It’s safe to finally discuss Endgame since I think the Spider-Man: Far from Home trailer revealed a major spoiler. So far I have to say, it was quite a perfect, climatic ending to a string of 20-plus movies spanning over 11 years; even bigger than dare I say The Return of the King‘s final battle to save Middle Earth.
In many ways, I wonder why I should bother to post a review, given the humongous box office this film has made, the bigger question would be, who hasn’t seen it?
So I’ll skip the plot and focus on why Endgame was impressive.
Firstly, the logistics. I thought tying all the individual Avengers together to be the superhero team I grew up with (alongside the JLA, X-Men and Teen Titans) was short of a miracle. Tying all of the MCU together into one movie was colossal. The actors’ schedules were nothing; the special effects weren’t the problem especially in how easy it is to do the Hulk in his new form; it’s all the legal bullshit the producers, directors and writers overcame. Despite the Marvel Studio owning all the characters, one has to deal with all the mumbo jumbo involving “intellectual property.” Hell, the Star Trek franchises can’t easily have various characters or certain alien species due to how things are tucked away in legalese silos. MCU found a way to get it to happen and it makes the crucial battle between the forces of good versus Thanos all the more incredible because this level of match up only occurs in comic books, maybe a novel and sometimes in animation. It’s a well-deserved landmark in a movie!
Secondly, the writers wisely went with a comic-book style solution to undo what Thanos did with his Infinity Gauntlet and again, got the powers-that-be to let the filmmakers do it. All the crossovers between characters has been a hallmark of Marvel Comics due its universe being a character in its own right; other franchises didn’t adopt nor allow such a thing (outside of the fans) until years later (Star Trek, Star Wars).
Thirdly and this is how MCU clobbers the majority of DC’s gloomy, by-the-numbers crap. Endgame integrated humorous elements without any of them feeling forced. Sure Thanos killing half the universe is pretty heavy but how the surviving Avengers, Guardians and allies fight back takes breaks to crack a genuine laugh.
Now will come the nagging question. After being spoiled for 11 years in a row with these flicks and some ending with so-and-so will return after their first or second movie, what is the next phase for MCU? A huge dilemma involves many actors’ contracts ending alongside the fate no one can avoid, aging. Characters dying has never been an obstacle in comic books (e.g. Jean Grey) yet Hollywood loves to reboot while I have no quibble with another person taking over the role as the stories go forward in time. It worked with James Bond. I’m fine with the Avengers being made up of the so-called lesser members and maybe the public will too. Guardians of the Galaxy was an obscure comic title and became a surprise hit with the general public, why not an Avengers team composed of Falcon/Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Ant Man, Wasp, War Machine and Captain Marvel? The original comic book had a revolving door of membership; the founding team members left by issue #16, leaving Captain America to recruit Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye.
On to Spider-Man: Far from Home and maybe there will be a trailer on what Phase “Next” entails because I’m sure I will be jonsin’ for more MCU action in 2020.
Alamo Extras: Thanos v. Darkseid with Deadpool cartoon (not very interesting); MCU recaps throughout, starting with 2008’s Iron Man to 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War; a short about Jack Kirby including interviews from Stan Lee, Neil Gaiman and Taika Waititi; a mildly funny rap song pieced together from various MCU film clips; Montage of various people expressing their grief over who was eliminated by “The Snap.”