Avengers:
Endgame
In
the final installment (supposedly) of the entire Marvel franchise of
superheroes (supposedly again) we see them licking their wounds after the evil Thanos
had captured the six all-powerful infinity stones to rid the entire universe of
trillions upon trillions of people indiscriminately.
In
the 2018 “Avengers: Infinity Wars” the cast of benevolent Avengers made a
valiant effort to preventing this cataclysmic event from happening against humanity. But in their epic battle with the equal parts brutish and equal
parts philosophical Thanos many of the Avengers team were send to their decimating dusty deaths by Thanos's desire to create “a new order in the
universe”…………….with fewer beings in it.
Now
in the beginning of the 2019 “Avengers: Endgame” we see adrift in space with no
food or water, a dying Tony Stark sending a final message to Pepper Potts as
his oxygen supply starts to dwindle. Meanwhile, the remaining Avengers -- Thor,
Black Widow, Captain America and Bruce Banner are trying to figure out a way to
bring back their vanquished allies for an epic showdown with Thanos, the now demigod
of the universe.
REVIEW: I
have already heard some critic’s state that this is the best superhero movie of
all time. NOPE. It is however in my
opinion the most satisfying finale of a film franchise I have experienced.
Running
3:07 minutes, this effort is smartly directed with an emphasis on fully
developing all of its characters with some measure of real humanity and depth while battling Thanos once again to restoring the universe and their friends to life. Actually I found this part of the film's effectiveness rather astonishing given how many of the seemingly 25+ characters that were woven into
the singular story of collective redemption and revenge.
Now
that doesn’t mean some of the notable characters were not short changed a bit. Some of them hardly
had 20 words to say in the entire film. But in the end and overall the entire film still works quite well as the characters that we fundamentally truly care about dominate the
screen in a way that was fro me the most effective approach in keeping this mega ensemble plot intertwined
into something credible from beginning to its epic climatic ending.
But
if I can offer one exceptional note to this film it was the performance of Robert
Downey Jr, as the always smartest guy in the room Tony Stark aka “Iron Man”. His effort here in my opinion genuinely deserves
some real consideration for an Oscar nomination next January in either the Lead
or Supporting Acting category. He stood out in the midst of all the endless riveting
chaos and equal moments of deep reflective thought as the one special superhero
who genuinely conveyed a real measure of depth of emotions, personal thoughts and
sharp timely wit. Downey’s work as “Starke” while subtle was compelling
and authentic that kept the entire film grounded into having a real life and
death consequences to it.
In
the end this is not a dramatic film designed for those of you who have discriminating
taste where every scene has to make absolute 100 percent sense every frame. No, “Endgame”
has many plot holes to chew on and yet equally plot holes to quickly ignore. But at its core this final story of the Avengers
has the prevailing sentimental theme about humanity’s confrontation with its’s
moral self.
Ever
since man and woman stood upright to slowly begin achieving measures of intelligence,
self-awareness and self-consciousness we have had each step throughout the annals
of our time on earth to choose to being either good or being evil with one another. The battle
between the Avengers and Thanos is reflective of this same conflict seemingly always buried
deep in in all of our DNA strands. As in both real human
history and the fantasy world of the Avengers people always in the end chose to be good; to preserve that is good. And even though we may do the right thing with some reluctance
or bravery or both, our nature has always in the end compel us to take up the sword in the manner Edmund
Burke once stated and beckoned,…………..”The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is
for good men to do nothing”.
“Avengers:
End Game” is a testimony to Burke’s quote and man or man do they “do
something” good to preventing evil from being triumphant in an exhilarating, thrilling, highly entertaining and old fashion fun filled way.
4.00
Stars
