Past entries:
–Iron Man
–The Incredible Hulk
–Iron Man 2
–Thor
–Captain America: The First Avenger
–The Avengers
–Iron Man 3
–Thor: The Dark World
–Captain America: The Winter Soldier
–Guardians of the Galaxy
–Avengers: Age of Ultron
–Ant-Man
–Captain America: Civil War
–Doctor Strange
–Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
–Spider-Man: Homecoming
–Thor: Ragnarok
–Black Panther
–Avengers: Infinity War
–Ant-Man and the Wasp
–Captain Marvel

This is not going to be a full review, as the others in the series, but only a brief and unfocused lay out of my thoughts on ‘Endgame’ after having just seen in. I’ll try to avoid any spoilers.

The short version is that I thought it was really, really good and an extremely satisfying finale to a twenty-two film franchise. The climactic battle is pretty much perfection itself, and the epilogue wraps up the main storylines in an almost exactly perfect manner. The strong writing from the earlier film carries over for the most part, though I’ll have to spend more time on it to work out the full picture (and Infinity War is definitely the better film of the two).

The main flaws of the film are primarily due to baggage from certain earlier films (though fortunately, Captain Boring isn’t in it very much and is mildly less obnoxious while she’s there), though there are a few moments that raise questions and sometimes big ones. The plot involves messing with time and reality, so questions are all-but inevitable. One major bit of character development takes place off-screen during a time-skip, and though I can understand if they didn’t have time, it’s still a little disappointing. Another character, alas, is horribly ill-served and, despite some nice moments, gets a very disappointing conclusion (though that is, again, partially the fault of earlier films, making me dislike a certain movie even more than I already did). I also think they way undersold just what the impact of Thanos’s snap would have been in terms of social and civil breakdown, though it could be argued they wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and make the point that, whatever the consequences, it was a monstrous act that needs to be undone. Also, the Progressive ideologies that are increasingly taking over at Disney and Marvel have begun to seep in, though it mostly comes down to one or two scenes and doesn’t harm the overall story.

Revisiting past films and locations was a risky move, though for the most part it pays off, playing like a retrospective on the franchise. There are a lot of great scenes and call-backs, as well as old villains showing up again one way or another. We also get a wonderful moment giving closure to Tony’s complicated relationship with his father, among many, many other great scenes.

The best part is that it really *does* end up looking like the culmination of everything that’s gone before; every film and every storyline forms part of the conclusion. The ‘Ant-Man’ films in particular, which had been largely a side-show, here take center stage (and you know how much I love the Ant-Man films). Most of the major characters get respectful and appropriate sendoffs or conclusions (with the aforementioned one being the main exception), and they once more take the chance to develop meaty, but lesser-used characters like Hawkeye and Nebula (the latter of whom gets a surprisingly large and affecting role: she’s come a long way from being merely a supporting villain, and Karen Gillan really shows off her acting chops here). Equally appropriately, the writers keep thin or poorly-conceived characters (Danvers, Nakia, etc.) largely offscreen or unmentioned rather than wasting time trying to build them up from scratch.

Most importantly, our two protagonists, Cap and Iron Man, are center stage throughout, finally reconciling before being given satisfying and character-appropriate exits from the franchise, concluding the arcs begun back in each of their first films. Both of them also get some of their all-time best moments here, which I won’t dare spoil, except to say that that line, the one we’ve been waiting all this time to hear Cap say, is finally used, and if you’re only going to say it once, this was the best possible time to do it. And I think the final gambit, what ultimately ends the story, was just about perfect, bringing the whole long, complicated story of the MCU to exactly the right conclusion.

And with that, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is over.

Oh, there will be more films, we know, but as a single, coherent story, it’s done. I don’t plan on following it very closely from now on; I’ll probably see the third Guardians film (as there’s some story that needs wrapping up with them), and maybe the next Doctor Strange or Ant-Man, but the days of catching each film as it comes out, of each movie being a part of a larger whole, are done. Endgame signals this by not having any end-credits scenes. All that is over now. They brought it in and stuck the landing, imperfectly, and not without a stumble or two, but satisfactorily, creating a single, glorious tale told over the course of over twenty films. Whatever happens from now on, whatever future films may bring, we at least have this.