Avengers: Endgame lived up to expectations many times over. It perfectly capped off the last decade of MCU storytelling, gave fantastic endings to Iron Man and Captain America, and was a barnstorming financial smash. But despite all that, the continuing campaign to make the movie the highest grossing of all time is becoming an unfortunately sour coda to the film’s theatrical run.
As such, the news of last weekend’s re-release with new footage was met with a mixed reception. Many fans were eager to see the additional material, though to some it felt a little like cheating in order to grab the top spot. Regardless of which side of the fence you fell on, the verdict came in pretty sharpish on the new footage and it’s almost universally negative.
The most prominent new scene involves Hulk saving some children from a fire and making a phone call. On paper that sounds pretty neat, as Mark Ruffalo’s smart Hulk was one of the best things about Endgame. Who could say no to more of him? Well, it’s easy to when that scene turns out to be obviously unfinished, with the hero being compared to both Shrek and his appearances in early 2000s video games.
https://twitter.com/PaulGFanPage/status/1145497238610649088
you’re telling me,,, that the extra scene they added to endgame was,, an UNFINISHED clip of the hulk saving a couple people??? then answering a phone call?? which doesn’t even make any sense???
— Isaiah | LAWLIGHT DOMINATION (@SPIDERSTAPE) July 1, 2019
So the 7 mins they added to the #AvengersEndgame was just a scene of Hulk saving some people from a fire & some end credit scenes about Spiderman pic.twitter.com/hXJWhSUg4J
— KING 🦁 (@truenene) June 30, 2019
https://twitter.com/nyssavex/status/1145154743364476929
https://twitter.com/EIawnMosk/status/1145071095894200320
Disney really told y’all there’s a extra credit scene for End Game and threw in a Shrek Xenoverse mod and called it Hulk💀💀💀 pic.twitter.com/QKZX8WKF5B
— Plathanos 🐝 🇩🇴 (@SavinTheBees) June 30, 2019
https://twitter.com/EIawnMosk/status/1145071095894200320
I want him to burn. It’s what he deserves for all the pain he has caused me. Never has a thing been so deserving of a slow death, I need him to know that everyone hates him. He’s so unholy I’ve started to believe in god.
His name you ask ?
Unfinished CGI professor hulk. pic.twitter.com/BmNVpMdp7K— Thanos’ bitch (@Alytthompson) June 30, 2019
https://twitter.com/Kyte2227/status/1145387520533786625
You could argue that Marvel Studios did warn us that the footage would be unfinished, but it seems deeply unprofessional and a bit artistically bankrupt to attach a clearly incomplete scene like this to an excellent movie (it feels a little embarrassing for the pre-vis animators, if nothing else). Plus, it seems desperate if this is what they have to resort to to beat Avatar, which it didn’t even manage to do. The re-release made just $10 million dollars this past weekend, which still leaves it about $30 million short of James Cameron’s sci-fi epic.
I can get that it’d be the cherry on the cake for Marvel Studios to have Avengers: Endgame be the highest grossing film of all time, but can’t they just be happy with their legions of fans, ludicrous amounts of money and deep respect from the industry? Apparently not, if they’re resorting to releasing garbage like this to paying audiences.