"Avengers: Endgame"

Consider this to have the clickbait subtitle "Conclusion or Cop-Out?"

Spoiler warning obviously.

So allow me to pointlessly add my equally worthless opinion to the doubtless already-massive pile of material written about Avengers: Endgame on the internet. Why not?

1. A Broad Reaction 

Did I enjoy Avengers: Endgame? Ehh... not really. Does that mean I think it's a bad film? Also not really. I can see what it was going for and it may have even succeeded. I just didn't find it that entertaining.

2. What wasn't entertaining about it?

I found it to be a bit too long. Like with Infinity War, I didn't enjoy the mindless "let's all run at each other" battle at the end. Its primary focus was Iron Man, a character I haven't cared about for years. I thought the time travel plot device was unoriginal and seemed more like an excuse for the franchise to take a victory lap than the most dramatically satisfying way of resolving the plot. I also don't think the time travel rules were very well explained. I wished Captain Marvel had been in it more. I didn't find the endings of Thor's or Captain America's stories to be effective.

The time travel part is my biggest gripe. Obviously they wanted Infinity War to end with the incredibly dramatic point of the villain succeeding completely and half of the protagonists being destroyed. However, any resolution to this is going to seem like a giant "undo" button. So how can the film have consequences? By killing off Black Widow and Iron Man, sure, but really I think that's it. Of all the possible "undo" buttons I found time travel to be the most irritating, because surely once the characters have a time machine they can do anything.

In addition, I didn't find the premise of the characters running around in the past almost bumping into events from previous films, like Back to the Future II, to be very engaging. I feel like it's been done before, and so doing it in this finale seemed unambitious to me.

Yet perhaps what displeased me the most was that while time travel arguably allowed characters such as Iron Man and Thor to gain a little perspective, and that's an understandable use of a science-fiction premise, as a plot device it seems thematically feeble; in real life there aren't any do-overs like going back in time to reverse a disaster, and a meaningful story should, in my view, reflect this. In real life, generally, you can only try to cope and move on, something I feel like many of the characters ultimately couldn't do. This leads to what I think has to be the primary metric by which I measure the film's success.

3. To what extent do the main characters have effective arcs?

By main characters I mean the "original" six Avengers. The film seems to consider them to be its focus. Thanos is no longer undergoing character development, and I don't think any of the other characters who are most active in the plot, primarily War Machine, Rocket, Nebula and Ant-Man, do. I thought this was particularly a problem with Nebula, as the film gave her a lot of focus, and a lot of personal stakes in the story, but while her change from Guardians of the Galaxy to now is highly noticeable, I felt like there wasn't much payoff for her with what happened. Perhaps that's best left to James Gunn, but it does seem odd that the biggest opponent of several of the Guardians, ie Thanos, was defeated by the Avengers, not the Guardians. Anyway...

Hawkeye

So I guess Hawkeye's primary motivation since Age of Ultron or so was that he wanted to protect his family – both his wife-and-kids family and those among the Avengers who were arguably been exploited by the other members (like Wanda in Civil War). When his family is destroyed, he goes on a murderous vigilante rampage against surviving criminals, considering it unjust that they lived while innocents died. In the end he rejoins the Avengers and through the power of time travel gets his family back, albeit losing Black Widow, one of his best friends. So I guess he learned that life involves some unfair sacrifices. Maybe I'm overthinking this and Hawkeye isn't really important.

Black Widow

Black Widow's motivation was, from Avengers at least, to make amends for unspecified dark deeds in her past in which she was a (seemingly) Russian assassin or similar. As such she poured herself into her role in this and, in the end, sacrificed herself for the greater good. So there's a decent character arc.

Bruce Banner/The Hulk

I can't remember what even happened in the Edward Norton Hulk film, but if we assume that isn't really canon and just focus on the Ruffalo incarnation of the character, his arc seems to have been to come to terms with the two sides of his nature, to find peace between the anger that was Hulk and the rationality that was Banner. I guess he achieved this by becoming Professor Hulk, but it all happens offscreen so it's not terribly satisfying from an audience standpoint. I honestly didn't mind that aspect, as it was nice to have a character who wasn't that conflicted, although at times it felt like the only reason for him being big and green was so that he could survive using the stones. So the film arguably concludes Banner's and Hulk's development, but not in a very visual or cinematic way.

Thor

Thor's whole deal, dating back to the very first of his films, was about being "worthy". He had to grow up and take responsibility. It felt like Thor: Ragnarok finally achieved this, with him and Loki putting aside their differences and Thor leading his people to a new home. As such, for most of Endgame, it's understandable that, after having half his people killed, losing his close friends and brother, and failing to properly avenge them, Thor would fall into depression. Many people, myself included, have been where Thor is: resorting to food, booze and entertainment to compensate for a feeling like life is meaningless. While it frustrated me that Infinity War seemed to undermine the bittersweet ending of Ragnarok (my favourite of the Marvel Phase Three films), at least Endgame actually followed through with consequences for this. It took a lot of effort and support from his friends and family to get past this. As such it was annoying that, at the end, Thor decided to give up the rule of New Asgard to Valkyrie (note that she doesn't get a say!) and then waltzes off to resume his life of adventure. Why? Doesn't this dump all of his character development in the bin? If Chris Hemsworth is finished with the character, couldn't he have just declared that he was going to spend the rest of his days rebuilding Asgard on Earth? While it would be fun to see him in the next Guardians film, I thought this final change undermined everything all over again. Other than that, Thor had a decent arc, but when it's reversed at the end it's hard to give the film much credit.

Captain America

Captain America's motivation is basically to "do the right thing". Ever since his first film he wanted to stand up for the weak and oppressed. In this film he continues to do that, leading the team and even running a support group for survivors of Thanos. He was a man out of time trying to help a struggling world. It's not really expected that Captain America will develop much. He's already such a good person, exemplified in this by him wielding Mjolnir, that he doesn't need to. Endgame tries to give him an arc by saying that he needs to stop always putting other people's interests ahead of his own. In the end he decides to go back in time and stay with Peggy rather than continuing to be Captain America. While I think the idea of "self-care" isn't a bad development for such a character, I do think the time travel plot device used at the end is wobbly in thematic terms, because in real life there aren't any do-overs. It seemed to have been set up that Steve could have found what he wanted with new relationships, particularly his friendship with Sam and his tentative relationship with Sharon, but Sam's barely in this and Sharon isn't at all. Even his friendship with Bucky has no real payoff. I suppose it's nice that he and Peggy got to be together after all, but to me it doesn't seem like there's anything thematically meaningfully or dramatically fulfilling about it. It's also weird that Peggy has no lines, basically being reduced to an object, the prize at the end of Steve's long struggle. To me, Captain America's story felt like the biggest cop-out, and it would have made more sense if he had died.

Iron Man

Tony Stark wanted to make the world a safer place. He needed to learn that he couldn't control everything, and to learn to let others into his life. While the films have at times backtracked along the path of his development, particularly with Age of Ultron almost completely undermining his character development in Iron Man 3, by and large the film does a good job of him growing beyond himself while doing the most he could to keep the people he cared about safe. In a dramatic sense he grew, finally settling down properly with Pepper and having a daughter, and having him give his life to save the world is a solid, effective ending for the flagship character of the franchise. Iron Man had a good arc; personally I just don't find his character that interesting anymore.

So this is why I feel like Endgame was a mixed bag, putting aside the gripes I outlined in part 2. I think it works as a big, messy comic book extravaganza, but given that it also sort of tries to carry itself as a drama for these six core characters I'm not sure it really succeeds for the "Big Three" in two out of three cases. At this stage I only really care about Captain Marvel and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Maybe Doctor Strange. Then again, I'll be keen if, with the rights regained, the Marvel Cinematic Universe were to do Doctor Doom. Infinity War/Endgame was very big; I'd like things to get a bit tidier again now.

"Captain Marvel" and "Shazam!"

In the last three days I saw two superhero films: Marvel's Captain Marvel and DC's Captain Marvel, Shazam! My expectations for Captain Marvel were probably lower, perhaps because of that bit in the trailer in which she's flying through space shooting lasers everywhere, which doesn't actually happen until the end, and then only briefly. Perhaps I was also just exasperated by the stupid internet controversy. I was arguably more engaged by the trailer for Shazam!

However, I was engaged by both of them. Is that a boring stance to take?

Captain Marvel

What I liked:

I liked that Captain Marvel had a somewhat non-linear narrative. Carol Danvers starts the film as an alien soldier with limited memories. She only recovers these later. I thought this was a good way of breaking up the usual superhero origin story. It's comparable to how James Gunn handled Peter Quill's backstory in the Guardians of the Galaxy films.

I liked the lack (mostly) of straightforward villains. Talos the Skrull wasn't really a villain at all, and the Kree commander Yon-Rogg seems to see himself as Carol's mentor. I thought the relationship between Carol and Yon-Rogg could have been developed more, but regardless it was a huge relief when they didn't have a big fight at the end.

I enjoyed the performances too. I liked Brie Larson as Carol Danvers; she came across as what I thought it was reasonable that a soldier in her position would be. It was nice to see Samuel L. Jackson be able to do something other than show up and give motivational speeches in the Nick Fury role. Ben Mendehlson made a pointy-eared green alien sympathetic. I perhaps wish Jude Law had been given more, as I've said.

What I didn't like:

To me the biggest problem with the film was the lack of motivation it gave to the Kree Supreme Intelligence, and thus by extension to Yon-Rogg. It would have been interesting to know why the Supreme Intelligence was so desperate to dominate every species it encountered, and thus why it felt the need to wipe out the Skrulls for resisting its overlordship. For instance, does the Supreme Intelligence consider itself to be uniquely fit to rule living things? Some kind of clash of ideologies would have been appreciated there.

I can't say I noticed anything particularly remarkable about the direction or cinematography, but one hardly expects that with these films.

To conclude, Captain Marvel actually made me feel enthused about Avengers: Endgame, whereas Black Panther had the opposite effect on my interest in Infinity War. Oh, also, I chuckled at the bit in which Carol tries to communicate with "Star Force" or whatever because it sounded like Buzz Lightyear trying to get in touch with Star Command.

Shazam!

What I liked:

It's fun. The film really gets going when Zachary Levi appears as the titular superhero, whom I keep wanting to refer to as "Captain Marvel" because that's how I know him from old comic books. I think it's fair to say that his presence is much more light hearted than that of the kid version of Billy, but I suppose that's understandable; as the "adult" Shazam he feels more free and at ease.

I thought the humour worked pretty well at a number of points, particularly when Dr Sivana was giving his big speech and Shazam couldn't hear him. The film feels like an old-school action comedy, although with drama where appropriate. There was something quite sombre, I found, about Billy's determination to find his mother, when from an adult point of view, as an audience member, I could guess the inevitable revelation that his mother had abandoned him.

I also liked how much this incorporates the silly elements of the old "Shazam" stories. Not only do we see telepathic worm Mister Mind, but early on I was thinking, "I wish that bad guy who is a crocodile in a business suit was the kind of thing they'd do in this", and lo and behold several crocodile men made a cameo later in the film. Now they just need Mister Atom and I'll be happy.

Somehow I don't think they'll do Captain Nazi.

Similarly, it was nice to see more "Shazam family" characters, although I think there could have been more of a payoff for Freddie getting powers and Mary could have used a little more time. I think I would have preferred a neater, more old-school family with just Billy, Freddie and Mary but I haven't read the reboot comic from which this takes inspiration.

What I didn't like:

I thought the prologue and opening act were clumsy and badly-paced. I appreciated what was going on with setting up Sivana's backstory, but I felt like it was drawn out to the point of distraction. I was really waiting for Billy-Shazam to appear for the film to pick up, and when he did it did, appropriately enough.

I also thought the CGI for the Seven Sins was a bit cheap-looking.

Much like Captain Marvel, not much stood out to me visually or directorially in this film. Fair play again to David F. Sandberg after Annabelle: Creation, especially making a film with so many kids in the cast.

Comparing the two, however, it's interesting to note that kind of "gloss" the Marvel films have. Despite its silly premise, Shazam! feels, in many respects, more present and grounded than its science-fiction Marvel counterpart. Captain Marvel very much feels like a part of its franchise, while Shazam! feels more like a throwback film to twenty years ago. It even has Mark Strong playing the villain, which I'm pretty sure he was doing a lot about ten years ago.

Ultimately I enjoyed both films as pieces of "pulp" entertainment, I suppose. I think it goes to show what works in these superhero products: a sense of adventure and something to keep a viewer engaged; for me it was Carol's rediscovery of her past in Captain Marvel and Billy-Shazam's comic persona in Shazam!

I liked Us too. Maybe it's not such a bad time for Hollywood genre films at the moment. I guess I'll know for sure in Hindsight 2019.