MovieMonday: Avengers: Endgame

If you went to a movie last weekend, odds are good that you saw this one.  And enjoyed it.

It caps a 22-film narrative that stretches back to 2008's "Iron Man," the first Marvel movie, which showed us how Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) turned himself into a superhero devoted to protecting humanity and, over time, life generally.

Endgame opens ominously, with Iron Man in exile, other Avengers in sorrowful states and a palpable sense of worldwide loss over the consequences of last year's "Infinity War."  The dark tone enhances the theme that much is at stake.

The Avengers meet and disagree about whether to accept what has happened or to try again to defeat archenemy Thanos.  Their decision is the expected one.

From there come experiments in "quantum mechanics" and the space-time continuum -- a necessary bit of mumbo-jumbo -- that launches Antman, Hulk, the Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, et al. on various quests to retrieve the lost Infinity Stones that are essential for galactic harmony. 

The film climaxes in an epic battle with Thanos, for which Marvel pulls all the stops, and I do mean all of them. 

Afterward, a coda mourns team losses and suggests possible new Avengers members and/or a series of stories involving another Marvel team, the Guardians of the Galaxy.

The film includes some notable elements:

-- Much more attention to the superheroes' (and even the bad guy's) personal backstories than is typical in the genre.  The Avengers care about their families and each other, and the emotional drama plays well with audiences who have grown to care about the characters after seeing the previous movies. 

-- Plenty of humor, including an unanticipated Thor development, time-heist boo-boos, references to other space-time movies, and good-natured needling among the Avenger crew.

-- Cameo appearances, apparently from old movies, by a number of famous actors and even Stan Lee, who created dozens of Marvel characters and who died late last year.  (Lee cameos featured in all the previous Marvel films.)

-- Various setup-payoff lines and themes to keep the story knitted together. The most prominent is Thanos' oft-repeated declaration -- "I am inevitable!" -- that pays off nicely late in the movie.

The movie is long at three hours but accounts for itself well enough to sustain viewers' interest.  A nice piece of work.


Notes

Some enthusiasts have been watching or re-watching all the previous Marvel films in preparation for this one, but this YouTube video is a useful prep for those who do not have time.

-----

The question before this movie was released Thursday evening was whether it could set a record $300 million in domestic ticket sales over its opening weekend.

By late Sunday the answer was in:  Yes, yes it could.  North American ticket sales were estimated at $350 million, with another $860 million in sales worldwide.

-----

Later -- the Marvel story.

Movie Monday: Captain America: Civil War

 If you like superhero movies, Captain America is one you should see.   It comes from Marvel Studios, the capable Disney affiliate, and to the extent that a superhero movie can be said to have a coherent plot, this one delivers.  At least, it sort of delivers

The backdrop for the movie is a developing international consensus among human governments that superheroes need to be regulated.  A large batch of Marvel's Avengers team of enhanced human characters -- Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Falcon, War Machine and Ant-Man -- weigh in on the topic, pro and con, but their good-guy impulses are frustrated when they are confronted by bad-guy characters who also possess superpower enhancements.

(This plot echoes a similar element in the Batman v. Superman movie a couple months back.  My impression is that newer blockbusters are straining to involve the superheroes with more personal-human-political concerns while also maintaining the bench-clearing battle sequences that are the genre's stock in trade. This is a difficult concept to carry off, but we can give DC Comics and Marvel credit for trying.)

The limiting factor in this film's plot is that Captain America's backstory is not revealed until almost the end, at which point the audience understands why the guy has behaved the way he has.  This information may have been known to people who have kept up with Avengers movies over the years, but it was news to me.

The Captain America action scenes are better than many.  The best one involves a complicated chase on an underground roadway full of cars and trucks.  A less fully realized event is an intrasquad Avengers battle that demolishes an inexplicably empty airport and a large airplane.

You have to take these scenes with several large grains of salt.  If superhero characters are indestructable, why do they bother fighting, especially over whether they are willing to let human governments tell them when they are allowed to fight?

Amusingly, after one battle, Tony Stark (the human incarnation of Iron Man) wears a sling on his arm.  As if he was injured somehow.  Yeah, right.


Coming Attractions

All that's left to mention is that this movie introduces characters in future Marvel films.  (This is common in superhero movies, something like product placements in television programs.)

First is Black Panther, a superhero African prince played by Chadwick Bozeman, who will star with Michael B. Jordan and Lupita Nyong'o in a largely African American- and African-casted Marvel drama in early 2018.  Last year's Creed writer/director Ryan Coogler will direct.

Second is ANOTHER reboot of Spider-Man, who appears in Captain America as recently enhanced teenager Peter Parker.   Sony made five Spider-Man movies of steeply declining quality between 2002 and 2014.   Spider-Man was also the subject of the most expensive and possibly the most flawed Broadway musical ever; it closed just two years ago.
     No matter. Marvel will release its own Spider-man movie in July 2017.