Avengers: End Game
Marvel still knows how to do superhero movies better than anyone ever. This movie is light years better than Aquaman, Justice League, Dawn of Justice or anything in the DC pantheon except possibly Wonder Woman.
But for all the noise and crashing and bashing and loop closing; for all the praise and money it's going to get, it was -- to me -- second tier Marvel. I know you have to suspend the rules when you're watching a movie where a woman can fly, a guy can shrink himself to the size of an ant, a guy can turn himself into an angry green ogre, a guy sails in from space with a magic hammer and another wizardy guy can spin travel portals with his fingers. Even so, I had a major problem with the basic concepts of this movie. I was unmoved by the motivations.
You'll either see it or you won't so I'm not going to recap the film. Not going to give any hints as to the ending. I'm just going to fit it into my own pecking order.
There are top tier films. The movies that left me awed and agape; the films that I didn't really want to end.
Iron Man
Thor: Ragingcrocs
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Avengers
Those movies were note-perfect in my mind. Completely satisfying.
Then there's the second tier. Good, but not great movies. Enjoyed them, but they weren't the epic masterpieces the others were. Some were just too busy, some had too much noise, some thought too much of themselves. All had something that kept it from being elevated.
The movies I put here are
Ant Man 1 and 2 (although both were closer to the top tier than some of the others)
Guardians 2
Iron Man 2 and 3
All Captain Americas
Captain Marvel
Spiderman Homecoming
Thor: Dark World
Infinity Wars (Although this is probably closer to the bottom)
And then there were the ones I considered sort of duds. Not duds in the Aquaman/Justice League abysmal sense, but just not quite there. Either essentially forgettable, mishandled or completely overhyped.
Black Panther was a terrible Marvel movie. It was stupid. It was insulting. I'll never watch it again and I could have done without it completely.
Age of Ultron was a misstep. A hugely successful misstep but an overly busy, excessively noisy, outlandishly destructive error.
Thor just didn't work. I really appreciate how they've retooled the character and given him humor and life but the first Thor movie didn't even really hint at that promise. Some bad directorial choices and a bust with the choice of Natalie Portman.
Endgame falls somewhere toward the bottom of the second tier. It's going to make ass tons of money. It will be praised to the high heavens by almost everyone. My truth, however, is that in comparison to Iron Man, Guardians and those others at the top of the list it just falls way outside the cut. I've seen it, I'm glad I did, but (like Ultron) I have no interest in sitting through it again.
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