Avengers: Endgame - An Emotional, Epic and Completely Satisfactory Ending to the First 11 Years of Marvel Films

Being the culmination of eleven years of films isn't an easy position for a film (or it's cast and crew) to be in. Since the jaw-dropping cliffhanger ending of Infinity War last summer, Endgame has been subject to expectations that are so high you'd think them impossible to reach. Surely a film like this couldn't hit every emotional note required of it, whilst also being bursting with action and the wonderful comedy that has become a Marvel staple over the years. But somehow, Endgame pulls it all off. It's a damn near perfect conclusion; even with over a decade of build-up it is completely satisfactory and delivers everything that was expected of it. In scale, it is nothing short of epic.

Whilst this does fit into the generic formula of most Marvel films, and isn't quite as much of a game changer for the superhero film as Infinity War, Endgame does still manage to surprise. Especially when it comes to the variation in pace. Yes, the film is full of intense action and exciting battles, but also takes moments to linger on its characters, the devastation that has been caused in the wake of the snap, and their desperation to fix it. These are easily the most moving and emotionally raw scenes of the film. Seeing both our heroes and ordinary people struggling to cope with their grief is truly heart-breaking. We get a real sense of the loss that the characters have experienced and it's really impactful and surprisingly dark and sombre for Marvel. This focus on the characters is also perfect for a film that essentially sets itself up as being the end of an era. It gives the original Avengers that we all know and love the attention and character development that they deserve - even Hawkeye.

Not all of the film is this way, however. There are still plenty of the standard Marvel elements that made previous films so great. There is a lot of the trademark humour throughout the film, and it perfectly fits around the more emotional or action-packed scenes. In many ways this is standard Marvel fare, the perfect mixture of comedy, emotion, and bad-ass battles. The only downside to this is perhaps that it is so generic, and at times Endgame does tend to fall into old tropes (although perhaps these are hard to avoid). But it's ultimately nice to be reminded of previous films in the franchise. This installment is very aware of the fact that it is some sort of ending, and therefore it devotes a lot of time to reminding us of everything that has lead up to this moment. In many ways it's a nice walk down memory lane for the people who have been following the MCU since it started and it shows us how far it has come since then.

This is obvious in many ways, but particularly in how ambitious it is. And I'm not talking about it's notorious three hour run-time. Instead the films ambition comes across the most in its epic final battle, which is by far the largest set piece we've seen in one of these films. The battle in Wakanda during Infinity War was extremely impressive. This blows it completely out of the water and proves that Endgame really is intent on pushing boundaries and going further than any other Marvel film has before. The same can be said of the first part of the film, where there is a brave twist very early on. These ambitious story choices really pay off and make this film much more exciting than many of its predecessors.

By far the most satisfactory part of this film is the writing. Not only are the characters and comedy on point, but the crew knew exactly how to give us the epic journey and emotional ending that we all wanted. The dialogue is exceptionally well written, especially when it comes to those extremely satisfying references to previous films. There are moments where characters and events have come full circle, and I couldn't imagine those scenes being written more perfectly than they are. It's a flawless combination of awesome and emotional. If anything the writing is only let down by the way in which Brie Larson's Caption Marvel is treated. She has a smaller role in the film than expected, especially for a character who had a solo film released right before Endgame, which made her seem more important to this than she actually is. Disappointingly, she seems to flit in and out of the story, swooping in to save the day when the Avengers are faced with an issue too huge to solve on their own. Because of this she is treated as a 'quick fix' by the writers instead of an interesting character, as she should be.

Compared with everything that this film does right, any complaints are relatively minor and overall the film is fun, exciting, emotional and satisfying. Endgame marks the end of an era of Marvel films, and reminds us of all the things that we love about them whilst leaving us excited to see what comes next.