‘Avengers: Endgame’ Review

Avengers: Endgame is the perfect sendoff to the Infinity Saga, capping off a monumental run of films. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll cheer. Well at least I did.

After the devastating events of Avengers: Infinity War, the universe is in ruins. With the help of the remaining allies, the Avengers assemble once again.

Where were you doing on May 8th, 2008? Almost 11 years to the date, Iron Man was released in theatres, officially launching the MCU. Robert Downey Jr and Jon Favreau changed the landscape of Hollywood forever, catapulting this Marvel superhero’s into our lives. The MCU didn’t just change how we watch movies, it changed how movies were being made. Everyone wanted the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe” formula for their movie franchise. Some trying to emulate it as best they could, some succeeding to a certain degree, others failing miserably. After the end credits scene rolled on Iron Man, and Nick Fury, played by Samuel L Jackson said those famous words; “I’m here to talk to you about the Avengers initiative.” No one would have guessed the amount of success and praise that would follow.

Now here we are, 11 years and 22 films later. All leading to this, Avengers: Endgame. Ever since the events that unfolded last year in Infinity War, fans around the world have been dying to know how this was going to play out. We watched as some of our favorite heroes turned to dust, and watched Tony Stark deal with the impact of his favorite kid literally crumbling into his arms as Peter Parker blew away. I’ll begin with this. When I saw the movie, it was a sold-out show, and it took no time at all for this experience to turn into a rock concert. Throughout the movie, the audience was going nuts, and I couldn’t help myself but join in on the fun being had. This kind of environment was so heartwarming, knowing that you weren’t the only one who for the most part was screaming on the inside. It’s why they make these movies, for a crowd of people to embrace one another and share this journey together. Maybe that made me enjoy and like the film even more, but one thing is certain, Avengers: Endgame was worth the wait. Worth all the time and money I have put into the MCU over the last 11 years. All the midnight showings, all the repeat viewings, the pounds of popcorn and liters of soda I have ingested watching these films. The film almost honors the time you have spent with this franchise. What I mean is, they know that you’ve been on this 11-year journey, and they made damn sure you get what we all deserved, one satisfying ending.

This will be spoiler-free (for the most part), I will talk about one thing, but that one thing you should have known would happen, so it’s not even a spoiler at this point. We all know that two things happened. One, our friends and heroes were dusted, and that Thanos was still alive and still holding all of the infinity stones. In order to restore balance in the universe, it was pretty obvious that our heroes would need to do some time travel in order to do so. With Ant-Man sitting out the events of Infinity War, it was pretty clear that he would be the game changer the Avengers needed to tackle Thanos once and for all. If someone asked me to describe the plot of Endgame, I think I’d say, the Avengers are preventing Thanos from getting the stones in the first place – and they all need to be retrieved from a specific point in time so that they all can ultimately be returned to that exact moment in time, thus preserving the timeline. Make sense? Probably not, but that’s the best I could come up with, and to me, it’s pretty straightforward. I was a really big fan of how they were referencing other time travel movies, and almost calling bullshit on a lot of them, for not having proper time travel rules in place. That’s what makes the MCU so quirky and fun to be a part of. The idea of time travel and the consequences that come with it is so elemental to the very idea, that it can be a very hard thing to navigate through. But like most things the MCU does, I thought they handled it as well as they could. People will always poke and pry when it comes to time travel, but this movie has a talking raccoon, space robots and a giant talking tree, you can’t really expect the science to be perfect.

The team that we do have left is great, it was pretty neat seeing new teams being formed and friendships being made between characters I had no intention of thinking I wanted to see them on screen together. It’s just really difficult to talk about anything in this movie without giving ANYTHING away. Everyone in this film has something to do, a purpose, no one is sitting on the sidelines at all. They all get their moment to shine. Ant-Man serves as the real heart of the film, Paul Rudd gives his best performance to date in the MCU. Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr once again rule every scene they are apart of. I could go on forever about these two, but you already know the drill by now.

I’ll have to write a follow-up post dissecting and discussing everything that went down in Endgame. This review is really difficult to put into words because without expressing all my emotions from what transpired I can’t do it justice. All I know is this. Over the past 11 years, we have been treated to some extraordinary film-making and world-building. Hollywood was changed forever with the birth of the MCU, it truly is a special feat and something that will never be replicated or topped. It’s pretty incredible when you sit back and think about how all these movies intertwine and the cohesive storytelling that occurred. Endgame was the cherry on top of this already perfect sundae, and I wish I could relive my experience Thursday night.

Go see it, this is going to make a billion dollars this weekend alone. It won’t catch Avatar, nothing will, but if you have been alongside these heroes for the past 11 years, why give up now? Whatever it takes……..

Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – Avengers: Endgame = 100/100