was going, but forgot to mention it when Tony was asked just moments earlier. She had asked Thanos many times about his plans, and he told her he planned to retire to ‘The Garden,’ they find an energy signature identical to the one on Earth when he previously used the stones from 2 days prior. With Captain Marvel and Thor leading the charge, they head to confront him.

It does not go well, as when they arrive, Thanos has destroyed the stones, not wanting to be tempted by them again. Thor, feeling guilty over his failings already, chops his head clean off, no blood of course because PG-13, but the weird thing about Disney, decapitation is fine but underage drinking, f*ck that, off to Hulu you go.

A 5-year time jump was a fantastic idea, because it means that the snap, although it being undone is inevitable, has some form of impact, even if it’s just on the emotional state of the characters. Cap is leading a support group filled with about 5 people, come on guys he’s Captain freaking America, the line should be around the block. One guy is talking about his date with a guy so Disney can pat themselves on the back for a gay character that can easily be censored in China.

More convenience would strike when a mouse finds its way to the quantum tunnel from Ant-man and the Wasp and frees Ant-man from the quantum realm, he walks down a street, piled up with garbage for some reason. Was that left there for 5 years? Do the guys who pick it up not exist anymore? Why has no-one replaced them in 5 years? Anyway, Scott soon gets up to speed on what happens, seeing a massive memorial for the people confirmed missing. He desperately searches for his daughter’s name but is instead shocked to find his own.

He pays a visit to his now recast daughter and it’s a sweet little moment. Back at Avengers HQ, Black Widow is receiving reports from the remaining heroes. Nebula and Rocket just checked an infectious garbage scout thanks to a tip form Captain Marvel, Okoye is… who is king of Wakanda now, anyway? Anyway, she’s aware of a nearby underwater Earthquake, but it’s not worrying her. Captain Marvel says she may not be in contact for a while, and leaves it to Rhodey to explain the next bit of plot progression.

He’s found a pile of bodies of drug dealers and the like and somehow knows that Clint Barton is responsible for it all. There’s a movie that could quite easily be made out of this idea, it’s frighteningly underdeveloped here because they’ve got so much else to do. Cap comes by, offering his condolences and whatnot and they’re both surprised to get a call from Scott. He was only in the Quantum realm for 5 hours whilst 5 years past in their time. If you squint a bit that’s the same as time travel, right?

Of course, it wasn’t Scott who was the genius behind Pym Particles and without Hank, they need another genius. So, where’s Tony Stark at these days? He’s apparently living the happy life with Wife Pepper and his daughter, Morgan. She’s testing out the headpiece for a new suit for Pepper, so she can join him in the final battle. Cap and co come to pay him a visit, and he gives some technobabble about why time travel doesn’t work, scolding Scott for basing his interpretation of Back to the Future. More on this in a moment.

He isn’t willing to help and put his life here at risk, so they need someone else and only one genius left, Bruce Banner. Bruce and Hulk have done their character arc between films and now they are truly one as Professor Hulk. The scene in the café is full of cringey jokes, the film had steered clear of jokes up to this point so now they’re here it gets a bit jarring. None the less, he agrees to help.

Stark tries something sciency back at his house, which I guess works, his moment of brilliance is interrupted by his daughter, who he puts to bed, before discussing the matter with Pepper. She knows he won’t stop, and if he did, he couldn’t live with himself.

Back at Avengers HQ, they try and test out the idea with Scott, sending him into the quantum realm and bringing him back, as a baby, then a kid and an old man. How many Pym particles did this exercise waste? Anyway, help arrives as Stark arrives having created a time/space GPS to help them navigate the timestream. But in order to carry out a heist this big, they need a team.

So, want to cringe some more? They travel to New Asgard on Earth where the surviving Asgardians who… I have no idea what happened to them in the last movie, are now living. Also, Korg and Meek for some reason. Thor has entered a state of depression following their failures and has taken to drink and food, earning himself quite a beer belly. This in itself isn’t the problem, but none of the characters acknowledge what this is. Most just berate him or make fun of him for being fat.

Thor is lured to the team with the promise of beer as we move on to a one-take action scene of Clint Barton, now Ronin, fighting against, I guess the Yakuza. It’s bloodless which kinda lessons the impact of it all but long story short, Black Widow brings him aboard. The team regroup at the base as they begin looking for where the Infinity Stones were in the past, Rhodey asks why they can’t just go kill baby Thanos, but the Hulk tells them that changing the past can’t change their future. So, we’re going with a parallel realities theory here, but for all the deriding of Back to the Future, it uses the same principle, again, I’ll get back to this.

So, they debrief, Thor gives to give his rather depressing rendition of the Dark World and upon remembering where the Sanctum Sanctorum is, they realise that during the Chitauri invasion in 2012 there were 3 Infinity Stones in New York, Power, Space and Mind. They plan to steal the power stone on Morag before Star Lord can, along with the Soul Stone on Vormir. The reality Stone is on Asgard so the team split into 3 groups. Professor Hulk, Cap, Iron Man and Ant-man head to New York. Nebula, War Machine, Black Widow and Hawkeye head to 2014 to get the stones in space whilst Rocket and Thor head to Asgard in 2013 to extract the aether/reality stone from Jane Foster, who will be reprised in the film by stock footage.

Much like with the last film, these 3 plot-lines intersect and weave around each other but for the sake of ease of summary, I’m gonna cover them one at a time.

Cap, Iron Man, Ant-man and the Hulk arrive in 2012, and split off to target their respective stones. The Hulk encounters the Sorcerer supreme, but it’s not Doctor Strange as he’s a few years off yet, she naturally knows all about him though. She explains to Banner’s astral self that if she gave him the time stone a new reality would emerge from it that would be defenceless against the forces of darkness, like Dormammu. Banner suggests that after all is done, they return the stones, thus closing off those nasty realities.

OK, I want to get to the point here so OK, you cannot change your own past, you’d simply create a parallel reality where those changes happened? But these guys are able to travel back into their own futures at the end, how? Let me try something allegorical. Say you’re a fish in a river, you’ve travelled up river and somehow managed to create a new path for the river, how can you be sure when you return downriver, you’re still travelling the original path? No time travel story is free of plot-holes, I did an editorial on this. I was talking about Back to the Future and it kinda did this with 2 at least. When Biff changes the past, Marty ends up in a new 1985, he’s not quantum locked to his own reality if it’s being changed in front of him.

Bruce reveals that Strange surrendered the stone willingly which leads the Sorcerer Supreme to realise there must have been a reason and surrenders the stone to Bruce. The rest of the team are at Stark Tower, just after Loki’s capture. Ant-man heads into past Tony’s arc reactor whilst we get a reprisal of the elevator scene from Winter Soldier such that Cap can get his hands on the mind stone.

Secretary Pearce arrives to recover the tesseract as present Tony gets Ant-man to shock him unconscious and give them an opening to grab the stone, unfortunately for them it’s interrupted by the Hulk, the tesseract is knocked away and Loki uses it to escape into his own Disney plus show. Making matters worse, past Cap finds current Cap with the mind stone and assumes it’s Loki, the two fight, and future Cap ultimately wins. Unfortunately, with the Tesseract off-world, they’re gonna need another way to get the tesseract.

Stark has an idea, heading back to a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility in 1970, where Hank Pym worked so they can get the Pym particles they need to return. Scott is sent back as Tony and Cap head to S.H.I.E.L.D. and we get our final, ever, Stan Lee cameo. Cap goes to get the Pym particles, tricking Hank with a glowing package and seeing Peggy Carter for the first time in years. Tony gets the tesseract and gets a bit of time to get closure with his father, a much-needed final piece in his character arc.

Rocket and Thor arrive on Asgard but Thor quickly loses his nerve, despite Rocket’s attempts to talk some sense into him. He sees his mother, and this is the day she dies and we get a scene of the two talking, something we didn’t see enough of in the Thor films themselves. Frigga is actually pretty wise. Rocket manages to steal the stone on his own and Thor summons his hammer, finding that he is still worthy.

War Machine and Nebula are dropped off on Morag as Clint and Natasha head to Vormir. Nebula remembers that there are a lot of people looking for the Infinity Stones in this era, including her past self and past Thanos. They make fun of Star Lord for a bit before knocking him out and stealing the tool needed to get into the ‘Temple of the Power Stone.’ On Past Thanos’ ship, past Nebula begins sharing memories of her future self, Thanos and Ebony Maw use their connection to deduce their plan and stop future Nebula from leaving with War Machine. Past Nebula disguises herself as her future self and uses the Pym particles to join the others.

Natasha and Clint arrive on Vormir but of course we are reminded that to achieve the soul stone requires a blood sacrifice. Both volunteer but we know Clint has a family to go back to and we won’t know that for Natasha until the prequel film comes out. So, she’s the obvious choice. The question as to whether this is a fridgeing is not an invalid one, but one I’m not gonna get into for the purposes of this review.

Clint joins the others in the present as we have a brief but poignant memorial for Natasha. Thor argues with Clint about the possibility of bringing her back, but it’s safe to assume it won’t be possible. But for everyone else, it’s quickly back to assembling an infinity gauntlet, Iron Man is successful as the question comes as to who can use it.

Given the amount of energy that’s put out when used, Thor offers his help, wanting to make amends but given his mental state, it really can only be the Hulk. The only thing that’s missed is that he isn’t used substantially in the action, which I feel is a missed opportunity. He uses the infinity gauntlet and it’s all peaceful for a moment but Past Nebula springs her trap, activating the quantum tunnel and bringing in Thanos’ war fleet. Quick question, where did Thanos get his Pym particles? Not like our heroes had any to spare.

Despite them all being in the same room, the group are split up again. War Machine and Rocket are trapped by debris in a flooding room, Scott hears their calls and comes to their aid. Clint is in a tunnel with the gauntlet and finds an armada of Black Order foot-soldiers in his path. Iron Man, Cap and Thor are virtually untouched by the whole thing and are able to confront Thanos.

Future nebula talks to past Gamora about their future and they agree to team up to stop Thanos reacquiring the Gauntlet. Thanos’ sword thing seems to be a match for the combined might of our trio, even with Thor using both his hammer and Stormbreaker. We get some payoff to Cap being able to move the hammer in Age of Ultron as he’s now worthy to wield it in the fight. None the less, it doesn’t go very well, Cap’s shield is destroyed as Stark and Thor are knocked down. Thanos promises that with the infinity gauntlet, he’ll instead start the universe anew, so they won’t remember what they’ve lost.

He brings down Black Order and Chatauri forces to aid the battle, but help comes to the heroes as the returning heroes make their return. Including a number of Sorcerers, where did they all come from? The Wakandan army and the Asgardians back them up along with every hero who came back from the snap, and Pepper in her new armour. Scott frees Rocket and War Machine, now in new armour. Cap finally gets to say the line

“Avengers Assemble”

Of course, 99% of the fighters here aren’t Avengers but we’ll overlook that. Nice of Thanos to keep his army back until they all came through. The fight begins and it’s a massive brawl, I won’t cover all of it but here are the highlights. Past Gamora saves Star Lord but doesn’t remember their romance, this is treated is a joke but is actually pretty tragic. They later save Clint from past Nebula.

The plan now is to use the quantum tunnel in Scott’s van to send the stones back, with what pym particles? OK, Hope may have some spare as she and Scott head to set things up. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of Thanos’ soldiers between our heroes and the van, it becomes a bit of a game of keep-away. Peter and Tony share a hug, as Clint passes on the gauntlet to Black Panther. He soon becomes overwhelmed as Spider-man has to take over, activating the instant kill function of his suit.

There are a few near misses with Peter, but he keeps away for a long while. Wanda makes her attack on Thanos and is pretty successful, breaking his sword thing half. She’s only stopped when Thanos orders his ships to attack from above. The sorcerers protect most of our heroes, but a dam is broken, forcing Doctor Strange to spend the rest of the fight dealing with that.

The bombardment ends when the ships find a new target, Captain Marvel arrives, blowing a hole through the lead ship in seconds. It’s her turn with the Gauntlet, though Peter doesn’t know how she’s gonna pass all the footsoldiers, did you not just see her blow a hole through a space-ship? She’s backed up by a group shot of all the female Marvel heroes, except for Black Widow.

Iron Man asks Strange if this is the 1 future he saw where they win, but Strange says it won’t happen if he answers. Carol makes it to the van but Thanos uses the other half of his sword thing to blow the Van up, I guess Scott managed to get clear in time. It’s now a brawl for the gauntlet as Carol and Iron Man both make moves to stop him, unsuccessfully. Carol makes a valient effort to keep him snapping again, but Thanos takes the power stone from the gauntlet into his other hand and punches her back. Iron Man makes his final play, engaging Thanos one last time and using the fact the Gauntlet is Iron Man technology to take the stones from right under his nose.

“I am inevitable”
“And I am Iron Man”

That was apparently added in reshoots, but it’s the perfect final line, Tony snaps his fingers, removing Thanos and all his minions and foot-soldiers. Tony is weak and Pepper tells him he can finally rest as he dies. If you want an example of the perfect way to kill off a popular character, Tony Stark is the way to do it.

We get a funeral scene for Iron Man where just about everyone shows up, including Harley from Iron Man 3? I guess he was snapped too because otherwise he’s about 5 years too young. Nice to know they kept in touch. Tony recorded a message for his daughter; he knew this was a likely outcome of their endeavours and had accepted that.

They prepare a new Quantum tunnel sending Cap back with the infinity stones and Mjolnir. There’s a few line recaps and cute references but long story short (far too late) Cap is sent back but doesn’t return through the Quantum tunnel. He decided to stay in the past and finally got his dance with Peggy. An older version of him passes his shield onto Falcon, to set up his Disney + show. Forget for a moment that this breaks all the established time travel rules, is it a satisfying ending for Cap? Is it his just reward for all he’s done or him giving up on the future? I’m honestly kinda conflicted but I’ll accept it for what it is.

Oh and Thor heads off with the Guardians of the Galaxy, handing control of Asgard to Valkyrie. A good choice given what his arc was here, though suggesting a fight between Thor and Star Lord is… do they want Thor as their leader, there’s only one way that fight would end, you’d think Rocket might’ve thought twice about that.

So that was Avengers: Endgame and it’s an event that will be remembered.

They decided to conclude the story they’d set up over 10 years with a massive self-tribute, weaving in past stories to create what they have. It’s a massive scale plot that under many writers and directors would’ve crumbled, it’s a tribute to the team they have at Marvel that this stands up as well as it does. The climax is immensely satisfying, a hefty Lord of the Rings style brawl where most characters get a moment to shine, even if I didn’t specifically recap it.

The humour is perhaps the movie’s weakest aspect, it’s relatively light on it for a Marvel film which makes the moments where they incorporate it all the more jarring, especially with the reliance on cringe humour.

As for the actual story, it’s long, it’s very long but it’s rarely slow, there’s a lot here. The first 45 minutes is at its slowest but it uses that to create the atmosphere of desperation that leads to this do or die time heist. The time heist itself is a bit dumb, but there’s no such thing as a perfect story involving time travel, I’ve just come to accept it for what it is, but it provides some decent character moments.

Thanos completed his arc in the last film, so I’m not surprised they hit the reset button to make him the main antagonist for this one. It’s a bit of a compromise but one that ultimately does work, especially given Nebula’s character changes. (Though wasn’t Nebula out to kill Thanos around this point)

Avengers: Endgame brings the main story across 3 MCU phases to a close and does so in about as satisfying a way as you could with a plot like this.

Praise rating: 105%