The horrid course of events set in motion by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, which wiped out half of the universe and fractured the Avengers ranks, compels the remaining Avengers to make one final stand in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame. If you have to say goodbye, then this is the way to say it.
The MCU has become the highest-grossing franchise factory in history, weaving together characters, plot lines, and concepts over the course of eleven years and twenty-two films. All of this comes together in Avengers: Endgame as Marvel concludes its Avengers series – and an entire act of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – with a bang.
This isn’t, by any means, the end of the MCU. There will be additional films in the future, including a standalone Black Widow film, Spider-Man: Away from Home, Captain Marvel, The Eternals, and others. The Avengers, though, has been the centrepiece of this entertainment behemoth until now.
People who were upset that some of the original Avengers were either neglected or absent entirely in Infinity War, will be pleased with this sequel. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson), Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) are all in the spotlight, with each of them facing decisions and actions that, in some cases, date back to their first screen appearances.
Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) both play major roles this time around, while Josh Brolin’s Thanos is as terrifying and powerful as ever — albeit a tad less complex than he was in Infinity War.
The actors all redeem this film — and possibly the entire genre — by reminding us why they were cast in the first place: they’re still human, compelling, and unforgettable as the CGI turns off and the superhero uniforms fade away. All of them deserve a standing ovation.
Ultimately, what audiences got when they stepped into a packed cinema to see the end of the first major arc of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was a film that just about everyone could agree was made with a lot of love, time, and effort — done in a way that none of the MCU films before it had ever been.
The one complaint of Avengers: Endgame is that it set the bar so high that no future superhero film will likely ever be able to meet it. There are no words that could possibly do this film justice. But, if we have to use one, then, in a word…
It’s fantastic.
