Author note: I want to reiterate the headline once more: this review is SPOILER-FREE. I may do a spoiler review later on, but this one is completely safe to read if you have not yet seen Avengers: Endgame. Specific details – plot or otherwise – will barely be touched on. I will discuss – in very general terms – time travel. Time travel’s involvement has long been known/widely assumed, so that shouldn’t be telling you anything new. But I won’t get into any the specific details of how the movie uses time travel. Again, don’t worry, this review is safe to read.
I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say Avengers: Endgame is a massive cinematic achievement. What the Russo brothers were able to do (again, mind you) is simply incredible. The enormous cast, the sprawling universe (literally), and overall massive scale. This type of movie shouldn’t work. And yet it does. This is the best sendoff fans could have hoped for; a perfect culmination to these 21 (22 including Endgame) movies and 10+ years.
This movie has it all: action, drama, humor, emotional resonance. And that’s really as specific as I can be. With this movie, you either have to avoid 99% of details, or go full spoiler. And right now this is for those that haven’t seen it yet. The action scenes are top-notch, with fight scene after scene that blows your mind. There is the usual Marvel humor, which thankfully doesn’t feel out of place with such a heavy premise. But perhaps the biggest payoffs are the emotional stakes – both within the movie and for the audience.
If you’ve been a fan from the beginning, you’ve spent over a decade of your life with these characters. You can’t help but feel an emotional connection to them. And there are more quite a few moments where that is expertly on display. You’ll laugh, cry, cheer, feel your heartbeat jump up to a potentially dangerous level. It is truly a one-of-a-kind movie-going experience.
There are a few scenes where I felt something I’ve never felt watching a movie before. In one in particular, I was literally overcome with emotion, felt this energy move up my body, and all I could do was smile a huge smile while simultaneously getting choked up, on the verge of tears. Yes, a comic book movie brings that out. Embrace those moments, immerse yourself in this movie.
But within all its greatness, there are a couple points of criticism. The first is the time travel. Movies enter a tricky territory when they introduce time travel. And for the most part, Endgame gets it right – I think. And that’s part of the problem. It’s all theoretical, which makes it harder to explain. Fans may not follow what is happening. But the worse part is that there are a couple parts that seemingly violate the rules the movie itself established. Or maybe they don’t? Though again, that’s part of the inherent problems with time travel as a plot device. But I’ll get more into that if I do a spoiler review.
In addition to the time travel is the length of the movie. While it certainly doesn’t feel like a 3 hour movie, there are still scenes that could have easily been cut or at least trimmed down. It could have made the movie a little tighter. But with a score of 95/100, we’re really into nit-picking territory here.
So yeah, the big-time movie is big-time good, great even. So go out and see it as soon as you possibly can. Most details are spoilers on some level, so the longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be to avoid being inadvertently spoiled. And remember, once you do see it, #DontSpoilTheEndgame
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