Lebeau and Daffy Spoil Avengers: Endgame

https://lebeauleblog.com/2019/04/30/lebeau-and-daffy-spoil-avengers-endgame/

Daffy Stardust: I have actually seen Avengers: Endgame two times already, which might suggest how I felt about it the first time. As is the case with just about any film I see, I have some quibbles about some of the individual decisions made by the filmmakers, but as a piece of entertainment building on the twenty-one MCU movies preceding it, I genuinely found Endgame to be a remarkable achievement. That doesn’t mean that i think it is as well crafted overall as something like Captain America: Winter Soldier or even last year’s Infinity War, but I would argue that the level of difficulty they took on here was pretty huge and they largely succeeded within it at a rather high level.

I had an emotional response to what I was shown during both of the screenings I attended, and at different moments over its run time. While the movie overall was not as cinematically elegant as it might have been, there were multiple moments within it that did reach that level and at times did so within the overall story they have been building over the past eleven years. My second viewing felt to me like it confirmed that experience for me. Endgame could have easily broken under the weight of all that it was attempting to do, and the fact that it managed to stick the landing as well as it did seems like a pretty large accomplishment.

That said, there were things about it that I would have done differently had I had the opportunity. Fat Thor, for instance, didn’t work for me.

Lebeau: My reaction is similar to yours. I have seen some critics complain that Endgame is less of a movie than a season finale to a big budget TV show. Whenever you have a movie that pays off earlier entries, the usual rules don’t quite apply. We tend to be more forgiving of a Return of the King or a Return of the Jedi than we would be of a beginning or middle chapter because the previous movies have built up good will that can be cashed in during the final chapter. We don’t expect these movies to stand up on their own.

Endgame isn’t exactly a final chapter. There are obviously going to be many, many more Marvel movies. But Endgame does offer more resolution than most of the previous superhero sagas that preceded it. Marvel movies typically spend a lot of time teasing what comes next. Endgame celebrates Marvel’s achievements of the last decade plus. I think most fans and viewers are going to feel like Marvel has earned this victory lap.

Is it fan service? Absolutely. Most (not all) of it works. The hits overwhelmed the misses for me. The Big Thorbowski didn’t work for you and I can see why that would be. I initially thought it was a fantastic visual joke but it wore thin by the end of the movie. Having said that, I did like Thor’s arc well enough. I look forward to seeing where the character goes from here. I assume he’ll be cutting carbs in between movies.

My biggest objection was the refrigeration of Black Widow. You would think Marvel would recognize how troublesome that is. During the big final fight they had a neat moment showcasing the Women of Marvel but it rang a little hollow for me after the way they unceremoniously dumped the MCU’s first female hero. Black Widow’s treatment has been all over the place. The best uses of the character have been in Whedon’s first Avengers and Winter Soldier. Most of the rest of it (including Whedon’s sequel) has been pretty bad. Her treatment in Endgame seemed to me like it was closer to the Age of Ultron end of the spectrum.

Daffy Stardust: I certainly understand why losing Black Widow didn’t appeal to you, especially with it happening just a little more than halfway through the movie. That said, she was given a good amount to do prior to her death, taking on a bit more of a leadership role, and this may have been Scarlett Johansson’s best performance yet as Natasha. Everyone went into the movie expecting some deaths, especially when it came to Steve and Tony, but this was a little surprising with a Black Widow movie already announced for sometime in the near future.

Considering the first scene of the movie, and Clint’s quick trip home prior to the mission, it was pretty clear to me how that was going to work out as soon as I realized where the pair was headed. Us single and childless folks are simply less valued by society. Losing Hawkeye in that moment really only resonates if he has a family to not come home to. If the Avengers succeed, but Clint dies do they bother to show them breaking the news to his wife and kids once they un-dust? What would the purpose of that story point even be at that juncture?

Speaking of awkward conversations…are we assuming that Steve had to go up to the Red Skull and hand him the soul stone he was supposedly guarding?