Avengers: Endgame

[Drenk]

The Avengers somehow find an end to their journey, probably by fighting Some Entity in a climatic battle.

Directors: Joe Russo, Anthony Russo


What the hell? Is this trailer purposefully showing nothing or will this be two hours of moody Avengers in headquarters before they have to fight? How do you end up for your big finale with so little dramatic tension for the characters—except, you know, saving the world. They're trying to make us feel for Tony Star's couple at the beginning, but this has been a non-reality since Iron Man 3 seven years ago.

Will Tony Star die? Will Captain America? I don't even call that plot.

I'm creating this thread because after this one I'm done. I enjoyed Spider-Man: Homecoming, but the trailer for the second movie makes it look like a Disney Channel sequel with a lot of expensive CGI.

[Robyn]

What? Are you really complaining that the trailer aren't showing enough? The film will be 3 hours long. I'm sure there's more to it then that.

First one I'm kind of looking forward to. The last one was the best one yet.

[Drenk]

I have seen enough overlong Marvel movies where nothing substantial happens to suspect that this one will be pretty vapid. And since when have they been scared to show most of their movies in trailers?

I am aware that they might just be hiding everything, so worried about spoilers or whatever (plots and characters's development have now been replaced by twists and characters deaths), and that rebuttal is already included in the sentence I posted.

Infinity War was ultimately more fun than most recent Marvel movies because it contained isolated segments with real scenes in it, and then it became a boring "been there done that" battle. And now a three hours long movie is supposed to give some weight to the fake twist the movie ends with and then—ironically—disappear.

Having a universe and multiple movies were supposed to flesh out characters but what I conclude is that they're emptier than what they used to be pre-MCU.

[Alethia]

I think the only Marvel movie I've seen to date is the first Iron Man. Generally just not drawn to this type of thing, nothing against it. I'm sure I'd probably enjoy a few of them if steered correctly. But it's so oversaturated now I have absolutely no idea where to start and what to skip. It's daunting.

[Drenk]

I think the only Marvel movie I've seen to date is the first Iron Man. Generally just not drawn to this type of thing, nothing against it. I'm sure I'd probably enjoy a few of them if steered correctly. But it's so oversaturated now I have absolutely no idea where to start and what to skip. It's daunting.

The first Iron Man movie is still a movie where Iron Man is a character. The second one is a mess that introduces Avengers, really weird. The third Iron Man is legitimately a movie I love, written and directed by Shane Black. There are some movies I like.

But the last years showed an increase in laziness—some awful green screens, battle scenes looking mostly the same from one movie to another, all that making me want to create the Second-Unit theory—and made evident that all the years created a monstruous void at the center of these movies: it's been about deceiving while promising something better, over and over again. And now that it's ending...

Damn. There is nothing to expect from this movie but them reversing the twist of the previous movie. I get why they're only selling you the investment in time people & I gave to these movies? It looks like a fanmade trailer with footage from the previous movies, you know.

[BB]

Damn. There is nothing to expect from this movie but them reversing the twist of the previous movie.

Isn't this what 90% of comic books are like though? The whole thing is plot twists, battles, and character recognition. That's all the vast majority of the audience is looking for. And once the character recognition wears off, these movies will be jettisoned into the dustbin of history like adventure serials from the 30s and 40s. I mean, beyond a handful of weirdos, who's watching Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers or Zorro movies today? Not even hardcore cinephiles.

The Dark Knight still has us all granting comic book movies greater critical attention than they warrant, like the first fine dining restaurant to put a hamburger on the menu. A few others have been similarly elevated and that's cool but it's not really what this is about. It's cinematic McDonalds. The fries are either hot or cold.

Not that I have anything against these movies, but I am curious to see if a younger generation is gonna come along and rebel against them. Or that just a thing that happened in the twentieth century?

[Drenk]

I like comics. Joss Whedon wrote Astonishing X-Men, a series that I love. When you compare it to his Avengers you can only conclude that he doesn't even has the power to write something. Ingeniously, Marvel bought the "Whedon trademark" by having him involved and since then the constant ironic humor is constant. But Whedon didn't do much...

One thing that is important with comics is that they offer many "realities", right?  You have different authors with different visions and styles, something that the MCU destroyed by being a monolithic machine of copy/paste.

I do believe that the level of emptiness of these Marvel movies is something else. The whole point of the MCU was to give scale to these things, the paradox is that they feel even thinner than they used to be.

Also, I don't know if they're that similar to the adventure serials from the 30s and 40s: did these movies dominate the industry that much? Plot points from these movies seem as important for adults as geopolitics nowadays. But what are we really talking about? There's a whole discourse based on expectations. That's powerful with internet. And Marvel is constantly renewing expectations while not doing much with the actual movies. I'm fascinated, but also disgusted at this point.

The travesty of this "endgame"—how flat it feels despite all the years that were supposed to build this Huge Thing— reveals the insanity for me.

[WorldForgot]

Plot points from these movies seem as important for adults as geopolitics nowadays.

So... Not important?

Marvel's formula has gotten quite stale, but it's a slate packed with performances -- the draw is its personality. DC, obvi, rn trying to find their own footing. Thru Markus & McFeely the Cap movies created such a lived-in SHIELD project. Scripts were the sauce for Phase 2. Winter Soldier, Guardians, and Age of Ultron. Stacked casts, effective personality and flipping of the formula. But since then, I think they've been stuck in a loop of Character Introz. But origin stories dont seem to turn off the box office.

The only 'spectacle genre' I could see usurping the Superhero genre is maybe Video Game adaptationz.

[Sleepless]

I think the only Marvel movie I've seen to date is the first Iron Man.

I think I've seen Iron Man, Iron Man 3, Avengers, Guardians, Guardians 2. Oh, and Black Panther. Avengers I didn't care for. Guardians 2 was shit. BP meh. I've pretty much just followed the whole MCU via reviews and spoilers and that's plenty. So the big paychecks are gonna die this round, and then it's Chadwick Bosema and Brie Larson?

[Alethia]

Well, I saw it. It was...alot. I was frequently confounded, but found myself enjoying it more or less. So many actors pop up that I had zero idea had anything to do with Marvel. So that was enjoyable. I guess I liked it? I feel like I spent three hours submerged in a pool of pop-cultural diarrhea, but yay I participated!

EDIT - are typically charismatic actors a la Ruffalo Rudd Cheadle Scarjo RDJ etc contractually obligated to be as awkward and dull as possible in these movies, or is it a stylistic choice?

Biggest surprise: Brie Larson was...not distractingly bad.

[wilberfan]

I feel like I spent three hours submerged in a pool of pop-cultural diarrhea, but yay I participated!

Along similar lines, perhaps:

'Avengers: Endgame' midnight crowd might have been exposed to measles, officials warn

[Jeremy Blackman]

I've been slowly catching up on (most of) the MCU. Just finished Infinity War. Reviews in one sentence or less:


Iron Man - Okay?

Thor - Decent.

Captain America: The First Avenger - The most convincing head replacement CGI I've ever seen.

The Avengers - Fun movie until it has to paint by numbers.

Iron Man 3 - I might have seen this.

Thor: The Dark World - Awful.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Despite a fun 007 mission at the beginning, ultimately very standard and forgettable.

Guardians of the Galaxy - I'm sorry, the jokes don't land.

Avengers: Age of Ultron - Elizabeth Olsen.

Doctor Strange - Pretty good.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - The jokes land!

Thor: Ragnarok - A straight-up masterpiece and the best MCU film by a mile.

Black Panther - Overrated.

Avengers: Infinity War - Actually a good movie?


My favoites are Ragnarok, Infinity War, Guardians 2, and Doctor Strange. The rest I could take or leave. And I'm a bit underhyped for Endgame, which I should be seeing this week. Aside from Thor and the Guardians crew, I don't find myself being invested in many of the characters.

[Alethia]

Thor: Ragnarok is the one I want to see next because I love What We Do In the Shadows, and Chris Hemsworth as Thor I find rather charming. He's probably the best part of Endgame.

[Drenk]

I saw it, too. I mostly enjoyed it, more than I expected, they managed to make what was expected after Infinity War alive and fun. But then it had to become a disengaging, grey spectacle. I remember when three hours movie epic with giant battles were like The Return of the King, so there was a weird feeling. The last ten minutes were very bad, with a lot of very loud and constant orchestral music underlining the emotions and the shots looking like a bad CW soap opera. Infinity War was better. Even if I didn't like the final battle in this one too, it happened in an interesting setting...

But the jokes were funny this time. Even if you have Sonic films now where's the famous Hedgehog thinks he's a racoon.

Sometimes you feel like they're a team of people, and then it's like watching a summer camp from a distance (without being a pedophile).

re: the actors: there's a scene at the beginning where I felt bad for Scarlett Johansson, I remember when she was supposed to be some kind of prestigious actress. But she's been playing a very thin "character" for ten years. That's one of my issues with the MCU: they're supposed to offer character development, right? But in reality some stand-alone three hours movie have more depth than they will ever be able to offer.

Downey Jr is great in it, and he's the reason these movies exist and made billions. He makes every scene thrilling—and sometimes he doesn't has much to do. Chris Evans and Ruffallo are correct and engaging. Hemsworth is SNLing but that's what they're asking him to do.

[WorldForgot]

re: the actors: there's a scene at the beginning where I felt bad for Scarlett Johansson, I remember when she was supposed to be some kind of prestigious actress. But she's been playing a very thin "character" for ten years. That's one of my issues with the MCU: they're supposed to offer character development, right? But in reality some stand-alone three hours movie have more depth than they will ever be able to offer.

Nat + Nebula work better for me than most recurring MCU characters, supporting roles that broke out into leadz because they're  essentially operating on emotional gearz more interesting than the godlier archetypes of braniacs, both essentially "reprogrammed/repurposed" since childhood -- and their development across filmz has actually seemed to reflect the MCU's "stakes" quite well. Really dug how much of Ultron this one harkened back to and tied together.