Avengers: Endgame

End of a long road

Well it's been a long time coming hasn't it? Just over a decade since Iron Man and the landscape of popular film has been shaped by a stream of comic book movies that have attracted legions of fans and overtaken almost all other media franchises in popularity. People don't talk about what they saw on TV last night at the water cooler, they talk about Avengers. Or at least I assume they do, I don't work in an office. And now, one epoch of this new media world has ended with the release of the Russo brothers Avengers Endgame.

The writers of Endgame were given the unenviable task of tying up a story who's last instalment caused such a massive shockwave, people still weren't over it when the film launched. But somehow, they pulled it off. Endgame's story feels like a logical progression of the story and shows a very realistic fallout of the events of Infinity War. The world is shattered and people are scared, but the world is still turning and people are trying their best to get by. Whilst the story beats and character motivations are all good and clear, the route the story takes does feel very contrived and a little hand wave-y. The use of quantum theory and its associated technobabble is used as a crutch for a lot of the film's events. It doesn't ruin the film, but it does feel a little bit jarring. And yes there is a lot of pandering to fans, but it's a comic book movie. Pandering is inevitable, and it's not too bad here all things considered.

The film is technically stunning, with some of the best combinations of practical and special effects in the franchise. Every object and location in the film is built with an insane level of detail with some parts looking downright beautiful. The meshing of human actors and CGI is near seamless, even in scenes where there is a lot of stuff going on can make out dozens of little details that make the film a very real feast for the eyes. And you see a lot during the films pleasingly well paced three hour run time. It goes quick but very little time feels wasted aside from one or two jokes that last a little bit too long, not necessarily to the point of being cringe-inducing, but getting dangerously close.

And the film's cast of thousands all turn in great performances. Not Oscar great, but better than you'd expect out of a comic-book movie. But by god are some of them almost pointless. Some big names appear for maybe two or three lines of dialogue before returning to the background. But for a universe with this many characters, that was inevitable.

Is Endgame a fitting end to a saga? Yes. Is it a good movie? Also yes, but it doesn't have any true ring of finality. This is just the end of one part of a story that may continue to the point of and past the heat death of the universe. As for whether or not you should go and see it, chances are you already have.