- Location: Cinemark Century Point Ruston
- I never would have guessed that the Avengers movies were keeping most of their whimsy and practically all of their creativity on reserve for the final installment. And, believe it or not, Avengers: Endgame does represent a certain finality, even as it is followed by trailers for next month's Marvel blockbuster release. Unlike the unpleasantly dour Infinity War or the utterly perfunctory Age of Ultron, this is a crossover event that thoughtfully mixes the characters introduced in the previous (twenty-one!) movies into an exciting adventure that makes every other teamup, crossover cameo, or post-credit scene seem depthless by comparison.
- And I do mean that it mixes all of the characters from the previous movies. Rene Russo, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Robert Redford are all in this film! Natalie Portman has returned from that island! Even that annoying kid (Ty Simpkins) from Iron Man 3 is around, if you look very carefully! As one might expect, the film focuses primarily on original Avengers Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). There's about a hundred other characters of varying significance, but there's no way I'm going to name them all.
- At first, the heroes in Endgame struggle to cope with the lingering devestation from Thanos' (Josh Brolin) successful plan to destroy half of all life in the universe. While many of the Avengers have been reduced to ashes, the others have either been stranded in various inaccessible locations, have gone into self-imposed exile, or have slowly been helping the world to recover. But then, the presumed-dead Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) comes knocking at Avengers' HQ with a half-baked plan to execute a "time heist" of the infinity stones to reverse Thanos' victory. Naturally, Tony Stark proves to simultaneously be both the most difficult member of the collaboration and its most essential ingredient.
- Despite the fact that time travel is a notoriously hackneyed plot device, Endgame understands the cardinal rule of silver age comics, namely that you can get away with anything as long as you're having fun. Therefore, we cheer when Captain America battles himself and gasp when he wields a particularly selective weapon. We chuckle at Thor's paunch and Hulk's erudition. I'm not sure how we react to Hawkeye becoming a damn samurai, but at least this movie is the first to grant him a great action scene. There are a few missteps here and there, and at least one character gets killed off for what we assume are contract-related reasons, but in more ways than one this film rights every wrong from the previous installment. It all felt worth it in the end, which is the best thing I can say about a movie franchise.
- OK, one quick shout-out to Hayley Atwell and James D'Arcy! I hope this reconfiguration of the Marvel Universe leads to more episodes of Agent Carter.
