Avengers: Endgame

Since missing the first day of the advanced ticket sales, I had been in an emo mood since I could not find seats which were not in the first few rows until at least next week. I think the cinemas open more screenings and when I checked for availability again yesterday, I found quite vacant halls for Saturday morning. Luckily as we were discussing about this during lunch, my colleagues asked me to check Tiong Bahru Plaza and I managed to get a ticket for yesterday 615pm. Hehe.. There were only fewer than 10 seats sold when I bought but in the end it was a full house too. So after 1 year of waiting and few weeks of emo-ing, I finally managed to watch Avengers Endgame on the opening day.

I usually love spoilers but I managed to hold myself for Endgame. Lol. The only thing I found out from my friend who already watched was whether there was any ending credits scene. Haha.. I was preparing to hold my bladder and quickly run to the bathroom if there is nothing. So just a warning for those who are reading this but have not watched it, there will be spoilers.

I may be weird and in the minority that find Endgame disappointing. I find it worse than all the previous Avengers movie. Heck, I find it even more boring than Captain Marvel. As Endgame is consider part 2 of Infinity War, comparison is unavoidable. Infinity War is the pinnacle and Endgame fails to better it and feels so anti-climactic. Infinity War feels so well planned and hits all the right notes for the character interactions (despite the massive cast), some epic memorable moments in the fight, and great humour and emotional moments. Endgame is messy and rushed (yes ironic despite it being 3 hours long): unable to do justice to the so many characters both in exposure as well as final fight, hit-and-miss jokes, emotional moments that miss some 'oomph' from poor set up leading to those moments, and uurgh plot.

As expected since the first time I read the rumours about time travel, the story is going to be messy and non-sensical. I am not going to nit pick on that since the movie's explanation is that time runs differently due to quantum realm. Thus even by taking Infinity Stones from the past, using them for some time in present timeline, they still can return it to the exact time when they 'borrow' it from the past. That is fair enough. However, it is ridiculous not to address how changes in the past will affect their future self with the most jarring example: present time Nebula kills Nebula from the past without erasing her own existence.

Time travel aside, the main plot is also terrible as a lot of characters seem to be out of their character and they are just used as convenience plot devices. I am okay with them emo-ing over the snap bla bla bla but what happen during the 5 year jump? Do everyone just move on and do nothing until suddenly when Ant-man comes back, everyone is suddenly interested in Thanos again? Time travel is not Bruce and Tony's expertise but after this mention about time vortex, within a few days they are able to device a plan. Bleah.. convenient but rubbish.

Captain Marvel is the latest edition to the team and her involvement in Endgame is crap too.Without watching the ending credits of Captain Marvel, we will not even know how she returns to earth. Well even in Endgame, we still don't know how eventually she is 'accepted' as part of the team, how she finds the spaceship that Tony and Nebula is stranded, how she just disappears after the first fight with Thanos and how she simply reappears again at the final fight. While for the characters who return from the snap, they are just shown for a few seconds just to remind us the audience that they are present and they have returned. That is the biggest letdown for me. Even the long awaited "Avengers Assemble" rally is so weak and uninspiring (the tease at the end Age of Ultron feels more inspiring). The final battle is essentially a repeat of the final battle in Infinity. They have all the opportunities to make the fights better, after all it can be seen as a 'revenge' from the snapped characters, but nope.. none of that.

Endgame can be summarised as a trip down memory lane. We get to revisit the old movies from different angles and fill in the emotional missing moments that the characters in the present timeline never get to experience (such as Thor and his mum, Ironman and his dad at a timeline where Tony was not even born, Steve and Peggy Carter at a timeline where Steve was still frozen). It also provides a good closure for the pioneers to exit the movie but the meaning is sort of lost because there is not enough build up and follow up after Black Widow and Ironman's deaths and Captain America's growing old (which actually is completely out of character for him to be that 'selfish'). Some fanservice easter eggs moments, especially for those who read the comics such as Captain America's "Hail Hydra!", Captain America's wielding Mjolnir, Pepper join the final fight with Rescue Armor, New Asgard, Falcon to take up the mantle of Captain America, Professor Hulk, and so on).

In conclusion, I think that the movie makers begin with the main goals of nostalgia and providing closures for the 3 Avengers mentioned above and the rest of the elements is fitted in where and when necessary resulting in all this mess. Great conclusion to the whole MCU storyline since the first Ironman movie in 2008? Yes! Great movie on its own? Nah.. I would say it is quite rubbish as a stand alone movie.

All that hype and waiting for one year ends with tears for me.. too bad it is not emotional happy or touched tears but tears of disappointment. The Avengers and MCU have definitely become part of history in film making and cinema industry. With a closure like this, I am not that positive on the future direction of MCU. They have messed around with time travel, written characters out of characters, and brought characters back from 'fake' death (aka Thanos' snap) so there is nothing stopping them from going full comic book mode with retcons and bringing back characters from real death.