New Release with No Spoilers: Avengers: Endgame (2019)

No Spoilers Here - Read Away!

Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo

What a titanic piece of work, and one that takes more than a few risks. That is why it is a highly impressive follow-up to last year's Infinity War, and a wonderfully fitting final chapter to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's (MCU) first decade of blockbuster movie domination.

Before getting into my general thoughts, I should point out that Endgame, like its predecessor Infinity War, is not a friendly film for those unfamiliar with the seminal films of the MCU. For the last few years, the MCU has been better described as a large-scale film series rather than a group of individual films which take place in the same "universe". While a viewer certainly doesn't need to have seen all 21 of the previous MCU films, seeing at least a half dozen specific ones will provide far greater context for the events in Endgame. My personal recommendations for the highly recommended "homework" films would be:

Iron Man
Captain America: The First Avenger
The Avengers
Thor: The Dark World
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America: Civil War
The Avengers: Infinity War
Ant-Man and The Wasp

There are a few other films that one could watch in order to fully understand some of the lesser plot points and gags in Endgame, but the nine listed above will give one a very solid foundation upon which to enjoy the new movie without feeling lost.

This being the "no spoiler" section, I cannot dive into the plot points except to state that Endgame spends a fair bit of time dealing with the fallout of Thanos's "snap" from Infinity War, with which he used the Infinity Gauntlet to literally annihilate half of the population of the known universe at the end of the previous film. The surviving superheroes grapple with the unfathomable loss just like everyone else - with varying degrees of success and failure. Some eventually move on. Others wallow in sad states of guilt and loss. Eventually, a possible and highly risky form of salvation is presented and those heroes left behind pull themselves together to try and enact it in an effort to bring back the countless numbers of people lost.

One of the movie's many strengths is seeing who among the
survivors ends up teaming together in the name of the new
mission laid out by Endgame.

Perhaps the thing that stands out to me about Endgame is just how different the pace and tone are, compared to Infinity War. That previous movie had an extremely brisk pace and plenty of action, right from the jump. Endgame takes a much different approach, using nearly all of the first act (which clocks in at nearly an hour) in a somber mood, looking at the familiar characters dealing with their grief and some still searching for solutions. It's not without humor, to be sure, but the moments of levity are fewer and further between than any MCU film I can recall. For a dedicated fan of the MCU like myself, however, this was a very welcome and all-but-necessary shift, coming on the heels of such a wild and devastating end to Infinity War. Viewers not familiar with the main characters' backstories are likely to be bored by the slower pace, but such is always the case when one picks up a series in its final chapter. Once the second act begins, though, things pick up quite briskly.

The second act of the movie was a very fun one, despite being the most obvious form of fan service in the entire 22-film MCU. This is not to say that it felt contrived or pandering. It actually does make complete sense within the plot of the movie, all while offering real fanboys and fangirls tons of "wink wink, nudge nudge" moments for about an hour, as we recall the many, many details from earlier movies referenced in this part of the epic film. It all culminates in scenes teased, suggested, and hoped for based on Infinity War - a third-act battle sequence of huge proportions and featuring just about every major and secondary character from the 21 previous MCU movies. And as they've done with their three previous MCU movies, the Russos show that they know how to do immensely entertaining, large-scale action.

I don't think it's giving anything away to mention that time travel plays more than a small role in this movie (how else did we think the surviving Avengers might seek to undo Thanos's galactic genocide?). As with any story that uses time travel as a device, the plot can get messy and confusing if one thinks too much about it. Endgame doesn't get too bogged down in the weeds on this, which is probably for the best, but it does raise certain questions that I'm yet to come up with answers to, despite mulling them over for a good 48 hours after watching the movie. There are also a few other unresolved plot threads that may give you an un-scratchable itch, but there's nothing that torpedoes the main thrust of the story.

The other aspect at the heart of this film is the characters. Like the narrative, the Russos throw us more than a couple of curve balls here, presenting some heroes as totally shattered emotionally (and not always the ones you expect) while others remain staunchly dedicated to the seemingly futile search for a way to bring everyone back. It is during these inner struggles that it helps to know about the characters since knowing about their past motivations and relationships with each other adds greatly to the emotional impact of the entire movie, especially the first and second acts. And for fans who have enjoyed the emotional heart of this series going back to the earliest seminal movies Iron Man and Captain America: The First Avenger, the ending should be immensely satisfying.

***Since writing the above, I've seen the film an additional two times and thoroughly enjoyed its full length all three times. Of course, I'm a tremendous fan of this series, but it speaks very highly of such a long film that even a dedicated fan can gain so much enjoyment from it.

Spoiler Section - Beware!!!

So let's get into this thing a little more. I could probably write a 20,000-word rabbit hole piece about so many specific details and how I loved or disliked them, but I'll stick to a few of the larger points.

The time travel. Let's get this out of the way. As a plot device to resolve the devastation unleashed in Infinity War, it was a necessary evil. But evil it still was. Yes, it provides a great reason for our heroes to go back and revisit moments chronicled in several earlier films in the series, and do so in some wonderfully entertaining ways. But still, when one thinks about it all for more than a few moments, it all falls apart rather quickly. If 2014 Thanos, along with his army and Gamorah and Nebula, jumps ahead to 2023 to confront the Avengers and gets annihilated, then you've now obliterated all of the things that Thanos (and his army and daughters) did up to and after Guardians of the Galaxy. That has a lot of massive impacts, the most obvious of which is that Thanos is now no longer around to kick of the Infinity War story. On a smaller scale, Steve Rogers going back and staying in the 1940s to live out his life with Peggy Carter (a wonderfully satisfying moment of closure) leaves a ton of unanswerable questions about their relationship, such as why Peggy doesn't ackowledge him as her husband back in The Winter Soldier. And on and on the questions go, leading to a completely shattered continuity. That's by far my biggest issue with this movie. Again, though, it was probably a necessary evil, given exactly what had happened previously.

My other gripes are much smaller and easily shrugged off. The final battle is highly enjoyable, though I could have done without the high amount of posing and the cringe-worthy "She'll have help," up-with-women moment towards the end. Don't get me wrong - I love the women characters in the MCU, and I love seeing them kick ass, whether individually or together. But that moment felt so contrived that it broke my enjoyment of the battle. Oh, and why does anyone, including Peter Parker or anyone else, think that Captain Marvel needs any help to get through a few score foot soldiers? Did they not just see her single-handedly bring down Thanos's immense warship by flying through it in about 10 seconds flat? Those and a few other things had me rolling my eyes a bit, but again - easily shrugged off.

What impressed me the most is how the plot defied my expectations. As I do with all blockbuster movies which I'm eager to see, I completely blocked out any trailers or other information about the movie. That way, it could reveal itself to me upon my first viewing. Endgame rewarded that approach. Having a handful of the remaining Avengers rather quickly track down Thanos and execute him was not something I saw coming, nor was the five year jump in the narrative. And then there was fat Thor, Black Widow's sacrifice, and Steve Rogers electing to go back and reclaim the life he lost in 1945. I really do feel like the writers took some real risks with this story. They could very well have done a full two-and-a-half hour "let's go get Thanos" story, but they elected to focus more on dealing with loss and fighting to undo a horrendous tragedy rather than focus more on a revenge tale. I think this made the movie a great counter-balance and follow-up to Infinity War, which was a very fast-paced film heavily emphasizing action/adventure elements over emotional touchstones.

The curious thing now is the question of where the MCU goes from this point. It was a bold stroke to move the entire universe five years into the future, which threatens to really jerk with the continuity that many of us MCU nerds cherish. The threat of dangling time threads aside, I'm still completely on board with what may come. Right now, there are only a few "known" movies planned, but details are extremely slim. I do hope to see at least one more movie featuring the "Asguardians of the Galaxy," as Portly Thor referred to them. That team-up has a dizzying amount of entertainment potential. 

New Release! Avengers: Infinity War (2018) [Spoiler-Free 1st Section]

Spoiler-Free Section - Have No Fear!

Directors: Joe and Anthony Russo

Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) will almost definitely love, or at least highly enjoy, Infinity War. Those who are apathetic or even averse to the ever-sprawling juggernaut of superhero films will hardly be won over. In fact, the latter group may very well despise this movie.

Tying together many tiny threads that have been laced throughout the previous 18 MCU films, Infinity War follows Thanos, the "Mad Titan" from the so-named moon, whose grand ambition is to gather all six of the immensely powerful Infinity Stones, gems that allow dominion over aspects of existence such as mind, space, time, and others. Most of the stones have been intermittently introduced in previous MCU films: the Space Stone back in Captain America: The First Avenger; the Mind Stone in The Avengers, and so on. Thanos is an incredibly powerful alien who has long waged a campaign to basically "thin the herd" of populations which have grown too unwieldy to manage themselves. When he determines that a planet has reached such a point, he brings in his armies to kill half the population, at random, leaving the remaining half more than enough resources to flourish. Thanos's ultimate scheme now is to gather and control the six Infinity Stones, granting him the power to eliminate half of the population of the entire universe with no more than the snap of his fingers. To stop him, the many heroic characters from the previous films must use every resource at their disposal.

Right off, I'll admit that Infinity War isn't the best MCU movie. The scale is so epic, and the number of balls needing to be juggled is so large, that there was no way that a single film could provide satisfaction on every possible cinematic and storytelling level. In this movie's case, what gets sacrificed is real emotional depth and notable character development. The movie does actually provide a bit of depth to the imposing Thanos, a character who has only been shown in brief glimpses a handful of times in the previous six years. And there is a sense of loss concerning a couple of key characters. Also, for those who have followed and enjoyed any of the individual characters from previous MCU film series, the third act is bound to have some impact for you. On the whole, though, this is as purely plot-driven a film as the MCU has offered us to date. Anyone who has preferred the smaller-scale MCU flicks like Ant-Man or Spider-Man: Homecoming, thanks to those films' greater focus on a few people and their relationships, may find the flashy, rip-roaring pace of Infinity War too dizzying and shallow.

Yep - that is indeed Spider-Man and Iron Man grouped up
with a few members of Guardians of the Galaxy. Such cross-
over teamings are part of the fun of Infinity War.

For my part, I greatly enjoyed the movie. The directing duo Russo brothers had a lot of moving parts to rein into a single narrative, and they actually did an admirable job of it. This movie is bringing together no less than twenty different characters from well over a half dozen different movie "franchises," and having them band together to try and save quite literally half the universe. The main appeal of such an enterprise boils down to two things: what will the dynamics be when different characters interact, and how exactly will they stop an immensely powerful and determined force like Thanos? Well, the tale does an excellent job of entertaining us through these aspects of the film. Within the first few scenes, we get Spider-Man and Iron Man meeting up with Doctor Strange, and before long Quill and the Guardians of the Galaxy run into a very familiar Asgardian. As the disparate characters begin to coalesce into various teams and fill each other in on exactly who Thanos is and what he wants, the tale comes together in a rather satisfying way. As the heroes attempt to rebuff the initial attacks by Thanos's underlings, their powers, creativity, and mettle are tested in ways that make for some fun viewing.

The ending of this film is already causing some mixed reactions among movie-goers. Though one can assume that certain developments will be undone (the Infinity Stones are virtual game-breakers), there were certainly a few heroes who seem to have truly met their ultimate end. This was bound to upset fans of those particular characters. And while I was expecting a slightly more self-contained movie, I found the ending fine for what it is. The MCU overlords have always billed this movie as the first of what is basically a two-part story, with the second, still-unnamed, chapter set for release in May of 2019. It will feel like a rather long wait for the follow-up, but I believe that it is set up to actually be the stronger of the two films. Much of Infinity War had to be given over to set-up and Thanos's blitzkrieg attack, and when it is all said and done, it will likely feel more like acts one and two of the greater whole.

Infinity War is a success, for what it is. It's what DC films like Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman were trying to be in many ways but mostly failed to be. Short of making a TV-style, five or six-hour mini-series, this movie was never going to have enough time to please everyone across the movie-viewing spectrum. I think the Russo's trimmed away what they needed in order to create a cohesive movie. It's far from the most heart-felt or ponderous MCU flick, but it's strong popcorn entertainment for those looking for fantasy action/adventure of the superhero variety.

Fun fact - this exact scene never actually happens in the film,
but scenes very similar to it do unfold. Good to see Okoye get
a few good moments and one-liners in there, too.

Spoiler Section!! Beware!!!

Here is where I get into a few of the details that I enjoyed or didn't, and nearly all of them could potentially ruin some of the fun for you, if you haven't seen the movie yet.

As covered generally above, the greatest weakness of this movie is simply that there just isn't enough time for any character, or even group of characters, to particularly shine. One thing I've loved about my favorite among the MCU movies is that several of the characters have developed clear personalities, which themselves can carry a movie. Tony Stark and Steve Rogers are the two most obvious, but even less prominent characters like Doctor Strange or Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier have compelling enough backgrounds to make them engaging. Due to the reality of time constraints, however, no character is given much more than fifteen minutes of total screen time, and much of that is action. Amazingly, the writers did work in several solid dialogue exchanges that included some solid humor, but the scope of the film and its plot demands were such that one was bound to be disappointed by how little exposure their favorite characters would get. Ant-Man and Hawkeye aren't even in the film at all, despite the former having one film on the shelf and a sequel coming in a mere two months.

Another unfortunate result of the massive scale of the movie is that the losses don't have the emotional impact that one would hope for. Part of this is because of the limited dedication to emotional depth. Again, if one has fallen in love with certain characters, then the impact will be there, but that will have to have come from your previous viewing(s) of those characters' own movies. The deepest emotional tale in the movie involved Gamora and Thanos, but Gamora's death will only have resonance if one has enjoyed the two Guardians of the Galaxy movies (and for my part, I never found the connection between her and Quill terribly organic). And the demise of a character like Loki, one of the cornerstone villains of the MCU, lacks the power that it could have had in another stand-alone "Thor" movie. This is all to say nothing of the fact that the mere existence of the Infinity Stones tells us that whatever happens can be changed or undone, which is what I fully expect will happen in next year's follow-up film, though not everyone will be resurrected.

Oh, and we never get to see the Hulk really "smash," which is something I've greatly enjoyed in the previous two Avengers movies and Ragnarok. It is pretty cool that Thanos's raw physical strength is made clear by his almost dismissive thrashing of the jade giant early in the picture, but it would have been nice to see him leaping around and pounding a few platoons of alien invaders into Wakandan rhino meat. I have to assume that this is all a setup for Banner's Hulk persona to make a big splash in the sequel.

Those are my "superhero fanboy" gripes, and they are what keeps Infinity War from being among my absolute favorite MCU movies. When I set aside my fandom and just look at it as an objective cinephile, the movie fares worse, for reasons I mostly cover in the first section of this review. But I am a massive fan of these films, so it is in this vein that I describe what I enjoyed.

The movie does a decent job of elevating Thanos above being
a mere mindless, power-mad force of destruction. This has
been a severe weakness in many of the MCU films.

As stated, I think the actual plot is extremely well-managed. While Thanos's motivation is rather simplistic, I can justify that when I consider that most massive-scale zealots become that way by oversimplifying complex dilemmas. Rather than try to use creativity or imagination to solve large-scale population problems, Thanos falls back on brutal genocide and justifies it by telling himself that he is doing an honorable and difficult task which only he has the strength and will to carry out. I'm glad that the writers did find a way to add a couple of extra layers to the giant purple killing machine in the way of his backstory and his connection to Gamora. They weren't exactly high emotional drama, but they worked well enough.

And the many heroes' planet-jumping dash to find and stop the Mad Titan is spun very well. Especially if one has followed the various characters in the previous films, there is a very logical progression as to how they seek each other out and ultimately muster for their grand defense in Wakanda. Speaking of, I actually rather enjoyed the movie's use of the fictional African country as the staging ground for much of the ultimate battle. Even though I had just rewatched Black Panther the weekend before seeing Infinity War, I was far from tired of the setting.

With where things stand in the MCU currently - with literally half of the population obliterated, including half of our beloved heroes - this should be a great moment for the MCU to "clean things up," so to speak. I think if Infinity War shows us anything, it's that there is a breaking point for just how many "superhero" characters one put in a a movie and still have that movie provide depth as well as rousing action. Captain America: Civil War was just barely on the right side of that line, while I think Infinity War crossed over to the wrong side of it a bit, watering down what is in many ways a fun flick. Now, however, if MCU president Kevin Feige and his creative team play their cards right, they can pare things back a bit. Once Thanos is dealt with and much of his damage undone (I presume the Time Stone will play a fairly big part in this), the universe can probably be reworked a bit, allowing the future films' creators to go in directions different from what we've yet seen. I'm still well on board, even these ten years later.

Re-Watch Report (Still Spoilers...)

I enjoyed the movie enough to go take it in, IMAX 3-D style, ten days after the first viewing. I'm pleased to say that I enjoyed it even a little more upon a second viewing, even if it doesn't change a few of the purely, objective "story" weaknesses that it will never escape. To whit, full enjoyment of this film simply requires that the viewer has seen at least eight of the previous 18 MCU films. Without that familiarity with the characters' backstories, most or all of the emotional weight is simply not there.

For one like me, on the other hand, who is a big enough fan to have watched every single previous MCU film multiple times, this movie does hold up exceptionally well. As with most movies, the first viewing was all about seeing the plot unfold. With that out of the way, I was able to focus more on the pacing, visuals, intricacies of the narrative, and even the action choreography. Somewhat surprisingly, all of these aspects hold up extemely well under closer scrutiny.

As far as the action, thanks to seeing it on an IMAX screen, I was once again reminded of just how good the Russo brothers are at fight scene design and pacing. I'm generally not a particular fan of action films, but I do greatly appreciate very well-done action sequences that are neither too fast (I'm looking at you Paul Greengrass and the Bourne movies) nor addicted to slow-motion (looking even harder at you, Michael Bay). As they did with their two previous Captain America films, the Russos do brilliantly with Infinity War, which is on a much larger, literally interplanetary scale. It would have been really easy for them to lean too heavily on the CGI and simply send a bunch of digital garbage flying across the screen at all moments. Instead, they actually offer more than a few wide shots, use negative space, and give certain sequences enough room to breath a bit. This all greatly enhances the scope and scale of the larger moments, both those involving action and those which are more meditative.

The other strength that emerges is the larger theme of sacrifice and its connection to one's soul. The running question through Infinity War is: is a single life worth sacrificing, if it is likely to guarantee the safety of many, perhaps millions or more, other lives? From the opening sequences right through to the end, this question is faced by several different characters, with different choices being made. Heimdall decides that his own life is worth losing to give the universe a chance to fend of Thanos. Loki makes as if he's willing to give up Thor's life to save his own, only to turn the tables and lose his own life. Quill faces the choice of having to kill Gamora, at her behest, in order to prevent Thanos from being able to use her. And on it goes. It's not shocking that Thanos is willing to sacrifice the daughter he loves to his greater cause. Much more curiously, though, is that not every "hero" makes the choice to value the single life of a loved one over the many other lives at stake. Quill actually pulls the trigger on Gamora, and Wanda makes the move to destroy the Mind Stone, in effect killing her beloved Vision. The ultimate emotional fallout from these decisions will hopefully be explored in next year's Avengers film, but it all serves as a clear running theme that draws a fairly clear line between Thanos and those who seek to stop his mad scheme.

For anyone still considering it, I would suggest seeing the movie in IMAX. Much of the movie was actually filmed with IMAX cameras, so it fits the screens perfectly, and it really brings out the epic scale of everything. The 3-D is also well-done, so it's worth it, if that's your thing. More importantly is that the movie really is a great one for MCU fans. Few things prove that more than when one enjoys it even more upon a second viewing, as I did. 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Directors: Anthony & Joe Russo

Spoiler-Free Summary:

Some time following the events of the alien invasion chronicled in The Avengers, Steve Rogers has adjusted to life in the 21st century. He is working with Nick Fury, Natasha Romanov (a.k.a. The Black Widow) and SHIELD to prevent terrorist actions around the globe, though without complete knowledge of the exact reasons for many of his team's actions.

It is revealed that SHIELD is close to completing a massive "deterrent" weapon system known as Project Insight, a tremendous troika of aircraft carrier airships with devastating firepower. With the official activation of Insight about to get the green light, Fury recognizes a potential security breach, and all hell breaks loose. He is attacked, and Rogers and Romanov have to go on the run, evading the highly informed intelligence agency and extremely deadly troops with whom they had worked for the past several years. Added to this is a mystery combatant known only as "The Winter Soldier," who possesses powers and abilities to match Rogers's own fantastically enhanced attributes, and who seems to be doing everything in his considerable skill set to stop Rogers, Romanov, and anyone who is attempting to uncover the nefarious elements working within and against SHIELD.

Using all of their skills in espionage, tactics, and combat, the Widow and the Captain must go way off the grid and uncover just who is at the bottom of the immense treachery at SHIELD and learn just what their plans for Project Insight are.

My Take on the Movie (still no spoilers)

The movie is great. I've now seen it twice, and it supplants the first Iron Man as my favorite solo Avenger movie.

The filmmakers went with some very savvy decisions that pay off. Instead of having Rogers wallow in the trauma of being thrust into the 21st century, he's already taking things in very nice stride, right from the opening scenes. This allows the story to get going and remain focused.

The larger themes are nothing tremendously novel, having at their bases political and ethical questions about intelligence agencies, personal privacy, and potential abuses of tremendous power. Of course, The Winter Soldier, just as a comic book superhero movie should, amps everything up to the fantastically epic scale that a summer blockbuster needs to be.

This doesn't mean, however, that everything in the film is large-scale. There are several quieter, interpersonal moments that offset and lend effect to the grander actions. Rogers's meeting and friendship with Sam Wilson, some of his conversations with Natasha, and a few moments of silent reflection on his own distant past are very welcome. These calmer moments help magnify the size and scope of the larger fights and action sequences.

This bout with an Algerian terrorist leader is a blast to watch
and would have been the finale of a weaker movie.
In Winter Soldier, it was the first major fight scene.

As for the action, it's tremendous. Whether it's the smaller-scale fisticuffs, a very well-executed car attack/chase scene, or the over-the-top grand finale, these elements are handled extremely well. They nearly all pack the intensity and excitement that you could ask for from one of this type of movie. Carefully choreographed and dynamic one-on-one fights, the monstrous finale in the skies over DC, and everything in between are quite simply a lot of fun to watch. They stand in stark contrast to the Michael Bay approach of just throwing an insane amount of huge objects up on the screen, moving at blinding speed or in slow-motion, smashing into each other, and blowing up. The Winter Soldier is the kind of movie that I bother to go see on the big screen.

As with all of the other Avengers movies, there is plenty of humor sprinkled throughout. Though I can't say that the moments of levity are all five-star comedy material, there are certainly more hits than misses. It may seem to some that Roger's occasional sarcasm is a little misplaced for such a straight-arrow kind of character, but it's never overdone.

All of the elements come together in this one. Anyone who's enjoyed anything about the other Avengers movies should give this one a watch. You should be well pleased.