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Keep it Reel: 'Avengers: Endgame'

By Marc Woodfork

This is it. This is what we have been waiting for.  After all the films, after all the hidden easter eggs. After all the post-credit scenes. After all the hype. 'Avengers: Endgame' is finally upon us.  Well, it wasn't a total let down. Allow me to first say, that I liked the movie. It is good, just not as good as I had hoped for. Coming on the heels of 'Infinity War', 'Endgame' was never going to live up to the expectations that were placed on it.

My biggest complaint is that 'Endgame' is too simple. The story and character arcs are very amateurish and plain. I expected a deeper, more sophisticated story. Instead, we got a simple "solution" that seemed way too far fetched and didn't require much thought or creativity from the filmmakers. In 'Infinity War,' the problem facing the remaining Avengers was massive. Almost impossible to rectify. In 'Endgame', not only is the solution easily found, it was just as easy to execute. That was disappointing. I expected a smarter film.

The second and lesser problem I had with 'Endgame', was the total change in the personalities of some of the characters.  The Hulk and Thor, in particular. The direction the filmmakers chose to take those characters in, is somewhat baffling. The Hulk is merely a bystander through large parts of the film and nonexistent in the final battle. Thor, on the other hand, is present but spends most of the film staggering around like a washed out alcoholic who re-surfaced after spending the last five years living under a boardwalk. Without giving too much plot away, I felt the inclusion of Capt. Marvel to be largely wasteful. She's one of the most powerful beings in the universe but she doesn't even give Thanos any trouble at all.

'Endgame' certainly feels like a finale. It is epic in scale. Although the story doesn't justify the three-hour runtime. The filmmakers should have given us a smarter film. A more complex film. Something that has the audiences talking about after they leave the theater. People will talk about the film afterward, but the conversation will be about who survived and how amazing the CGI looked, and how sad they felt. We should have had the opportunity to talk about how the Avengers were able to do the impossible and restore order to the Universe under insurmountable odds. 'Avengers: Endgame' is good and it is a nice, safe, Disney way to wrap up the franchise. I wanted more.

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