Showing up at a single-screen show of Avengers: Endgame without having seen the previous 21 films is daunting, to say the least. Doing so, there is the unmistakeable sense that you have spent eleven years out of the last eleven years living under a rock, plugging in your headphones when you hear the muffled sounds of pop culture pounding against the stone.
I cannot be the only one. There must be more of you, that special breed who on a Friday morning are more likely to be found in a mall’s food court (or at work!) than at the first-day first-show screenings held in packed theatres.
In my case, I was not a perfect Sanyasi from the world of pleasures that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). I had last watched Iron Man, back in 2008, and I do remember seeing glimpses of Dr. Strange while alone with a laptop and a power cut one Sunday evening. But, that was it. I had not seen Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, or any of the films introducing any of the other Avengers.
This 20-movie-streak had to end someday. And there is no better movie to end it with than with Endgame, the 22nd and ultimate achievement of Marvel Studios.
Avengers: Endgame is a moment like none other — no franchise in cinematic history has had a global fan following such as this one; no series has connected so many different characters and franchises together into one comprehensive all-you-can-OMG buffet. The meme world explodes with every new release from the MCU, and even those of us who live under rocks cannot fail to become aware of things like Thanos and institutions like the Avengers.
Here is the deal of filmmaking though — whether you are making a sequel, a prequel, or a conclusion to a combination of sequels and prequels, you owe it to the audience to be as self-explanatory as possible. Only a poorly made film would not be able to stand by itself. This is where Avengers: Endgame excels.
Watching this movie without watching the previous films is—surprisingly—like showing up to class without having done your homework only to find out that the teacher has scrapped the assignment (to the chargin of the studious front-benchers) to take the whole class out for pizza.
From start to finish, you are cushioned with a small and tasteful amount of exposition that lets you know what is going on, who fancies whom, why people do the things that they do, and how the plot is going to progress.
You know that roughly 50 percent of all living things have been wiped out by this Thanos fellow and this seems to be a bit of an issue with the good guys.
You have the main cast of heroes and villains, easily distinguishable by their general vibe.
Evil purple man
Big purple guy — Thanos. BAD. Cue evil music.
Only one of these is Captain America
Broad-chested guy with star on chest — Captain America. GOOD. Cue inspirational violin track.
Small anthropomorphic raccoon. Rocket. Cue comic relief. Not sure if he has a soundtrack (but he should).
Emotional baggage from the events of the last few films? Everyone. Cue sombre music and close-ups of brooding characters.
Brooding Robert Downey Jr.
The film delivers its strike to the chest more by creating emotional moments through solid acting than by using plot devices established in previous films. I can only imagine the connections you would have had with these characters had you followed them for years and years. For me, I was lucky to have watched Iron Man, for he proves a central character in the film.
For the non-fan, you would truly feel out of the loop in the moments when the audience cheers, hoots, shrieks and whistles. This is especially the case in the Indian single-screen theatre. And this becomes the case every time an Avenger is introduced in the film.
A character’s shoes are introduced on screen. Hoots and cheers. Their face is revealed. More cheers. A character stares at their helmet. Cheers. Close-up shot of the helmet. Cheering intensifies. I tried to count the Avengers (of whose members I know only Captain America, Spiderman and Thor by name) by the number of cheers but then I realised that some of the villains were also hoot-material (I thought purple man was bad?).
I realised the need for some backstory when a shield was introduced and the house went wild. But honestly, you can figure out these nuances by yourself. One can assume that the shield was used in earlier movies to hit or protect against something. And that it will be used for similar purpose in the remainder of this film. And spoiler alert — it is. #AvengersLeaks.
After a point, sitting silently in the theatre feels like sitting down during the national anthem. You know it is not illegal, but you also sense that the people around you are paying notice. Thankfully, MCU fans are not prone to violence in the cinema halls.
Spoiler alert #2: The movie has a beginning, a middle, and an end. And you can enjoy all of it just by suspending your sense of disbelief and by reading into the performances of the actors. You can tell who has lost something dear, who has found something worth holding onto, and who has some emotional baggage just waiting to be unlocked (Spoiler alert #3: it is eventually unlocked).
Tragically, the film has a few moments referencing other films you may not have watched (if you are also a rock dweller such as myself), including Back to the Future, Die Hard, Hot Tub Time Machine, The Terminator (Ok, I’ve seen this one) and Star Trek. If you are a true fan, you will watch all of these along with the previous MCU films. However, both true and non-true fans can agree that Michael J. Fox, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis can now logically be said to exist within the MCU — as actors, at the very least. This is huge.
After the film concluded, I waited in the cinema hall because everyone else was also waiting for a post-credits scene, a staple of MCU films. They ended up just watching the credits. After 22 films, Marvel has finally convinced fans to sit through the credits and acknowledge the immense list of talent that makes cinema possible.
All in all, Avengers: Endgame is a deeply satisfying experience, a testimony to great storytelling and great filmmaking. You can watch it without context, and that will grant you the key to the holy grail of Avenger’s memedom that will dominate social media over the next few weeks. It is enjoyable enough that you will want to watch the previous films. It is well worth moving out from under the rock to experience this emotional rollercoaster of popular culture.
