Today, little in the world is certain. Almost everything can be doubted, except that the Marvel Cinematic Universe enjoys the status of the most successful series in film history. It also seems certain that it will remain in that position for a long time. In the coming years and decades something truly special must happen for someone to take away that prestigious position from this saga. The Marvel Cinematic Universe does not owe this to the billions of dollars invested in budgets, special effects and aggressive propaganda campaigns. Instead, its success can be explained first and foremost by the – at the time bold, but today fairly simple and easily explainable – vision of producer Kevin Feige, who built the saga of Marvel heroes on the basis of seemingly unconnected films about individual superheroes that gradually became part of a tightly rounded whole. This roundedness could also be seen in the fact that the saga had a clear beginning, middle and end. The latter was the task of the creators of Avengers: Endgame, a 2019 film that was tasked with doing what the final parts of the original Star Wars trilogy and The Lord of the Rings had successfully done in their time.
The film's plot begins shortly after the cosmic warlord Thanos (Josh Brolin) succeeded, despite all the efforts of the superhero group the Avengers, in getting his hands on the Infinity Stones and using them to carry out his genocidal plan to wipe out half of all living beings in the universe. Half of the Avengers also perished in the process, and they need time, with the help of Carol Danvers a.k.a. Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), who did not take part in the confrontation with Thanos, to regroup and once again launch a desperate attempt to wrest the Stones from Thanos's hands. That endeavour ends in a huge fiasco, after which they can no longer deny that they have suffered a final defeat and that all their comrades and half of all the people they knew have vanished forever. Years pass, and some of them try to adapt to the new, dark and depressing world, while others indulge in self-pity and drink. One of the few superheroes who escaped the catastrophe is Scott Lang, alias Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), who at the time of the fateful clash with Thanos was stuck in the Quantum Realm, from which, after five years, he manages to extricate himself and return to the real world. Convinced that he has found a way to travel through time, he suggests to the remaining Avengers that they all use it to get hold of the Stones in the past and use them to undo Thanos's genocide. Although some of them are initially sceptical, the Avengers eventually reassemble and devise an extremely complex plan involving missions into the past during which they will have to face not only Thanos but also older versions of themselves.
Endgame, as the name itself suggests, represents the final conclusion of the saga that began in 2008 with Iron Man, and this will not be greatly affected by its formal continuation in the form of the film Spider-Man: Far From Home, which can only conditionally be said to belong to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, nor by the COVID-19-delayed shoots and premieres of films from the so-called Phase Four. Endgame, which concluded Phase Three, represents the culmination – putting a full stop on everything that had been shown in the preceding eleven years. In doing so, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely faced an extremely difficult task – the grand finale had to surpass, or provide a climax for, content that was characterised by spectacularity and epic breadth, and that to a far greater degree than Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, and even the Harry Potter saga, which, unlike the thematically and stylistically heterogeneous Marvel corpus, was anchored to a single literary source. An even more important task lay before brothers Joe and Anthony Russo, who had to surpass themselves, in other words, Infinity War, which before that had been the most spectacular and most successful film in history. That film owes a large part of its status not only to the hundreds of millions of dollars invested, but also to its willingness to break certain unwritten rules, which was most evident at the very end, when viewers are served one of the most shocking and darkest cliffhangers in history. The Russo brothers not only had to find some original way to resolve that cliffhanger and offer viewers a more or less convincing story, but they also had to provide "fan service", i.e., weave into Endgame a small army of characters, each of whom had to have a more or less important role in the grand finale, but in a way that was at least somewhat convincing.
In the end, that task was successfully completed. This was significantly helped by the decision to extend the film's running time to three hours, instead of the 130–140 minutes that average Hollywood blockbusters run today. This is justified not only by the epic nature of the content, but also gives the authors the manoeuvring space to divide Endgame into several different sections with different overall tones. Thus, at the very beginning, viewers – many of whom were still in shock a year later from the cosmic cataclysm with which Infinity War ends – are reminded of the consequences, through a doomed attempt by the Avengers to turn the game around, which ends with another, perhaps even more traumatic shock. On the other hand, it is clear to viewers that the film cannot end there and that things must eventually return to the Hollywood norm in which Good triumphs over Evil. The way this is done – through time travel – at first glance does not seem the most original, i.e., one can notice a strong inspiration from Back to the Future Part II and the final episode of the TV series Star Trek: Voyager, with which this film, coincidentally or not, shares a title. On the other hand, the second part, in which the "mighty gang" reassembles and prepares for a desperate attempt to undo Thanos's genocide, is an opportunity to bring lighter tones and even some humour back into the film for a moment. This becomes even more pronounced when the mission gets under way and the protagonists begin travelling to the time-space coordinates of events depicted in The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. Not only do these scenes provide an opportunity for self-deprecating humour, but they also remind viewers of the most memorable moments of the entire saga. They are not only skilfully reconstructed, but also integrated into the new plot. In all of this, not only the extraordinary power of special effects is demonstrated, but also how much they have advanced in eleven years, so the Russo brothers today can afford a scene set in the distant year 1970, where a digitally de-aged Michael Douglas appears in the role of Dr Hank Pym.
The power of modern special effects technology can also be seen in the final battle scene, whose impact, however, is undermined by the predictability of its outcome. The screenwriters and the Russo brothers were aware of this, so they made sure that the Avengers, although ultimately successful in their rematch with Thanos, end up losing one of their key members. That outcome, on the other hand, was less shocking than similar events at the end of Infinity War, given that it could be predicted both from the content of some earlier scenes and from the evident fatigue of one of the key members of the cast. The epilogue, in which pathos and nostalgia are skilfully blended for the purpose of saying goodbye to the loyal audience, is, on the other hand, compromised by elements that hint that there might yet be some new sequels, i.e., by the effort to give one of the characters the maximum happy ending even at the cost of retroactively complicating the plot of all the previous films.
Despite that, Endgame – whose finality was for a time cemented by the COVID-19 crisis and the tragic death of Chadwick Boseman, who played the character T'Challa, aka Black Panther – is a film that can be said to have rounded off the most successful film series of the 21st century in the best possible way.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in the original Croatian version is available here.)
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