Avengers: Endgame - Spoiler-Free Review

By Eileen Steinbach

One does not merely watch Avengers: Endgame and leave without having a life altering experience. This movie has touched my heart so much so that this time around I made sure that I'd have both a Spoiler-Free and Spoiler review for this movie...and I basically ensured this by writing the Spoiler version first. But you need not worry, I won't be spoiling the Endgame for anyone: I would love for everyone to walk into this movie with the little info gleaned from the trailers (trust me, it is very little) and walk out of it with a sense of utter joy and satisfaction.

This was a great companion piece to Avengers: Infinity War. After all the darkness that Thanos' snap introduced into the universe, we needed a whole lot of light to put things right again. Infinity War was basically Thanos 1.0; it was really astounding how a villain who had only previously appeared in a handful of cameos was able to steal the show so easily. In fact, Thanos as a villain is such a complex and compelling character. Similar to a character like the Joker, he is deeply invested in his villainy: in the Joker's case, there is obvious insanity tied to the character, but Thanos comes off as an Obsessively Compulsive individual who fully embraces his psychosis, and takes it as serious business. No laughs are to be had where Thanos is involved. The way they continue to evolve him this time around is as logical a progression of his madness as you'd expect.

This movie is the flip side to the chaos of Infinity War. For this reason, the pacing is slightly slower (only slightly). I couldn't even really call it a "slow burn" because every little bit of the heroes coming to terms with their vulnerability, loss and previous defeat is an interesting character study. You get to see the whole spectrum of reactions from ambivalence to obsession. However, once the pieces start to fall into place, the heroes rise up to the task and make us proud. I guess coming from all those previous wins that they'd had in their careers, it always seemed like winning was an inevitability. Thanos thus became the true litmus test for what it means to be a hero when you are brought down to your lowest point. I guess the best summation for this sentiment comes from one of my favourite movie quotes:

"Why do we fall? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up!"

There is a growth to all these characters that have come to be a part of our lives in this 11-year journey, and that is palpable throughout the course of the movie. I daresay that Hawkeye, who hasn't had that much to do since they introduced him in the first Thor movie, gets the biggest character development from this movie. It is good to see him getting the respect that he deserves, and I've always felt that he should definitely be a big supporting character in the Black Widow movie that will definitely be getting off the ground in the coming future.

The epic 3-hour runtime felt well earned for this movie. If you can sit back long enough to enjoy excellent world-building and storytelling, the time will pass by very quickly. From my previous Infinity War experience, I was peeved about having to watch this type of movie in a theater where kids are in attendance. As if fate was trying to spite me again, there were even more kids in attendance this time around; but, to my shock, they kept it together for the whole show. Their parents must've threatened to disown them if they embarrassed them in public! (Or maybe the movie was just that compelling!)

However, in that last hour, when the action goes down...it goes down (Russo style). Scores in attendance became child-like again, and people were cheering wildly. (When you do watch the movie, you'll understand what I'm talking about!). Having watched this movie twice, I can definitely tell you that it pays to be watching it with a "good crowd". The enjoyment level will be infinitely better for the action scenes. And they bring things to a good conclusion, that'll have you leaving the theater and feeling very satisfied, whether you're slightly teary-eyed or holding those tears on the inside.

I highly recommend this movie as a wonderful time at the theaters for the whole family. A+ movie making and storytelling. It feels just like catching up with an old friend.

God Bless