Movie review: Avengers: Endgame

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I ADMIT I was more concerned about the movie’s length (slightly over three hours) than anything else when I went into the cinema hall.

I also admit I did not go in with high expectations, as movies from Marvel Studios (beginning with Iron Man in 2008) have always been a mixed bag of brilliant (Black Panther), ho-hum (Captain Marvel) and unnecessarily convoluted (Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Avengers: Infinity War).

However, I found that Avengers: Endgame, already a blockbuster thanks to worldwide ticket pre-sales, was a good movie overall.

It was a fitting end to a series of films with larger-than-life characters who have dominated the box office for the past decade.

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The movie begins right after Thanos (Josh Brolin) exterminated half of the Earth’s population using the powers of the six Infinity Stones.

Tony Stark (Downey Jr) and Nebula are rescued from being stranded in space, and despite some of them, especially Steve Rogers aka Captain America (Evans), wanting to find a way to get their loved ones back, Tony throws in the towel.

Five years later, Scott Lang aka Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) returns after being trapped in the quantum realm, and tracks down the Avengers, telling them of a possibility of undoing Thanos’ actions.

While some hold on to that sliver of hope, some are clearly damaged by what had taken place, and others just want to move on.

How they finally assemble and carry out their mission makes up the rest of the movie.

Fans will get to revisit incidents that took place in past movies, and see some iconic characters again.

Though we do see a great many characters from the past, only a few truly stand out, while others are relegated to little more than window dressing.

There is an air of melancholy throughout this film. You will feel it from the opening scene itself.

This is probably due to how it will all finally come to an end. It is bittersweet, but also satisfying.

Hats off to the actors who brought life to these iconic comic-book characters.