Avengers Endgame succeeded in wrapping up the saga in the MCU, after 21 movies (Endgame becoming 22). Avengers Endgame broke records with its box office revenue surpassing Titanic and Avatar, two of the highest grossing movies of all time. Infinity War, the precursor to Endgame, held the previous title of most profitable opening weekend. The movie serves as a conclusion to the massive 21 movie empire created around the Avengers.

I thought Marvel did a great job wrapping up the countless storylines that exist in the Avengers universe. The movie started slowly, and it seemed blunt to have the death of Thanos occur less than 5 minutes into the movie. After killing Thanos, the story jumped 5 years into the future, and the impact of half the universe dying, or “the snap”, was looked at. I thought the superhero dystopia was interesting because it made a real world connection to the story. The remaining Avengers come up with the idea of retrieving the Infinity Stones before Thanos got to them. I personally thought that this was a “generic” way of resolving the plot, because it seemed predictable.

After coming up with the idea of traveling back in time, the past events from the Avengers movies are reviewed, and it begins to make sense how Endgame came to be. Eventually, Black Widow and Hawkeye go to retrieve the Soul Stone, and this gives insight into the past movie where Thanos sacrificed his daughter to retrieve the stone. The death of Black Widow made sense to the plot, because of the possible chance of a solo movie. The Avengers end up retrieving the rest of the stones but the cost was the death of an original character.

After receiving all the stones, the characters mourn the loss of their friend. This adds the idea of human emotion to the story and connects more to real life characters. After this, Hulk puts on a gauntlet containing the stones and snapping, bringing all the characters back from the dead. Right before they could notice this, though, Thanos makes a return and attacks the remaining Avengers from his ship. After the destruction of the headquarters, he comes to the ground where he is spotted by Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America. This is where they all approach the mad titan. This scene shows the biggest characters in the movies prepare for their final stand in their sagas. After the battle, Captain America stands solo facing Thanos and his army, and this creates one of the best scenes in the movie.

After a slow start to the movie, all the anticipation leading up to the movie finally results in what 21 movies led up to. All the characters that were snapped out of existence in the last Avengers, and the ones who remained alive, make a triumphant stand against one of the best antagonists Marvel had to offer. Unlike the ending of the last Avengers, they come out on top this time. But at one cost, the death of the pioneer of the franchise, Iron Man. Killing of Iron Man was something I expected going into the movie; it made the most sense to end this storyline with the death of the character who started it all.

Overall, Avengers Endgame does a masterful job wrapping up the storylines of all the main characters while opening up new possibilities for characters. Although I don’t believe it did as well as Infinity War, it is still a fantastic movie with some very well developed characters. The movie adds events after the disappearance of half the planet and shows the effects it had on people. Thanos continued to shine as a phenomenal antagonist and we continued to fall in love with the characters we met on the screen. The death of two of the biggest characters in the universe added a depressing effect to the story and made many people (especially in the theater I was in) cry like they just lost a loved one–which for some, the closure of the Avengers story is much like saying goodbye to an old friend.