Avengers: Endgame

Eleven years and twenty two movies have brought us to the Endgame. The film opens in a dark place. Half of the world’s population have been erased. The other half isleft to deal with the fallout of that reality. This offers us a raw look into the demons the remaining heroes have been fighting over the course of their individual storylines. The new world forced upon them by Thanos doesn’t offer the same ability ot hide from or ignore them. Some fair better than others but overall, we are dropped into a world with little hope.

Enter Ant-Man. Scott Lang’s time suspended in the ether infuses the story with something no other character could muster: Fresh outrage, fresh sorrow, fresh drive and, most importantly, fresh perspective served with a heaping side of comic relief. He, in effect, becomes the Gondor beacons for the rest of the Avengers. They assemble for one last shot at setting things right.

Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evens are MCU cornerstones. Endgame reminds us exactly why that is. Nat is poised to “do this all day”, Cap toils to “clear the red in his ledger” and Tony is “standing like a tree” but also “compromising where he can”. These are not the spaces where these characters normally exist, but there they are. And the actors take off running, bring us along for the adventure.

Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth have always served as foils for one anther but not quite in the way we see them here. These two actors tell the duel tale of acceptance and letting go. Two of the themes running through the core of this film. And here too the audience gets superb performances. Karen Gillian’s Nebula is the visual embodiment of the struggle within Endgame. She plays a damaged and abused version of Nebula and a conflicted and recovering Nebula sometimes in the same scene. The added layer of cyborg detachment doesn’t take away from her character’s struggle or the actor’s performance.

The entirety of the MCU force is woven into the fabric of this epic. Friends and foes, both new and old, are reacquainted in Endgame. This, of course, means limited screen time for some of our favorites. I almost wish for this section of the saga to have been a trilogy. That said, I don’t know if I could have taken the suspense of waiting for another movie’s release.

Endgame kicked me right in the feels. This was a swan song intended to make us laugh, cry, and sometimes do both at the same time. And I did all of those things. I did not leave my seat following the fade to black. Yes, there was no Easter egg in the credits. I knew that going in. I needed time to gather myself before walking back into the real world and away from the fitting and touching conclusion.