Review – Avengers: Endgame

THIS REVIEW IS 110% SPOILER FREE, SO KEEP READING!!

Well, we’re here.  We’re in the Endgame now.  After eleven years and twenty one movies, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has finally come to this.  Avengers: Endgame is the finale of one of cinema’s greatest journeys and answers all the burning questions that have plagued us for the last year and ties up the last eleven years of cinematic world building.

The result is sheer perfection.  Avengers: Endgame is everything you want in a finale and more.  It’s a big, bold, sprawling epic film that finishes off this saga in a powerful, thrilling, emotional way.

Usually in my reviews, I like to give a basic plot summary for the film at hand incase people don’t know what the film is about.  I cannot do that for Endgame.  So much speculation about what was going to happen and what the plot was going to be have been circulating the internet for the last year and everyone has their own theory, whether it be a storyline from the comics or a plot that makes sense in this current cinematic universe, so giving away the events that happen would immediately confirm or deny what everyone was thinking.  So I’m not going to do that here.

Here’s what you need to know: Thanos (Josh Brolin) has snapped half the living creatures out of the galaxy, turning them into a clouds of dust.  The Avengers that are still alive are Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and newcomers Rocket Racoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), Okoye (Danai Gurira), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), and Captain Marvel (Brie Larson).  Together, along with the assistance of some others from the past, they must come together to undo what Thanos has done and make the universe whole again.

The main complaint I heard from Avengers: Infinity War was that it wasn’t really an Avengers movie because the team was never whole, which is fair, as they were split between different reaches of space and Wakanda.  Fear not with this one, my friends, this is a true Avengers movie.  The first third of the movie brings everyone who is alive together, no matter where they are in the galaxy.  They get over their squabbles (mainly Iron Man and Cap), reconnect, and conjure up a plan on how to defeat Thanos.  It felt like I was watching superhero Ocean’s 11, where Captain America was Danny Ocean and Black Widow was Rusty.  There are tons of laughs, particularly from Ant-Man and Thor (who may have let himself go a little bit) that keep within the comedic level that we have come to know from the MCU.  It is a blast to watch everyone come together and be the heroes that we fell in love with.

The second act of the film is the team executing the plan, which again, is wildly entertaining.  Once they have their plan and their set assignments, the team breaks up to complete their goal, though not without their fair share of problems.  Like the first act, the film has plenty of hilarious moments, but this is where the film starts to pull at the heartstrings, as past loves, influences, and family come back into the fray and the stakes of what the team is doing really come to a head.  There are parts in this second act that remind us why the quality of this series is so good, as we are reminded of past films, rekindling that feeling we had when we first saw our heroes.

This all culminates into the third act, which is one of the MCU’s greatest achievements to date.  Watching this was an emotional roller coaster and the reason we go to the movies.  The final set piece is the biggest cinematic scene I have seen since “The Battle of Helms Deep” in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.  It’s a gigantic, exhausting, masterfully crafted sequence that had me all over the place.  I was thrilled, scared, surprised, and sad.  My palms were sweating, my heart was racing, and there were a number of occasions where a lump formed in my throat.  There is so much happening in this finale, yet it is never confusing or unfocused.  Credit the Russo Brothers for making sure every hero got their due and had the light shine on them, even if for a little bit.  And at the end of it all, gasps and sniffles reigned over the theater in an ending that is equal parts tragic, heroic, and satisfying.

The epilog of the film and the film’s credits are a beautiful love note to the heroes and actors who started this franchise and the heroes who will continue it.  We must never forget the genius who built a suit in a cave with a box of scraps or the little guy from Queens who, “can do this all day”.  But we must also look to the future of a young web-slinger from Brooklyn, an African king, and a new intergalactic hero.  Avengers: Endgame sends our heroes off in a searing, grandiose, heartfelt finale that is nothing short of perfect.

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