A Marvel-ously elegant Endgame
Avengers: Endgame (M, 181 mins) Directed by Anthony & Joe Russo Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett ★★★★★
If you or anyone else had told me back in 2008 that in 11 years I would be cheering and – yes – choking back an honest tear at the final film in a story arc that kicked off with Iron Man, I would have told you ‘‘not a chance’’.
I didn’t really get the appeal of that first Iron Man movie. Something about making a hero out of a lippy American arms dealer, while the conflict in Iraq was playing out on the news as I wrote the review, just struck me as tone-deaf.
And when Iron Man 2 turned out to be a film that even the most fervent Marvel fanboys had to admit was a bit of a Muppet show, I don’t know how many people would have guessed what the next decade was going to bring.
But from 2010 onwards, these Marvel films have been a procession of mostly creative triumphs, an object lesson in how to please the faithful – even while you are bringing in new fans.
And how to set the balance between the jokes and the storytelling so that we are entertained even during the exposition and the scene-setting.
The first Captain America and the first Thor shifted the needle on what we could expect of a comicbook-derived movie.
And – incredibly – the standard has been maintained or exceeded in nearly every film since. So while I think that maybe Avengers: Age of Ultron isn’t exactly a great entry, I’m still happy to tell anyone who can be bothered listening that Captain America: The Winter
Soldier and Thor: The Dark World are a couple of my favourite films of the last 10 years. Meanwhile,
Thor: Ragnarok, Iron Man 3 and
Black Panther are all films I’ve watched many times again, just to be entertained.
But it has to end. Or at least, this phase of what we have all learned to call the Marvel Cinematic Universe has to end. And with Avengers: Endgame it does. No, really.
I’ll keep this review as spoilerfree as I possibly can. Not that I really need to bother.
With a trailer for a new SpiderMan film running immediately before Endgame, I think we are all happy to assume that everything will work out well and that the damage Thanos did at the end of Infinity War will be undone. And yes, it kind of is, via a final battle of such scale I nearly forgot I’d been waiting two-and-a-half-hours for it to arrive. But there is loss here, too, and a number of very wellestablished characters who have definitively and irreversibly left the building.
Yes, I know this entire film is predicated on reversing time and bringing home the dead, but when you see Endgame, I think you’ll understand what I mean.
What I admired most, thinking about it now, 30 minutes after my Wednesday morning screening ended, is just what a feat of writing this film is. Over that marathon running-time, not once did the audience lose attention or drop out of the narrative.
There is a hell of a lot of plot and back-story to get through and countless loose ends to be tied up, but writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely make it work, while still dropping in a couple of truly funny gags, a passel of cameos – one in particular had the audience whooping – and getting through what could have been some pretty dour moments with wit and insight.
The arc of Thor, in particular, is beautifully handled. He’s racked by grief and guilt, blaming himself for the loss of two worlds now, but instead of setting the dials for broody and dark, as most writers would, the film instead plays him as a stumbling drunk, hilariously gone to seed and getting through the days in a fug of beer and video games.
It’s effective because it’s both tragic and painfully funny.
Elsewhere, the path the film lays out for Thanos’ adopted daughter Nebula (Karen Gillan) is a genuinely dark and distressing journey, only partially redeemed.
I walked into the cinema almost ready to be disappointed, or at least underwhelmed.
Though I expected to be shown dazzling special effects and plenty of spectacle, I really didn’t see how any film could wrap up this decadelong series in a way that was dramatically satisfying, and still give us a reason to come back for more.
But Avengers: Endgame sticks the landing.
While there have been a few stumbles across the 22 (22? Jeebers)-film series, there have also been more high points than low.
Endgame brings the curtain down in elegant fashion. It isn’t just as good as I was hoping it would be. It’s actually better than I could have imagined.