It wasn't too long ago that I got the sense the Avengers were nothing more than coworkers. Saving the world is supposed to be strictly business, you know. In “Endgame,” they aren’t as serious about saving the world as they are about saving each other. Here, for what could be the first time, they rely on one another for something deeper than skill or manpower. They still crack jokes, but they do it to comfort themselves, not the audience. More affecting than the heroes’ humor is their honesty, which is new to the franchise. For once, Captain America lays his cards on the table: “I know this is going to work, because I don’t know what I’m gonna do if it doesn’t.”
Avengers: Endgame — which is being branded as the big kahuna of a 22-film saga — indeed has surprises in store for Marvel fans, the biggest of which being that this new movie is quite good. At last, the Avengers consider the stakes and weigh the risks before leaping into action. This is bad news for people who liked last year’s rushed Avengers: Infinity War and good news for people who prefer to chew on suspense rather than see it thrown out the window. “Endgame” is not only more exciting than its prequel but more moving as well; the protagonists plan on winning — perhaps unconventionally for such a big blockbuster — with wit, self-acceptance, and forgiveness. I’d say the first real punches aren’t thrown until the hour mark.
The success of this movie is not unimpressive, considering that to make it work, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely had to dig themselves out of an astronomical jam. We pick up where “Infinity War” left off — half the universe has been turned to dust, Thanos having snapped it away with the Infinity Stones. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) now floats in space aboard a ship without fuel or oxygen, although whether he’ll do so for very long is more or less revealed by the trailers. What isn’t so obvious is how the Avengers back on Earth will get a happy ending. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo take their time establishing an air of defeat, flashing forward five years after the events of “Infinity War.” The people we saw disintegrate aren’t hiding under the rug. They’re gone, dead as a doorknob, kaput.
Some of the survivors, like Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), have resumed their watch over a post-snap world and now try to let go of the past, to little avail. They’re at least handling things better than Thor; let’s just say that Chris Hemsworth put on a few pounds for the role (the fact that the writers traded his figure for some comedic relief is more shocking than anything else in this film).
“Endgame” devotes more screen time to traditionally sidelined characters, like Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), who usually struggles to be more interesting than a warm glass of milk. He becomes a moody vigilante after losing his family to the snap — a noir-inspired scene in Japan pits him against a horde of mobsters, and the resulting camerawork is fluid and engrossing. In another Marvel movie, subplots like this might come across as an attempt to kill time until the last big fist fight. Not here. Where “Infinity War” was fragmented, “Endgame” is focused, each of its scenes orbiting around a single inciting event. All the characters deal with the same loss, albeit in different ways and places. Though they must Assemble to save the day by obligation, we get the sense that the Avengers would wind up together even without the superpowers.
On the subject, the team benefits from some loose performances. We've known Downey Jr. as Iron Man since 2008, and sometimes even I can forget how very good he’s been in the role. His character has evolved from an egotistical trust fund baby to an empathetic family man, and his hesitations about going back to fight Thanos are as mature and compelling as they can be in an action movie. The chemistry that he and the other actors have built over the years is invaluable; the Avengers would’ve given up the hero gig long ago if it wasn’t for the company.
The Russo brothers begin with a grim setup to show the heroes’ need for a plan. The film’s massively entertaining middle act — which plays to the much lighter tune of heist pictures like Ocean’s Eleven — shows how that plan unfolds. To say that it involves time travel would spoil a bit of the guessing game, but none of the fun. To be honest, I don’t quite understand the movie’s rules for time travel, and I’m not sure the movie itself understands them either. I don’t really mind, seeing that the last half of “Endgame” is an absolute blast, with or without logic. The script revisits some of the Marvel films that have made the studio a household name, and longtime fans will eat up every nostalgic callback. I can’t promise that viewers going in cold will be able to make any sense of who’s what, but it doesn’t seem fair that they should miss out on such a solid slice of entertainment. Some moments require our heroes to think rather than shoot or stomp their way out, and they're true nail-biters, whether or not you give two rips about Marvel. The running time for “Endgame” comes in at just a hair over three hours, and folks, it doesn’t even feel close to two.
I’d like to think I’m not made of stone. When I hear sniffles and sobs during the credits, I acknowledge that the film I’ve just seen has done its audience a service. There are inevitable goodbyes dealt out to major Avengers, some of which are plainly over the top (the final scenes kinda kill the mood rather than lift it). But what do I know? Somebody was chopping onions in that theater, even if I couldn't smell it. If we needed a handful of lesser MCU films to get us to this point, maybe this one is worth it. “Endgame” does right by its fans and its characters; it would be hard to fathom why either party would need another sequel.
NOTE: This film has earned over 2.6 billion dollars worldwide and is the first movie in ten years to challenge the all-time global box office record, set by Avatar back in 2009. Though only time will tell whether “Endgame” makes history, I wouldn’t mind seeing it at the top of the list.
