Avengers: Endgame

(This writeup contains spoilers. Look away if you haven't yet watched this movie and wish to do so)

They called this many names and it's own title too was created into a event. Avengers: Endgame, the 22nd movie of the Avengers series and last instalment in the initial series features an ensemble cast of Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Brie Larson, Paul Rudd, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Brolin, Bradley Cooper, Karen Gillan, Zoe Saldanha, Chadwick Boseman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anthony Mackie, Tom Holland, Tessa Thompson, Elizabeth Olsen, Evangeline Lily, Sebastian Stan and many more. Once more.. this writeup contains spoilers....you have been warned.

Endgame kicks off right from the time of Thanos' universe 'saving' snap albeit in another part of the globe and acts as the basis for a major character switch and descent into vigilante insanity. It also drives home the core idea of any superhero film of the last decade which is that a superheroes are first a normal humans and have lives beyond their jobs of suiting up and saving the universe and it's various realms. This was expected in this movie and worked well with the context of it's present time period. We are now in a post apocalyptic world where momuments for the erased are in abundance and survivors guilt is a common emotion. Time has not healed old wounds completely and even half a decade on the best and unruffled are shaken. This despite them having avenged their comrades quite quickly. The surivivors are extremely greatful for each other's presence despite the animosity that existed amongst them previously. A good chunk of the first hour is devoted towards driving home these points to the audiences. This can even be viewed as the movie breaking the fourth wall and communicating directly to the audience. (I will elaborate on this later in the writeup)

Avengers Endgame works as a farewell vehicle for the original 6. It could have been bold and gone for so much more but they went for an extremely limited story idea which was punctuated with an overdose of fan service. This was expected as it is what usually happens in farewell films of franchises that have fared extremely well.

Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely's script overdid it with the cheap moments of silence and one liners just to draw a chuckle from the adoring 'marvel can do no wrong' loyalists. To any objective viewer this screenplay was seemingly penned by a coalition of fans as it gave every single Avenger their one moment in the spotlight. What we have is a 3 hour nostalgia filled journey with multiple throwbacks to iconic scenes of the 21 films which will absolutely delight fans who have watched and rewatched every single installment of this series. This is no doubt good, but it comes at the cost of an impactful story. The first few films won the hearts of the audience due to good stories and action and frankly more of that would have been a much more fitting farewell and would have further enhanced the post battle scenes.

Endgame was a tad predictable too but the film did manage to surprise me as well. The Avengers here were divided into those that survived the snap and those that didn't. The lead cast and the supporting cast got shown on screen equally in comparison with the other lead and supporting cast members. Despite featuring such an ensemble cast no single actor seemed to receive more screentime than the other. Thanos was eliminated in just 15 minutes and Iron Man's journey to infinity and beyond ended quickly. Despite my criticism of the film due to it's pandering to the audiences the formula was successful which is evident from the raucous cheers by the 400+ people in the cinema hall I visited to watch this celebration of Marvel and the Avengers.


These things really disappointed me

3D flatters to deceive

I always talk about how the usage of 3D in every single film is absolute hokum as just the first 5 minutes actually have something that appears on screen which gets enhanced by the technology. This time however the 3D is visible in flashes but disappears towards the end. The scenes where they could have really capitalised on it were any of Thor's scenes where he summons the thunder and the one iconic scene of the movie where Captain America: The world's first avenger is worthy.

Earth or Titan or any random planet.. it doesn't matter

Earth gets a makeover and looks similar to the murky background seen on Titan when actually it should've been a very colourful scene when the resurrected and restored Avengers return. Are we even on a different planet? The battles scenes on earth in previous Marvel movies have quite bright colours.

A mouse was the key to the Avengers restoring balance in the universe

If you look at everything carefully you would notice that the one future out of 14 million 605 in which Doctor Strange sees the Avengers win and restore balance was dependent on a mouse accidentally pressing a button and releasing Ant-man from the quantum realm? Really? This is clear evidence that Thanos' move to save the universe was not good as pest control seems to be largely ignored.

From saviour to destroyer

Thanos is always portrayed as one who wants to save planets and restore what is his definition of balance. However when he faces rebellion he transforms into an autocratic ruler akin to Daenerys Targaryen as he vows to end everyone. Did the Avengers make the Titan so mad and change him within seconds?

Captain Marvel's lengthy absences 

The explanation of the absence of Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel is vague and she just pops in and out when absolutely necessary which disappoints those hoping for her to get much more screen time.

Shoehorning

Like all final films this one too was guilty of shoehorning (a practice that is usually spotted in final films as they attempt to throw in elements which the script could have progressed without and still stayed the same). The scene in which Captain Marvel makes her entry and takes the infinity gauntlet from Peter Parker sees every single woman on the battlefield rush to Danvers' side. It's extremely convenient about how during such a major battle every woman would not be engaged in individual combat against Thanos' minions. The line used here was that she has backup. Now it's perplexing as to why no male character or even Spiderman who was right there rushed into battle with that group. This did nothing to the story and possibly was just shoehorned in for God knows what.


In addition to the fan service the film even put forth an interpretation and seemingly speaks to the audience of what the real world will be like post the Avengers films. We have to learn to move on and thinking about it with the knowledge that these particular characters who have been a part of our lives for over a decade will never grace the big screen together at the same time which can cause us distress. There will always be fan groups of the Avengers and they will exist even in a generation where the hype of the Avengers will not be as massive as this. They will strive to keep the memory of those that gave them a decade of memories.

The film is a thank you to the legion of fans that supported this studio for the last decade. It acts as a vehicle which is designed to delight the audience, give them major nostalgia feels, pass on the torch as well as end the story of a few characters. It is a great film with amazing acting but the disappointing thing is that it elected to just stay great and not strive to be excellent. This is not even close to it's predecessor (Avengers: Infinity War), but who cares everyone will have found catharsis after watching this film (for some it would have been the resurrected Avengers, for some it would have been Hawkeye reuniting with his family and for others it could have been the scene where Star Lord gets kicked) I found catharsis when Captain America wielded Mjolnir and summoned the Lightning and his journey back in time at the end to restore order both to the real universe as well as his own before passing on the shield.

This is a one time watch on the big screen and it is advised to view this in 2D as omce this film progresses the only thing that reminds you that it is 3D are the glasses on your face. The movie has no end credits scene and saw the leads sign off in the mid credits itself which was another statement from Marvel to the audiences that it indeed is over. And we are just going to have to learn to accept that.

I'm going with a 3/5 rating.

08.01 Winterfell

The episode "Winterfell" was a tad underwhelming as audience expectations were high post the mediocre penultimate season which saw the characters travel the continent of Westeros at logic defying speed. Please turn away if you haven't yet watched it. There are spoilers in this article.

It will always be remembered as the one with the reveal, the reunions, the new opening sequence and plenty of throwbacks to the series premiere "Winter is Coming."

"Winterfell" reminded causal viewers of scenes from The pilot episode where a young boy runs to the crowd and Arya is missing from the welcoming party within Winterfell. Where a ruler from the south is making their way north and is welcomed in the courtyard of Winterfell. Unlike season 1 though Arya doesn't show up for the welcome just in time and no one can do a thing about it.


Opening sequence
The new opening sequence features the astrolabe with a white background, the wall, the last hearth, Winterfell, the Godswood and King's Landing. The throne room makes it's first appearance in the opening sequence. The absence of Pyke is telling and based on the events of the first episode we may have possibly seen the last of Yara Greyjoy.

The Reveal
Jon Snow has been informed that he actually is a Targaryen, but that was the last we saw of his character for the episode. He seemed to be overwhelmed but hopefully he knows something and manages to join the pieces and find out how he was successfully able touch the dragons without getting incinerated and even ride Rhaegal in the scene I like to call 'How to Train your Dragon 4: The Secret Targaryen's first flight.'


The Reunions
Right from the opening scene it became abundantly clear that the episode was going to focus on getting those long awaited reunions and first meetings out of the way. So much so that the Night King and his army of the dead were not even on screen save for the one wight at the end.

The lack of close ups in the scene where Arya spots Jon, Sandor Clegane and Gendry among the crowd is telling. Here most people will say that the scene was from Arya's point of view and she managed to spot these characters from among the crowd, but what about the audiences who have just tuned in to the final season due to its hype. Just like how people showed up only to watch the final Harry Potter movie.

A close up on either on the characters would have shown everyone that these characters matter from Arya's perspective as well as show the new audiences who don't see it fit to watch the previous 67 episodes that these characters are different from the rest of the soldiers.
The arrival of Jon and Dany isn't grand on its own and requires the dragons to swoop in and make the save just as they have been doing ever since the tv show went ahead of the books.

Other reunions include Sansa and Tyrion Lannister (who is grossly underused in the episode)

His plans seem to be all over the place and we earnestly hope that the show brings back the man who drinks and knows things.

Just when we though that the reunions were done, Jaime Lannister arrives in Winterfell only to be met by none other than Bran Stark who was "waiting for an old friend." This is similar to the final scene of the series premiere way back in 2011 when Kingsguard Jaime Lannister throws young Brandon Stark from the tower to close out the episode.

Best part of the episode
Bran being Bran
He is still just sitting there always at the right place at the right time and being extremely creepy. His 3 scenes (the one where he tells Daenaerys that they have no time, the one where he tells Sam that he must tell Jon the truth and the one where he meets his "old friend") are the ones that will be remembered for long time.

The episode also saw action in King's Landing and the introduction of the Golden Company. Cersei was drinking wine, something which she had refused to do so in the previous season as she was "pregnant?" We can see that it was Machiavellianism and I feel stupid for letting it surprise me, as after 7 seasons one can come to expect Machiavellian behaviour to be the norm from the Lion Queen.

People who say that the show is galloping ahead with too many reveals and reunions happening in a single episode should refrain from speaking as when else will all these reunions happen.

There are just 5 episodes left and there are so many battles still to come which makes it good that these reunions are out of the way.

We didn't seen our main antagonist in this episode, but we know that he is moving south. With all these reunions and reveals out of the way all the pieces are in place in the giant chessboard of the North and just 5 episodes remaining one can expect the pace to pick up as the battle finally begins.