Avengers: Endgame Review

A long movie deserves a long review.

Non-Spoiler Review

Going into this movie you have limited knowledge of what’s going to happen considering we were only given a handful of the first 15-20 minutes of the movie. This insane amount of secrecy provided for an enjoyable movie experience in which you’re not sure what to expect/ almost everything is a surprise. With a runtime of three hours Avengers: Endgame is a massive movie that did everything it set out to do. Picking up where Avengers: Infinity War left off, the remaining Avengers work together to defeat Thanos and use the Infinity Stones to undo the decimation. Somehow between all the action and plot, the Russo brothers found time for some great moments of character development. The movie gave me all the feels from its tense and emotional scenes to the usual Marvel humour, never done at the wrong time to rob a scene of its seriousness. There were some great call-backs to previous MCU films, featuring characters from all over the cinematic universe, and epic moments that felt like they were pulled right out of the comics.

Honestly hats off to the Russo brothers for putting together such a poetic ending to the Infinity Saga. And hats off to Kevin Feige for crafting an 11 year and 22 film masterpiece of a cinematic universe. Just thinking of the planning and dedication that went into such a long project with so many intricate moving parts I’m awestruck. No one has ever done something of this magnitude moreover executed it as wonderfully as Feige and co.

WARNING: Spoilers Below!!

The five-year time jump was completely unexpected but makes a lot of sense narratively. Had Ant-Man popped up as soon as they returned from their space mission to defeat Thanos it would have seemed way too convenient and would’ve made the stakes and losses in Infinity War seem trivial. Plus, the changes that occurred in those five years really allowed the characters to evolve, especially the original six Avengers.

The movie does a good job of explaining time travel, building off of the explanation of how time works from Doctor Strange. This makes sure the entire audience is on the same page with the characters as there have been numerous movies about time travel, each with their own rules. There’s also a nice refresher on the Infinity Stones that were discovered in more obscure films, like the Aether/Reality Stone in Thor: The Dark World because honestly who remembers or even saw that movie.

I really enjoyed the shenanigans when they travelled back to The Battle of New York in 2012. It was great fun to be back in the first Avengers film and there was a lot of great behind the scenes stuff we didn't get to see after Loki was defeated. When Steve got in the elevator with Agents Rumlow, Sitwell and the Strike Team it looked just like the elevator scene from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, aka the first Marvel movie the Russo Brothers directed. The difference is this time instead of beating them up Steve diffused the situation by whispering "Hail Hydra" to them, which is perfect as he has that future knowledge and it references the Secret Empire event from the comics. Also due to Stark and Scott's mistake in 2012, that version of Loki was able to escape with the Tesseract which sets up some future adventures for the character whether on the big screen or on the upcoming Disney+ show.

After years of complaining about how useless Black Widow was in previous Avengers’ movies, we finally discovered she would serve a much bigger purpose. During the mission to the past to retrieve the Infinity Stones, Hawkeye and Black Widow opted to get the Soul Stone from Vormir. What proceeded was a tense, tearful scene which tested just how strong Clint and Natasha’s friendship was. The two literally fought to sacrifice themselves so the other could live. The back and forth with each of them coming out on top kept us guessing who would make the sacrifice and worry about who we’d lose.

Although I think one of the best moments of the movie came while the Big Three of Iron Man, Captain America and Thor were fighting 2014 Thanos, i.e. when Captain America lifted Thor’s hammer Mjolnir. Even without any Infinity Stones Thanos still proved to be quite the challenge. The Mjolnir wielding Captain America and Thor wielding Stormbreaker almost had him if Thanos wasn’t worthy to take Stormbreaker from Thor.

The huge battle scene was epic. Finally, after eleven years, we got to see all (or almost all) the heroes of the MCU fighting together. It was funny how they ended up playing American football with the infinity gauntlet as the armies fought all around them. One standout moment in the huge battle sequence was the uniting of all the female Avengers, with the sad exception of Black Widow.

We finally got that group shot we wanted of all the characters of the MCU together, unfortunately, it was a bittersweet ensemble shot as they were all there to pay their respects to late Tony Stark. The MCU came full circle by killing off the character who kicked off the whole franchise. It was very touching to see that everyone had come to pay their respects to the founding Avenger who gave his life to save the entire universe whether they knew him well or not. The group shot also served to show us how far the MCU has come since Tony Stark first emerged from that cave in the Mark One. Although it was sad to see Tony go it wasn’t an unfair send-off. During the five-year time jump, Tony finally managed to retire, settle down with his wife Pepper and raise their daughter Morgan. Tony even had a final opportunity to bond with his father Howard and even offer him some parenting advice when he and Steve went back to 1970 to retrieve the Tesseract.

Captain America also got a nice end to his story. After Tony’s funeral, Steve was tasked with returning all six Infinity Stones and Mjolnir back to when they were taken. However, after completing his mission, Steve decided to travel back to the 1940s and live out his life with his lost love Peggy Carter. Presumably after Peggy’s death, Steve returned to 2023 where he handed down his mantle and a new shield from the past to Sam Wilson/Falcon.

Summing Up

Overall Avengers: Endgame isn’t just a massive action movie, it’s an emotional rollercoaster that brings the MCU’s Infinity Saga to a happy, poetic ending with great send-offs to characters fans have grown to love over the last eleven years. It’s a movie one wouldn’t want to miss and is probably best seen in the theatre. I give Avengers: Endgame a solid 9/10.