Avengers: Endgame Review

Spoiler Free If I could describe Endgame with one word, it would be bittersweet. The most hyped movie of my lifetime brought about so many feelings that I haven't felt while watching a film. Avengers: Endgame, while being far from perfect, is a damn good comic book movie and most of all a good film.

Endgame's cinematography and color grading is Marvel at it's best. Marvel, while having great wallpaper shots, as I like to refer to them, struggle as a whole when it comes to cinematography and especially color grading. Endgame was arguably the best shot MCU film. There are some simply beautiful shots. Another negative with most MCU films that Endgame turned into a positive is the score. MCU films as a whole have always had weak scores. Endgame's score is really good. The Avengers Theme and "Portals" are standouts. All of the performances were great, Obviously Robert Downey Jr. is magnificent, giving his best performance as Tony Stark. Scarlett Johansson also gives her best performance as Black Widow. The entirety of the large cast was great; you truly feel like these are real people with real problems. Endgame's third act is one of the most satisfying third act I have ever seen. I was surprised by how much humor was used based on the trailers, but I believe it was used particularly well. It didn't ruin any emotional scenes, a problem that MCU films frequently have. Thanos takes a backseat in Endgame. I won't get into spoilers, but his screentime is way less than Infinity War. Josh Brolin gives another great performance as Thanos.

If you have followed all 21 of the previous MCU films, you will feel so rewarded watching Endgame. Endgame has callbacks to many of the MCU films. It's a celebration of what Marvel has accomplished, and it's rightfully earned.

I have some problems with Endgame, however. My biggest complaint lies in the second act (time travel segment). I feel that it was too long. I'm not sure what I would exactly cut, but it felt like it slightly overstayed it's welcome. I also think they should have fleshed out the post-snap world that everyone was living in; I would have rather had the post-snap world explored longer, cutting the time traveling part down. I also felt that scenes dragged on too long in certain sections. The introduction to Professor Hulk scene felt particularly too long. It's fairly minor, but I felt several scenes had the same problem. Like I mention previously with the second act, I felt that Endgame's pacing was off in general. I personally couldn't have handled it better, but it still feels off.

Overall Endgame is a great film with some flaws. It feels like a complete ending to all the characters arcs, bringing satisfying conclusions.

9/10