So we've had phase 1, 2, 3 of the Marvel movies and the big question is: does MCU's closing chapter to the Infinity Saga deliver? Is it all hype and no substance? Does Endgame improve on Infinity War? Oh well brothers and sisters, let's dig in...
The Russo brothers, who joined the MCU with the very competent The Winter Soldier did not impress me much with Infinity War. It felt clustered, lacked any character development for the Avengers and the ending felt unearned.
Endgame on the other hand feels like the Russo's have learned their lessons.
The Avengers are given arcs - although it was easy to give them individual character arcs since more than half of the team is not there.
Thor’s arc liberally borrows from the Coen Brother’s The Big Lebowski - both him and Ant-Man are given the comedic beats with a tinge of drama, while Tony Stark and the rest of the team are given the heavy drama arcs.
One of the course corrections by Endgame is to give Clint aka Hawkeye a truly dramatic storyline.
Yet the drama does not end with Clint. Each character has something at stake for them personally and it isn't just about saving the universe or the world.
It's about saving family, loved ones, dealing with survivor's guilt and at the heart of it, facing up to a major failure and possibly correcting it.
This makes for a great emotional connection to the characters but the writing team don’t just rely on the story.
They use the rich 22 film history of the MCU and audiences connection to it to emphasize the drama, the action and the humour, the stakes, the tension, the heartbreaks and sheer joy of the movie.
The film makes call backs to past films, iconic scenes and moments. Whist also doing clever foreshadowing of what is still to come like Namor the submariner in the future of the MCU amongst many clever set-ups.
Yet the call-backs and foreshadowing are meant for the fans and you will have to be deep in the comic book and movie lore to notice.
My only gripe with Endgame is how it treats Captain Marvel. It feels as if the Russo’s don’t know what to do with her level of power and keep her at the side-line for the most of the movie, which is a pity.
But that’s my one and only gripe. Other than that, Marvel has delivered a classic and probably their best movie thus far.
Endgame has character, humour, action. It's able to tug at the heart strings and it has actual, genuine surprises.
The movie plays with nostalgia but above all makes the character earn the films ending.
After Iron Man, Civil War and even Black Panther, I could not see Marvel finding any new ways to surprise and reinvent itself but Endgame proves that Kevin Feige and team are the true comic book masters. I'm looking forward to seeing what they deliver in Phase 4.
It felt like: Terminator 2 meets Crises on Infinite Worlds, with a Marvel treatment.
Fun Trivia: One of the Russo brothers has a cameo in a scene very early on in the movie. One of the director's daughters plays Hawkeye’s daughter and Stan Lee as a de-aged cameo of himself.
Rating
****1/2
* Rubbish ** Ja nee ***Not Bad ****Almost Perfect ***** Instant Classic