Marvel fans heading to theaters this weekend for “Avengers Endgame: Encore” are getting more than another chance to watch the Avengers take down Thanos on the big screen, though they get that too. The re-release includes a new ending and three post-credits scenes that directly connect the 2019 blockbuster to “Avengers: Doomsday,” opening on Dec. 18. Can this “Endgame” re-release knock “Avatar” off its throne at as the biggest worldwide box office hit of all time at 2.92 billion? That’s the idea. “Endgame” is currently No. 2, at about $2.80 billion. So there is a real contest at play here.
And that’s not all. The biggest change actually happens before the credits begin. “Avengers: Endgame” originally closed with Steve Rogers finally getting the life he wanted, dancing with Peggy Carter before the movie faded to black. Now someone knocks on the door. Steve quickly moves out of sight as Peggy answers it and asks the unexpected visitor if she can help him. The man responds, "I can help you. Both of you." It's Loki, dressed in his TVA (Time Variant Authority) uniform. Steve steps out of the shadows and finds himself face-to-face with the man who once led an alien invasion against Earth. Before we can learn why Loki has come looking for Captain America, the screen cuts to black.
Then Marvel has three more scenes waiting during the credits. The first catches up with Bruce Banner following the events of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.” He’s isolated himself inside a military facility buried miles beneath the Earth and taken extreme measures to make sure Hulk can't escape and that nobody can reach him. Then the lights fail and Doctor Doom (Robert Downey, Jr.) says he has come to collect him, and a Hulk roar follows.
In the second scene, Mobius, Casey and O.B. discover that two universes are colliding and firing missiles at each other. More collisions appear, and O.B. warns that the multiverse is collapsing. Yikes!
In the third scene, Doom forges his mask. The metallic hammering heard at the end of the original “Endgame” credits now accompanies glimpses of Doctor Doom making his mask.
Intrigued? I thought you would be. So here is my original review of “Avengers: Endgame” to catch you up before all the excitement coming the week before Christmas.
“Avengers: Endgame,” directed by the Russo brothers—Anthony and Joseph—with a fan’s reverence for all that came before, is truly epic and thunderously exciting. You probably won’t care that at three hours, it’s bloated, uneven and all over the place, flitting from character to character like a bird that doesn’t know where to land. And yet the movie hits you like a shot in the heart, providing a satisfying closure even when it’s hard to believe that Marvel will ever really kill a franchise that’s amassed $19 billion at the global box office. (Sidenote: it didn’t.). Of the 22 films in the MCU that began in 2008 with “Iron Man, Endgame” is the most personal yet — an emotional wipeout that knows intimacy is its real superpower.
With 2018’s “Avengers: Infinity War” as our source, what we grasp going in is that Thanos (a superb Josh Brolin giving tragic dimension to a CGI villain) has decimated half of all living creatures in the universe. Only six of the original Avengers remain: Thor (Chris Hemsworth) Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) and Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). Also in play are James Rhodes/War Machine (Don Cheadle), Rocket the space raccoon (hilariously growled by Bradley Cooper), Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and Nebula (the sublime Karen Gillan), the supervillain’s reformed blue-meanie daughter. Their mission impossible, and there’s no question that they’ll choose to accept it, is to avenge the dead by destroying Thanos, bring back the six Infinity Stones that hold the key to ultimate control and just maybe find a way to restore a semblance of order.
With “Infinity War,” the Russos left audiences with their mouths open in shock as beloved characters were reduced to dust and evil emerged triumphant. Who does that? With “Endgame,” from an original script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the filmmakers take you places you can’t possibly see coming regarding who dies and who lives to tell their story. Don’t expect a typical happy ending. Just prepare to be wowed.
For a movie bursting with action and culminating in a one-for-the-time capsule showdown, “Endgame” starts on a quietly reflective note. No Avenger is left unbroken by the devastation that ensued when Thanos snapped his fingers and half the world turned to dust. (Some mild plot spoilers ahead.) The movie jumps ahead five years after that moment, with our superheroes empty shells forced to reflect on their failures. Tragedy has set Hawkeye adrift. Iron Man has retreated into the cocoon of family life with wife Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Thor has lost his home on Asgard. Hulk has learned to subdue his baser instincts. And Black Widow wonders if any sense can be made of it all. That’s when Ant-Man (Paul Rudd, amiable as ever) shows up, fresh from the Quantum Realm, with an idea for a “time heist.” You don’t have to make jokes about the clichéd time travel plot—the film is ready, willing and able to make its own, with “Back to the Future” coming in for a serious ribbing.
The Russos make sure there are lots of intentional giggles, especially when Cap is told that his uniform “does nothing for your ass” or Thor lards up with belly fat or Hulk just stands there like a big green machine. Cheers to Ruffalo and Hemsworth for getting the most laughs without sacrificing character. Downey lowers Stark’s snark quotient to create something genuinely moving. His young daughter measures her devotion to him in multiples. “I love you 3000,” she says. Fans will surely feel the same.
Audiences’ affection for these Avengers carries the film over its rough spots. Some characters get their due (let’s hear it for the women of Wakanda!), while others stay on the outside looking in. A few supporting characters who show up for the big third act battle have big moments that feel unearned. Also, it seems like “Endgame” has at least six endings, when the first one handily gets the job done.
Still, this long goodbye gets to you. It’s not an ardent and artful gamechanger like “Black Panther;” there probably isn’t a Best Picture Oscar nomination in its future. So what? You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll thrill to the action fireworks. You’ll love it 3000. And not for a minute will you believe it’s really a farewell. (Sidenote: I was totally right on that one—hello “Doomsday”).