Avengers Endgame, which premiered in theaters on April 26, was the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 22nd movie and last movie in phase three. While it was the last Marvel movie for quite some time, (other than Spider-man: Far From Home) it definitely fulfilled expectations.
Following Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel fans were left to question the future of their favorite superheroes as Thanos, the main antagonist of Infinity War and Endgame, wiped half of the universe’s population out after acquiring all infinity stones.
Endgame takes place 23 days after this and we see the heroes planning on how they will get the stones back from Thanos, in hopes of bringing back those Thanos had killed. Upon finding Thanos, the Avengers face a problem: he destroyed the stones. Angered, Thor kills present Thanos.
After this scene, the movie fast forwards five years and spotlights Ant-Man returning from the Quantum Realm (he became stuck in here at the end of Ant-Man and the Wasp). Through conversing, Ant-Man convinces the Avengers to travel back in time and steal the infinity stones before Thanos ever obtained them.
The Avengers split up into three teams as the stones where located in three specific areas (all during different periods of time). These areas include New York City, Asgard (Thor’s homeland), and S.H.I.E.L.D military base.
As a result of obtaining the stones from the past, the teams reunited on Earth and unbeknownst to them, awaited a battle with past Thanos. After a heated exchange that seen maximum effort from both sides, Iron Man eventually used his homemade gauntlet, with all the stones in it, to kill past Thanos and his army.
Using the gauntlet did a great deal of damage to Iron Man and leads to him dying an almost immediate death. This is due to him being a human and not being able to withstand the energy that the gauntlet released. While this upset many Marvel fans, the reasonable fans will realize that he died for the greater good of the universe.
The film ends with The Avengers attending Iron Man’s funeral and with Captain America returning to the past to return the stones back to where they should be.
Of course, there is a great deal more to this movie as it was longer than three hours, but in all, directors Anthony and Joe Russo tied up most of the loose ends. I’m truly surprised they were able to do so, especially regarding how many different characters and sub story lines we had to follow in order to understand this movie.
On a surface level, people may take this as just another superhero movie, but it is more than that. This movie encapsulates all movie genres into one. Along with that, this movie will make you feel every emotion in its 181-minute run time.
The first scene makes the viewer say “whoa.” Thor’s introduction to the movie makes you laugh, the ending fight scene fills you with adrenaline, and the deaths of Iron Man and Black Widow make you sad. Never have I experienced such a spectrum of emotions in one movie until I seen Avengers Endgame.
I will not be a prisoner of the moment and say that this is the best movie ever. The box office numbers (it currently sits at $2.5 billion earned) and fan approval may say otherwise, but I won’t go that far. However, I will say that this movie is as close to perfect as you can get.
Out of 10, this movie falls into the 9.5-9.8 range. The only thing they could have buttoned up a little more closely is the time travel parts, but I do understand that introducing time travel to movies is tricky.
Overall, Avengers Endgame is easily the movie of the year and as time progresses, it could go down as the best Marvel movie of all time and the best movie of all time. I won’t go that far, but it is an exceptional film and is worth watching more than 3 times.
Story by: Zach Grinstead
