Crafting and Completing a Powerful Story: An ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Review
*Spoiler Free Review*
“Part of the journey is the end.”
Over the past eleven years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been weaving a narrative spread across twenty-two films. Each film telling a story and creating emotional connections with Marvel superheroes, and at the end of the credits, leading us all forward until the next piece in this massive tapestry. As the artist of these stories, Kevin Feige has been leading the charge, each movie growing this world and tying into one another on a grand scale. It all began at the end of the first Iron Man film, where a post credit scene showed Samuel Jackson playing Nick Fury, talking to Tony Stark about a new team, what would become the Avengers. Through the next series of films, it all lead to the coming together and forming the team, and at the end of the film, a purple man smiled at the screen.
Thanos was coming.
Comic book readers knew that this was probably leading to the events of the classic Marvel story, Infinity Gauntlet. As the films progressed, infinity stones were an increasing McGuffin of many stories. With the premier of Avengers: Endgame, this eleven-year story came to an end. The film is a masterpiece, tying up loose ends and completing a saga that had fans glued to every Marvel movie that came out. While the movie may not have fulfilled the numerous theories that were floating around for the past year since Avengers: Infinity War, the film was a powerful end to a massive epic.
The short review, see this movie. It is a fantastic end to a story that has been in the years forming, while at the same time, leaving the door open for the next chapters for our heroes.
If you have been keeping up with these films, I don’t really have to convince you to see it. The thing I want to focus on today, is how this film nailed the landing to this story.
I’ve talked about this on my reviews before, your film can be artistic, filled with massive amounts of stars, be an epic spectacle, but if the story falls flat, your movie suffers.
This movie focuses on the story, and because of this, it succeeds. If you want spoilers or a breakdown of what will come next, there will be another article where I will talk about that later, but now, I want to talk about the story.
In Marvel comics, some of the best stories are massive events where heroes come together to face a challenge. The way this works is because there is a library of character breakdowns and growth that don’t need to be fleshed out in the event, you go into it knowing the characters and how they work. With Endgame, we have the same idea, there have been plenty of films to flesh out character development, so when it comes to an epic like this, we don’t lose time dealing with who is Captain America or Iron Man, we already know them and their struggle.
The film rewards viewers of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, by calling back to character moments and struggle, and the films that came before. I enjoyed how much of these films were referenced in some way or another, even films that were not as well received like Thor: The Dark World or Iron Man 2. The film also doesn’t lose itself in the amount of characters, it chooses not to focus on some characters, but mainly revolves around the original six Avengers. That’s not to say others don’t play a role, but the film doesn’t lose sight of the story it is crafting. Anthony and Joe Russo direct the film in a strong way, pulling the best out of the actors and creating a world that lives in the wake of the Thanos “snap.” They deal with trauma of our heroes and the dire nature of “what do we do now.” It begins with that and ends on such a fantastic note of growth.
I think that is the biggest strength of this film; growth. Every character grows through the events that occur and we rally behind our heroes in their darkest hour. There are moments that, in the theater setting, made people laugh, cry, gasp, and cheer with applause. It closed out the story that took eleven years to tell in one final powerful story.
As a fan of Marvel comics, growing up reading Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and events like The Infinity Gauntlet; I was overjoyed by these past eleven years of storytelling. Watching this movie with my wife being able to see the epic conclusion, it was so exciting to see how, when story is kept strong and at the forefront, you can make something amazing.
I’m excited to see this movie again and again, and look back at the years that led up to this powerful story.
About the Author: Joshua Thomas is a writer by day and superhero by night. When he’s not writing and crimefighting, you can find him reading a good book, sipping warm tea, taking pictures, or dreaming. The young writer doesn’t fully know what he’s doing, but is enjoying the journey of it all. You can tweet memes at him on Twitter @joshua_thomas__ or follow his hipster photos and Jack Kerouac musings on Instagram @joshua_thomas__
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