Avengers: Endgame (Film Review)
Apr. 24th, 2019 01:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which Scott Lang saves the universe, with a little help from his friends.
The movie starts surprisingly (or not) on a quiet note, not least because the drastic reducing of the cast per Snappening means there's room for a lot of character stuff in the first third before the action starts to gear up again, and even then I thought (imo as always) it kept a good balance between character scenes and action scenes. (Helped, again, by the fact the full gigantonormous ensemble isn't back until the last big battle sequence (and then each reappearing character got cheers in my theatre).
Mind you, there are about a thousand little supporting cast from various corners of the Marvelverse cameos spread through the film, some funny, some poignant. My absolute favouute was probably Edwin Jarvis (James D'Arcy version), not least because it was so unexpected. I had been pretty sure there would be a Peggy cameo (not least because the MCU producers, directors and writers love Hailey Atwell, as well they should), and Howard, too, was in my head listed as "more likely than not", but Jarvis, the non-AI one, had appeared exclusively on Agent Carter and thus wasn't even familiar to the movies-only watching crowd. But here he was, on the big screen! Definitely a big "awww" moment for me. Another set of cameos I appreciated far more than I had expected were of the Winter Soldier Hydra/SHIELD type (Alexander Pierce, Rumlow and Sitwell), because they provided the basics for an absolutely priceless Steve Rogers moment. Steve had not been very present in Infinity War, and what few character moments he'd had had more annoyed me ("we don't trade" became invalid the moment he expected all the Wakanda soldiers to lay down their lives for Vision while not accepting Vision wanting to give his life to prevent this), but he was terrific in this movie, and the gag with the Hydra crowd which I don't want to spoil worked both on a Watsonian level (it was Steve doing something clever) and on a Doylist one (because I very much suspect it was the Russons taking the piss off a certain recent very unpopular comics storyline. Most poignant cameo, otoh: Frigga. Whose scene with Thor was lovely and heartbreaking. (I know Natalie Portman said goodbye to the Marvelverse a while ago, but honestly, this worked to this movie's benefit because it felt right that Thor's big scene when revisiting his past should be with his mother, not Jane (or for that matter his father). "Wisest person in Asgard", indeed.
(On a similar note, Scott once he was out of the quantum realm and had found out what had happened looking for his daughter before looking for anyone else felt right. Antman and the Wasp had managed to sell me on Scott/Hope, but seriously, Cassie is his primary motivation. BTW, was the girl/young woman playing older Cassie indeed the previous little girl grown up, or did they recast?)
As you may have deduced from the above, everyone who'd guessed there would be time travel involved in the solution to the Snappening guessed correctly. Contrary to what I'd speculated, though, it's not used for a simple reset (i.e. so that the events of the previous movie never happened - they still happened) , and the most creative way time travel was used was Nebula's storyline. Which I loved. If Infinity War provided Zoe Saldana with a chance to shine, Endgame did so for Karren Gillan. And she did. Incidentally, those delightful Nebula & Tonyroad space trip stories written in the aftermath of Infinity War? Totally validated. Including him teaching her stupid games and the both of them engineering together. But Nebula's story wasn't about Tony, it was about herself and her sister, as it should have been. Her coming face to face with her younger self underlined both how she'd grown and how deeply her damage went, and that she turned out to be able to do for a younger Gamora what Gamora had done for her in the second Guardian movie made for a great symmetry. (I had gone into the movie thinking that Nebula should be the one to kill Thanos but probably wouldn't be; going out, in retrospect I was more satisfied by her saving Gamora (and symbolically defeating her own past) instead.) Oh, and some more Nebula moments I adored: bonding with Rhodey over losing body parts, and the way she and Rocket quietly sat together in the initial reunion on Earth early in the movie, with him touching her hand.
On to the darker stuff: two of the original Avengers die in order to undo the dusting and to save the universe from Thanos & Co. forever, respectively. But as opposed to, say, the death in the ST: Discovery s2 finale, these two felt earned, and I say this as someone who loves both characters in question. Mind you, not only had the second, final death been telegraphed in Infinity War already, which gave me time to adjust to the thought, but it does wrap up this decade of Marvel movies with how it started. It's the first of the two deaths, though, that I'm certain will be the controversial one. The reason why this one, too, worked for me is that I can't see the character making any other choice, it was in line with what the previous movie had established about the soul stone, and it brought things full circle with said character's story in Avengers.
Not dark, but probably controversial in terms of shipping: Steve's ending, which wasn't lethal, but definitely excludes a lot of him/other people scenarios. It hadn't occured to me until a few seconds before it happened, but of course he would, and that's another creative way beyond "fixing the snappening" in which the central gimick of the movie was used.
Could be controversial but I don't think so: Carol hardly being in the movie beyond tilting the battle against Thanos, twice. Not surprising, given it was filmed before her own movie was, and she's given a good reason for not staying on Earth in between but leaving it at two emergency visits. Probably more welcome than controversial: her sporting the short hair cut from current comics after the five year time jump.
Bit of dialogue that got the most nerdy cheer: the Scott-Rhodey-Bruce debate about time travel by naming just about every time travel movie franchise in existence. Incidentally, I wasn't completely kidding with my first line: Scott saving the universe - he's the one who has the key idea of how to bring everyone (dusted) back.
Possibly my favourite bit of dialogue:
Younger Gamora (re: Peter Quill and her older self): Him? Seriously?
Nebula: The choice was him or a tree.
Most heartrending "I know I'm being manipulated but what the hell, I'm all there for it" moment: Tony and undusted Peter Parker. Also the much earlier reveal that Tony kept a photo of Peter and himself around for those five years, and the implication that Peter is a key reason to agree to what he then does.
Unexpectedly poignant moment: Natasha's and Clint's "we're far from Budapest" giddy delight at being in outer space when it hits them how crazy and fantastic that actually is.
And the "this was not popular on BSG, what makes you think it will be popular here?" award goes to: Thor, like Lee Adama in the first six episodes of season 3 of BSG, having aquired a lot of weight. I mean, it does make sense as the result of five years of beer drinking and brooding without any physical exercise, but as shirtless Lee and shirtless Thor were previous favourite siights in their respective fandoms, this also had a bit of nah, nah on the part of producers in it. Otoh, the audience I was with seemed to love it, so what I know? And the scene with Frigga I mentioned earlier was played completely straight. As was his scene with Valkyrie much later after the dusting has been undone. (Valkyrie wasn't dusted at all, it's just that her earlier appearance was sans Thor.)
Ha! My headcanon is validated moment: In addition to the Tony and Nebula road trip, Howard Stark, nervous about impending fatherhood, observing in 1970 that he'd rather have a daughter than a son because with a daughter, there's less danger she'd turn out to be like himself, with "becoming like me" the last thing he wants for his kid. (Echoing the "I wanted to be like you"/"And I wanted you to be better" moment between Peter and Tony from Homecoming.) Not that Howard's correct about sons and daughters, of course; in a movie where parent/child relationships (both biological and not) get ample display, the most dysfunctional and abusive involve Thanos and his two "daughters", while on the other end of the scale of parenting you have Scott and Clint, dedicated dads to their daughters (and in Clint's case, son as well), Frigga, freeing her son from his crippling guilt... and, as an example of how to finally break a cycle, Tony with his and Pepper's daughter. Meaning: it's the parent's behaviour that makes the difference, not the gender of the kid, duh.
In conclusion: it worked for me as an epic finale to this phase of the Marvelverse. But I think I'll avoid much of online fandom for a while, since there's bound to be a lot of disagreement on that from many a fan, and I'd rather enjoy the sense of being at peace for a while longer.
The movie starts surprisingly (or not) on a quiet note, not least because the drastic reducing of the cast per Snappening means there's room for a lot of character stuff in the first third before the action starts to gear up again, and even then I thought (imo as always) it kept a good balance between character scenes and action scenes. (Helped, again, by the fact the full gigantonormous ensemble isn't back until the last big battle sequence (and then each reappearing character got cheers in my theatre).
Mind you, there are about a thousand little supporting cast from various corners of the Marvelverse cameos spread through the film, some funny, some poignant. My absolute favouute was probably Edwin Jarvis (James D'Arcy version), not least because it was so unexpected. I had been pretty sure there would be a Peggy cameo (not least because the MCU producers, directors and writers love Hailey Atwell, as well they should), and Howard, too, was in my head listed as "more likely than not", but Jarvis, the non-AI one, had appeared exclusively on Agent Carter and thus wasn't even familiar to the movies-only watching crowd. But here he was, on the big screen! Definitely a big "awww" moment for me. Another set of cameos I appreciated far more than I had expected were of the Winter Soldier Hydra/SHIELD type (Alexander Pierce, Rumlow and Sitwell), because they provided the basics for an absolutely priceless Steve Rogers moment. Steve had not been very present in Infinity War, and what few character moments he'd had had more annoyed me ("we don't trade" became invalid the moment he expected all the Wakanda soldiers to lay down their lives for Vision while not accepting Vision wanting to give his life to prevent this), but he was terrific in this movie, and the gag with the Hydra crowd which I don't want to spoil worked both on a Watsonian level (it was Steve doing something clever) and on a Doylist one (because I very much suspect it was the Russons taking the piss off a certain recent very unpopular comics storyline. Most poignant cameo, otoh: Frigga. Whose scene with Thor was lovely and heartbreaking. (I know Natalie Portman said goodbye to the Marvelverse a while ago, but honestly, this worked to this movie's benefit because it felt right that Thor's big scene when revisiting his past should be with his mother, not Jane (or for that matter his father). "Wisest person in Asgard", indeed.
(On a similar note, Scott once he was out of the quantum realm and had found out what had happened looking for his daughter before looking for anyone else felt right. Antman and the Wasp had managed to sell me on Scott/Hope, but seriously, Cassie is his primary motivation. BTW, was the girl/young woman playing older Cassie indeed the previous little girl grown up, or did they recast?)
As you may have deduced from the above, everyone who'd guessed there would be time travel involved in the solution to the Snappening guessed correctly. Contrary to what I'd speculated, though, it's not used for a simple reset (i.e. so that the events of the previous movie never happened - they still happened) , and the most creative way time travel was used was Nebula's storyline. Which I loved. If Infinity War provided Zoe Saldana with a chance to shine, Endgame did so for Karren Gillan. And she did. Incidentally, those delightful Nebula & Tony
On to the darker stuff: two of the original Avengers die in order to undo the dusting and to save the universe from Thanos & Co. forever, respectively. But as opposed to, say, the death in the ST: Discovery s2 finale, these two felt earned, and I say this as someone who loves both characters in question. Mind you, not only had the second, final death been telegraphed in Infinity War already, which gave me time to adjust to the thought, but it does wrap up this decade of Marvel movies with how it started. It's the first of the two deaths, though, that I'm certain will be the controversial one. The reason why this one, too, worked for me is that I can't see the character making any other choice, it was in line with what the previous movie had established about the soul stone, and it brought things full circle with said character's story in Avengers.
Not dark, but probably controversial in terms of shipping: Steve's ending, which wasn't lethal, but definitely excludes a lot of him/other people scenarios. It hadn't occured to me until a few seconds before it happened, but of course he would, and that's another creative way beyond "fixing the snappening" in which the central gimick of the movie was used.
Could be controversial but I don't think so: Carol hardly being in the movie beyond tilting the battle against Thanos, twice. Not surprising, given it was filmed before her own movie was, and she's given a good reason for not staying on Earth in between but leaving it at two emergency visits. Probably more welcome than controversial: her sporting the short hair cut from current comics after the five year time jump.
Bit of dialogue that got the most nerdy cheer: the Scott-Rhodey-Bruce debate about time travel by naming just about every time travel movie franchise in existence. Incidentally, I wasn't completely kidding with my first line: Scott saving the universe - he's the one who has the key idea of how to bring everyone (dusted) back.
Possibly my favourite bit of dialogue:
Younger Gamora (re: Peter Quill and her older self): Him? Seriously?
Nebula: The choice was him or a tree.
Most heartrending "I know I'm being manipulated but what the hell, I'm all there for it" moment: Tony and undusted Peter Parker. Also the much earlier reveal that Tony kept a photo of Peter and himself around for those five years, and the implication that Peter is a key reason to agree to what he then does.
Unexpectedly poignant moment: Natasha's and Clint's "we're far from Budapest" giddy delight at being in outer space when it hits them how crazy and fantastic that actually is.
And the "this was not popular on BSG, what makes you think it will be popular here?" award goes to: Thor, like Lee Adama in the first six episodes of season 3 of BSG, having aquired a lot of weight. I mean, it does make sense as the result of five years of beer drinking and brooding without any physical exercise, but as shirtless Lee and shirtless Thor were previous favourite siights in their respective fandoms, this also had a bit of nah, nah on the part of producers in it. Otoh, the audience I was with seemed to love it, so what I know? And the scene with Frigga I mentioned earlier was played completely straight. As was his scene with Valkyrie much later after the dusting has been undone. (Valkyrie wasn't dusted at all, it's just that her earlier appearance was sans Thor.)
Ha! My headcanon is validated moment: In addition to the Tony and Nebula road trip, Howard Stark, nervous about impending fatherhood, observing in 1970 that he'd rather have a daughter than a son because with a daughter, there's less danger she'd turn out to be like himself, with "becoming like me" the last thing he wants for his kid. (Echoing the "I wanted to be like you"/"And I wanted you to be better" moment between Peter and Tony from Homecoming.) Not that Howard's correct about sons and daughters, of course; in a movie where parent/child relationships (both biological and not) get ample display, the most dysfunctional and abusive involve Thanos and his two "daughters", while on the other end of the scale of parenting you have Scott and Clint, dedicated dads to their daughters (and in Clint's case, son as well), Frigga, freeing her son from his crippling guilt... and, as an example of how to finally break a cycle, Tony with his and Pepper's daughter. Meaning: it's the parent's behaviour that makes the difference, not the gender of the kid, duh.
In conclusion: it worked for me as an epic finale to this phase of the Marvelverse. But I think I'll avoid much of online fandom for a while, since there's bound to be a lot of disagreement on that from many a fan, and I'd rather enjoy the sense of being at peace for a while longer.
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Date: 2019-04-24 03:10 pm (UTC)I am genuinely impressed at how much they managed to jam in there, even given the length of the film. The only regular who didn't appear somehow, somewhere was Paul Bettany, which is pretty extraordinary given the parameters. That PERFECT use of Steve saying 'hail Hydra' was definitely one of my favourite parts.
Others included: Jarvis! Neat character combinations I'd never have thought of, like Rhodey and Nebula! An impromtu A-Force forming to help Carol get the gauntlet through the crowd! Every single thing Peter said! Pepper finally deciding that if you can't beat them, you might as well join them! And the look on Thanos' face when all those portals open and he actually experiences doubt for what may be the first time ever.
Another great thing about Scott Lang in this film: he appears to be the only person who paid attention during any of those time travel movies. (OK, Bruce did fine, but he was lucky enough to meet someone that already had prophetic knowledge of the future that he could have a sensible conversation with. Nobody else managed to keep their part of the timeline intact - I mean, somewhere out there there's apparently a Loki who grabbed the Tesseract and ran off. Which I guess may explain why he's getting his own show ...)
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Date: 2019-04-24 06:57 pm (UTC)I wonder if the Russos are GOT fans because Steve's last stand (which I really thought was gonna be his last) is very Battle of the Bastards Jon Snow vs the world, with the cheer-inducing, sob-filled appearance of everyone and their mother coming to the rescue.
One of my fave things is Pepper as Rescue. Also, everyone has been speculating about the Thanus theory before Endgame; it's good to know that Scott is still the hero of the actual story, even if it isn't...that lol
I love Tom Holland and his Peter but seriously, boy, shut up, his wife needs to talk to him before he dies.
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Date: 2019-04-24 07:17 pm (UTC)Great analysis! Like you, I was initialy disappointed by Nebula wasn't more involved in killing Thanos, but you make a good point about how satisfying it was to go back to the Gamora&Nebula relationship, albeit with the roles mirrored. And your paragraph about parents & children is very true.
The cameos really were awesome. My personal favorite was probably that blink-or-miss-it shot of Harvey Keener at the end. And not a cameo, exactly, but I loved that last scene with Valkyrie (she's a King!!!)
Re: Cassie Lang, she was recast, the younger actress is only 11. I find that the casting is very good, I also wondered for a second if it was the same person.
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Date: 2019-04-25 08:05 pm (UTC)While I was initially surprised by how quickly they did the beginning story beats, it made sense and still hit the main emotional moments I wanted. And the following time-travel-infinity-stone-caper-story was a genius idea, because
a) it gave us expected and unexpected pairings on parallel missions, each with their own poignancy (Tony and Steve, first in 2012 and then in the 70s, and I loved all of it / Nat and Clint coming full circle / unexpected yet delightful Rhodey - Nebula moment ...),
b) it allowed for lovely callbacks to earlier movies and for revisiting the first Avengers one without making the whole thing feel self-indulgent,
c) it was just a fun plot,
and d) it gave us all the preparation scenes beforehand, which were lovely as well.
Re: short Carol appearances - I thought the things she did get to do were perfect (rescue Tony, punch spaceships, impress Peter :-D) and was therefore satisfied with how she was used, given that this was at its core the story of the original six. (While still leaving enough narrative space for others! Starting with Scott (actually liked him, biggest surprise for me given that I hadn't seen the Ant-Man movies) and ending with Nebula - great point about the role reversal between her and Gamora!)
Not usually a fan of big battle scenes, but that last one worked well enough and was deservedly epic. Also, the dramaturgy was nice, what with first Cap standing all alone, and then everybody showing up. And even there, they included all these little tid-bits, from the gauntlet relay they did to the reunion moments.
it brought things full circle with said character's story in Avengers
I'm coming around on this. When it first happened I thought they'd made exactly the wrong choice, but given how the two of them started out? I can see why they would go this route. (Also, they probably didn't want to go and kill both fathers of the original six.) But still, that one hurt. But then, I was dreading the soul stone moment ever since Infinity War established it, no matter who would have to go and get it. They did not weasel out of that one. So, Watsonian level all good. (I think my initial reaction was also due to Nat being the only woman on the original team, which, well. Too late.) Either way, I certainly loved all of her scenes before that.
And as a Tony fan? The possibility was of course on the table, but I did not know if I should expect them to actually go there. In the end, I basically loved every single moment of him on screen and given that I very much wanted him to be the one to put on the gauntlet (and knew for sure it would be the minute Cap picked up Thor's hammer), I can't really complain about the consequences. Broke my heart, but worked. And what a way to close an era with his final line. (Also, while RDJ has always been wonderful at playing him, he kind of took it to the next level in this one.)
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Date: 2019-04-26 02:10 am (UTC)Also, because I missed a few lines of dialog for the theater clapping and cheering so much: did Tony call Rocket "Rygel" at one point?
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Date: 2019-04-26 06:34 pm (UTC)FWIW in my theater there were also cheers for Thor's belly, though more as a bit of a laugh line, so I don't think it was entirely a woke disregard of body image or six pack expectations of superhero characters or anything like that.
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Date: 2019-04-27 03:05 am (UTC)Mine, too! I absolutely did not expect to see him in this film, and his character was always a DELIGHT in Agent Carter.
"Wisest person in Asgard", indeed.
She was, without a doubt, and I was so happy to see her imparting her wisdom to Thor.
Scott once he was out of the quantum realm and had found out what had happened looking for his daughter before looking for anyone else felt right. Antman and the Wasp had managed to sell me on Scott/Hope, but seriously, Cassie is his primary motivation.
100 percent agree. I think that's the thing that really sold me on Scott's character.
If Infinity War provided Zoe Saldana with a chance to shine, Endgame did so for Karren Gillan. And she did.
She was FANTASTIC. And yes to her bonding with Rhodey over losing body parts! I forgot about that moment until just now, but it was GREAT.
Younger Gamora (re: Peter Quill and her older self): Him? Seriously?
Nebula: The choice was him or a tree.
HAHAHAHA, forgot about that one, too! Perfect.
I agree that Nat's death felt in character for her, but I still want her back. Tony's death, OTOH, was a perfect way for his character to exit the franchise. I'm still sobbing over Pepper telling him, "You can rest now."
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Date: 2019-04-28 08:47 pm (UTC)Also I have a fic idea, as you might imagine, and would love to bounce something off you -- check your email :)
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Date: 2019-12-29 03:51 am (UTC)I also like Thor because he's funny and real. I've gained some weight myself in the past ten years and not because of beer!
Points to you to mentioning Lee Adama's weight gain. I had almost forgotten that. Thor is okay, though. He always has 'the voice' if not the abs.
I also hope Gamora is okay wherever she landed.