Movie Review: ‘Avengers Endgame’ - ‘Officially the End of Our Childhood’


Source - DNA India


"This is the fight of our lives. We are going to win. Whatever it takes."

With Avengers: Endgame, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has arrived at its long-awaited ‘conclusion’, offering fans an old-fashioned mix of grand spectacle and undiluted emotion. To say that it is a success would be too simple an observation; what it deserves instead, is a eulogy.

 

Like a series finale of a television show you’ve loved for years, it crosses all the Ts and dots all the Is - some more neatly than others - and ends not so much with a feeling of rigid resolution, but a sense of freeing possibility. 

 

For new doors to open, Marvel seems to be saying, old ones must first be closed. It’s a film that will compel even the Frost Giants in the audience to whoop and weep.

Introduction

Movie's Title - Avengers: Endgame


Directors - Anthony Russo & Joe Russo

Genre - Fiction & Drama

Box office - 279.8 crores USD

Running time - 3h 2m

Cast - Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper, Don Cheadle, Brie Larson, Paul Rudd, Josh Brolin

Plot - Spoiler Alert!

In 2018, twenty-three days after Thanos killed half of all life in the universe, Carol Danvers rescues Tony Stark and Nebula from deep space and reunite with the remaining Avengers—Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, Thor, Natasha Romanoff, and James Rhodes—and Rocket on Earth.

Locating Thanos on an uninhabited planet, they plan to use the Infinity Stones to reverse his actions, but discover Thanos has already destroyed them to prevent further use. Enraged, Thor decapitates Thanos.

Five years later, in 2023, Scott Lang escaped from the Quantum Realm. Reaching the Avengers Compound, he explains that he experienced only five hours while trapped. Theorizing the quantum realm allows time travel, they ask Stark to help them get the Stones from the past to reverse Thanos's actions in the present.

Banner, Lang, Rogers, and Stark travel to New York City during Loki's attack in 2012.  At the Sanctum Sanctorum, Banner convinces the Ancient One to give him the Time Stone by promising to return the various Stones to their proper points in time.

At Stark Tower, Rogers retrieves the Mind Stone from Hydra sleeper agents, but failing at the attempt they travel to the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters in 1970, where Stark obtains an earlier version of the Space Stone and encounters his father, Howard. 

Meanwhile, Rocket and Thor travel to Asgard in 2013; the former extracts the Reality Stone from Jane Foster and retrieves his old hammer, Mjolnir. Barton, Romanoff, Nebula, and Rhodes travel to 2014; Nebula and Rhodes go to Morag and steal the Power Stone before Peter Quill can, while Barton and Romanoff travel to Vormir. 

Reuniting in the present, the Avengers place the Stones into a gauntlet that Stark, Banner, and Rocket had built. Banner, having the most resistance to their radiation, wields the gauntlet and reverses Thanos's disintegrations. 

To help defeat Thanos and his army, a restored Stephen Strange arrives with other sorcerers, the restored Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, the Ravagers, the armies of Wakanda and Asgard. 

Following Stark's funeral, Thor appoints Valkyrie as the new ruler of New Asgard and joins the Guardians. Rogers returns the Stones and Mjolnir to their proper timelines and remains in the past to live with Carter. In the present, an elderly Rogers passes his shield to Sam Wilson.

About the Movie

Avengers: Endgame is a terrific example of that epic intimacy that Marvel does so well - alternating between glorious action and subtle character moments.

Watching it almost feels like taking a wistful walk down memory lane, flanked on either side by a Russo brother, our hands held firmly in theirs. It’s an odd feeling that I can’t quite describe; a mixture of déjà vu and nostalgia, of melancholy and euphoria.

Avengers: Endgame’ continues from its previous installment ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, where a chain of catastrophic events destroyed half the universe. The remaining Avengers now come together for one final time to reverse the actions of the evil Thanos and restore the order of the universe. But will they succeed?

Best Dialogues

There were a lot of moments where some intense yet metaphorically had great importance. So we chose to feature only the top 3 dialogues from this masterpiece .

Here are they,

"Avengers! Assemble!"

This moment was 11 years in the making. During the climax of the film, with the assistance of Doctor Strange's portals, every hero introduced over the course of the past decade joins the original six Avengers in the battle against Thanos.

But before the action starts, we get to see Steve Rogers show the world exactly why he's Captain America. With every hero lined up alongside him, Steve Rogers puts his arm to the sky and shouts for everyone to hear, "Avengers! Assemble!" Then, he leads all the characters we've come to love over the past years into battle one last time.

"And I am Iron Man."

From the very beginning, it was clear that Tony Stark was a superhero unlike any other. "I am Iron Man." But this time, it's to himself rather than the press, as he reflects on the fact that it's the man beneath the suit— not his tech, not his money— that makes him a hero.

So it's fitting that Tony Stark's journey in the MCU should end the way it began. Believing him to be wielding the Infinity Stones, Thanos confronts Tony and declares, "I am inevitable."

But when his snap fails to bring about universal destruction as planned, Thanos realizes that he, just like so many villains before, has been bested by Tony Stark. 

Revealing an Iron Man gauntlet studded with the Stones he swiped from Thanos, Tony utters the phrase that has defined his time as a superhero one last time before he snaps his fingers and sacrifices himself to save everyone else: "I am Iron Man." 

"I Love You 3000"

Tony Stark's daughter says this to him near the beginning of the film, and although it's spoken with levity, it symbolizes just how far Tony has come since Iron Man— not just as a hero, but as a man. 

When he was being held in that cave so many years ago, Tony was told by Yinsen not to waste his life, but Yinsen meant this in more ways than one. Not only did he want Tony to start using his talents for good, but he also hoped that Tony would build something more meaningful than any Iron Man suit could ever be— a family.  

Personal Verdict

Overwhelming…!

It best describes the final chapter that culminates Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 21 iconic films into one. And that also describes the experience of watching your favourite superheroes come together for a singular goal, for one last time.

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo ensure that the humongous build-up and the avalanche of expectations do not get the better of them. They deliver a largely wholesome product that is full of moments laced with action, emotion, comedy and drama. 

Writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely take you along, even if you haven’t been following the franchise. They do an incredible job with the screenplay to balance emotions with visual spectacle. So if you’re not a fan yet, chances are, you might become one after watching this installment.

The Bottom Line

For the non-fans, the film’s explanatory tone might come across as a speed breaker at times, but for the fans, the same invokes hope and excitement, leading to constant gasps and howls.

Overall, 'Avengers: Endgame' is a befitting tribute to the Cinematic Universe that has spawned larger-than-life superheroes and super fans. At three hours plus, ‘Endgame’ delivers on a lot of its hallmark promises, leaving its fans with a range of emotions and fond memories.

My ratings for the movie - 5 on 5

You may watch the movie on- Disney+Hotstar - Avengers: Endgame

Written By - Resmita Barai

Edited By - Umme-Aiman