ENDGAME OF AN ERA
AVENGERS: ENDGAME (12A)
DEATH is seldom a final farewell in the hallowed realms inhabited by spandex-clad superheroes. Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and Thor have all regenerated on the pages of well-thumbed comics. So gobs should not be smacked if the 22nd film in the Marvel Comics cinematic universe chooses to resurrect some of the brave souls, who were reduced to ashes at the end of Avengers: Infinity War when villain Thanos ( Josh Brolin) exterminated half of all living organisms with a snap of his digitally-rendered fingers.
“Part of the journey is the end,” posits one figure in Avengers: Endgame, sombrely reflecting on everything they have lost.
Screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely confidently surf the ripple effect of Thanos’ radical approach to population control. The script’s reach occasionally exceeds its grasp and there’s a
★★★★ ★
disappointing inevitability to some of the whirring cogs and gears of a slickly engineered plot that leans heavily on familiar sci-fi paradoxes.
However, when planets align and pure emotion wells in the actors’ eyes, there’s no denying the primal power of pivotal scenes of self-sacrifice and redemption. As one hero says, “Everybody wants a happy ending but it doesn’t always work that way.”
It’s a full-blooded odyssey of redemption that bristles with bold ambition and the studio’s trademark irreverent humour, like when Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) calmly accepts one preposterous course.
“I get emails from a raccoon so nothing sounds crazy anymore,” she deadpans. Thanos has devastated the third rock from the sun, sounding a death knell for billions. Before his demise, Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) issued a distress call to Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and she arrives on Earth to mourn her fallen mentor.
Her formidable abilities may tip the balance of power back in favour of grief-stricken survivors including Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and Nebula (Karen Gillan).
However, hope and despair are inextricably bound together. Where one ventures, the other must follow.
Mythologies unravel and hundreds of special effects artists flex their muscles to deliver a bombastic feast for the senses.