“Avengers: Endgame is the perfect ending to the biggest franchise in history.”
The culmination of everything we’ve seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the first Iron Man movie in 2008 is here with Avengers: Endgame. Back in 2008, a few people had a big idea for us comic book fans. That idea started with Iron Man, where at the end of the film, Samuel L. Jackson showed up and wanted to get a team together. That team would be the Avengers, that would go on to team up everyone’s favorite superheroes, including Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Black Panther, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Captain Marvel, Ant-Man, The Wasp, The Guardians of the Galaxy, Scarlett Witch, Vision, The Winter Soldier, and a few others. Spread over the course of ten years, these filmmakers and Marvel Studio execs have crafted an intense storyline that has continued over the last decade with rich and iconic characters that have had their own movies to shine, along with teaming up here and there to take on bigger threats.
Since the first Avengers film, the real big threat was revealed to be Thanos, an alien who wanted to take the Infinity Stones so that he could snap his finger and instantly destroy half of all life in the universe. If you were paying attention to the past Marvel movies, you’d see that he was successful in gearing up to that destiny and with the previous Avengers: Infinity War film – well, we all know how that turned out. Anthony and Joe Russo are back in the director’s chair to bring this multi billion dollar franchise to a close with Avengers: Endgame in their three hour opus. It’s a quick three hours as well, so don’t worry about being bogged down by dragging dialogue or side tangents. Every action and conversation is earned and means something here as the Russo’s have mixed a perfect batch of emotions, comedy, and major thrills one last time.
This climatic film of course, follows the events of Avengers: Infinity War, where we see the remainder of the superheroes trying to pick up the pieces and figure out a way to fix everything. What’s great about it is that everything we’ve seen in the trailers, basically happens in the first thirty minutes of the film, leaving the remaining 2.5 hours in uncharted territory and oh boy, does it deliver on every level. In Avengers: Infinity War, there were a couple of moments in that film where you wanted to stand up out of your chair and yell cheers and applaud, particularly the scenes where Captain America showed up behind the moving train and caught the spear weapon. The other was when Thor and Groot showed up in Wakanda and wreaked havoc together. Those two scenes evoked so much joy, thrills, and excitement that you can ‘t help but want to scream and call your hands in happiness. In Avengers: Endgame, there are a couple of moments like that as well, but you can amplify them by 10,000. Yes, it’s that good.
The characters we have come to know over the years have all grown and transformed into something more than we first met them. The Russos have perfectly showcased the very tiny and subtle changes throughout the film, some of which are physical changes, where others are harder to see, but it’s spectacular to see these little moments played out, which are sure to conjure up some emotions and understanding. It’s a beautiful thing to see transpire on screen for sure.
In the end, Marvel has made a successful and wonderful go at the superhero franchise. While this feels like the conclusion, we all know there will be more, but without certain characters. Avengers: Endgame feels like the end for some of the characters as we’ve come to know them, however, the film is riddled with very small tidbits of furthering a storyline with many of its characters and I do hope at some point down the line, we will see them again, but for now, this was the perfect sendoff to some of the most entertaining motion pictures that have ever been put on screen. It was done with love, elegance, and fun, making Avengers: Endgame the perfect ending to the biggest franchise in history.
Written by: Bryan Kluger