The decision of the Russo brothers to end infinity war on that heart breaking note was indeed a brave one that almost nobody saw coming. And the new one, Avengers: Endgame is a bigger brave move from the director duo that gave a humanistic approach to the MCU. Avengers: Endgame is nothing short of brilliant in my opinion. It has all the qualities one would expect from the Russo brothers and has almost all the elements for a movie that works as a phase finale to the most successful film franchise.
Summarizing the plot here is indeed a tricky thing as whatever we have seen in promos is mostly happening at the beginning. The story begins with Tony sending Pepper a goodbye message from the stranded space ship. Back on earth, Romanoff, Cap, Thor, and Banner are also clueless on how to move forward. But the entry of Captain Marvel and Scott Lang aka Ant-Man sort of restores faith in the team and the movie shows us how the team makes a plan to undo what all just happened with that deadly snap. (Hyu! Thank you Marvel, for revealing this much through Promos).
For the first half an hour or so, Endgame has this devastating feel of a zombie movie. Tony is mad at Cap for all the ideology differences, Romanoff can’t accept the reality that she no longer has the only family she thought she had, Thor has taken the blame on himself and Captain is still trying to lead all of them. In the beginning phase of the film, it almost felt like the perspective of a powerless normal man who luckily survived this action. Russo brothers have always humanized their characters in their interpretations and here also we see our superheroes in the most vulnerable state. Slowly the movie gets into that fast rhythm and this is where the movie becomes a tribute to the franchise and also a treat for the fans who may remember the scenes of every movie. After that fun phase, you get to feel the part where you are screaming your lung out. The staging was spectacular and watching it with a packed house was indeed a great experience. Then comes the area that shows us how the MCU will move forward from now on and most of them were heartening sequences as we knew all these characters and their bond.
Robert Downey Jr. gets to play a less vivacious and more conflicted Iron Man here. Tony is mad at Cap, but there is that mentor in him that can’t really accept the truth that his prodigy Peter Parker vanished just like that. There are lighter moments as well that shows us the familiar side of Tony Stark. Chris Evans as Steve Rogers balances the inner trauma and outer optimism neatly. There is a major character arc happening for Captain America this time and Evans was pretty good at portraying that. Natasha Romanoff is at her most emotional state in the entire movie and Scarlet Johansson was able to make us feel for that character. Jeremy Renner also managed to make us empathize with the trauma his character had gone through. Thor was slightly on the funnier side this time but Chris Hemsworth never makes the character go out of the zone. Karen Gillan as Nebula is a pivotal character here and Josh Brolin as the supremely confident Thanos was also great. These are the characters that sort of had the individual attention of the script and there is almost every character in the MCU appearing for 2 seconds to a few minutes and the good part is that you might remember all of them.
Dividing the protagonists and creating the conflict has always been the way Russo brothers approached their scripts. And because of that, the movies they have done are perhaps the most emotional ones in MCU. Being emotional is the essential ingredient required for a film like Endgame where we are expecting how things will work for them in front of a mighty force like Thanos. Avengers: Endgame is one movie that nobody should watch after merely seeing a YouTube video that wraps up everything that happened to this point. The writers have picked up on the nuances and very subtle elements we have noticed in previous films and they have connected it very smartly with the endgame. The set pieces are grand and it is not a Chaos where you lose track of what’s happening. The cinematography has this tone changes for each phase of the movie. I really loved how the Russo’s used silence trusting the audiences love for the characters.
Avengers: Endgame is going to be a challenge for Marvel itself as it reinvented the Superhero genre in a refreshing way. Nobody will say that it is a run-of-the-mill action flick. It invests in the mental space of the major characters beautifully, breaking a lot of molds we are used to seeing in this genre. Avengers: Endgame has managed to set a new benchmark in creating grand scale superhero epics.
Rating: 4/5
Nobody will say that it is a run-of-the-mill action flick. It invests in the mental space of the major characters beautifully, breaking a lot of molds we are used to seeing in this genre.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
