Avengers: Endgame

There is no doubt about the fact that the realization possibilities of a Hollywood blockbuster are at their peak. An expertly crafted ride that has no time to hesitate or fumble. But it lacked emotionally for me more than I was willing to admit at first. The anticipation of Thanos' uncompromising body count disappears at the snap of a finger, and where others had tears rolling down their faces, I just sat nervously. In that spectacular wringer of emotions, I actually enjoyed one very unexpected emotion when the two grown men just chat on the way to the car. The rest passed me by. Kevin Feige will be taught about someday. Hats off to him. (05/06/2019)

If I were to look at it as a separate film, then I would have reservations about the lengthiness of the first (dramatic) third. God forbid, I could get bogged down in the time paradoxes of the second third, and God forbid I could be offended by the sentiment of the final third. But The Avengers are in a category for themselves, and blaming them for not being coherent doesn't make much sense. The films combine so many characters, positions and partial motifs that I can't think of a better solution than the similarly conceived 182-minute catharsis. If we start to see Endgame as a season finale, everything suddenly makes perfect sense. The focus on the key characters in order to give their existence absolution, the way in which elements of nostalgia (Endgame is a matrix of memories of previous films) are humorously inserted into the action, and even the epic climax that has the emotional impact of a falling meteorite. There is a feeling that there is a plan behind everything, which is so lacking in DC. The individual pieces fit into a jigsaw puzzle, and if you want one example, use Thor. I don't expect ground-breaking thoughts, formal stimuli or psychological depth from Marvel. I expect satisfaction. If anything comes after Endgame, it's a feeling of pleasant satiety. It may not be a generational Star Wars caliber event, but it's still more than a dignified end to hours of fun and years of honest work. If Nolan's Batman showed us that a super protagonist must be human to the point that he ceases to be super, the Avengers insist that he can be both. It may be naive, but it is uplifting. (04/24/2019)

Though not outright admiration, Endgame does at least deserve sincere recognition for how the creators managed to link the more than twenty films of the Marvel Universe so far, developing motifs from pretty much every one of them, but still holding things together somehow. And also because, even though the result was clear in advance (that end of Infinity War would be reversed), the way there managed to surprise more than once. The time travel scenes are really quite original. On the other hand, the effort to show at least for a moment almost every single character that’s had screen time in the ten-year history of the Marvel movies ended up hurting it. I felt it was way too overcrowded (both in the number of characters, as well as in the motifs, styles and moods), and I wasn’t able to fully focus and immerse myself in it. It also carries on with the typical problem of the Avengers films, the lack of a face of their own (which doesn’t apply to the solo outfits). It’s simply aesthetically uninteresting. I’m also giving it a 7/10, and the lower rating is because of what they did with Thor. That wasn’t humour, that was pure cringe. (04/26/2019)

On the one hand, I'm glad the Russos broke the sequel rule of "cram more in than last time" and went a different route. But the truth is that this path is going more towards comic book fans than people who have no idea what Ant-Man's real name is... but they're not going to the cinema anyway, so what? Endgame manages to shock a few times in the first ten minutes, only to evolve in a direction that the trailers practically didn't even hint at. The directing duo conceived the whole thing in a much more intimate fashion this time around, relying heavily on fan service and clearly wanting to give each of the superhero veterans plenty of space. The humour is not absent this time either, but it's nice that the heroes are still aware that they screwed up last time and everyone has to deal with it in their own way. This more intimate mode suits the Avengers and makes things happen that even the most optimistic fans probably didn't hope for. Ironically, though, it's also the biggest problem, because it doesn't really start to get spectacular until the end. In sheer magnificence, Infinity War probably trumps Endgame, but I still felt like the whole thing could have come a little sooner. I enjoyed it a little more last time, but I can't imagine putting Infinity War on in a few years and saying I don't give a shit about Endgame. All in all, it works practically perfectly. And as a farewell to an era of cinema, more than worthy as well. (04/27/2019)

The culmination of the year's and indeed the century's cinematic event (the last time Harry Potter ended this way), the film lived up to its hype and delivered a perfect farewell to filmmaking so mature that I'm not afraid to call the Russo brothers a directorial powerhouse alongside Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino. With trailers that give almost nothing away, you will be surprised, shocked and emotionally wrung to the max for two and a half hours. Even though the film feels more like a heart-pounding drama for two hours (the action proper doesn't until the end), it doesn't matter at all because story-wise the film offers a lot. The time travel in particular presented in a very creative and entertaining way. The Hulk along with Thor take care of the humour, and the emotions work very well, too, at least three scenes had me in tears. Once the epic finale starts, I was absolutely buried in my seat, enjoying the ecstasy with orgasm so much that I still had trouble getting up ten minutes after it was over and I was also half paralyzed to the point of having trouble picking up my drink. Yeah I can't even remember such an experience I took away from the cinema. I can't imagine kids having fun with this movie. 100%. (04/30/2019)