First some quick history:
This movie has been
eleven years in the making. The Avengers movie franchise began with
the first Iron Man movie on May, 2 2008. This movie introduced US to
Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark, an Iconic, irreverent and arrogant
superhero. I still remember the “Oh damn” feeling I got when he
announced to the world “I’m Iron man.” Here was a superhero
that did not hide behind an alternate, secret identity but proudly
said, yes I am that bad ass! I loved him. Next came the Incredible
Hulk reboot with Edward Norton, I love Ed Norton in most anything,
but I have to say I am glad he did not continue the roll. Mark
Ruffalo has made the hulk a truly beloved character and I can’t see
anyone else in the roll. Before the first Avengers movie on May 4,
2012 they also introduced Thor with Chris Hemsworth on May 6, 2011
(thank God Jane did not continue in the movies long!) and Captain
America: the First Avenger on July 22, 2011 with Chris Evans. We now
had all of our hero’s and were ready for the first true Avengers
movie and it grossed a little 1.5 million dollars world wide and it
only cost them 220 million. In fact all six of the first movies cost
1.076 billion dollars to make and made a little over 3.8 billion
dollars world wide. So of course they kept making movies.
For sequels, we have
Iron Man 3, Thor: the Dark World, and Captain America: Winter Solider
in 2013 and 2014. We also have new characters introduced with
Guardians of the Galaxy (August 1, 2014) and Ant-man (July 17, 2015).
The official Avengers property during this time was Avengers: Age of
Ultron written and directed by Josh Whedon and released in May 1,
2015. The price tag of these six movies was slightly higher, 1.179
billion dollars but the brought in a little over 5.271 billion dollar
world wide. Marvel, Paramount Pictures, and Ultimately Disney had
found their cash cow and it was unstoppable all thanks to Kevin Feige
the genius producer responsible for all of the Avengers films.
Finally for phase
three, there are ten movies Captain America: Civil war, Doctor
Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spiderman Homecoming, Thor
Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-man and the
Wasp, Captain Marvel and Finally Avengers: Endgame. To date they
have spent 4.601 billion dollars making these movies and made
19,848,985,785 dollars world wide. Endgame alone has made over 1.2
billion for its opening weekend making it the highest grossing movie
of the year according to frobes1.
Amazing success, at least monetarily! If you want a synopsis on each
movie check out either the Wikipedia site on the Marvel Cinematic
Universe Films or Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom.
But how are the
movies?
Well I did not like
Infinity Wars that much to be honest. I felt the movie was a little
too long and the ending just pissed me off. The stones felt like a
giant McGuffin and the movie felt too busy. It was just OK and I’ve
never felt compelled to re-watch it. I liked Captain Marvel, though I
feel like she is too powerful, but hey, it fits the source material
so what can you do. Thor’s last movie was a riot and Homecoming was
the best Spiderman movie ever made! The fact that in general I love
these movies gave me hope that Endgame, despite being three hours!!
long would be OK and I would not find my self bored or regretting the
midnight screening.
How was it? Best
Movie Yet!
This film did not
feel like three hours and I was never tired. The movie keeps you
interested and engaged, even the scenes that are not integral to the
plot are integral to the characters. In the beginning of the movie
there is a small scene with Nebula and Tony Stark as they are
stranded in space. They are playing table top football. It is a
nothing scene but it shows you Nebula’s developing humanity as she
begins to build connections with these characters. If they had cut it
and just moved to her taking care of Stark later it would not have
worked as well. Their would have been no connection building. There
are lots of scenes like this, scenes that work not for the amazing
special effects or big action but for the moments you share with the
characters.
There is plenty of
action and big special effects too. The ending battle, I can mention
it because it is a super hero movie so of course, almost got a
standing ovation at one point from the audience. People out right
cheered. And it was well deserved! The action was well shoot and not
so convoluted you could not follow it. Which in a lot of special
effects bonanzas these days are a problem, you just end up watching
color blobs thrash on the screen. These were clear and well rendered
graphics.
Every actor brought
their A game. Robert Downey Jr. was a dramatic master piece as usual.
But man I loved Hemsworth. Thor’s struggle with their failures in
the last movie are epic and I love him in comedies. It’s difficult
to balance real inner struggle and silly comedy and he did it
beautiful. Watch his expressions, they’re beautiful. He is
fantastic here and it is Thor as you have never seen him.
I could write so
much about this movie. Renner’s story as Hawkeye got to me so bad. As
a mom, Yes I am playing that card again, I was right there with him
and could see myself reacting exactly like him. I do not want to give
anything else away so all I can say is go see this movie! See it
twice, because I am sure you missed something the first time. I know
I did! This series deserves to be ranked so High, the movies are not
dark and brooding, they are fun, well lit with amazing special
effects, but more importantly they have amazing stories and
characters we actually care about!
Avengers: Endgame (US Release date: 4/26/2019
Director: Anthony and Joe Russo
Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcMBFSGVi1c
1Hughes,
Mark ‘Avengers:
Endgame’ Is Already The Highest-Grossing Film Of The Year
https://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2019/04/28/avengers-endgame-is-already-the-highest-grossing-film-of-the-year/