‘Avengers Endgame’ an epic conclusion to the Infinity Saga

After the shocking, and somewhat depressing, ending to Avengers: Infinity War, Kevin Feige and the Russo brothers give fans a big budget thriller with serious consequences to wrap up a decade of films, the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), all linked together to form the “Infinity Saga.”

Endgame wastes no time jerking at your emotions with Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) facing the consequences of Thanos’ snap. There is an immediate effort to take on Thanos (Josh Brolin) with the help of Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and the resulting showdown gives us the ending to Infinity War that many fans wanted.

After a five-year time jump, Earth is still in ruin and the universe is a mess. Half of all living creatures are still gone and the surviving heroes are exhausted and still dealing with their own emotional baggage as some crises demand their attention.

A contrived and cliched random act gets Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) out of the Quantum Realm, who then sets the groundwork for the scheme to use time travel to undo the events of Infinity War.

Don’t worry, once Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) is brought into the fold (yes, the teasers are true, it’s Professor Hulk), the quantum changes and time travel are explained and mocked, which includes a jab at fan favorite, such as Back to the Future.

The new team (six Avengers, Ant-Man, War Machine, Rocket and Nebula) attempts to execute this scheme and the journey is fun and entertaining.

Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans take a team back to the 2012 battle in New York (as seen in The Avengers) before some complications which force a trip further back to the 70’s. Hawkeye and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) head to Vormir (the location of the Soul Stone), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) head to Asgard during the events of Thor: The Dark World and an unlikely duo of Don Cheadle’s War Machine and Karen Gillan’s Nebula intercept the opening sequence of Guardians of the Galaxy as Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) steals the Power stone on Morag.

Endgame takes the core six Avengers and the audiences across the MCU before “closing the book” in a metaphorical and literal manner.

The plan isn’t going to work out as the audience finds out more information than the characters and this drives the tension through the middle of the film. Thanos plays a different big bad, getting more evil as the film progresses. Brolin’s villain is certainly less likable this time around, more simplistic, growing increasingly more arrogant as the film progresses.

The third act is truly epic.

Don’t worry, no spoilers here — just know this is on the scale of The Lord of the Rings and it makes perfect sense, ripe with powerful and emotional moments.

Evans, Hemsworth and Downey Jr. get to shine throughout the film, all in different ways, and make the “goodbye” very difficult.

There will posts, threads and debates listing off the dozens of errors, plot holes and consequences which come with any time travel film. Some characters are around but never get used (I don’t want to spoil that here), but don’t fret: Endgame is the film you wanted to wrap this up and make things right again in the MCU.

The Russo brothers prove to be masters at the superhero narrative, splitting up the team, making events matter, interjecting a joke, making us appreciate the past and, ultimately, pulling of Endgame as more than some “undo button.”

Endgame gets heavy.

At one point during the time travel debate, Rhodey (Cheadle) asks why they don’t go back in time and just kill Thanos (basically the whole ‘Would you go back in and kill Hitler debate), which prompts a discussion on morality, not just the science fiction of a time paradox.

Avengers: Endgame gets 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

SPOILERS (Not the biggest ones) on the next page(s)

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