‘Avengers: Endgame’ is a must-see movie

Everyone loves a parade! “Avengers: Endgame” is a sprawling three-hour ginormous epic that wraps up the 22-movie mythology of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) with an old fashioned reunion. There is a cast of thousands and that’s just the A-list superstars. Robert Redford and Michael Douglas don’t even make the top 25 cast billing.

We’re apprehensive about saying too much as Dr. Strange warns, “If I told you what happens, it won’t happen.” Nevertheless, this is the must-see movie of the year, but mostly if you have watched a fair share of the MCU movies, as there are inside jokes and references to seemingly every single one of the prior flicks. Audience “shout outs” frequently erupted the grand entrance of each superhero, and there were many.

The story by veteran MCU writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeeley is even more ambitious and convoluted as the dredging project, but fan-boys would settle for nothing less. The sentimentality is as critical as the mortal combat and urban annihilation. It was gratifying to see and critical for the unification of this dirty dozen.

This story takes place five years after last year’s “Avengers: Infinity War.” Thanos had collected all six infinity stones that had sporadically appeared in stories from the prior decade. With that power, he was able to destroy half the universe’s population, including turning about half of the most iconic MCU superheroes into dust. Thanos viewed himself not as evil, but righteous, “In all my years of violence and murder, it was never personal.”

This post-apocalyptic universe presents a seemingly hopeless situation. Even the superheroes appear physically and emotionally defeated. The weary and depressed Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is forced to admit, “We lost. All of us.” Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) suggests, “It’s not about how much we lost, it’s about how much we have left.” When assured by Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) a plan might work, Rogers concludes, “I know it will because I don’t know what I’m going to do if it doesn’t.”

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo return to finish this preposterous extravaganza with surreal set pieces and events that resonate across the entire pain and pleasure scale. We saw the movie in 3D, which didn’t add that much to the obligatory spectacular visual effects of this series. The new scenes are integrated with flashes from prior flicks to build into a single grandiose narrative. All the Avengers need to do is implement untested theories from the quantum realm and restore order to the universe.

Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) has now merged his mind with the body of The Hulk. He asks, “If we do this, how do we know it’s going to end any differently than it did before?” Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) quickly responds, “Because before, you didn’t have me.” Even through this downer, the team tosses out their typical one-liners and wisecracks.

This ensemble superstar “clown car” also includes: Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Josh Brolin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bradley Cooper, Paul Rudd, Tom Holland, Zoe Saldana, Natalie Portman, Chadwick Boseman, Vin Diesel, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michelle Pfeiffer, Evangeline Lilly, Tom Hiddleston, Dave Bautista, Elizabeth Olsen, Tilda Swinton, Rene Russo and William Hurt, to name a few.

“Avengers: Endgame” is just over three hours and rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action, violence and language. This is a long movie, but remarkably short for tying up the loose ends of a 22-movie marathon. Other studios might have split this ending into its own trilogy (ka-ching), but this one alone is setting box office records, including first day sales that surpassed the old record in only six hours.

With the cavalcade of stars, Robert Downey Jr. who starred in the first MCU movie, “Iron Man,” (2008) uses his wit, charm and charisma to continue his superhero reign above all others. Not a spoiler alert, but the most notable exchange just might be from Thanos throwing down the gauntlet, “I am inevitable!” Then, Tony Stark shows his mettle with the confident retort, “I am Iron Man.” The end.

Ron’s Rating: B+
Leigh’s Rating: A-