Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Smith’s Verdict: ****
Reviewed by Tanner Smith

A lot of people will complain about going to a movie theater to sit through a three-hour film, in fear of having to leave to go to the bathroom and missing something important on-screen. And I’ll admit, they do have a point. Even the late Alfred Hitchcock once said, “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.” Well, with an epic as entertaining as “Avengers: Endgame,” built up to present the battle of all battles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s definitely important to let it all out right before the movie starts…not to be crude.

Point is, I didn’t miss a thing in this three-hour combination of action and emotion, and I’m so glad I didn’t.

I know fans are worried about spoiling “Avengers: Endgame,” so I’ll keep it mild at best in this review.

After the emotional climax of “Avengers: Infinity War” that left moviegoers shaken to the core, we expect to see something BIG in the follow-up. We know there’s going to be an amazing final battle that will hopefully make everything right again. We know there’s going to be intense drama as well as intense action. We even know at least two of our favorite Marvel heroes are going to die. And we know nothing is going to be the same after this. It’s inevitable—we’ve learned this from “Return of the Jedi,” “The Return of the King,” “War for the Planet of the Apes,” among others, and we assume it’ll also be the case for the upcoming “Star Wars” movie too. But what we don’t know is HOW it all plays out—and thus, you gotta see the movie, because we get all that…and more.

Much more. The hype is real, you guys.

“Infinity War” was only “Part One,” building up to “Endgame” for “Part Two.” We’ve lost many of our favorite superheroes, after the all-powerful Thanos (Josh Brolin) snapped his magical fingers and wiped out 50% of all living things. Among those left to rebuild are Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Rhodey/War Machine (Don Cheadle), and Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). Oh, and there’s also Thor (Chris Hemsworth)…he’s had better days, let’s just say. With help from Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), who was called upon by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) before he vanished along with the rest, they defeat Thanos…but then, it’s five years later and they’re not as close to accepting the loss of their loved ones as they say they are.

This is where the film packs an emotional punch. How these people deal with failure makes for great drama, and you feel for them as they try to make things better when it seems they have no other choice but to just live with it. Things change, however, when Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) reappears after having been stuck in the quantum realm the whole time. He finds the remaining Avengers and they fill him in on what’s happened. But wait! They say he’s been gone for five years, and yet he claims it only took five hours to get back to reality. This could mean that the quantum realm leaves open the possibility of time travel…

Needless to say, the Avengers develop a “time machine” and put Scott’s theory to the test. If it works, they have a chance at reversing Thanos’ process and bringing everyone back to life. This results in a “Back to the Future” type of adventure (“BTTF” is even mentioned a few times), in which the Avengers go back in time to prevent Thanos from collecting the Infinity Stones before he can use them all to rid the planet (and other planets) of half of life. (And alternate timelines are mentioned at one point. It doesn’t dwell on the issue, but I am glad they thought of it—“Back to the Future” sort of skipped over it, now that I think about it.) Comedy, action, even a little drama—all of that ensues during this incredible journey.

And that’s all I’m going to say about the plot, except that when we do get finally get the action-packed battle to end all battles, it’d be an understatement to say it was worth the wait.

It’s always great to see great action in these movies, but I was rather in awe of some of the smaller, more personal moments, such as when Scott returns to reality to find that half the world is gone and he frantically searches for his daughter (who was his whole reason for becoming a better person in “Ant-Man” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp”). And when the Avengers are on their time-travel mission, and one of them gets to talk to his own father before the son was born, and that reminds me that I don’t just watch these movies just to have fun—I watch them because I care about these characters…and have fun with them as well. I’m happy to have gotten to know them throughout the years.

I don’t want to go into any more detail, because to talk more about the emotional impact this film made is to spoil the entire film. So, I won’t.

It’s amazing to think how far the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come since its origin 11 years ago, with “Iron Man.” We’ve had many entertaining entries in this series (my personal favorites being “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Black Panther,” as well as “Iron Man”), and the series as a whole took its time developing the immensely appealing characters in stand-alone films before bringing them all together so we can get excited and pumped up when they kick some serious ass. That’s always been the appeal of these movies. (It was never really about the action, as good as it could be.) And we knew it was building up to something huge, and thankfully, it didn’t disappoint. Honestly…I think “Avengers: Endgame” may be the best MCU film by far. It makes me wonder where the MCU will go from here…

I can’t wait to find out.