Avengers: Endgame

image for Avengers: Endgame

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Not recommended under 13; parental guidance to 15 (violence, distressing themes, language, alcohol)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Avengers: Endgame
  • a review of Avengers: Endgame completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 30 April 2019.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 13 Not recommended due to distressing themes, violence, language, and substance use.
Children aged 13–15 Parental guidance recommended due to distressing themes, violence, language, and substance use
Children over the age of 15 Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Avengers: Endgame
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Violence
Length: 181 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Avengers: Endgame follows on directly from last year's film Avengers: Infinity War. Following the catastrophic and devastating events of Avengers: Infinity War, in which Thanos (Josh Brolin) ‘disappeared’ half of life in the universe; the Avengers are seeking out Thanos and trying to find a way to return the universe to the way it was.  After failing for five years to fix what happened, an old ally makes a surprise visit to the remaining Avengers, concocting a crazy, time-bending plan to prevent their Archnemesis from getting the infinity stones in the first place.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Death; loss; supernatural/fantasy; alcohol dependence; suicide.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is frequent violence in this movie including:

  • Frequent hand-to-hand combat sequences, for example, punching, kicking, etc.
  • Characters fight with samurai swords and a man is slashed through the throat (blood is visible) and then impaled with a sword.
  • Characters are shot with guns, both laser and traditional. A character is shot through the head.
  • A character’s hand is chopped off with an axe and then beheaded.
  • Large scale battle sequences occur. Many characters are beaten up, shot at, and killed.
  • A character jumps to her death and her body is shown with blood surrounding her head.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Many of the characters in this film are monster-like and unusual looking and they are likely to frighten young children.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Family members of characters disappear into nothingness. This is likely to distress children in this age group as the loss of loved ones is obviously upsetting within the film.
  • Numerous large-scale disasters occur. Children may find this distressing due to the scale of the destruction.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • A character deliberately jumps to her death. This is likely to be very distressing to children in this age group, as she is sacrificing herself for others.
  • A central character is forced to sacrifice himself by using a weapon that burns half of his body. He is shown burnt and dying.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • There are multiple deaths within this film of beloved characters. This may be distressing to children in this age group, as the deaths are not typical action-film deaths, but more intense, emotional and affecting.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Build-A-Bear
  • Audi
  • Coca Cola
  • Smartphones (iPhones)
  • Fortnite video game
  • Ben & Jerry’s ice cream

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Alcohol (particularly beer) is drunk profusely by one character.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Crap
  • Ass
  • Goddamn
  • Shit (bullshit)
  • Idiot
  • Dickhead
  • Pissant
  • Son of a bitch

In a nutshell

Avengers: Endgame is the final instalment of the Marvel Avengers film series. While it is long at 181 minutes, the film is engaging and entertaining from start to finish, with strong performances from all involved.  The film is both funny and emotionally poignant, with the stories of many long-loved characters coming to an end.  Teenagers aged 13 and above are likely to really enjoy this film, however parental guidance is recommended due to the frequency of violence and destruction. Children under 12 will likely be quite distressed by the numerous and often violent deaths within the film, so it is not recommended for this age group.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Always rely on and support your friends and family in times of need.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Playing with arrows without adult supervision.
  • Bullying behaviours while playing video games.
  • Imitating any of the violent or risky content in the film.