After 21 films worth of waiting, Marvel has finally reached the conclusion to the Infinity Saga in Avengers: Endgame. The collective movies had mad billions of dollars, and captured the hearts of comic book fans around the world. The prior entry, Avengers: Infinity War added a certain sense of gravitas and catharsis to the Marvel Universe. The prior film left fans not only devastated, but with more questions than answers with it's cliffhanger, serial ending. So how does the conclusion fare? Are the Fallen avenged? Is Endgame worth the hype?
One of my greatest praises of Shazam! was the amount of personal consequence it had. One of my biggest criticisms of most superhero movies is that the consequence is constantly about saving the world. This then makes saving the world a redundant outcome that we know the superheroes will eventually solve. With constant resurrections and story revisions, the Marvel Universe greatly lacked this. Yet even though the world saving was still the primary conflict of Endgame, the story contained personal consequence for each individual character that made the film far more endearing to the viewer. This filled the film with incredibly written, visceral moments of joy, pain, and everything in between.
The amount of story-boarding that went into the film is insane. The run time is long, but a necessary evil to the human bladder to tie up so many loose ends within an incredibly convoluted plot. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has so many characters, and Endgame gives resolution to their individual strife, while raising questions that can be pursued in future films. It gives each character their own space in the spotlight while concurrently sharing it equally. It is absolute brilliant direction by the Russo brothers.
I cannot justifiably call Endgame the singular greatest superhero film of all time. Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy is still brilliant, and did not need 21 films of buildup. Yet it absolutely rivals the trilogy with the first Marvel film that takes a chance with the ultimate pathos. The film rewards the fans who have seen all of the films, even the poorer entries, while inviting new fans with instant accessibility. I never checked my watch, I never felt the need to get up from my seat, which is something that has never occurred for me within a three hour movie. Not every direction choice worked as intended, not every story point was logistically flawless, but it still works. I laughed, I cried, and sometimes even did bof. Not both, but BOF. I can't give Avengers:Endgame any grade worse than perfect.
(Grade: 10/10)
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