All right, now. Everybody calm down. You know that this post will include a crazy amount of spoilers. So, if you still haven’t seen the film, for some strange, mysterious reason, and you don’t want to spoil it, leave this page right now. Here’s a fun clip of cats being cats that you can watch instead.
If you’ve seen it and are ready to go, read on.
People who know me are very familiar with my passion for comic books. I grew up reading Marvel and DC comics, but I have always been more passionate about Marvel characters. My first love was X-Men. Which made the whole Sony/Disney rights agreement quite annoying as the X-Men (and the Fantastic Four) had a significant role in every single cosmic event portrayed in the comics (not to talk about the Spiderman shenanigans happening now).
You can understand why I was so hyped up about Endgame. This film is the season finale of this 12 years long tv-series-on-the-big-screen, and, literally, there has never been anything remotely this huge hitting the big screen. And I’m not even thinking about box office results.
From a filmmaking perspective, Endgame is simply at the top of the game. The use of VFX and SFX is just another level. The long, final combat scene is just epic. If you are an aspiring filmmaker/writer and stop to unpack, I don’t see how you won’t freeze in astonishment.
And even if you only care about small independent films, beautiful photography, and so forth, you can’t deny the quality of craft that lies in this film. Endgame just raised the bar for fantasy films, just like The Lord of The Rings did 18 years ago (to the extent that led TV to follow suit 10 years later with Game of Thrones. I will talk about GoT on another post, but you let that really sink in for a bit).
To recap: a much-awaited season finale, top of the game, epic levels of epic “epicness”. But what about the story? The screenplay has been written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the same two pens behind some of the most tied-in films in the MCU (Infinity War and the three Cap films, including Civil War). They had the knowledge and the experience to put together something up to the task, and my expectations were really high, considering how good of a job they did with Infinity War, a film that could have well been dull or disjointed but ended up being exceptionally well-plotted, thanks to picking Thanos as the main lead.
For all these reasons, I felt a little, just a little, underwhelmed by the writing. I have a series of issues with Endgame: homogeneous voices; light darkness; time travel laziness; a limitless power that is actually limited; the Black Widow.
ONE VOICE TO RULE THEM ALL
One of the most annoying things about Endgame is something that, as an aspiring screenwriter, I just couldn’t ignore because it’s a note that is given to any aspiring screenwriter over and over again: different characters should have different voices.
We all know that since Disney bought Marvel, the overall tone of the MCU films got gradually funnier. While the background of the story got darker, it’s clear to see that the writers have been asked to add more jokes here and there. Endgame is free for all: too many jokes with the same tone by too many characters. They all end up sounding the same. The worst example was Cap’s “that is America’s ass” line. Sure, we all chuckled. But it’s a line that, in that context, given the stakes at play and what we knew about the character, felt poorly placed. It was a joke opportunity that didn’t serve Cap.
The little exchange between Rhodes (War Machine) and Scott (Ant-Man) talk about time travel films. While the exchange works for Scott’s character, is totally out of place for Rhodey. Nuh huh. That’s just “joke placing”.
I feel like Endgame is a massively different instalment compared to the first Avenger film, The Avengers (2012). In that movie, we were served characters with profoundly deep perspectives and tones, people who found different things ironic or severe, people who clashed because of personalisation and not for effect or plot. All that is lost in Endgame, a film that parades its pawns quickly to serve a plot that has little care for pause and serious drama.
THIS NIGHT IS NOT SO DARK
If you consider the MCU as a big entertainment blob, something aimed at pure escapism and toys franchises, then Endgame must have sounded particularly dark for you.
But if you, like me, consider the MCU as an adult, fully-fledged storytelling opportunity, then you might have been frustrated with the lack of attention that the film gives to the fallout of the Snap. If you remove Stark’s scene in space before being rescued by Captain Marvel, there are no big, broad, sophisticated moments to evoke the real tragedy of our characters. I will say that the trailer did a better job at that than the film itself.
And if like me, you came from the comic books, you know how moving this material can actually be. Which is why I found seeing such a lack of poetry so frustrating.
We have been given a film with characters with similar voices, strolling through hard times, with one actor really holding everything on his shoulders (Robert Downey Jr. is seriously spectacular in his just-out-of-hospital-bed scene) and no hint of superior writing nor direction that is not connected to action and battles (because the big final battle is, undoubtedly, an impressive filmmaking feat).
That’s a pity. Darker tones would have raised the stakes even more.
BYE, FELICIA
The worst treatment that any main character in the MCU received was given to the Black Widow. This forever supporting character had to go through all the bad stuff that the “main” characters went through, and more. And yet, she is sent off to keep Hawkeye in. Like… WHAT?
I would like to know who is the executive genius who decided that between the two characters, the most beloved was Hawkeye. Clint is definitely not the most appreciated hero in the mix. And yet, they decided to keep him alive to give him a tv series on Disney+. Fans have been asking for a Black Widow film for years, and when they finally got one, they were served a prequel. Seriously?
Listen. I understand the value of killing off a beloved character for dramatic effect. I really do. But the writer decided not to give a lot of space to the death of Natasha. They weep a little, Hulk throws a bench into the lake, and that’s about it.
It’s a wasted opportunity. It’s also executed weirdly. Usually, when you are about to kill off a favourite, you amp up their presence, positive impact and stakes around them. None of that happened here.
And now we’re stuck with a prequel. I just hope it will be a little like the Captain Marvel film, meaning mostly a prequel but also with a splash of a sequel. Fingers crossed.
CONTROVERSIAL POINTS THAT ARE ACTUALLY OK
Lots of fans complained about a series of things that happened in Endgame which I don’t think they are actually wrong. With all this material and the lack of a proper “bible” as you would have in the show, the backstory is immensely complex and layered. At first glance, they might seem “holes”, but they are really not. Let’s go through some of them.
FATTY FATTY BOOM BOOM
As a big fabulous person myself, I couldn’t help but feel torn about Chris Hemsworth’s fat suit for Thor. The underlying message here is: our former super-serious hero now turned comic relief is depressed and being fat is the symbolic embodiment of being depressed because if you are fat, it means you don’t take care about yourself.
Some people, mostly fit or thin people, will say that it’s true. I say it’s bullshit. Being largely overweight is more complicated than being lazy. It’s the never-ending fat-shaming attitude. “You wanna be thin? Stop shoving food down your mouth.” Now, I won’t go too much into detail to explain why is that short-minded and overly simplistic, so, just accept it for now.
Endgame doesn’t shy away from this rhetoric. And that was the upsetting part. But there’s also a silver lining here, which surprised me and made it actually quite pleasant. No one asked Thor to lose weight. No one told him he was less worthy because of it. And, more symbolically importantly, he went into the final battle with all the extra weight on. The film did not subject us to a montage of Thor exercising to lose weight. Thank Nordic God. No, he stayed valid and powerful even if fat. And that’s something we never really saw before. Kudos.
GREAT SCOTT!
Writers have been using time travel over and over as the solution to impossible situations. I am not mad at that. In particular, I am not mad because at least, in the MCU, they decided to make a trip to a different universe, preventing the paradox effect. I like that.
At the end of the day, the backstory was that a Titan got ahold of 5 stones that contain the fundamental forces of the universe and used their combined power to remove 50% of the universe population instantly. If you accept that, why shouldn’t you accept time travel?
People got frustrated by how quickly Tony Stark solved time travel. That was, admittedly, quite ridiculous. They should have skipped the whole sequence, which, as I see it, served only to demonstrate the advancement of the VFX department letting us compare Tony’s latest 3D user interface with the one we saw in Iron Man (2008).
But at the core, our heroes don’t really time-travel. They dimension-travel. It’s elegant and totally in line the MCU multiverse. Look at what Phase 4 has in store for us – I am already salivating.
YOU CAN DO ANYTHING. ALMOST.
Creating universes that follow their own rules is what we do as screenwriters. What really grinds my gear, sometimes, is how the rules are made to create vertigo-inducing high stakes only to contradict them for plot reasons.
Now. The plot comes first. Fine. Still annoying. Because you asked me to believe in the world you created and then you ask me to break away from this new order of things.
That is what seems to happen in Endgame with the Gauntlet. If the Gauntlet is omnipotent, why neither of the most two intelligent members of the Avengers, Bruce and Tony, don’t think about changing the laws of physics to win/succeed/solve the issue? Why don’t they change their own essence to obtain the ability to sustain the Gauntlet?
“But Thanos was a god, that why he was able to use its full power. Hulk and Iron Man are not gods”.
Why not give it to Thor then?
Listen… we have to suspend understanding in favour of good writing. Tony Stark’s sacrifice was good writing, and it was executed perfectly. I believe that there are some surprises in store for us that Marvel kept very secret, particularly in regards to Hulk’s Snap and Black Widow. I still think that her film will have something to say about that.
From a storytelling perspective, the story needed a big, final, cathartic moment. As Benioff and Weiss (and R.R. Martin) know very well, killing a character is the best cliffhanger ever. So, all and all, I am happy the way the powers of the Gauntlet were used.
THE FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT
MCU’s Phase 4 is a film production bonanza. Thanks to Disney+, we now have 4 TV shows that will intertwine (if not launch altogether) the big-screen films. It’s a crossover paradise, and I’m ready for it. It’s also great news for screenwriters: it confirms the trend we have been seeing since Netflix got huge. This is, indeed, the golden age for tv screenwriting. Get your pens rolling. With great scripts comes great responsibility.
