Avengers: Endgame is Self-Congratulatory Fanservice (Spoiler-Free Review)
(Note from the Editor-in-Chief: This is a spoiler-free review; that being said, certain aspects of the story are difficult to discuss around, so the super spoiler-adverse should avoid anyway.)
For the past two years, no other word has been more annoying than the word “culmination.” Now with Avengers: Endgame, Marvel Studios has proof of concept for this culmination after driving the word to the ground during various press junkets. Endgame is pure fanservice, which can be good or bad depending on your pre-existing opinion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For many, it will be a nostalgia trip, and to others, the three-hour-long film will be an unbearable victory lap—a circlejerk, if you’ll pardon the vulgarity.
As the 22nd film of the MCU, Endgame does indeed make nods to all previous 21 films (yes, all of them). Moviegoers will celebrate as Endgame references their favorite movies and scenes, but will also have them confront anything from the MCU’s past they deem problematic. And as audiences have diverse tastes and differing opinions on which MCU films are good or not, a chunk of this film will be a bit of a Rorschach test. This will make or break the film for many filmgoers, as not a lot of people tend to rate these films a la carte scene-by-scene; they’d probably love the entire product or totally hate it.
But nostalgia isn’t the only trick that Avengers: Endgame utilizes — for screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and directors Joe and Anthony Russo, shock value plays a crucial role in provoking emotions.
Currently, popular culture is dominated by the MCU and HBO’s Game of Thrones, and with those two titans comes a culture dominated by concerns for story spoilers. Those concerns are valid, and people, regardless of their opinions on any of those franchises, should in good faith respect anyone’s wishes to avoid them. Cynical old me though can’t help but think about how this spoiler culture is dictated more by corporations and their desire for control of their intellectual property rather than the fanbases.
But while I use the term “trick” somewhat disparagingly, I am someone who is glad that the film wasn’t spoiled for me. Reports and claims of the marketing material only drawing from the first fifteen or so minutes from the film weren’t too far off. There were moments during the film’s first act where I rolled my eyes, with the film feeling more like an Infinity War Part 2 — but as the film quickly began to diverge from what we’ve seen in trailers and ads, the Russos began playing their tricks of total shock, as if they attended The Last Jedi School of Subversion.
Yes, they are tricks supported by corporations to preserve some sort of overblown sanctity, but one quick read of a large audience in an auditorium and you realize that the tricks work. I am amongst the many who fell for them.
I don’t believe that it would be too much of a spoiler to say that the theme of Avengers: Endgame revolves around sacrifice. It’s depicted in a different shade than in Avengers: Infinity War — that film had a dark and troubling message about having the willpower to give up what you love in order to achieve your goal. This time around, Endgame shifts more to the theme of self-sacrifice.
Every main character in this movie goes on a different personal journey, though they all revolve around that theme. However, it’s really just the original six Avengers (Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton) that really have any of that meaty story material, leaving scraps for the rest — and even still, not all of the original six got their equal due.
Banner has a fascinating arc in concept, but all of it occurs off-screen. Thor goes through yet another drastic change: in the same way fans of Thor: Ragnarok were upset by his changes in Infinity War, those who loved the superpowerful Thor in Infinity War will probably take a disliking to this change in Endgame.
Rhodey (War Machine), Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel), and even Rocket are purely auxiliary characters, only serving a purpose to the plot with no character development. Scott Lang (Ant-Man) and Nebula are the only non-original six with any significant character work. Paul Rudd and Karen Gillan end up joining Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and even Jeremy Renner as the acting MVPs of the show.
The Russo brothers have often been praised by fans for how they stage and shoot action sequences (rightfully so, in my opinion), and there are moments in this film that are desktop wallpaper-worthy, but I’ve always admired their ability to craft individual scenes. Even in overstuffed films like Civil War and Infinity War, scenes are able to breathe, rarely going too fast or too sluggish. The same applies to Endgame, where specifically Tony, Steve, and Thor all get some intriguing scene work in the second act of the film, all receiving their own personal form of catharsis.
It is in that second act, however, where the fanservice is in full force. Without giving too much context, this portion of the film is packed with winks and nods to MCU history. It’s a bit of a sitcom clip show, an entry in a long-running series entirely dependent on previous events, but with some attempt to make it a bit original; think of the episode “Cooperative Calligraphy” of Community which subverted the clip show trope (uncoincidentally directed by Joe Russo).
I’ve had an opinion that has long flabbergasted friends and peers: I think Infinity War is a surprisingly accessible film. That film, with decent exposition and as Thanos the character to track, is surprisingly inviting to those outside the know. It was a successive entry in a long story, while Endgame is explicitly a look back into the past. This film is dense with references, so many of them subtle and obscure peppered in as tiny bits of dialogue — I wish casual viewers good luck in even attempting to catch any of them.
And it may very well get grating when the Russo brothers and Markus/McFeely are referencing their own MCU entries. One sequence was an explicit tribute to The Winter Soldier — but it worked for me, simply because that film is still my top MCU film. It may be difficult to avoid making those references when this filmmaking team has made significant contributions to the universe, but it’s also difficult to not see them as exercises in vanity.
That self-congratulatory attitude also comes through when headlines begin popping up about how Avengers: Endgame had the first LGBTQ+ character in the films. As an AP Marvel friend described it, “Imagine the most minor moment you can, and it’s somehow even less of a thing than that.” While I expected something along the lines of Beauty and the Beast’s “exclusively gay moment” with Le Fou, or J.K. Rowling’s infamous Twitter retcons — but it was minor enough that I actually missed it, and AP Marvel’s Anthony Paone had to point it out to me.
It was a type of scenario that we expressed hope wouldn’t happen during a previous podcast episode, a bone to a marginalized community from one of the largest corporations in the world, and an excuse for the filmmakers to pat themselves on the back even more. While I have seen a handful of online comments from people who identify as queer appreciating the moment and those commentators are valid, the fact of the matter is that it was the bare minimum Disney and Marvel Studios could have done in an environment where representation is more important now than ever.
I must also mention my firm objection to the depiction of one key character in this film, who became the subject of numerous body image and weight-related gags. It was not only juvenile and childish but downright offensive — I don’t blame anyone who is cynical enough for not expecting more, but I for one thought that this particular filmmaking quadfecta was above these kinds of jokes.
And man, were those jokes all over the place in this film. I understand the need for levity — in a movie with such a grim premise, you can’t keep your audiences sad for the entire duration. However, some gags were extended too long in a Family Guy kind of way, undercutting the seriousness of the situations. Also, I hope these aren’t considered spoilers, but Hulk straight up dabs at one point, and one scene even features Fortnite. The film overall is a tonal oddity, even compared to usual MCU fare.
For a film that needed to be a tight three hours long, it was sometimes surprising how the filmmakers chose how to spend that time. I was quite disappointed that the film didn’t further explore just how the world works in this post-Snap scenario — what happened to the governments of the world, and all of the major institutions of society? Could we have gotten anything more than a sad kid on a bike, mountains of trash bags on the streets, and a support group scene?
I had to learn to forgive this gripe, because as I mentioned, the film, for the most part, had some well-executed character work that deserved the time. This isn’t the movie about the state of the universe after a catastrophe, but rather about how it affects these specific characters.
Technically, the film was fine, with the Russos utilizing their usual handheld close-ups for key scenes, and standard sweeping action shots enhanced by CGI. Alan Silvestri’s Infinity War score really grew on me, with “Forge” being one of my favorite film score pieces of all time. This time around, I struggled to catch any new pieces — while I appreciated nods to the Ant-Man and Captain Marvel themes (and of course, Silvestri’s own Captain America theme), a lot of the music pieces reused or rearranged from Infinity War.
If my comparison to sitcom clip shows wasn’t enough, perhaps the analogy to Ready Player One will jump out more. To the cynical, Endgame will just be an exhausting reference-fest that they will pray to be over soon. To longtime fans, Endgame is more of a “good” Ready Player One where all of the references are meaningful with more weight added to each character. Essentially every moment, quote, or image that fans have in a final Avengers movie wishlist is predictably present by the time Endgame rolls credits.
While I identify more with the latter group, I admit that I am also exhausted. After I finish writing this review, I have little desire to talk about this film for extended periods of time. As of this writing, I am due to watch this film again with my family this Saturday night, and I don’t know if I will be able to handle it. My friends and peers from my Thursday night show were emotionally drained, but I found myself physically and mentally drained for the first time watching an MCU film. When people say that this film really does represent closure for this era of the MCU, they are absolutely correct, to the point where I would actually be okay if I never saw a new MCU film ever again.
It’s the Return of the King of the MCU, the Deathly Hallows Part 2, and so on and so forth, with Endgame having a similar epilogue-like sequence. But Return of the King was followed by Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, and the “Wizarding World” continued with the trite nonsense known as Fantastic Beasts. Game of Thrones will be “ending,” but a prequel series and who knows how many other spinoffs will follow afterward. The teaser for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker reminds us that “no one’s ever really gone,” ironically reminding us that even after this Skywalker saga wraps up, Star Wars will continue on long after we are all deceased.
I have the sense that coming out of the theater, I like Avengers: Endgame overall, despite all of my reservations and criticisms. The MCU has been an important part of this stage in my life, and for this entry, my appreciation outweighed any anger or cynicism I had.
But man, I would really like a break from all of this.
