Avengers: Endgame (2019) - Review

Review:

*Originally written April 26th, 2019*

*Spoiler Free*

Well, here we are. The end of this first run of Marvel films that started back in 2008 and has spanned 22 films of varying quality over those 11 years. There's was a lot of worry and doubt at how they were going to pull off what is probably the biggest film event of this decade. But they pulled it off, in a glorious, 3 hour epic that brings a satisfying, emotional and extremely entertaining end to these stories and paves the way for the future to come.

It's so hard to talk about this without going into spoilers or any key plot details, but I'll try my best. Pretty much anything beyond "What's left of the Avengers come up with a plan to undo Thano's snap that erased half the life in the universe" is spoiler territory. So I'll leave it at that. Many of the theories I've read are pretty accurate in rough strokes, but there was so much more here to unfold.

This feels more like a tribute to these 11 years of films, filled with a callback to what must be every single one of these films to date. There is so much to unpack from one viewing. I was surprised that Endgame goes back to what is undoubtedly some of the weakest and often hated films of the franchise, ones that have mostly been forgotten and swept under the rug. It's basically a trip through memory lane, bad moments and good included. 

Not all the fan service is perfect though. It does get a little grating at times. A lot of script feels like pandering, to the point nearly every line is a callback to a previous event, which works for the most part. It does bring a lot of new and iconic moments to the table for the most part, but it does feel a bit indulgent. It wasn't helped that I was in a packed midnight screening where people would scream and clap and the most obvious and inane of references. Seriously, a woman in my screening was screaming with laughter for what felt like a minute straight after a callback to Infinity War, which was fine, it was a good callback, but to her it must have been the funniest thing she'd ever seen. It's fine to enjoy something, but when you're screaming with laughter to the point other people can't hear the dialogue on screen as the moment had well and truly past, then you're just a prick or extremely stupid. 

Which brings me to the ongoing humour problem with these Marvel films and Endgame truly does have a tonal problem. While there's nothing as abhorrent as the moment in Guardians 2 where Starlord learning his father gave his mother cancer is interrupted by a David Hasselhoff cameo, there is lots of time where the joke just goes on too long and really gets in the way of things. It's fine to put a joke in here and there, there are some jokes that absolutely do land, ones I'm amazed they commit to with character choices which I love. There's build-up, pay-off and hilarious visual creativity with some of these jokes, then there are just jokes that are quick, lame lines that are groan worthy thrown in the middle of them. At times it feels like something created by a 6 year old, there's even an horrific Fortnite scene which definitely ranks as one of the cringiest things in the whole franchise.

I just don't understand the mentality of writing films like this, the humour has not grown with its audience, it's digressed to Family Guy levels of lameness without the crude element. It's just awful and I was genuinely embarrassed that a film of this magnitude could have such forced, cringe-worthy humour. Less is more, guys. Have jokes that are actually set-up and clever. Not just a quick line thrown into a scene for nothing more than a cheap laugh. It's really making me question if I'll like this more or less on a rewatch.

Bad jokes aside, the emotional scenes really do resonate. Many of these characters with seen over the past decade have grown, changed and all get their own sort of ending that actually feels genuine and earned. I was getting a little scared that Marvel would wimp out and try and milk some of their characters for more, but no, they really do show a moment of rare maturity that sends off these characters in a perfect way. If you feel nothing during that final shot, then you're a monster. 

While I'm a big believer of less is more, this is one of those rare films that justifies its 3 hour run-time. There is so much going on and happening, that I'm amazed that they managed to cram it all into one film. It's paced so wonderfully that the 3 hours barely felt like an hour. I was worried I'd have to leave and use the toilet at some point, but I didn't, as that would have been a disaster as something big or important happens in what felt like every 5 minutes. 


This also didn't just feel epic because it was 3 hours, but because it felt like such a huge, grand display of finality that manages to juggle all these characters, but never taking the main focus off the original Avengers. Being a blockbuster of this size, it was inevitable that the last act would be some pile of CGI wank. Which it was. But the stakes were there to make me care and all the characters got a crowd-pleasing time to shine. The last act of Endgame really is something to marvel and behold.

Avengers: Endgame truly is the biggest film of the year and one of the biggest film events of all time. It's a daunting task to pull off, bringing an end to 22 films and 11 years of storytelling, but the Russo's pulled it off. It's not perfect and very self-indulgent, but it brings it all together in a crowd-pleasing, heartfelt and fun epic. Possibly the most entertaining 3 hour film I've ever seen. I honestly can't see the MCU having this same impact in the future now a lot of these characters stories are wrapped up. I cannot wait to watch it again. An imperfect achievement in cinema.

8/10 Dans

Avengers: Endgame is out now in cinemas in the UK
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Iron Man 2 (2010) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written January 1st, 2016*

Well, it certainly isn't as good as the first Iron Man, or most of the other Marvel films for that matter. I remember this sucking, but I actually liked it more than I remember. Don't get me wrong, it's quite messy and arguably bland, but at the same time pretty entertaining.

This time around, Tony Stark must deal with his failing health and a crazy Russian guy who wants to kill him while the government want their hands on his Iron Man technology. 

It deals with Tony's alcoholism laughably and there is some awful drunk acting here, not that Robert Downey Jr's performance was bad (He was once again excellent), it just portrayed alcoholism in just a terrible and unrealistic way and led to some of the worst moments of the film like the dance fight. That said, I did love the arc of Tony dealing with the fact he might die due to his arc reactor poisoning him, it was nice to see Stark genuinely scared for once.

Mickey Rourke pops up as the villain this time around as a Russian who wants revenge on Tony for what his father did to his father years ago. I don't know how much to criticise a hammy comic-book accent, because Rourke's Russian accent was laughably terrible and so many of his lines were incomprehensible. He did get some solid action scenes, the race track fight is really awesome and I loved the design of his character with the electric whips that look like a weapon from the Ratchet and Clank games. I was severely disappointed at how the ending turned out, it was far too similar to the first, the bad guy gets his own Iron Man suit and must fight him......

Sam Rockwell is also a side villain here, who is funny and I love Rockwell, but he didn't make for a convincing or compelling villain for one second. Brody (Recast by Don Cheadle) is also given a much more significant role this time too, getting to don (eh?) the War Machine armour and actually help in the final set-piece.

We get to meet Natasha Romonoff/Black Widow for the first time and she wasn't given much to do bar an awesome action scene towards the end. She just didn't seem like the same Black Widow from the later Marvel films at all. Odd. 

There was quite a bit of world building here. I think that's what a lot of people took issue with when this first came out, it spent too much time hinting at something greater. Samuel L Jackson was excellent here as Nick Fury in his first proper role outside a post-credits cameo, he seemed much more Samuel L Jackson than I remember him being in the later films. He is essentially here to try and recruit Tony into the Avengers Initiative despite his out of control behaviour and recklessness. We also got a post-credits stinger of Thor's hammer leading into the next film Marvel has to offer. 

I will mention I did find it a lot funnier than the first, the court scene at the beginning was well written and hilarious, easily the best moment of the film, it's just a shame they couldn't keep up to the quality of that scene. 


It has its moments and is a breezy, entertaining watch and contains lots of elements that made the first film so great, but Iron Man 2 is a huge step down from the last film in the series and is one of Marvel's weakest films to date.

6/10 Dans

Iron Man 2 is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Avengers: Infinity War (2018) - Film Review

*Originally written May 3rd, 2018*

Review:

Avengers: Infinity War had a lot to live up to. It's the culmination of an insane 18 films of hit-or-miss quality and 10 years of build up. I had my worries about Infinity War. Packing all these characters into such a huge film. Would it work? I wasn't sure. While it is far from perfect, this is a fun, effective, ambitious and surprisingly emotional epic that spells the beginning of the end for a decade worth of superhero films.

The structure is more in line with Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, while the characters never all meet up in one huge scene (And a couple are curiously absent), everyone has their moment to shine and a part to play. A lot of the team-ups were unexpected, but mostly work. It's hard to talk about without spoiling, which I will not do.

Marvel has always had a villain problem, 90% of them are bland and throwaway fodder just to fill the space of a bad without any real character. Thanos, on the other-hand is a completely different beast. Josh Brolin delivers an extremely developed and compelling villain. It's so rare that a villain comes along where you completely agree with his motivation and why he does what he does. Despite being the bad guy, he has genuine heart and emotion behind him, leading to a moment of surprisingly brutality that I didn't think the MCU had in it. It really helped that Brolin is given such a huge amount of screen-time, possibly more than the heroes themselves.

Much like the Guardians films, this is an extremely gorgeous film to look at, filled with mostly impressive CG (Aside from a couple of Thanos' throwaway goons). It's not just the CGI too, the cinematographer is top notch too, there's so many bright and beautiful locations, a far cry from the ugly and televisual Age of Ultron.  Alan Silvestri's score was also fantastic. Again, scores are something the MCU seem to overlook, so it was great to hear a memorable orchestral score in a Marvel films.

Like I said, it's not all perfect though. A big problem I have had with the MCU is the lame humour and while there is quite a bit of eye-rollingly embarrassing comedy here, it's not as intrusive as it has been in the past. It's much more in line with Civil War, where they let moments of emotion breathe rather than throw in some stupid joke and remove any kind of tension. That said, there are some moments that are genuinely funny, it's not massively hilarious, but I do have to remember these kids films, despite how dark and mature Infinity War gets.

And Infinity War does get dark. A lot of people die, some long running, some not. While some of the deaths will be impossible for the MCU to commit to, it didn't make the ending scenes any less haunting or unsettling. There were one or two deaths that just got a collective shrug from me though, particularly the ones early on.

Infinity War really is a hard film to talk about, it's half a film, despite losing the "Part 1" in the title, this really feels like the first part of a film, and luckily we only have a year to see the resolution to the Empire Strikes Back style ending, but based on this, I'm sure it'll be worth the wait.


Superhero fatigue might be slowly kicking in, but Infinity War manages to be an ambitious and devastating entry into the now 19th film MCU that are slowly learning from their mistakes. I don't know what more I could have wanted from this film.

8/10 Dans

Avengers: Infinity War is out now in cinemas in the UK
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written April 14th, 2016*

Definitely not the "political thriller" people seem to claim it is. Sure it has elements of this, but Captain America: The Winter Soldier really is just another Marvel affair, although it's one of the best efforts from them.

In Captain America's second solo outing S.H.I.E.L.D. is compromised and he doesn't know who he can trust as a new villain emerges in the form of the 'Winter Soldier', a killing machine with ties to Cap's past.

I know it's widely considered so, but Winter Soldier is easily one of the best films in the MCU so far, top 3 material for sure. I wasn't a huge fan of the first Captain America film, so I was pleased at what huge step-up this one was.

The themes of national security play a big part here, although I feel it could have been explored a bit more, but whatever, this is a comic-book film, not a statement on society. The film asks what's more important, freedom or protection, but it never gives a clear answer either way, which is fine. This looks to be explored a lot more in the upcoming Civil War.

What Winter Soldier does better than any Marvel film to date is finally the first decent villain in the form of the Winter Soldier. He's a terminator sort of character, violent, scary and emotionless. He is way more intimidating than anything the MCU has had to offer before hand. It's just a shame that Robert Redford's bad guy was kinda boring and forgettable.

There are some cool nods to other Marvel films. I never even noticed at Dr. Strange got a mention in any of the other watches, but that's probably because he's still in my mind due to the recently released trailer for his solo film. Also gotta mention a fantastic cameo that was Abed from Community in a tiny role.

The action is also far more impressive and less "CGI smashy-smashy". There are some genuinely memorable action scenes like Nick Fury's SUV attack and the now iconic close quarter elevator fight. I'm the directors of this film are back for the next one, they have a talent for creative set-pieces.

I still really like Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America. Still the most likable of all the Avengers. He's modest and easy to get behind, unlike some of Marvel's other characters. Evan's brought the heart to this film, I've always liked the "man out of time" idea and he nails it pretty well, his fight at the end also feels like it has genuine weight to it, mostly thanks to the performance.

My only real complaints are it goes on a bit too long and my problem with all Marvel films. They don't look like films, they look like really expensive episodes of TV and really lack their own visual style, which is such a shame. That said, this looks a lot nicer than both the Avengers films.


The Winter Soldier is one of the most successful films in the MCU to date, filled with memorable set-pieces, Marvel's first decent villain (Outside their Netflix shows) and an engaging story.

8/10 Dans

Captain American: The Winter Soldier is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK

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Thor: The Dark World (2013) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written April 24th, 2017*

I've never really got on with either of the Thor films. I like the character a lot and Chris Hemsworth is fantastic, but the films he star in have been extremely lacklustre. I find Thor: The Dark World to easily be the one of the weakest entries in the entire MCU for many reasons.

Where Dark World at least improves on the first is at least in its look. The style of Asgard is much more pleasing to the eye and natural than the ugly, CGI monstrosity of the first, it reminds me of a more Barbarain society than the tacky nonsense it used to look like.

There are also some decent and creative scenes of action. The opening fight was cool and I loved the teleporting weirdness of the finale in London. It's just a shame that none of the action held any kind of emotional weight and are held down by all the terrible and annoying humour shoved in. 

Natalie Portman and Tom Hiddleston

The excessive and lame humour was my biggest problem of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Dark World seems to be a brief glimpse of that. So much of the dialogue seems like some sort of cringe-worthy joke. There are a couple that land (Thor getting on the tube in London is gold), but that far outweighs the utter tripe that happens.

Most offensive of anything in the entire MCU has to be Kat Denning's Darcy, the most annoying character I can think of in a mainstream film. Everything she says is a groan-inducing joke. The worst of which was during the final battle where she calls Thor's hammer "Meow Meow", I honestly wanted to turn the film off and snap the disc at that point. It's been a while, but I don't remember her being that awful in the first.

After the events of the first Avengers, Stellan Skarsgard has been reduced to some kind of mentally challenged joke. A further example of the lame humour is when he's reduced being caught by the news dancing naked around Stonehenge. It's such a shame to see such a respectable actor reduced to.. that.

Chris Hemsworth

Natalie Portman's Jane Foster is just merely there. She's given stuff to do, not a lot of it interesting. It seems like she's out of the MCU now, so all her screentime with Thor seems to have been wasted. She does at least have a couple of decent scenes with Chris O'Dowd, who appears in a small role.

Marvel does follow its cliche routine of a gifted actor given a thankless and wasted villain role.
Christopher Ecclestone's Malekith might be the most bland bad guy to come out of Marvel's roster yet. I've just finished watching the film and I'm having a huge problem trying to pick out a single interesting or standout moment he had. Pathetic.

The film does leave Asgard in an interesting place that I'm looking forward to seeing in Thor: Ragnorak (Which looks a lot better than the previous 2 based on the trailers). This is the first time I'd seen this in nearly 4 years, but I forgot just how little Loki does in this film, the performance was fun as usual, but it feels he's broken out of prison and written out fairly quickly. His scenes with Thor were at least some of the highlights of Dark World.

I also have to commend Dark World for at least being one of the shortest films in MCU at just 105 minutes before credits, as these films seem to usually be leaning towards the two and a half hour mark. So it has that going towards it, I guess?

Thor: The Dark World is easily one of the weakest MCU films so far, bland, dull and filled to the brim with so much deeply lame and unfunny humour. I hope Ragnorak is better than this, and please, dear god, no Kat Dennings.

4/10 Dans

Thor: The Dark World is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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