Avengers: Endgame

Avengers: Endgame

“Avengers: Endgame” is an accumulation of ten years of blockbuster filmmaking, the work of thousands over many years. It is designed to be the ultimate blockbuster; a dozen subplots crash together and this is really like nothing that’s ever been done in Hollywood before, not just because it was unprecedented in scope or execution, but because no other studio has ever so much as tried to make 20-plus interlocking movies around a single mythology. Most franchises barely manage one successful sequel. This movie exists not just to acknowledge or exploit your love and patience (and money), but to reward it.

The blunt thing you probably want to know most: It’s hard to see serious Marvel Cinematic Universe fans walking away from “Endgame” disappointed. It checks all the boxes, even ticking off a few that fans won’t expect to be on any list. It’s a satisfying end to a chapter of blockbuster history that will be hard for any movie, including those from Marvel Studios, to top for pure spectacle and size, for satisfying narrative conclusiveness, for being able to call back a decade’s worth of movies in one coherent story. In terms of sheer entertainment value and number of iconic characters juggled at once (most of whom are serviced well by its three-hour run time), it lands near the higher end for Marvel Studios.

Don’t worry I’ll stay very spoiler-free here beyond what has been established in trailers and basic premise. The main joy with this film is how its incredibly complex narrative unfolds; go elsewhere if you want that ruined here.

But just so we’re all caught up: In the disappointing “Infinity War,” Thanos finally got all six Infinity Stones he had spent years hunting down and used them to wipe out half of existence, including such beloved heroes as Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland). “Endgame” picks up a few weeks after “The Snap,” as the remaining heroes try to pick up the pieces and possibly, maybe reverse Thanos’ destruction.

Right off the bat, “Endgame” is a more focused piece than “Infinity War” by virtue of having a tighter, smaller cast. (Thanks, Thanos.) It’s a more patient film in many ways even as its plot draws in elements of a dozen other movies and it allows some of the most iconic characters in the history of Marvel Comics to just be well, heroic.

No longer mere pawns in a Thanos-driven plot (which always had them feeling like they were strapped into seats on different cars on the same roller coaster), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) break free from the crowd ably assisted by Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd). In that sense this is very much still an Avengers movie; but mostly because its core is so tight, it often reminded me of one of Joss Whedon’s key strengths from his first “Avengers” film strong personalities bouncing off each other in close quarters.

Then factor in that this is probably the best acting work by both Evans and Downey Jr. over their long tenure with these characters, who one realizes while watching this have turned Captain America and Iron Man into something larger than life for an entire generation.

But also: The most satisfying thing about “Endgame” might be how it provides those two heroes’ story arcs with finality instead of just drowning them amidst a sea of cameos by lesser characters from other movies. In canonizing them, it canonizes all 21 movies that came before it.

What is most effective about Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely’s script for “Endgame” is the fact that instead of just trying to set up something for the future, it looks back. This movie borrows from the MCU: character beats, origins, even entire plotlines from films like “Iron Man,” “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Captain America: The First Avenger.”

I know some people call that cheap fan service, but my biggest issue with all these movies especially “Infinity War” has always been that they’re basically commercials for other movies. But this one isn’t. Yes, the MCU will go on after this; we know that there are at least a couple more Spider-Man adventures around the bend. But there’s also no question that this movie has an air of finality about it, a depth of history: It feels like what happens in “Endgame” can only happen because of everything we’ve seen in every MCU movie before it.

It still needs to work as just a movie too. In terms of pure enjoyment over its middle hour or so, I don’t think any Marvel movie has ever been this fun. It’s just that there are times when you wish you could feel a human touch beneath all the impressive polish and intricate planning of what you’re seeing.

In its long build-up first hour or so which is probably longer than it had to be there are all sorts of pregnant pauses about how serious things are; you keep hoping that one will lead to something that feels spontaneous or an acting decision off script a bit (or a lot) but nothing really does. I laughed harder at stuff in this movie than almost anything I’ve ever seen in one sitting before, but every single laugh gets telegraphed half an hour earlier and then delivered on time by actors doing exactly as they’re told.

All those aspects have been foreshadowed for years by other movies and massaged to perfection by the hundreds of people it takes to make a thing like this, so when you’re watching “Endgame,” there’s not much feeling of surprise or discovery or doubt that you will be satisfied. It mostly feels like watching a movie that has been rerun in your head many times before, partly because it has but also because every beat feels so reiterative of every other beat.

This does not feel like art: It feels like product. Roger Ebert once famously wrote that “video games can never be art.” Here we have arrived at the opposite destination: Art has become more like video games, something remarkably programmed and determined-seeming and lacking in any way that truly challenges the viewer.

But then nobody is lining up at dawn on a Friday morning for “Avengers: Endgame” to challenge them. People want their expectations rewarded; they want to feel good about how far they’ve come; they want their fandom recognized and affirmed and treated with respect. Whatever its flaws may be as a movie, “Endgame” does all of those things indeed, if anything, it sometimes overdoes them out of what clearly is deep admiration for the millions upon millions who have made this cinematic universe into such an extraordinarily vibrant cultural phenomenon over the past decade-plus.

The stakes really are high in this one; the conclusions do actually feel resonant. And so even though I know I’ve been manipulated even though my very presence here today attests to having successfully been manipulated for going on 15 years now it’s more than just hard to complain: It’s genuinely moving. It’s an epic cultural event we’re witnessing here today (and tomorrow, and next week), one that transcends traditional film criticism to become something closer to a secular piece of liturgy or ritual a shared metaphysical touchstone for fans around the world across space and time. The only question I had walking out of that theater was how they plan to top it 10 years from now.

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