AVENGERS: ENDGAME Packs Marvel’s Strongest Emotional Punch to Date

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a wild achievement. The most ambitious project in cinema history and seemingly the only successful interconnected universe, it has attracted a massive amount of conversation over the last 11 years. The debates have ranged in topic from the usefulness of corporate art to the existence of Superhero Fatigue to Marvel’s lackluster color palette to the importance of representation to the Death of Cinema. Obviously, hyperbole has followed viewers at every turn, but it’s undeniable that producer Kevin Feige has engineered the franchise to dominate the cultural conversation, and it has for over a decade. And now we’re here at the “End,” whatever that means to a story defined by its inability to cease. With Avengers: Endgame, Marvel’s task was as large as the universe itself — directly follow-up Avengers: Infinity War, deliver a satisfying conclusion to this saga, and, most importantly, justify the existence of the last 21 films. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo, along with their writing partners Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, return as the first directors to make a fourth entry in the universe, and somehow, they pull off a massive success on every level. Miraculously, the team has created an overwhelming triumph on every front with the universe’s strongest, most impactful, and best entry to date.

The task of approaching a pre-release review for a film of this magnitude is tough, as I obviously want to stay entirely spoiler-free, but also need to figure out how to convey the truly momentous accomplishment of Endgame. Typically, this is the part of the review that features a brief breakdown of the plot and the characters, but how necessary could that possibly be for the 22nd entry in the biggest franchise ever, on a follow-up to a bonkers cliffhanger? So here’s all I can muster: Thanos won and killed half of the universe. The original six Avengers survived, plus a few of their less-important friends. Tony Stark is stuck in space. Captain Marvel is here now. They have to devise a plan and figure out just what it is superheroes do after suffering their greatest failure.

The closest thing to a main character in Avengers: Infinity War was Thanos, which finally added depth to a villain who’d been teased for six years, but sacrificed some of the time spent with the huge roster of heroes. As a result, the breakneck pace and disregard for character introductions put many off from the movie, making it feel more like a “fans only” experience than a standalone entry. In Endgame, the Russos fix some of these issues, but it’s not a 360-turnaround. Whereas Infinity War felt like the duo fully embracing their style of Marvel movie, convoluted plot and all, Endgamefeels more like a traditional Avengers movie. The added running time (and shortened character roster) provides breathing room, allowing the movie to be truly character-focused in the way that Joss Whedon’s two Avengers films were. And though this creates a more welcoming tone for viewers, the script is so saturated with reverence for the universe that even die hard series fans might miss moments, and newcomers could be entirely lost.

The secret of Marvel’s success doesn’t lie, like many other franchises, in grand stories that ape ancient myths or even the impeccable casting of heroes, but in the rewarding payoff of an intersecting universe. By placing all of their heroes in a single, frequently overlapping world, Kevin Feige helped create a series that is always seconds away from a little injection of fun from another time, place or tone. Need an Avenger to make your small-scale Ant-Man movie feel important? Boom, Falcon is here. Need to connect your space saga to the main story? Blam, Thanos pops in to act menacing. Not sure where to take the last Thor movie? Try popping in The Hulk just to see what happens. Sure, some of these were cheap ploys to achieve something the movie hadn’t earned, but it was almost always rewarding to see characters you love surprisingly stop in when you weren’t expecting them. Avengers films were meant to take that feeling and run with it for two hours, but nothing has ever quite succeeded in this regard like Avengers: Endgame. As the climax of the series, it delivers the longest and most powerful sustained payoff I’ve ever witnessed outside of the Japanese Zombie hit One Cut of the Dead (it rules). And once this thing approaches its third act, it ratchets up to a whole other level, packing in an entirely earned hour of pure bliss. Some are sure to deridingly call it fanservice, but when something is perfectly set up and well-earned, does that word even apply anymore? Nevertheless, the finale is so brilliant and so powerful, it justifies every moment that’s come before, even The Incredible Hulk and Thor: The Dark World.

In 2012’s The Avengers, Tony Stark knows that Loki has gone to Stark Tower because of his vanity: “He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered on it.” Avengers: Endgame is Marvel’s monument built to the skies. It’s massive, prideful, and unquestionably in love with itself. Viewers who’ve found themselves disenfranchised will find little to love, but True Believers will relish in every moment, callback, and interaction. And why wouldn’t they? This saga has been a comforting, reliable bit of positive escapism for the past 11 years, and now the fans and filmmakers are taking one last victory lap together. It’s with us till the end of the line.