Not very often you found people so heavily scrutinizing and analysing movie trailers. That happens when they are part of a franchise or they were adaptations from other media. ‘Avengers: Endgame’ is everything. It is an ambitious project that wraps up a story arch of over a decade across 21 movies while attempting to meet both the comic and movie fans’ expectations in every turn of its scenes. The end result could be either a resounding success or an utter failure. Where does it stand in the end?
Without a doubt for me, it delivered exactly what I wanted. The over 3 hours in the theatre did not feel like a waste of time so I spent over 6 hours in it in the theatre – in two sessions on the same day it was released. And that said a lot by itself.
The story of ‘Endgame’ followed up with the events of ‘Infinity War’ where (spoiler if you still haven’t seen it. But then why are you reading this?) half of all living creatures in the universe was ‘snapped’ away. Being a continued story, ‘Endgame’ needed to address a number of plot points for ‘Infinity War’ but that’s not it. Since ‘Ant-man and the Wasp’ events also tied into ‘Infinity War’, that means events in that movie would need to be addressed too. That is a huge undertaking by itself, and that’s part of the reason why ‘Endgame’s’ trailers were so heavily analysed. I personally felt that the Russo brothers managed to do that effortlessly. Effortlessly in the sense of you don’t felt like the continuity was tagged on but a natural progression.
‘Endgame’ is the bookend of a huge story arch called the ‘Infinity Saga’. With 21 films before it and being the last of this story arch, it had thrown in fan services in every corner possible. From the much-hyped Hawkeye’s (Jeremy Renner) turn into Ronin to all other kinds of comic book and previous films’ Easter eggs and scenarios, nearly every turn of ‘Endgame’ became huge fan services. You could hear the cheers and surprising gasp of fans in the theatre every time those moments popped up and that, a lot of time would include you, if you are a fan of the comics or the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in general. However, what made these scenes special was that they didn’t feel out of place but felt like they belonged to the movie. They happened because of turns of events in the story not because of ‘Let us throw this in just for the sake of it’. And that I think showed the Russo brothers were the right pick to conclude this epic decade long saga.
‘Endgame’ is a superhero movie but it will be wrong to think that it is all about actions instead of story. As the story came off from a universal decimation, it opened up with a quite heavy tone as everyone would expect. The whole ‘move on or not move on’ theme allowed the movie to investigate more thoroughly each character’s backstory and motive, thus provided more solid bases for the later actions and decisions made by these characters. There were a lot of touching moments in the movie that I could literally hear people sobbing and blowing their noses when they were happening on the screen. And that is the power of the Russo brothers’ storytelling. Also, what surprised me was that almost each character was provided a great story arch of his / her own so you felt like after all 21 movies you could still learn more about them. This made it more profound when you knew that these characters would have to make important ‘make it or break it’ choices in order to achieve their goals. They became characters that you really cared for, not just because of the previous movies, but because what they were going through in this story.
‘Endgame’ is not just about tears and running noses though. If so, it would become very one dimensional. There were a lot of funny and comic relief moments throughout the movie – as you would expect when Ant-man (Paul Rudd) joined the team. The great thing about Paul Rudd’s Ant-man is that he is not a try hard, but he is naturally funny. That is similar for Thor (Chris Hemsworth). He had come a lot way from ‘Shakespeare in the Park’ to now the surprisingly funny man. Chris Hemsworth showcased his impeccable comic timing again in ‘Endgame’ relieving the surmounting tension that could be overbearing with such a movie from time to time. The chemistry among other members of the team were also surprising, and the way they made certain seemingly serious moments funny, interesting but still serious deserved a lot of kudos.
Ultimately, ‘Endgame’ is also a fan service that wraps up 21 other preceding fan services. So, you would expect a lot of familiar faces in the franchise to show up here and there, as it also has the responsibility for tidying up a lot of loose ends and addressing a lot of story plots in the last decade. What also impressed me was that they managed to make extremely complicated scientific concepts easily understandable so the audience would not feel like they cannot enjoy the ride because they did not understand certain things. Although as with most MCU movies, your second viewing would heighten your senses a lot more as you would start to pay attention to more things, as compared to the first viewing you would just be focusing on the emotional ride of all the characters and the story.
‘Endgame’ without a doubt is an achievement, and a huge one too. Whether there would be another movie that could become such a cultural phenomenon is yet to be seen. But at this point in time, ‘Endgame’ had achieved something that was once seen as unachievable and that was the collective efforts of not just the cast and crew of ‘Endgame’ but also all those who helped created this ginormous cinematic world that spans over a decade.
