“Avengers: Endgame” puts a definitive end to 11 years of films

Kolby Spomer
Staff Writer

In 2008, “Iron Man” was released by Marvel Studios to high praise and solid ticket sales. It kickstarted Kevin Feige’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, the highest grossing film franchise in history and changed the world of blockbusters as we know it. Love the movies or hate them, you cannot deny the impact they’ve had on the past eleven years of film. This past weekend, it all culminated into “Avengers: Endgame”, the final film in the “Infinity War” saga. 

Did they stick the landing and successfully wrap up years of storytelling in a satisfying and acceptable way? Surprisingly, yes they did. The Russo Brothers and Kevin Feige, along with countless others I’m sure, have created a near perfect ending for the saga, which is a borderline miracle. The number of things that had to go right for us to even get here is staggering, and the anticipation for the movie was larger than anything I had ever seen outside of maybe “The Force Awakens”.

I’ll do my absolute best to avoid spoilers in this review, but if you’re one of the few who didn’t add to the movie’s record breaking $1.2 billion worldwide debut I suggest going and seeing the movie then coming back to read this article. Or don’t. Who cares? I’m not your boss.

The most critical part of the movie they had to get right was the character endings. For the most part they nailed it. The characters that most people want to see get a great ending in this film. There are a few, however, that leave a somewhat bad taste in your mouth. Hopefully these characters get some movies in the future or are part of something to show what they’ve been doing in the aftermath of everything. These endings are a small, small minority however.

The main story is pretty standard, not really spectacular or terrible. It does everything well enough, but it isn’t really anything spectacular. The biggest attractions here are the final fight and the writing. The jokes are the funniest they’ve been in a while, and harken back to the old fun days of the earlier movies while still containing the Guardians-esque quality they’re known for now. 

The final fight in the film has about 10 or 12 moments that by themselves would warrant a ticket purchase. The fact that we got all of them makes this easily the best fight scene ever put to film. The only fight that could rival it is maybe Helm’s Deep from “The Two Towers”, but even then the emotional payoff shown in “Endgame” gives it the edge in my eyes. 

This movie is the perfect film to end the decade and is essentially the quintessential blockbuster. I cannot recommend seeing it any more than I already have, so go ahead and see it. See it again if you want. You won’t see anything else quite like this for a long, long time.

Header photo courtesy of the Associated Press.