Weeks after Thanos used the Infinity Stones to disintegrate half of all intelligent life across the Universe, the world is in disarray. Hawkeye lost his entire family, while Iron-Man / Tony Stark—who was saved by Captain Marvel in space—is furious at Captain America for not listening to him. The surviving Avengers find Thanos on a distant planet, but he destroyed the Stones. Thor then kills him. When Ant-Man returns from the quantum space, five years have passed, though he was missing for only five hours. Tony calculates that it is possible to travel back in time, as well. Using the shrinking suits, the Avengers travel years back in time to get the Stones before Thanos. Black Widow dies in the process. They get the stones, Hulk puts them on the glove and undoes Thanos' mass murder. Thanks to Nebula, Thanos and his army enter through the time portal and attack. Dr. Strange, Spider-Man and others, now revived, fight and stop Thanos' army, but Tony dies. Captain America returns back to his time.
"Avengers: Endgame" is a decent conclusion to Marvel's Avengers, though it is still a little bit weaker than its predecessor, "Infinity War". The opening act kicks off with a surprisingly subtle and sombre sequence: Hawkeye, now retired, enjoys his free time with his family on an idyllic countryside. However, when he turns, he notices that his daughter is missing. Looking across the countryside, he realizes in shock that everybody from his family disappeared, off screen, as the effects of Thanos' mass murder dissolution strike like a whimper. The whole first act is a quiet drama, a fascinating essay on Posttraumatic stress disorder, on people trying to move on after a huge loss, almost as a huge global allegory on a post-Holodomor era where the survivors are scrambling to rebuild their world. Little details give it spark, such as when Ant-Man returns and finds a memorial cemetery in San Francisco, filled with hundreds of walls with lists of all the people who disappeared. However, considering the mass effects of such a democide, more of such details would have been welcomed. For instance, what happened to the cities around the world, or even on other planets? How many orphans were left behind? How did the people react when searching for the missing? This far-raching disaster is treated in a practicaly superficial manner. Nonetheless, its first act is great, the finale is good, but the middle act is disappointing.
The middle act shoehorned the time travel concept in order to simply rollback and reverse everything, which is equally of a cheat as the ending in the original '78 "Superman". The deaths of many of the Avengers in "Infinity War" had a weight to them, it was an expressionistic finale that shocked because it showed that sometimes disappointment and loss are inevitable in life, even in superhero movies, which was monumental. "Endgame", unfortunately, nullifies all of this a bit, by presenting an "anything goes" scenario where nothing has any consequences because everything can be corrected. The time travel segment seems more like a lazy "Best of" compilation of the previous films, with numerous scenes done only for fan service, than a real effort. Several time travel plot holes are also inevitable, all corroding the impression—for instance, why not simply travel back in time and arrest Thanos while he is a kid? Or simply travel back before the final battle, and help themselves while they were fighting Thanos? Still, a few good jokes are refreshing (the sole sequence where Hulk travels to a sea port to find a resigned Thor who became a fat slob from drinking too much beer is almost something from an experimental territory; three fan kids want a selfie with Hulk, but not with Ant-Man) and the finale is redeemingly emotional and sincere, showing a very energetic and almost magical conclusion of a character arc. While Tony Stark's time travel visit to his father seems overlong at first, it contains a foreshadowing hidden in one little line (when the father sadly claims that "overall good" never outweighed his own interests). Due to such a powerful ending, "Endgame" somewhat compensates for its flawed concept, offering spectacle done to the tenth of power.
Grade:++
No comments:
Post a Comment