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RATING:  A-

  • RATED PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action violence and some language
  • RELEASED: April 26, 2019
  • RUNTIME: 3 hr. 1 min.
  • WRITTEN BY: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
  • DIRECTED BY: Joe Russo and Anthony Russo
  • STARRING: Chris Evans, Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johannson, Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle, Karen Gillan, Brie Larson, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tessa Thompson and Josh Brolin

The monumental culmination of 11 years, and 22 movies is finally here. The grand payoff of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ‘Avengers: Endgame’ is now in theaters. Last year, ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ left our jaws on the theater floor when the mad Titan, Thanos, snapped his fingers with the Infinity Gauntlet and wiped out half of all life, killing some of our favorite heroes like Spider-Man, Star-Lord and Groot. In ‘Avengers: Endgame’ the remaining Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy are broken; for the first time they lost and they’re trying to live in a world without their loved ones. At the same time, they’re trying to find a way to undo what happened.

I won’t spoil anything major but, since the movie has been out for three weeks, I will get into some plot points. We’ve spent a year theorizing and thinking of all the 14,000,605 realities that Doctor Strange saw and guessing who would die. 

This is arguably the biggest movie of all time. What each Marvel film has been up to. And fortunately, what we get is a mostly satisfying conclusion to the MCU. Once again, the Russo Brothers have made a superhero film that isn’t all about the action, but is more about the emotion. We’ve spent 11 years watching our favorite characters grow, and in this film most of their arcs are completed, sending off their characters either alive or dead. We really get to spend time with them, though. There is a five year time jump, characters like Captain America and Black Widow are having a hard time moving on from Thanos; Tony Stark believes that he’s found his second chance with his daughter, and he is reluctant to go through with time travel when Ant-Man has the idea; Thor has become an overweight, depressed alcoholic and he blames himself for what happened. Even characters like Nebula and Hawkeye have time to shine. In this film we really get into the fact that beyond their fantastic abilities, the Avengers are humans at the end of the day. And, the idea of time travel also serves each of their stories well. Besides the fact that we get to revisit some of our favorite scenes from previous Marvel films, we also get to see loose ends tie up, and we see characters confront their pasts. Additionally, it’s also sad for us because we know that it’s the end of an era. Many of our favorite characters won’t be coming back.

But yes, the action and excitement we’ve come to know and love from Marvel films is here, and maybe better than ever. There are truly epic moments and jaw-dropping battles where you may very well be losing your mind. It’s insanely crowd-pleasing. When I saw the movie at the opening night fan event, the theater was roaring just about every second. But just because it’s awesome doesn’t mean that it’s flawless.

Last year Thanos solidified himself as one of the best movie villians of all time. Besides the fact that he was an actual threat and hat he was genuinely intimidating, he was a developed character. You understood his motives and that he believes what he was doing is right. There was also an emotional relationship between Thanos and his daughter, Gamora, who he sacrificed to get the Soul Stone. When Infinity War ended, it felt like there was so much more to tell with Thanos and many loose ends that I expected to be tied up in this film. Unfortunately, they don’t really five Thanos as fitting a conclusion as they do for the Avengers. He deserved much more screen time and many of the unfinished business with his character (especially between him and Gamora) is never finished here. Also, although most story lines and character arcs pay off, not all of them do. Hulk was a cool spin in this film as he has learned to merge both of his identities but it feels like his arc is finished by the beginning of the film. He doesn’t get time to really transform throughout the movie. War Machine/Rhodey also doesn’t get much of a chance to further his character and neither does Rocket. 

I would also like to have seen particular characters interact with each other more often. In terms of story lines that don’t pay off, the biggest one is certainly the relationship between Hulk and Black Widow. Their romance began as far back as Avengers: Age of Ultron and further hinted at in Infinity War, but it doesn’t really finish off in this film. Not everyone took to their romance, but I found it to serve both of their characters well. Lastly, even though the stakes are monumental and there is a lot of tension, I found that there were some missed opportunities to add even more tension.

In the end, Avengers: Endgame is a majestic and emotional 3 hour film (that feels like 2) that balances character and action extremely well. Disney really pulled off something special with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They created a living and breathing world with a horde of incredible human stories, and it’s all led up to this extraordinary blockbuster that serves as a fitting send off for our characters and an emotional end to what is being called the Infinity Saga.