IMDb on the Scene - Interviews (TV Series) Avengers: Endgame (2019) User Reviews

This is a movie that knows what it wants to be. And it delivers.

[nilsbrandstaedter · 10/10 · 21 May 2019]

I don't care about superheroes. I don't care about either Marvel or DC, respectively. All I care about are good movies.

Infinity War was a decent movie. It wasn't outstanding, but it was bold and daring, even though it had flaws, more minor than major ones but nonetheless. So I wasn't hyped about Endgame. I haven't even watched all the other Marvel movies leading up to it. But today, I bought a ticket, sat down in an early screening with the cinema all to myself and saw what has to be one of the best movies of the last decade.

Avengers: Endgame is popcorn-cinema at its very best. It doesn't have the best storytelling, or the best dialogue or the most-layered characters, but it is the true definition of a blockbuster. This is a movie that, despite its runtime, always entertains. Yes, there are parts that feel a little drawn out or that feel stretched, but in the end, I applaud Marvel for giving everything the time it needed to develop. There is nothing rushed, there is nothing left unanswered, there are no plotholes that get brushed over for pure spectacle. You understand everything and all the struggle on the silver screen plunges directly into your heart.

All the build-up makes the finale of this movie so more worth it. It makes you laugh, but doesn't lose its dramatic tone, it makes you cheer but you're never unafraid, it makes you cry but you're never out of hope. This is the best movie Marvel could have made.

I give this a 10/10. I am already contemplating whether I should see it again. Special thanks to Stan Lee & Jack Kirby.

Banal Betrayal

[dmmsj0 · 2/10 · 26 June 2019]

Over the last 20 years or so, Marvel's "Silver era" comic books have been recreated as films. With each iteration, the movies have gotten farther and farther away from the spirit of Marvel-- and have gotten worse. What made Marvel the comic book for "cool people" in the 1960s was that they broke all the rules-- adult situations, cross-panel action, full-page scenes, surrealistic art work. Those innovations were pioneered by artists and writers such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko (not, in large part, by Stan Lee, whom everyone now thinks is synonymous with Marvel). Yet, the films are anything but innovative. They are mostly standard Hollywood action adventure films, glorified by excessive CGI and trivial one-liner jokes (e.g., Dr. Strange's jokey cape). Where's the surrealistic innovation, the challenge to dominant social beliefs, the challengingly adult content? Missing. The latest film, _Avengers Endgame_, is by far the worst. The very idea that Death itself ("Thanos" translates as "death") would look like an over-muscled professional wrestler is laughable. But then, that provides an opportunity for Our Heroes to fight him, to engage in an apocalyptic battle scene to "defeat" Death. Death, rather, when it comes, steals quietly in the night, invades by stealth, steals away life. Death is sad and depressing and unavoidable. I suppose, to teenagers (perhaps the principal intended audience) it might be reassuring to believe that Death can be defeated merely by knowing the right fighting technique, but it ain't so. The spirit of Marvel-- shockingly disruptive and disturbing-- is what's dead.