Avengers: Endgame

So, this is it. After 11 years and 21 movies, we are in the endgame. This film, along with Avengers: Infinity War, has been the ultimate finale that Marvel and fans worldwide have been anticipating. Through the early origin stories, the battles with HYRDA, the revolutionary Guardians films and unimaginable division seen in Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) and Captain America’s (Chris Evans) showdown piece Captain America: Civil War, the franchise has been working towards this final chapter, the world waiting on tenterhooks for Joe and Anthony Russo to work their magic. Well ladies and gentlemen, the wait is finally over and boy was it worth it.

Avengers: Endgame begins where Infinity War concluded, picking up the story merely weeks after the day that Thanos (Josh Brolin) snapped his gauntlet-bearing fingers and wiped out half of all life in the universe. A moment that left fans rooted to their seats as the credits rolled, wondering how their favourite heroes could possibly salvage some hope from the devastating wreckage they had just witnessed.

The Avengers are suffering. The universe, too, is suffering and with members of the group begrudgingly choosing different paths in life to even remotely move on from the past, all hope does appear lost. That is until the presumed vanished Ant Man, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), returns from the quantum realm in which he became stuck at the close of Ant Man and the Wasp and informs his teammates that, although significant time may have passed in their reality, for him it’s only been five hours. Taking this opportunity to explore the depths and possibilities of time travel, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and the remaining Avengers reunite in one final attempt to obtain all of the Infinity Stones before Thanos, revisiting some of their greatest franchise moments and risking it all in the slight hope of bringing back those that the universe lost.

A steady builder that is staged in three acts that succeed the narrative in Infinity War, the final film follows the fallout of “the snap”, the resurrection of hope in which character play and exploration unfolds, and finally a climax that meets and exceeds all expectation in a spectacle that must be seen to be believed. Pacing is key for a sustainable story arc that can engross an audience for a full 181 minutes and Avengers: Endgame manages this just about perfectly, allowing the viewer to indulge in some real crowd-pleasing dialogue and visuals whilst also splashing a level of uncertainty across every scene.  

Each acts presents various character and narrative arcs, but also touches on greater themes and addresses scenes of emotion with the upmost sensitivity, and characters are reunited with family members who perished either in earlier life of previous instalments. Avengers: Infinity War was Thanos’s film, one that established him as one of the most complex supervillains ever to grace the screen, but Endgame is a feature about the Avengers, going deeper into each person’s past to show struggles we may not have envisaged and asking what they will do next.

This movie delivers plenty of fan service and even those who aren’t followers of the MCU can still see that it is a prime example of how a superhero flick should be executed. Before the creation of the MCU that we know today, superhero and comic book films had a very limited grounding with seriously varying degrees of success. Over the past 21 movies, Marvel has learnt, going form strength to strength to perfect number 22. Likewise, the soundtrack, cinematography and visuals in this final instalment, are nothing short of spectacular. There is absolutely no doubt that this film must has been a complete pain and endlessly laborious task to edit but this has paid off to deliver a cataclysmic and cosmic delight.  

Even with its three-hour runtime, Avengers: Endgame is so desperately enticing and engaging throughout that this truly makes it a five-star feature. It’s heartwarming, heartbreaking, awe-inspiring and brilliantly diverse with a beautifully handled conclusion. There are simply not enough superlatives to evaluate this film, which proves to be the perfect send off for some of the MCU’s beloved characters. Yes, if broken down into the finest of fine elements there may be hairline fractures in the movie’s plot and exhibition of themes, but as a whole Avengers: Endgame really is a demonstration of how Marvel have worked so hard to get it just right. 

Guy Lambert

Avengers: Endgame is released nationwide on 25^th April 2019.

Watch the trailer for Avengers: Endgame here: