Movie Review: Avengers: Endgame

Rating: 8/10 (26 April 2019)

The MCU has meant quite a lot to me over the years, this is the franchise the more than any other shaped me into the film nerd that I am today and in many ways is the reason I do this at all. I still have my Iron Man poster that I bought in the cinema in 2008, just before my 7th birthday, back when I had no idea what an expanded universe was and a film as ambitious as this was just a pipe-dream for Kevin Feige.
With that being said it shouldn't too difficult to see how reviewing this film is pretty difficult for me. At the time of writing I have seen the movie once so here are my initial reactions, I'll try to stay spoiler free but if you want to go in blind I recommend avoiding all reviews.
This film is a complete mess, but in a good way. I can't think of a more fitting conclusion to this era of the MCU than to just mash all of the plot points together and just see what happens. At this point the MCU feels like a 90s comic run where to appreciate the grand narrative and subtle character moments you have to have read every previous issue plus all of the spin off issues about each individual character until you just give up entirely reread Watchmen. If you have ever successfully kept up with a comic like that then you know how satisfying it feels to read the issue where all of the character end up in the same place and fight the bad guy as a team. That is the feeling that Endgame gave me, satisfaction.
This is a movie for fans, not for film critics, thats is why I am so lost for words on this one. I would be lying to say that certain scenes didnt make me choke up a little and other didnt make me smile uncontrollably having had 11 years of context pay off in very entertaining ways. That being said the film lover in me has to point out the issues in the Russos directing style which comes to haunt much of this film, The Russo brother have too modes: funny and depressing. This works perfectly on Community with the episodes directed by them being some of the best sitcom episodes of all time (dont believe me watch the A Fistful of Paintballs / For a Few Paintballs More two parter). Here it can be jarring with hard cuts between scenes that are dark and grimy looking were the actors get to show of their dramatic skills to bright, lighthearted scenes of physical comedy and one-lines. Occasionally the writers slip in some great character moments into the more comedic scenes but if you already dont like Marvel humor then you might start to feel that run-time.
Those are really the only observations I feel comfortable giving this early without having seen the movie again or allowing time for others to see it. I think that the issues with tone will matter to me less once I see it again but it still needs addressed.
Really it should come as no surprise to you that I would say you should see this film and dont take my rating as gospel here (or ever) as I will probably change my mind on it later.