Movie Review: Avengers: Endgame

There’s always the fear when a beloved series comes to an end that its big finale won’t wrap up its characters’ stories in a way that leaves fans content and accepting of that fact that it’s time to move on.

Such has been the case for some popular television shows like How I Met Your Mother’s controversial series finale.

With 11 years and 21 movies under its belt, Marvel Studios created its own series for the big screen in forming the Marvel Cinematic Universe–one that gave the world some of the most beloved fictional characters of all time.

So, with the release of arguably the most anticipated superhero movie of all time, Marvel Studios found itself in a make-or-break situation.

The MCU’s 22nd movie, Avengers: Endgame, would either do a complete disservice to 11 years of storytelling or give fans a conclusion for the ages.

And it did the latter.

Endgame proves to be as epic and heartfelt as promised by its cast and crew and serves as a love letter to fans who have invested in the MCU’s slate of films for years.

There isn’t much that can be said about Endgame without giving away important plot points.

There’s a reason why Marvel Studios kept its footage scarce in trailers and made its cast keep quiet on its press tour.

Quite frankly, that’s a good thing.

Endgame is a film best enjoyed without any prior knowledge of what’s going to take place.

It didn’t seem possible when Avengers: Infinity War came out last year that the MCU dream team of directors, Joe and Anthony Russo and Producer Kevin Feige, could top the risky ambition of allowing half of the universe’s population, including a significant number of its heroes, to turn to dust at the snap of fingers.

Yet, they did.

Endgame picks up where Infinity War left off, with its remaining heroes left in the fallout of Thanos’ actions, searching for a way to bring back the dusted population.

It’s no spoiler to say that seeing the original Avengers team of Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Bruce Banner/Hulk, Thor, Steve Rogers/Captain America and Tony Stark/Iron Man back together for the first time since Age of Ultron in 2015 is a moment worth waiting for.

While Infinity War did not give all of them a great deal of screen-time for narrative purposes (as it was essentially Thanos’ movie), Endgame puts them front-and-center once again.

What ensues is three hours of heart-stopping action, emotion, nostalgia and, of course, some light-hearted humor thrown in.

To top it all off, Endgame’s third act is quite possibly the greatest in Marvel history.

The film does have its flaws. With a lengthy runtime, scenes can feel drawn-out at times.

Nonetheless, these flaws hardly take away from the seamlessness of the rest of the movie.

At the end of the day, Endgame is a film to which no review can do justice. The magic of it is best experienced firsthand.

It’s a movie about hope–both hope that the heroes can give to the world and hope that they can give to one another.

It’s a movie about family, regardless of whether that family is blood-related or not.

It’s a movie that gives viewers pure, authentic superheroes doing what they do best.

It marks the end of an era, but that end is not something to be sad about.

The MCU is still set to go on, with Spider-Man: Far From Home premiering in July and a number of unconfirmed-but-likely movies slated for the coming years.

If anything, Endgame is a thank you from Marvel Studios to its fans for sticking with these heroes through 22 films.

And it deserves our thanks in return.