Samuel Drez Argues “Avengers: Endgame” is Amazing

Avengers: Endgame was released on April 26, 2019, and to this day, there is still not a more intriguing movie out there.

Joe and Anthony Russo, the directors, have been nothing but excellent for the Avengers movies. Starting with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and concluding with their final Marvel movie, Avengers: Endgame, all of their movies are regarded as some of the better Marvel entries for good reason.

Avengers: Endgame is a sequel to Avengers: Infinity War, in which half the life in the universe gets wiped from existence. The main antagonist, Thanos, was the first Marvel villain to be successful in achieving his mischievous goals. Most of the favored characters were snapped out of existence, leaving the viewers astonished and on edge.

With the conclusion of Infinity War, the viewers were left with one question: What’s next?

The Russo Brothers had an incredibly conspicuous answer to that question. With a classic science fiction theme, time travel was the only way that the heroes could bring everyone back.

The movie was continuously action-packed, with a historic final battle scene. The directors went all in with multiple twists, including a breathtaking death from fan favorite, Iron Man.

There was also a memorable comic relief in an out-of-shape Thor. Every time he was on the screen, you could tell he was going to make a funny joke or do something moronic to entertain the audience.

Furthermore, Avengers: Endgame has an audience rating of 4.7 stars out of five. It is also rated a 94 percent according to Rotten Tomatoes.

In addition, the budget for this movie was $356 million, and the movie made $2.798 billion.

Marvel fanatic, Richard Schertzer, has this to say about Endgame. “Caught between time traveling, purple aliens, and a healthy dollop of nostalgia, Avengers: Endgame, proved itself to be the best MCU film ever made, as the heroes really are in the endgame now. To truly back this claim, it will require watching the entire three-hour film and analyzing it from start to finish. The film has a sense of grandeur that most other Marvel films try to replicate but fail at it almost every time.”

This movie touched the hearts of some life-long Marvel fans and even left some viewers in tears. Essentially, this film touched every emotion, which is another reason it’s so powerful.

Banks Neitzschman Argues “Avengers: Endgame is Overhyped”

Avengers Endgame represents all that is wrong with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It is a film with little meaning beyond its pure spectacle; it is a cake made only of icing. 

Endgame, admittedly, had a difficult job. It had the objective not only of ending a decade-long saga of films but continuing the story after what could be called the “all is lost moment” of the greater MCU. In Infinity War, Thanos has killed 50 percent of all life in the universe with a snap of his fingers. 

It’s an undeniable fact that Endgame was obligated to reverse the snap. Realistically, it could not have gone any other way. With characters like Spiderman and Black Panther being erased by the picture, it was self-evident that there was no way the snapped characters would stay dead. 

This was the first problem: part of the film’s finale was predestined due to Disney’s desire to make new movies. However, this is far from the main problem behind Endgame’s failure. Quite simply, Endgame is a failed cinema as a whole. 

Endgame has the illusion of being an epic conclusion to a decade of storytelling. Instead, it is little more than a collection of marvel’s greatest hits in truth. 

In Endgame’s first scene, Thanos reveals that he destroyed the infinity stones, which is the way he caused the snap and also the only way to reverse it. This leaves the Avengers with only one option: to go back in time and steal the infinity stones from the past.

This plot point, the time heist, is simply an excuse for two things: nostalgia and fanservice. The time heist is only used to show the MCU’s greatest hits, all done for cheap sentimentality. Older films are revisited as characters use these moments to take the stones. The film’s plot is so obviously forced to fit this narrative. 

The time heist is not tactically sound. It is not done because the Avengers have no other choice but instead because that would provide nostalgic moments. This is a team with some of the world’s most intelligent people to exist, and yet they embark on a plan so needlessly risky, something which only exists to satisfy the audience. 

This isn’t even mentioning the sheer inconsistency of the time travel mechanics. For example, the film begins with the conceit that is going back in time does not change the past, but instead, it creates an alternate timeline. The Ancient One then explains that alternate realities are only created when a stone is taken from the timeline, implying that not taking a stone changes the past. 

This needlessly complicates things, as it means every change the Avengers made that did not remove a stone from the past changed the past, which is simply untrue. That would mean that the Avengers being in the past was part of their timeline. The purpose is so that at the end of the movie, it can be revealed that Captain America went into the history of the original timeline and lived to become an older man.

Quite simply, the rules of the film are bent and manipulated to provide payoffs and fanservice. 

This is not a story; it is a validation for the audience. It is pandering incarnate. This is even clearer in the film’s climax, where the Avengers and Thanos have a final battle for the universe’s fate. Though a brilliant visual spectacle, the struggle is genuinely shallow. 

First of all, this Thanos is a far cry from the Thanos of Infinity War, who even I, as an outspoken critic of the MCU, can admit is a genuinely complex and interesting antagonist. While Infinity War’s Thanos was a misguided and well-intentioned extremist, Endgame’s Thanos is as generic as they come. 

While this can be explained by Endgame’s Thanos being one from the past, someone who has not been forced to grow from the pain inflicted on him during Infinity War, it is still a severe narrative detriment. The best thing that Infinity War had built up, Thanos’s character arc, was cast away.

Then comes the battle itself, which is truly the most egregious example of Endgame’s failure. Upon closely examining the fight, ignoring the fluff of the visual spectacle, it becomes clear that this is less of a climactic clash of two forces but merely a showcase. The battle is simply a background so that the Avengers can all show off and have a fantastic moment while dominating the mindless horde that Thanos commands. 

Any great battle should be a back-and-forth conflict where the heroes get a victory, but then the villains surprise them and take the win for themselves. This narrative rhythm is what keeps the competition interesting. 

The final battle of Endgame, however, has no such rhythm. It’s simply victory after victory while the heroes play football with an all-powerful MacGuffin, the infinity gauntlet. The narrative purpose is a sacrifice for meaningless spectacle.

The battle could have been an intricate chess match between the infinity stones, where the gauntlet’s power is split between the two forces that must battle to take the rocks back for themselves. That would require genuine creativity and effort, which has no place in this movie.

Indeed, people will reject these criticisms; they will claim that Endgame is meant to be a celebration of the MCU. This criticism misses the point, however; despite Endgame playing on emotions and being a visual spectacle, it can be summed up by what amounts to a glorified light show.

If Endgame is supposed to be the pinnacle, the epic conclusion of 10 years of storytelling, then clearly, these movies were never all that good, to begin with.