AVENGERS: ENDGAME

AVENGERS: ENDGAME (2019)

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

Screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely

Starring everyone, okay? Just...everyone....

Where to even start?

Well, first off and perhaps most importantly - NO SPOILERS HERE. I'm going to ramble on for a bit about the movie but if you want specifics as to what happens, you really should just go see it.

And, since there will be rambling, I'll go ahead and put a cut right about here:


For me (and, based on the crowd for the noon Friday show in my little rinky-dink town, several others) AVENGERS: ENDGAME is more than "just a movie."

It is, at the least, the result of one of the most audacious experiments in movie history. Think about it - eleven years and nearly two dozen interconnected blockbuster films (not to mention the various spin-off TV series). That's nuts. And it's about comicbook characters? More nuts. And it started with a movie about freakin' Iron Man? He was a second-tier character at best. Star Robert Downey, Jr., while being justly considered one of the better actors of his generation, was stuck mainly with supporting roles due to his personal problems over the years. Jon Favreau had directed a couple of smaller budget things, mainly stuff for TV.

What I'm saying is, there's not much reason for it to have been done at all, much less to be the hit it became. But against the odds, it worked and now here we are at ENDGAME.

The series in general and ENDGAME in particular is also a celebration of comicbooks and their characters, but it's more than, too.

I grew up with comicbooks. Some of my earliest memories - we're talking kindergarten age, here- are hitting up the spinner rack at a nearby conveniance store and picking up Spider-Man and Batman. And watching the cartoons, and the Adam West Batman series and whatever else I could manage. Spider-Man in particular has always been with me.

And I suffered for it. Got picked on and pushed around by meatheads because I dared to not only like comics but to not keep them some dirty secret. Becaues I'd read comics in public, and draw superheroes in my notebooks and wear them on my shirts.


So now, sitting in the theater today with more people than I've ever seen here for the early Friday matinee, it was a celebration yes, but it was also a vindication. Now those people are all comic fans, too, even if only for the movie versions. (but they're still meatheads and I'll gladly not accept their friend requests now because we weren't friends back then and they can bite me)

"But," you may ask if you're read this far, "What about the movie? How about throwing aside whatever it may or may not symbolize to you and get down to brass tacks."

It's great.

There were things I expected and things I didn't. Things that made me laugh and things that made me shed more than one manly tear. Characters I was glad to see and characters I really never thought I would see again.

There are, of course, the big 'superhero' battles that you expect in these things, but there's a lot of quiet moments, character moments, moments with people just trying to figure out how to go on in the face of such overwhelming loss and those are where the film really shines. After all, without those moments, the big battles don't mean anything.

How exactly the Russos managed to get all the elements blended together as well as they did is pretty amazing, but they've certainly had practice with CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR and AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. Nitpickers will have their nits to pick like always, but I think anyone who has stuck with the films this far will be more than satisfied.

Just remember to take some tissues.