I Was Left Wanting.

Rating: 9/10 (29 April 2019)

End Game, here it is, finally after all the hype, the Zenith has been reached. Yet, once the credits started to roll, I was shocked to realise that I felt hollow. It ties together all the previous films, but it lacks energy. Whereas Infinity War had you on your toes from start to finish, here interest starts with a bang, then whimpers along until finally the end of the 2nd act. I get that it's supposed to be an emotional film, but for the first two hours, it's relentless. You'd be forgiven to believe you were watching a Hallmark feature. Constant sombre music with constant sombre facials.
The film does massive disservice to Thanos, whereas in the first film he is a constant danger to our heroes, here he is left behind the screening door. I understand why, it's because he had his limelight in Infinity War and that there was just too much story in End Game to give him screen time. Therein lies the problem, if the story that took his screen time away were great stories, all is forgiven, problem is, with the exception of one sub-plot, they are not. Don't even get me started with what happened to Thor.
They should have spent more time in the writing room, because honestly you can remove a substantial amount of the first two hours and it will have no impact on the third act. Unlike Infinity War where you can re-watch it a bunch of times, the first two hours of End Game will be fast forwarded and only the last hour will be repeated. They spent upwards of $400m on this and honestly, I can't tell where that went. Infinity War, no debate, you can see where that money went, End Game? Not so much.
I have a near graphic memory for films, I can repeat any memorable movie I have seen from start to finish, including dialogue. Films I am truly invested in, I can go as far as describing scenes in excruciating detail, where the coffee mug was left, how much coffee was left, if it was a warm or cold cup, the type and colour of the mug etc. It's a wasted talent, but when I struggle to recall what happened for those first two hours, something is not right. Don't get me wrong, it is a great film and it brings to the end over 45 hours of storytelling, but honestly, I expected a much bigger bang than this.