Avengers: Endgame - What We Got Vs What Was Advertised
Marvel did whatever it took to surprise us.
Avengers: Endgame has arrived, giving us answers to all of those mysteries that built up in the 12 months following Infinity War's shocking conclusion, and rounding out the first three Phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The movie is many things: it's thrilling, emotional, funny, silly, and a bit messy, but perhaps above all else, it is absolutely full of surprises. It's rare that you go into a blockbuster nowadays with very little idea of how things are going to play out but, apart from a rough notion of the framework - they have a plan, it doesn't work, they go back in time - there is a LOT in the movie that, to paraphrase Quicksilver, fans did not see coming.
A lot of that is down to the nature of the movie, which, because of the fact it's a time travel flick and needs to tie together pieces from 21 other films, is able to throw a lot of ideas into the mix. But it's also thanks to Marvel's marketing strategy for the film too.
5. What Marvel Advertised
Back in January, Marvel chief Kevin Feige said that reports the trailers wouldn't show anything beyond the first 15-20 minutes were somewhat accurate, indicating that everything we were going to see in the promotional materials was, even being conservative and stretching that timeframe, just from the first act of the film.
Within those trailers, then, what we had were teases of what seemed like two different plans: one where the heroes would go to defeat Thanos and get the Stones back (which would fail), and then the one involving the Quantum Realm and those lovely new white suits. Tonally, it was fairly dark and a bit miserable, with a real focus on the grief felt by the surviving heroes, with the shots of the support group and Statue of Liberty giving the movie a serious The Leftovers vibe.
There were atmospheric shots of Tony Stark in space, lots of black and white imagery to remind us of the fallen, and the whole thing had the air of being quite a serious, sombre piece, alongside having some moments of explosive action.