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“Avengers: Endgame” is the culmination of a decade of blockbuster filmmaking, the result of years of work from thousands of people. It is designed to be the most blockbuster of all the blockbusters, a movie with a dozen subplots colliding, and familiar faces from over 20 other movies. It’s really like nothing that Hollywood has produced before, existing not just to acknowledge or exploit the fans of this series, but to reward their love, patience, and undying adoration. The blunt thing you probably want to know most: It’s hard to see serious MCU fans walking away from this disappointed. It checks all the boxes, even ticking off a few ones that fans won’t expect to be on the list. It’s a satisfying end to a chapter of blockbuster history that will be hard to top for pure spectacle. In terms of sheer entertainment value, it’s on the higher end of the MCU, a film that elevates its most iconic heroes to the legendary status they deserve and provides a few legitimate thrills along the way.

Don’t worry: I will stay very spoiler-free. The main joy of this film is in how its incredibly complex narrative unfolds, and you can go elsewhere if you want that ruined. The disappointing “ Avengers: Infinity War ” ended with Thanos finally getting all of the six Infinity Stones he so desperately sought, and then using them to wipe out half of existence, including beloved heroes like Black Panther, Star-Lord, and Spider-Man. “Avengers: Endgame” picks up a few weeks after “The Snap,” as the remaining heroes try to pick up the pieces and figure out if there’s a way to reverse Thanos’ destruction.

Immediately, “ Endgame ” is a more focused piece than “Infinity War” by virtue of having a tighter, smaller cast. (Thanks, Thanos.) It’s a more patient, focused film, even as its plot draws in elements of a dozen other movies. Whereas “ Infinity ” often felt bloated, “Endgame” allows some of the more iconic characters in the history of the MCU a chance to be, well, heroic. No longer mere pawns in a Thanos-driven plot, Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Hulk, and Thor break free of the crowd, ably assisted by Hawkeye and Ant-Man. In a sense, this is the new Avengers, and the tighter group of superheroes reminded me of the charm of Joss Whedon ’s first "Avengers" movie, one in which strong personalities were allowed to bounce off each other instead of just feeling like they were strapped into a rollercoaster headed in the same direction. It also allows space for some of the best acting work in the franchise, particularly from Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr., who one realizes while watching this have turned Captain America and Iron Man into something larger than life for a generation. The most satisfying aspect of “Endgame” is in how much it provides the MCU’s two most popular heroes the story arc they deserve instead of just drowning them in a sea of cameos by lesser characters from other movies. In the way it canonizes them, it becomes an ode to the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.

What works best about Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely ’s script for “Endgame” is that one feels, for arguably the first time, a sense of looking back instead of merely trying to set the table for something to come. This film incorporates elements of what fans know and love about the MCU, recalling character beats, origins, and the plots of movies like “ Iron Man ,” “ Guardians of the Galaxy ,” and “ Captain America: The First Avenger .” Call it cheap fan service, but one of my biggest issues with these films, especially “Infinity War,” has been a sense that they’re merely commercials for movies yet to be made. “Endgame” doesn’t have that. Sure, the MCU will go on, but this movie has a finality and depth given to it by MCU history that the others have lacked.

Of course, it needs to work as just a movie too. The middle hour is as purely enjoyable as the MCU has ever been, but there are times when I wished I could sense a human touch below the incredibly-polished, carefully-planned surface of “Avengers: Endgame.” In the long build-up first hour, I longed for one of the pregnant pauses about the seriousness of the situation to lead to something that felt spontaneous or an acting decision that didn’t feel like it had been run through a committee. Every single aspect of “Endgame” has been foreshadowed for years by other films and finely tuned by the hundreds of people it takes to make a movie like this one. The result is a film that often feels more like a product than a piece of art. Roger Ebert once famously wrote that “video games can never be art,” but he may have been surprised to see art becoming more like a video game, something remarkably programmed and determined, lacking anything that really challenges the viewer.

However, people aren't lining up at dawn for “Avengers: Endgame” to challenge them. It’s really about rewarding commitment, fandom, and expectations. Whatever its flaws, “Endgame” does all of that, and with a sincere admiration for the fans who have made this universe a true cultural phenomenon. The stakes are high and the conclusions actually feel resonant. It’s an epic cultural event, the kind of thing that transcends traditional film criticism to become a shared experience with fans around the world. The biggest question I had coming out was how they could possibly top it ten years from now.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film Credits

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and some language.

181 minutes

Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man

Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America

Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / The Hulk

Chris Hemsworth as Thor Odinson

Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow

Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Ronin / Hawkeye

Don Cheadle as James "Rhody" Rhodes / War Machine

Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-Man

Brie Larson as Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel

Karen Gillan as Nebula

Bradley Cooper as Rocket Racoon (voice)

Gwyneth Paltrow as Virginia "Pepper" Potts / Rescue

Josh Brolin as Thanos

Zoe Saldana as Gamora

Stan Lee as Stan Lee

Anthony Russo
Christopher Markus
Stephen McFeely
Jim Starlin

Cinematographer

Trent Opaloch
Jeffrey Ford
Matthew Schmidt
Alan Silvestri

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<i>Avengers: Endgame</i> Is a Good — And Sometimes Great — End to Marvel’s First Decade

Avengers: Endgame Is a Good — And Sometimes Great — End to Marvel’s First Decade

Avengers: Endgame —the 22nd movie to emerge from the Marvel Cinematic Universe birth canal and the capper to the two-part saga that began with last year’s Avengers: Infinity War —makes more sense as an event than as a movie. The film has been meticulously crafted for people who care deeply about these characters, and it’s likely most of those viewers will leave the theater satisfied. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo (also the directors of Avengers: Infinity War, as well as two of the Captain America films) and their team of writers have ensured, with machinelike precision, that each Avenger gets his or her proper allotment of sensitive moments, as well as heroic ones. Once in a while, Endgame is enjoyable on its own terms, though mostly, you’ll be better off if you have at least a rough working knowledge of the MCU movies that have preceded it. It’s an entertainment designed to please many, many people and disappoint as few as possible, extravagant without necessarily having a vision beyond its desire not to put a foot wrong. It’s bold in the safest possible way.

In other words, as movies that are part of multi-billion-dollar franchises go, Avengers: Endgame is good enough. I must note here that I have little invested in the Marvel movies as the result of any attachment to Marvel comics. But I do care about the work of the actors who appear in them, performers like Chris Evans and Scarlet Johansson, Chadwick Boseman and Robert Downey Jr., Zoe Saldana and Jeremy Renner. All of these people have been terrific in MCU movies, even when they could easily get by with being less than terrific. Watching Endgame, I realized that I do care about Marvel characters because these actors have made me care.

The skill those actors—along with some I haven’t mentioned, like Tessa Thompson and Mark Ruffalo and Benedict Cumberbatch—bring to the Marvel movies in general, and to Avengers: Endgame specifically, only makes me wish these movies were breezier and more inventive, and less obsessed with the high-stakes, big-money fan-pleasing game. But you can’t have everything, and Endgame at least gives these actors something to work with. (Minor-to-moderate spoilers follow, so if you want to experience Endgame with the naïve blankness of a tadpole freshly launched into the pond, please stop reading here.)

Endgame opens with an unnerving, gracefully filmed prologue involving Renner’s Clint Barton, Hawkeye when in his superhero guise. He’s enjoying an outdoor picnic with his family when it becomes clear that what we’re seeing is a moment connected to the tail end of Infinity War: The instant supervillain Thanos (Josh Brolin) snapped his fingers—after having captured the last of those six all-powerful nuggets known as the Infinity Stones —and destroyed exactly half the world’s population , leaving the other half to grieve and remember. (It’s more cruel, when you think about it, to destroy half the world than all of it.) This megalomaniacal act was Thanos’s way of cleansing what he viewed as a corrupt universe. But Hawkeye, having retreated from Avengers duty to be a family man, wasn’t around to witness Thanos’s big finale—and, as Endgame begins, he doesn’t yet know that half his friends have turned to dust. And so, in this moment, we know what’s going to happen before Hawkeye does: He turns away from his family for just a millisecond, and in a blink, they’re gone.

Next we see the other remaining Avengers pulling themselves together after the tragedy—or, in the case of Scott Lang/Antman (Paul Rudd), just waking up after a Quantum Realm-induced nap . Lang quickly gets up to speed on what he missed, and comes up with the germ of a plan: Might the Avengers go back in time to foil Thanos’s plan of half-destruction? Lang introduces his idea to remaining Avengers Steve Rogers/Captain America (Evans), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Johansson) and James Rhodes/War Machine (Cheadle). They bring this spark of an idea to the guy who might be able to make it work, Downey’s Tony Stark/Iron Man, who barely survived Thanos’s destructathon. First Stark says it’s impossible; then he changes his mind—but he also worries that if the scheme doesn’t work, he’ll lose all he’s gained in what has for him become a bittersweet time, an era during which he’s mourning his lost friends but also starting a new life for himself.

The plan to turn back time is less a major plot point than a mechanism to keep the story clicking, and the middle section—in which the Avengers break into groups to travel to specific places and years where they can grab one Infinity Stone or another before Thanos can get his dirty mitts on any of them—is the movie’s finest. Avengers: Endgame is a better movie than Avengers: Infinity War in one important sense: It relies less on milking tears out of us (for characters who have “died” but who we know will come back again—they’re too valuable to the franchise to be gone for good) than on focusing on what each of these characters might mean to us, given our history with them. The mid-section of Endgame shows the Avengers actors at their best. Chris Hemsworth, as a Thor who has slid into a state of pot-bellied depression post-Thanos, gets a chance to reunite with his long-dead mother, Frigga (Rene Russo), in the kingdom of his birth, Asgard. He greets her tentatively, almost shyly, nearly dumbfounded by the gift of seeing her again even for a few moments; she discreetly asks about his funky eye. The tenderness between them is lush and quiet, underscoring what’s most valuable about Endgame: There is only one gargantuan, booming fight scene, and it’s not the centerpiece of the movie. It’s as if the Russo brothers have finally acknowledged that bigger, noisier battles amount to less rather than more. At least we can hope.

Endgame does give us some arresting visuals: Thompson’s Valkyrie riding on a winged horse, anyone? But generally, the actors are Endgame ’s finest special effect. Though we’re made to wait for the entrance of Boseman’s T’Challa/Black Panther, it’s worth it: He coasts into the movie on a regal cloud. And Robert Downey, after playing Tony Stark/Iron Man for perhaps too many years, snaps back into form. In the 2008 Iron Man, Downey brought a kind of frazzled elegance to the role of Stark—his nervous energy seemed to spark from his fingertips, as if it were too much for his body to contain. In the years since, his Iron Man performances have become more brittle, more reliant on tics. But in Endgame, Stark’s moments of doubt feel lived-in—Downey’s performance is alive with prickly uncertainty. Even when Endgame hits its generally predictable beats, you can still count on the actors to shift the mood into slightly uncomfortable emotional territory.

The Russos and their writers clearly took pains to give nearly each character a gratifying arc, and a proper—if not necessarily soft—place to land. That must have been a lot of work, and a few of the Avengers get short shrift: The ever-so-powerful Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) drops out of the movie for a long stretch, eventually returning with…a short haircut. Some arc.

avengers-endgame-black-widow-captain-america

But the Russos more than make up for that with the discreet, wistful coda they give Steve Rogers/Captain America. It’s the movie’s single most gorgeous element, perfectly fitting for a guy who entered a 70-year sleep right after finding the love of his life. Evans’ Captain America has always been, physically speaking, the beefiest of all the Avengers, as sturdy and wholesome as the “after” picture in a Charles Atlas ad. Yet Evans has also always been one of the most understated actors in the franchise. As Steve, Evans’ smile is easy, friendly, in a stock all-American way. But there’s never been any swagger behind it. It’s the smile of a guy who’s lost something valuable, whose view of the future is perpetually tinted with the color of what he left behind. Avengers: Endgame isn’t a great movie, but there are flashes of greatness in it, and quite a few of them belong to Evans. His Captain America rewards us with a revelation and escapes with a secret. The best thing in Avengers: Endgame is everything he doesn’t say.

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Avengers: Endgame Review

Marvel delivers a fitting and surprisingly poetic payoff to the infinity saga..

Avengers: Endgame Gallery

Pepper Potts in Rescue Suit (Gwyneth Paltrow), Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Shuri (Letitia Wright) in Avengers: Endgame

Every MCU Movie Review Since Avengers

Avengers: Endgame is easily the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most ambitious, emotional, and affecting film to date, somehow managing to tie up more than a decade of storytelling in a confident (and mostly coherent) climax - a hurdle that many other blockbuster franchises have stumbled over in their final runs. It will inevitably provoke years of spirited debate among fans, and an overreliance on messy CGI action blunts some of its impact, but in terms of pure heart, Endgame holds nothing back. This may not have been the only way for Marvel to end the first chapter of its sprawling superhero saga, but when faced with 14,000,605 possible outcomes, it manages to be a surprising and satisfying one.

More Reviews by Laura Prudom

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Avengers: Endgame Reviews

The series may never reach this fever pitch again, but we’re glad we got to watch the plan come together in such a memorable way.

Full Review | Feb 27, 2024

After an impatient wait after the “open” ending in Avengers: Infinity War, its sequel Avengers: Endgame has arrived, the outcome of the universal conflict posed by the extraterrestrial villain Thanos.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | Jan 27, 2024

Who are the Avengers if they don't need to "avenge" anymore? Avengers: Endgame shows us our favourite heroes like we've never seen them before.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 2, 2023

Avengers: Endgame surpasses all expectations. One of the best comic-book films of all time, without a single doubt.

Full Review | Original Score: A+ | Jul 24, 2023

Your level of enjoyment depends on how invested you are in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you've been with [the franchise] since 2008, "Endgame" is an unparalleled experience – unlike anything that has come before and may ever come again.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 11, 2023

Avengers: Endgame is not just a culmination of the last eleven years of the Marvel Studios cinematic saga but also a celebration of everything people have come to love about these characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 9.5/10 | Aug 22, 2022

I’m not sure if I would call the great completion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe the best comic book film of all time. Still, it’s certainly the finest conclusion to a greater ideal Hollywood has ever put together.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 19, 2022

From the very beginning “Avengers: Endgame” feels like something special, something unique, something unlike anything we’ve seen before. And even in its missteps it never loses that sense of spectacle and grandeur.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 19, 2022

Who could have anticipated that Marvel Studios and Disney would release a three-hour extravaganza whose exquisite character-focused scenes outshine the FX-driven action?

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 3, 2022

Eleven years of Universe building, and this is the crescendo. It really pays off, I've never seen anything quite like it.

Full Review | Feb 22, 2022

Avengers: Endgame broke me, put me back together, and decided to cut me again in one of the most impactful cinematic experiences of all time.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 18, 2022

For me, it didn't fulfill the promise of Infinity War, but it did fulfill the promise of the previous twenty movies.

Full Review | Sep 30, 2021

I'm just grateful to have the privilege to watch this along with the rest of the world. It's not perfect, but it has been one hell of a ride.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Sep 4, 2021

Here's the other really neat thing about Endgame: it made me think of priorities in life and what or who is worth sacrificing for, especially loved ones...

Full Review | Aug 13, 2021

The true superteam event releases marked something slightly different and spectacular...End Game over the original Guardians by a hair...

Full Review | Jul 28, 2021

This goes beyond the usual scale.

Full Review | Jul 23, 2021

A film that somehow manages to be as epic as fans hope and as dramatic as the MCU deserves.

Full Review | Jul 13, 2021

Films don't come any huger than this: the closing chapter to an 11-year saga in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, told across some 22 movies. And by the end of its three-hour runtime, there will definitely be tears.

Full Review | May 11, 2021

There really is very little that could be improved about Endgame. There's certainly no more that could be thrown at it.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 29, 2021

So much of the art form is about storytelling, and bringing so many side stories and characters to a satisfying conclusion is tough, and the film blended a (rather) unpredictable plot with emotional character beats deftly...

Full Review | Apr 14, 2021

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‘Avengers: Endgame’ Review: The Real Heroes Were the Friends We Made Along the Way

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‘Avengers: Endgame’ | Anatomy of a Scene

Anthony and joe russo narrate a sequence from their film featuring chris hemsworth..

“Hi, I’m Anthony Russo.” “And I’m Joe Russo.” “And we are the directors of ‘Avengers: Endgame.’ This is a scene that happens relatively early in the film where we are catching back up with our characters after a five-year time elapse once they have definitively lost to Thanos— after he’s eradicated half of all life. Everyone’s taking that occurrence badly, of course, but some are taking it worse than others. Thor blames himself for the loss in many ways. And he’s basically masking it. He’s hiding in things like alcohol, and food, and video games, and TV. And he’s cloistered himself in this cabin here, and he’s very much hiding from the pain that he can’t face.” “Boys! Oh, my God! Oh, my God, so good to see you! Come here, cuddly little rascal. [GRUNTS] “Yeah, no, I’m good. I’m good.” “I think why this is one of our favorite scenes in the movie is this is an exceptional performance from Hemsworth. One of the hardest tones to play as an actor is to play both pathos and humor, and he does it with such a delicate touch in this scene. You really have to commit to stakes, you have to commit to emotional truth in order for the performance not to get ridiculous. That’s why it’s so difficult, because it can go absurd on you very quickly. And he does it. He grounds it. And this is right around the section where he starts to ground the performance.” “And he’s grounding it, of course, surrounded by a bunch of CG actors, which is doubly hard to pull off.” “And while wearing a 30-pound body suit.” “Yeah. And Joe and I, as filmmakers, we love to play with tone. We like very complicated tones. And this scene, I think, is really juicy for us because it starts from such a silly, absurd, frivolous place in terms of how Thor is hiding, what kind of behavior he’s adopted to get away from the pain.” “So what’s up? You’re just here for a hang or what?” “We need your help. There might be a chance we could fix everything.” “Well, like the cable? Because that’s been driving me bananas for weeks.” “Like Thanos.” “And this is a moment right here where, in a single moment, when Hulk says ‘Thanos,’ you see Chris Hemsworth reveals to us the pain that he’s been masking.” “He’s a tragically haunted man. And the tone shifts there very, very delicately.” [SOMBER MUSIC] “Don’t say that name.” “Even Korg shifts tone and becomes part of the conversation in this moment.” “The scene has a wonderful shape to it in the sense that we start from a place of lightness. It moves to a place of real darkness. And then at the end, there’s some kind of bizarre reconciliation of the two.” “Why would I be? Why would I be scared of that guy? I’m the one who killed that guy, remember? Anyone else here killed that guy?” “To get a peek into the window of how we would shoot a scene like this. So we didn’t have Taika on set that day, so there’s a motion capture actor playing Korg. We voiced Taika later. Ruffalo’s on set wearing, basically, the equivalent of pajamas which are a motion capture suit. And we have him on a platform so he can move around at the height he needs to move around at so he can have eye contact with Hemsworth. And when Hulk touches Hemsworth, we just replaced that with a Hulk hand instead of Ruffalo’s hand. And then we have— James Gunn’s brother plays Rocket on set. He’s crawling around on the ground on his knees so that he can also be at the same height as Rocket. So it’s very complicated to pull off a scene like this, and then to add in these difficulty-in-tone complexity of performance for Hemsworth, and this is about as a high degree of difficulty as it gets for an actor.” “You also notice the room— for as funny as this scene is, the room is very moody and dark. I think that really speaks to the fact that there’s a duality going on in this scene, and that ultimately, the story lies in Thor’s pain. And that that’s really what we’re moving here through on a story level here, and what this character is trying to push through. You’ll notice that the screen is blurred, and that’s because of some obscure rights issue. ‘Fortnite’ is actually playing on that screen, but for some reason in this clip, we can’t play it.”

By A.O. Scott

April 23, 2019

“No amount of money ever bought a second of time,” one character says to another — I’m afraid I can’t be any more specific than that — somewhere around the middle of “Avengers: Endgame.” So true, so true, and also in context so completely not true. The intersecting axes of time and money are what this franchise is all about, and while I’m not an expert in studio math, I’d guess that a second of the movie, based on what Disney and Marvel Studios paid to make it, would buy a decent used car.

There are roughly 10,860 of those — seconds, not cars — nestled in between the quiet, spooky opening and the last bit of end credits. Which means that whatever a ticket costs in your neighborhood, “Avengers: Endgame” might count as a bargain. At three hours and one minute, it’s shorter than “Titanic,” “The Godfather Part II” or Luchino Visconti’s “The Leopard.” And while the time doesn’t exactly fly, it doesn’t drag either. The two hours and forty minutes of “Infinity War” (also directed by Joe and Anthony Russo ) felt infinitely longer. Settling scores, wrapping up loose ends and taking a victory lap — the main objects of the game this ostensibly last time around — generate some comic sparks as well as a few honest tears.

And why not? We’ve lived with these characters and the actors playing them for more than a decade, and even when the party got hectic, stupid or crowded, there was no reason to complain about the guests. For the most part, it’s nice to see them again, and a little sad to say goodbye.

[Read the screenwriters’ explanations for plot points. | What to read if you want more Avengers. | How the movie did in Week 2 at the box office .]

Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, always kind of neurotic for a buff deity with a mighty hammer, has let himself go, turning into a fat Lebowski with mommy issues. War Machine (Don Cheadle), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) have more to do than previously. (I wish that were also true of Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie.) The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) has made peace with his essential duality. Robert Downey Jr., looking handsomely grizzled, exercises his seniority with a light touch. He’s been around the longest — the first “Iron Man” was in 2008 — and combines the duties of unofficial chief superhero with those of master of ceremonies.

It’s not all fun and games. A lot of heroes died at the end of “Infinity War,” and their loss weighs heavily on the survivors, perhaps especially on Nebula (Karen Gillan), whose father was responsible for the slaughter. Thanos’s deployment of the six Infinity Stones to wipe out half the life in the universe was unforgivable, of course — I can’t believe I just typed that — but it proves to have been helpful to the Russos, the screenwriters (Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely) and the audience. We and they have a manageable dozen or so major characters to keep track of, which leaves room for some of the alternately lump-in-throat, tongue-in-cheek ensemble work that has always been the series’s most potent weapon.

“The Avengers” cycle may require an escalating series of battles to save the universe from ultimate evil — each manifestation more ultimate than the last, with Thanos (Josh Brolin) as the ultimate ultimate of them all — but the engine that keeps it running is friendship. This isn’t the same as harmony. Going back to the earlier movies, Hulk and Thor have had their moments of friction, as have Iron Man and Captain America (Chris Evans).

The personal and political bad blood between those two, most acute in “Captain America: Civil War,” continues to simmer, at least at first. But the mood over all is tender and comradely, touched by acute grief and the more subtle melancholy of what everyone seems to understand is the Last Big Adventure. About that adventure, I won’t say much, though it strikes me that the shape of the plot is less vulnerable to spoilage than the little winks and local surprises along the way.

[ Everything you need to know before “Endgame,” in two minutes]

Those are the rewards for sitting through all those movies patiently waiting for the post-credit stingers, collecting Easter eggs while your friends were texting or your dad was napping and generally doing the unpaid labor of fandom for all these years. Was it worth it? In the aggregate, I have my doubts, but the chuckles and awws you’ll hear around you in the theater at certain moments attest to the happy sense of participation that lies at the heart of the modern fan experience. At its best — and “Endgame” is in some ways as good as it gets — the “Avengers” cosmos has been an expansive and inclusive place.

That has proved to be good business. Disney and Marvel’s accomplishment will be duly inscribed in the annals of commerce, to be studied for many years to come. There has been variety — silly movies and somber ones; chapters that proclaim their topicality and episodes that embrace pure escapism — as well as consistency. Any single film can serve as a point of entry, and insider status is easy enough to obtain. There has never been anything difficult or challenging, which is a limitation as well as a selling point.

None of the 22 films in this cycle are likely to be remembered as great works of cinema, because none have really tried. It’s fun to see the actors in these roles we know are capable of better, and also satisfying to appreciate the efforts of those who might not be. Some first-rate directors have taken up the banner and burnished the brand. Their past and future masterpieces will most likely be found elsewhere.

Still, “Endgame” is a monument to adequacy, a fitting capstone to an enterprise that figured out how to be good enough for enough people enough of the time. Not that it’s really over, of course: Disney and Marvel are still working out new wrinkles in the time-money continuum. But the Russos do provide the sense of an ending, a chance to appreciate what has been done before the timelines reset and we all get back to work. The story, which involves time travel, allows for some greatest-hits nostalgic flourishes, and the denouement is like the encore at the big concert when all the musicians come out and link arms and sing something like “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” You didn’t think it would get to you, but it does.

Avengers: Endgame Rated PG-13. Swearing and fighting. Running time: 3 hours 1 minute.

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Film Review: ‘Avengers: Endgame’

After the must-see showdown that was 'Infinity War,' the Russo brothers deliver a more fan-facing three-hour follow-up, rewarding loyalty to Marvel Cinematic Universe.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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SPOILER A LERT: The following review contains mild spoilers for “ Avengers: Endgame .”

The culmination of 10 years and more than twice as many movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Avengers: Endgame” promises closure where its predecessor, “Avengers: Infinity War,” sowed chaos. That film — which revealed that the cookie-cutter uniformity of all those MCU movies had been part of an unprecedented master plan — infamously wrapped with a snap: a gesture that, when performed by a supervillain armed with the six Infinity Stones, was capable of wiping out half of all life in the universe.

Audiences have had a year to mourn the loss of Spider-Man, Star-Lord, and Black Panther (whom they’d only just met two months earlier), and to nurture theories as to where directing siblings Anthony and Joe Russo might steer things from here. Maybe all those characters weren’t really dead. Maybe the remaining Avengers just needed to travel inside the Soul Stone to get them back. Or maybe “Avengers: Endgame” would have to resort to that most desperate of narrative cheats — time travel — to undo the damage caused by Thanos (the purple-skinned, multi-chinned baddie so compellingly performed by Josh Brolin).

The element of surprise and the thrill of discovery are everything in these movies, so every attempt has been made to minimize spoilers. Yes, “Avengers: Endgame” is the most expansive film yet, and yes, it strives to provide emotional catharsis for several of fans’ favorite characters. It’s even safe to say that “Endgame” shifts the focus from extravagant, effects-driven displays of universe-saving — manifold though they remain — to the more human cost of heroism, which comes at great personal sacrifice.

That said, readers should also be warned that “Avengers: Endgame” hinges on the most frustrating of narrative tricks, and that no meaningful analysis of the film can take place without delving into some of the choices made by the Russo brothers and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. If “Infinity War” was billed as a must-see event for all moviegoers, whether or not they’d attended a single Marvel movie prior, then “Endgame” is the ultimate fan-service follow-up, so densely packed with pay-offs to relationships established in the previous films that it all but demands that audiences put in the homework of watching (or rewatching) a dozen earlier movies to appreciate the sense of closure it offers the series’ most popular characters.

To the extent that it has all been leading up to this, no franchise in Hollywood history can rival what the Disney-Marvel alliance has wrought, although “Avengers” would not be what it is without the three-films-over-three-years scope of Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the coming-of-age continuity of Warner Bros.’ eight-part Harry Potter saga, or the 21st-century shift of serialized television to expansive, ensemble-driven narrative. Each of those experiments in cumulative, multi-part storytelling served to test just how far audiences would go to follow characters they love over time. But nothing — not the horror of Han Solo frozen in carbonite, nor the shock of James Bond’s wife murdered at the end of “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” — could prepare fans for the Snap, and the pain of watching half the heroes they’d gotten to know turned to dust at the end of “Avengers: Infinity War.”

The opening scene of “Endgame” revisits that unbearable moment from the point of view of Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), who sat out the previous battle to spend time with his wife and kids, such that the agony he feels in watching them vaporized by the Snap will come to stand for what all living things must experience as they witness their friends and family disappear.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark ( Robert Downey Jr. , looking frail) and Thanos’ daughter Nebula (Karen Gillan), now begrudgingly “good,” are drifting somewhere out in space when they encounter Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) hovering outside their cockpit. That’s not quite how a “Captain Marvel” end-credits vignette teased her joining the Avengers — which involved a pager signal sent by her human ally, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) — but “Endgame” has so much ground to cover in the span of three hours that it breezes past introductions and treats her arrival as a fait accompli, racing to its first confrontation with Thanos, who has banished himself to a remote garden planet with his gauntlet.

That showdown doesn’t go at all as audiences might expect, but establishes that whoever holds those six all-powerful Infinity Stones can achieve pretty much whatever they want simply by snapping their fingers — with one major problem: Thanos has destroyed the stones. That means the universe is stuck like this unless someone invents time travel.

Spoiler alert: Someone invents time travel — which feels like a skill so far beyond the reach of modern science that maybe it should’ve qualified as a superpower and, if memory serves, might even have been among Doctor Strange’s abilities, except that the super-wizard (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) was one of the casualties of “Infinity War.” Before surrendering his Infinity Stone, Doctor Strange projected himself forward in time to view all possible outcomes of the Avengers’ uphill battle, reporting back that of those 14,000,605 alternate futures, only one resulted in victory over Thanos.

“Infinity War” may have gone badly for the Avengers, but the odds are pretty good that “Endgame” will yield that one possible happy ending, even if it means permanently having to say goodbye to certain characters — or at least, to certain actors in those roles, as we have already seen creative reboots of Spider-Man, Hulk, and the X-Men at other studios. And now that Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) has demonstrated the potential for time travel at the quantum realm — a solution teased over the end credits of his last outing — the Avengers are free to buddy up and jump through time to collect the Infinity Stones before Thanos can get to them, at which point they can make their own gauntlet and snap things in and out of existence.

The Russo brothers dedicate an inordinate amount of time to convincing the heroes that the mission is worth trying, which may have worked in “The Magnificent Seven” but asks us to accept that, after shoving two or three of these Marvel movies down our throats a year, somehow everyone has sat idle for half a decade, crushed by depression and defeat. Still, the five-year flash-forward — a trick borrowed from the “Battlestar Galactica” playbook — allows for significant, and in some cases amusing, changes to Iron Man, Hulk ( Mark Ruffalo , who’d had trouble transforming when last we saw him), and Thor ( Chris Hemsworth , still plenty sarcastic but looking the most different).

But here’s the thing about using time travel to solve their problems: As soon as screenwriters open the door to that device, then any sequel can undo whatever came before. Here, War Machine (Don Cheadle) makes the suggestion that they go back and strangle Thanos in the crib, which the film treats as a joke, and yet, it sounds like a better idea than the “time heist” they have in store. Alternately, they could wait for Thanos to hijack all six Infinity Stones and then jump in and prevent him from using them.

Frankly, there are 14 million better ideas out there, but this one is designed to yield the maximum number of surprising twists, amusing confrontations, and bromance-y bonding moments between mismatched partners (like Thor and the Bradley Cooper-voiced space raccoon Rocket). The plan also allows the surviving Avengers to revisit scenes from the earlier films, watching their younger versions — as well as fallen comrades — from another angle, and in two very different cases, facing off against his or her past self.

To the film’s credit, it’s not the casualties, but the chances these heroes have to go back and say things to those they’ve lost that resonate as the most emotional scenes in “Endgame”: Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America ( Chris Evans ) each get such opportunities, any one of which would’ve been worth the price of admission. Still, all that time travel creates a host of paradoxes that will keep the geek debates raging for years: What happens if your “former future” kills an earlier, alternate version of yourself? If every change creates a “branch reality,” what kind of outcomes are in store for the universe in all those new paths? And why, if one has all six Infinity Stones in his possession, is snapping even required to set one’s wishes in motion?

By this point in the franchise, audiences have come to expect a top-of-the-line experience: iconic costumes and sets, stunning visual effects (including convincing computer-generated characters, like Thanos and Hulk), cinematography that alternates smoothly between epic clashes and nuanced character moments, and rousing music that underscores both the peril and the sheer importance of it all. Like “Infinity War” before it, “Endgame” delivers these elements at a higher level than Marvel’s less expensive — and considerably less expansive — lone-hero installments. But there’s something considerably less elegant to the storytelling this time around.

If “Infinity War” built inexorably to an “inevitable” conclusion (as Thanos arrogantly describes his victory), that was made possible by the filmmakers’ daring choice of positioning their villain as a deeply unconventional protagonist: It was Thanos who undertook the “hero’s journey” of that film, wildly outnumbered by the Avengers in his quest to amass the Infinity Stones. Here, the equation is reversed, with a surfeit of heroes now splitting up to repeat more or less the same mission, with only one adversary to oppose them (even with the Avengers’ ranks reduced by half, there are still too many to keep straight, while the prospect of reviving any of the fallen only makes it more unmanageable).

It works because the creative team has taken note of what audiences want (Black Panther! Captain Marvel!) and what the culture at large is asking for (more diverse representation all around), crafting brief but impactful moments along the way. If these Avengers movies are like massive symphonies, then the conductors have taken care to give nearly everyone a standout solo, however short — or, in the minute that played best at the film’s premiere, a group shot that gathers all the female Avengers, and proves that had Thanos’ snap wiped out just the dudes, the remaining women would’ve been awfully formidable on their own. However satisfying — and necessary — these vignettes may be, is it still art when a movie seems so transparently reverse-engineered according to audiences’ appetites, or does that make “Endgame” the ultimate pop-culture confection?

After nearly two and a half hours of hardcore comic-book entertainment — alternating earnest storytelling with self-deprecating zingers designed to show that Marvel doesn’t take itself too seriously — “Endgame” wraps all that logic-bending nonsense with a series of powerful emotional scenes. Whereas all the casualties suffered at the end of “Infinity War” felt suspiciously like a gimmick that would be undone in this film, these meaty character moments illustrate the spirit of personal sacrifice certain individuals consciously make on behalf of the team, and the universe at large.

Time and again, “Endgame” makes the point that family matters, whether that means biological ties — as Iron Man, Hawkeye, Ant Man, and Thor have experienced — or those forged by duty. The final takeaway from this decade-long journey is that heroism isn’t defined by bravery or super-abilities, but by what one gives up for the greater good. Among the many frustrations of the Snap was that it robbed so many great characters — and gazillions of anonymous creatures throughout the galaxy — of proactively making that choice. “Endgame” isn’t exactly a do-over, but it builds to an infinitely more satisfying conclusion.

Reviewed at Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, April 22, 2019. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 181 MIN.

Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a Marvel Studios presentation. Producer: Kevin Feige. Executive producers: Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Michael Grillo, Trinh Tran, Jon Favreau, James Gunn, Stan Lee.
Crew: Directors: Joe Russo, Anthony Russo. Camera (color, widescreen): Trent Opaloch. Editors: Jeffrey Ford, Matthew Schmidt. Music: Alan Silvestri.
With: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo , Dave Bautista, Chadwick Boseman, Josh Brolin, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Winston Duke, Karen Gillan, Dana Gurira, Tom Holland, Scarlett Johansson, Brie Larson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert Redford, Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd, Rene Russo, Tilda Swinton, Tessa Thompson, Benedict Wong, Laetitia Wright.

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‘avengers: endgame’: film review.

Marvel Studios and Disney's three-hour epic sendoff 'Avengers: Endgame' reunites the franchise's mightiest superheroes to battle Josh Brolin's Thanos.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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The closest equivalent to Greek mythology the modern world has devised of late achieves a sense of closure in Avengers: Endgame . A gargantuan film by any standard, this three-hour extravaganza shuffles back into the action numerous significant characters seen in recent Marvel films as it wraps up an epic story in which the survival of the known universe is (once again) at stake. While constantly eventful and a feast for the eyes, it’s also notably more somber than its predecessors. But just when it might seem about to become too grim, Robert Downey Jr. rides to the rescue with an inspired serio-comic performance that reminds you how good he can be.

Avengers: Infinity War, which was released a year ago this week, stormed the planet to take in $2.048 billion at the worldwide box office on its way to becoming the fourth biggest-grossing film of all time. Its three-hour running time notwithstanding, there’s no reason on or off Earth to suspect this one won’t enter the same rarified realm.

Release date: Apr 26, 2019

In case you hadn’t noticed, since last we saw the lantern-jawed mug of Thanos (Josh Brolin), he’s decimated half the population. Endowing him with such power is the complete set of six Infinity Stones he spent the last film accumulating, and Thanos has worked out his own perverse rationale as to why humankind deserves to be put out of its misery rather than just being punished. When Brie Larson’s recently introduced Captain Marvel shows up with the announced intention of knocking off Thanos single-handedly, she needs to be restrained, for Downey’s Iron Man has first dibs on taking out the brooding evil genius.

Easier said than done, however. For an entertainment brand in which hardly anyone ever really and truly dies, a sense of mortality nonetheless hangs over quite a few of the characters — especially in this saga, in which some confess, in one way or another, to feeling that they’ve come to the end of something. While there are certainly young upstarts like Captain Marvel and the briefly glimpsed Black Panther ready to jump into the fray, veterans including Iron Man, Chris Evans ‘ Captain America and Chris Hemsworth ‘s gone-to-seed Thor (complete with pot belly) seem more than prepared to face their reckonings, come what may.

Nonetheless, it’s an amiable brand of melancholy that pervades the film, one that scarcely gets in the way of the enthusiasm and excitement that Marvel adventures almost always deliver in some measure or another. The feeling of finality and potential farewell is sometimes suggested quietly just in the way certain moments are lingered over, conveying the fatalistic sense that this might well be the last time around the block for some of these characters. At the rate it’s going, Marvel will be around for the better part of forever, but this will likely be the studio swan song for a number of the castmembers.

The major characters, most of whom have had multiple individual films centered on and in some instances named after them, are faced with the all-but-imponderable challenge of how to undo Thanos’ success in collecting the all-powerful stones. It’s one of the signal successes of the script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely that they concoct a method for doing so (stemming from some of the Marvel characters’ special relationships with the Quantum Realm) that even sounds half-plausible in context; the brain trust centered around Tony Stark/Iron Man comes up with the clever, if perhaps not entirely original, idea of a “time heist” (the time bandits, anyone?). If flawlessly executed, this looks to be the only way of extricating the stones from Thanos’ otherwise iron grip on the dire-looking future of the universe.

Although there’s loads of action and confrontations, what’s distinctive here in contrast to most of the earlier Marvel films are the moments of doubt, regret and uncertainty, along with the desire of some characters to move on. Granted, this is almost always undercut, and/or cut short, by some emergency that pulls them right back in, and decisive action always remains paramount.

But there is growth here. Whereas Downey’s fast-talking quips and occasional rudeness became increasingly callow and off-putting in his Iron Man outings, Tony Stark in this movie, at last, seems more human and dimensional. Thor and Captain America are experiencing identity issues. And the most unexpected comic relief may come from Mark Ruffalo ‘s Bruce Banner, a very large man with a greenish-gray hue to his skin who dwarfs everyone around him and is often called upon to do the real dirty work due to his size. Perhaps most notably in the moments when this veteran superhero is reassessing his powers, Ruffalo’s highly amusing performance reveals a frank and unusual awareness of his character’s acceptance of self in an action-spectacle context.

The Political Avenger: Chris Evans Takes on Trump, Tom Brady, Anxiety and Those Retirement Rumors

Production company: Marvel Studios Distributor: Disney Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson , Jeremy Renner, Brie Larson, Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow , Jon Favreau, Benedict Wong, Tessa Thompson, Josh Brolin, Tilda Swinton, Robert Redford Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo Screenwriters: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely Producer: Kevin Feige Executive producers: Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Michael Grillo, Trinh Tran, Jon Favreau, James Gunn, Stan Lee Director of photography: Trent Opaloch Production designer: Charles Wood Costume designer: Judianna Makovsky Editors: Jeffrey Ford, Matthew Schmidt Music: Alan Silvestri Visual effects supervisor: Dan DeLeeuw Casting: Sarah Finn

Rated PG-13, 182 minutes

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Avengers: Endgame Review: Time Is on Their Side

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There is nothing more impermeable than time. It's fixed, constant. It may be a human construct, but it is one humanity has built atomic clocks to perfect; there is no stopping its ever-forward march. Except in sci-fi. And comic books. In those worlds, it's fluid. There are rules about not killing Hitler or betting on the World Series, but other than that, the structures of time can be bent.

This, more than anything, is the core of Avengers: Endgame. Yes, there is—as most fans expected—some time travel. (More on that later, in the spoiler-y paragraphs below .) But its deeper narrative follows a thread about the years people have devoted to Marvel heroes, the nostalgia those fans already have for them, and what the future will look like as they evolve. Luckily, in comic-book stories, the future is just as malleable as the past.

First, here's what you need to know: Avengers: Endgame picks up where Infinity War left off. Thanos has wiped out half of the universe's population, and the remaining heroes (Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Rocket Raccoon, and the newly recruited Captain Marvel ) are trying to un-snap his fingers. The other thing to note: Avengers: Endgame is very good. No movie could have fully encompassed everything that happened in the preceding 10 years and 21 films, but it is the best possible effort at trying to achieve that goal. It's nearly three hours, and none of them feel wasted. More than that, it's exactly what fans need.

What Marvel fans, or anyone, needs in 2019 is a tricky proposition—one that plays out twofold in Endgame , with a double-helix of a plot that constantly works on two levels. First, there's the obvious: Everyone needs closure, needs to see if the Avengers can pull off saving the universe one more time. Second, they need to be rewarded for the decade-plus they've spent with these characters, the effort they've put into seeing every film.

Endgame achieves this using one of the oldest tricks in the cinematic playbook: time travel. As everyone who noticed that Doctor Strange, Wong, and Ant-Man were largely unaccounted for at the end of Infinity War predicted, there is only one way to press Undo on what Thanos did: pull a Cher and turn back time. Though, they don't just rewind what happened and stop it. Instead, they find a more permanent solution that involves going back to retrieve the Infinity Stones before Thanos got his big purple hands on them and using their power to reverse the damage.

This review won’t reveal if this plan succeeds at defeating Thanos, but it will say that it’s a wonderful ride and a narrative tool that provides a chance for the Avengers and their posse to revisit a large chunk of the movies in the franchise. It’s a trip that, in the best ways possible, feels like a band reuniting for a greatest-hits tour, one where the songs gets played by a frontman or frontwoman who wasn’t on the original track—some Traveling Wilburys covering a George Harrison track, Jay-Z and Nas ending their beef to perform “Dead Presidents,” and Beyoncé reuniting Destiny’s Child at Coachella all rolled into one. (In this case, it’s more like “Rocket goes to Asgard” and extended beats of Bruce Banner explaining science to The Ancient One.) It’s a service to every fan who remembers those early films fondly, and a final tug on the threads that have held the franchise together since the beginning.

This kind of nostalgia is delicate, though. It’s tempting to want to go back to the first arc in these heroes’ journeys, the origin stories when they were ascending. It might even be tempting to just go back to 2008, before Mueller reports and Harvey Weinstein investigations and Michael Jackson documentaries, when it seemed easier to believe in heroes in general. That’s impossible, and foolhardy. Longing for those days is akin to longing for a time of ignorance, a time when all the superhero movies were led by white dudes. Everything has changed, and while revisiting days of future past is fun, time (in our world) only moves forward, and the future is more important than what’s come before. Or, to borrow a phrase from Tony Stark, “That’s the hero game—part of the journey is the end.”

Acknowledging this reality is Endgame ’s strongest suit. Because while it spends a fair amount of its second act playing to its base (with some excellent surprise cameos), it spends its final third establishing its new world order. In one of the film’s most telling moments, Captain Marvel—sporting a haircut sure to be the toast of Lesbian Twitter for months—charges into battle flanked by the franchise’s women heroes, the MCU’s version of a Time’s Up meeting ( remember this? ). Marvel’s Phase 4 is still fairly uncertain, but if Endgame has any takeaway it’s that the future is female. And less white. And at least a little bit queer.

Avengers: Endgame could become the biggest movie the world has ever seen: It may make nearly $1 billion in one weekend . Theaters are staying open around the clock to keep up with demand. It’s the culmination of 11 years and 21 films—an unprecedented feat that may never be repeated. The only thing that may come close is December’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker , which will be the ninth film in a nostalgia-filled franchise spanning more than four decades. That film, too, will see the reins handed over to a new generation of heroes, folks whose chance to lead is long overdue. Endgame is a beautiful, massive finale—and it paves the way for all the warriors to come. It’s about time.

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‘Avengers: Endgame’ Review: The MCU’s Long Goodbye Is an Emotional Wipeout

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Thanos demands my silence. So if you expect a lot of specific “who lives, who dies” spoilers in this review, snap out of it. However, it is fair to say that Avengers: Endgame, directed by the Russo brothers — Anthony and Joseph — with a fan’s reverence for all that came before, is truly epic and thunderously exciting. You probably won’t care that at three hours, it’s bloated, uneven and all over the place, flitting from character to character like a bird that doesn’t know where to land. And yet the movie hits you like a shot in the heart, providing a satisfying closure even when its hard to believe that Marvel will ever really kill a franchise that’s amassed $19 billion at the global box office. Of the 22 films in the MCU that began in 2008 with Iron Man, Endgame is the most personal yet — an emotional wipeout that knows intimacy is its real superpower.

Avengers: Endgame and the State of the Modern Superhero

With 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War as our source, what we grasp going in is that Thanos (a superb Josh Brolin giving tragic dimension to a CGI villain) has decimated half of all living creatures in the universe. Only six of the original Avengers remain: Thor ( Chris Hemsworth ), Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow ( Scarlett Johansson ), Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Steve Rogers/Captain America ( Chris Evans ) and Bruce Banner/Hulk ( Mark Ruffalo ). Also in play are James Rhodes/War Machine ( Don Cheadle ), Rocket the space raccoon (hilariously growled by Bradley Cooper), Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and Nebula (the sublime Karen Gillan), the supervillain’s reformed blue-meanie daughter. Their mission impossible, and there’s no question that they’ll choose to accept it, is to avenge the dead by destroying Thanos, bring back the six Infinity Stones that hold the key to ultimate control and just maybe find a way to restore a semblance of order.

With Infinity War, the Russos left audiences with their mouths open in shock as beloved characters were reduced to dust and evil emerged triumphant. Who does that? With Endgame, from an original script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the filmmakers take you places you can’t possibly see coming regarding who dies and who lives to tell their story. Don’t expect a typical happy ending. Just prepare to be wowed.

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For a movie bursting with action and culminating in a one-for-the-time capsule showdown, Endgame starts on a quietly reflective note. No Avenger is left unbroken by the devastation that ensued when Thanos snapped his fingers and half the world turned to dust. (Some mild plot spoilers ahead.) The movie jumps ahead five years after that moment, with our superheroes are empty shells forced to reflect on their failures. Tragedy has set Hawkeye adrift. Iron Man has retreated into the cocoon of family life with wife Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Thor has lost his home on Asgard. Hulk has learned to subdue his baser instincts. And Black Widow wonders if any sense can be made of it all. That’s when Ant-Man (Paul Rudd, amiable as ever) shows up, fresh from the Quantum Realm, with an idea for a “time heist.” You don’t have to make jokes about the clichéd time travel plot — the film is ready, willing and able to make its own, with Back to the Future coming in for a serious ribbing.

The Russos make sure there are lots of intentional giggles, especially when Cap is told that his uniform “does nothing for your ass” or Thor lards up with bellyfat or Hulk just stands there like a big green machine. Cheers to Ruffalo and Hemsworth for getting the most laughs without sacrificing character. Downey lowers Stark’s snark quotient to create something genuinely moving. His young daughter measures her devotion to him in multiples. “I love you 3000,” she says. Fans will surely feel the same.

Audiences affection for these Avengers carries the film over its rough spots. Some characters get their due (let’s hear it for the the women of Wakanda!) , while others stay on the outside looking in. A few supporting characters who show up for the big third-act battle have big moments that feel unearned. Also, it seems like Endgame has at least six endings, when the first one handily gets the job done.

Still, this long goodbye gets to you. It’s not an ardent and artful game-changer like Black Panther ; there probably isn’t a Best Picture Oscar nomination in its future. So what? You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll thrill to the action fireworks. You’ll love it 3000. And not for a minute will you believe it’s really a farewell.

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Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame review

In avengers: endgame, marvel saved its best (and biggest) for last.

It’s difficult to overstate the importance of Avengers: Endgame in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The culmination of 21 films and several television series weaving together a singular narrative over more than a decade, Endgame is not just the final chapter in Marvel’s “Infinity Saga,” it’s the final exhibit in a billion-dollar proof-of-concept for both Hollywood and movie audiences.

At this point, everyone knows Marvel’s powerful production team, led by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, can tell a great story, but with Endgame , the question becomes: Can they end it?

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The answer to that question is no simple affirmative. It’s an emphatic, comprehensive “yes,” resulting in a film that somehow manages to be as epic as fans hope and as dramatic as the MCU deserves.

Simply put, Avengers: Endgame is the biggest movie Marvel has ever made, and it just might be the best, too.

Directed by Avengers: Infinity War and Captain America: Civil War filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Endgame picks up in the aftermath of the climactic events of Infinity War, which saw cosmic conqueror Thanos (Josh Brolin) turn half the living creatures in the universe to dust with the snap of his fingers. Reeling from their defeat and hopelessly adrift — some quite literally — the heroes of the MCU find themselves faced with one final opportunity to reverse Thanos’ actions and bring their allies, friends, and families back.

Precious little can be said of the plot that brings Endgame and the MCU’s “Infinity Saga” to its conclusion without spoilers, but it should suffice to indicate that plenty of surprises await even the most all-consuming Marvel movie fan.

Endgame is a master class in building and maintaining drama.

At this point, it’s becoming a Marvel Studios (and Disney at large, for that matter) tradition to feel like there’s been too much footage released in the lead-up to a film’s release, only to have the final product offer all manner of narrative twists, turns, and unexpected meme-generating moments. That holds true for Endgame more than any prior MCU movie, as the potential for spoilers was massive, but the number of think pieces and op-eds to accurately glean even a few — if any — plot points from the film is shockingly small.

Marvel deserves plenty of credit for whatever secret-keeping strategies it employs, because Endgame is a master class in building and maintaining drama.

Much was made of the film’s three-hour running time in the lead-up to Endgame’ s premiere, but those three hours fly by without ever feeling jumbled or forced. Endgame keeps a quick pace, but it’s a pace that feels familiar in the MCU, with every moment efficiently put toward building out a character, driving the story forward, or evoking a particular emotion — even when that emotion is a bit of levity in an otherwise dire moment.

The cast of Endgame is crowded, certainly, but the Russos take painstaking efforts to give each character a moment to shine — from new favorites like Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) to MCU veterans Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth).

It’s those latter three, along with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Hulk (Marc Ruffalo), and Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), who truly shine in Endgame . Along with Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and Nebula (Karen Gillan), these surviving MCU characters (following the events of Infinity War ) are tasked with showing the audience the physical and emotional toll of losing so many friends and family members in a conflict they believed themselves certain to win.

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The aforementioned characters’ disappointment in themselves and the world they failed to protect — something that had become, for many of them, their entire purpose in life — resonates throughout their arcs in Endgame . Fortunately, the cast delivers some of their best performances to date in exploring how each character processes that kind of trauma, and if any uncertainty surrounding Marvel’s casting decisions still remained, the actors’ performances in this concluding chapter should finally and decisively put those doubts to rest.

While the spectrum of emotions that Endgame tackles is surprisingly robust (and features an impressive level of nuance when dealing with certain characters’ responses to the events of Infinity War ), the bar-raising scope of action comes as less of a shock.

To the surprise of no one, Endgame boasts some of the largest battles of any MCU film so far, both in the number of top-tier, recognizable characters appearing on the screen at various points and the sheer cinematic scope of the events playing out there. Yet, amid all of the chaos, the Russos somehow manage to find just the right balance between the cheer-worthy spectacle of it all and the sort of focused, character-driven action that makes the stakes of the battle feel authentic.

Looking back at Infinity War through the lens of Endgame , it’s easy to see the former as a film about the way heroes can set aside their personal differences for a cause greater than all of them. Endgame , however, is a film about the true costs of war — both for those who fight in it and those around them.

All of this will likely be the subject of countless think pieces in the weeks to come, and Endgame brings the MCU full circle by focusing on the characters who kicked off Marvel’s unbelievably ambitious experiment a decade ago.

After years of battles fought, seemingly unbeatable odds soundly beaten, and countless enemies and diabolical schemes foiled time and time again, the two-part experience offered by Infinity War and Endgame is a cathartic one. The loss felt by the characters across the two films is one of the most powerful emotional journeys the MCU has given audiences so far, but so is their path to redemption in Endgame .

In the end, it’s somewhat fitting that Marvel chose to buck tradition with Endgame and not include the usual mid- or post-credits scene , leaving us hanging when it comes to what’s next for the MCU.

If Endgame was indeed the final chapter in Marvel’s movie-verse, it would be a perfectly satisfying send-off to one of the greatest franchises ever brought to the big screen.

Fortunately, the MCU still has plenty of stories to tell — and if they’re half as good as the story that Endgame brings to an epic, wonderfully satisfying conclusion, we have a lot to look forward to.

Avengers: Endgame premieres April 26 in theaters around the US.

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Recently, Variety released a bombshell article alleging that Marvel Studios is rethinking its plans for its ongoing Multiverse Saga following the lackluster success of its many films and TV shows. The studio is even supposedly pondering not having Kang the Conqueror be the saga's overarching villain after all since the character's actor, Jonathan Majors, is now on trial for accusations of domestic violence.

All in all, the studio clearly needs to return to the drawing board to bring the Marvel Cinematic Universe back to its former glory, and the higher-ups should consider doing these things in a revised Multiverse Saga. Have the heroes save the world less

When it comes to superheroes, everyone's got an opinion. But since Marvel Studios is openly struggling, and The Marvels may have a truly disastrous opening, we thought it would be a good time to see what some of the diehard fans have been saying online.

I scoured Reddit for the seven most unpopular opinions about the MCU, which I've reproduced below, followed by my thoughts on each one. 7. Premature multiverse

There are some movies, such as Citizen Kane, The Godfather, and Casablanca, that many people agree are perfect motion pictures. But no matter what anyone says, no film can ever be truly flawless.

At least one error always makes it into the finished product, and once the initial hype dies down after a movie's release, these flaws only grow more and more noticeable, especially as people's ideas and standards change. So while they may have achieved massive acclaim in their heydays, these seven film franchises still have a fatal flaw that needs addressing. 7. Avatar -- It uses an outdated white savior narrative

Den of Geek

Avengers: Endgame Review – A Brilliant MCU Finale

Part of the journey is the end. And what a journey it's been to the thrilling, moving Avengers: Endgame.

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After 11 years and 22 films, the ongoing saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come to a turning point. Avengers: Endgame serves not just as the conclusion to the story started last April in Avengers: Infinity War , but it also works to wrap up character arcs and story threads that began seven, eight, or even 10 years ago. That it does so successfully, in a massive, incredibly entertaining epic that is as emotional as it is spectacular, is due to the craft, world-building, and devotion to character empathy and development that has marked the best efforts of this franchise.

As one might expect, there is no easy way to summarize or explain the plot without delving into spoilers, and make no mistake, there are spoilers around almost every corner. But the gist of the story is simple enough and pretty much accurate to what has been shown in the trailers: after Thanos (Josh Brolin) has cut the population of the universe in half with a snap of the Infinity Gauntlet , the surviving Avengers — the original six plus a few remaining allies — immediately deploy a plan to find the Mad Titan, wrest the Gauntlet from him, and undo his monstrous actions.

Naturally, more than a few obstacles are thrown in the path of our heroes, forcing them not just to reconsider their options but to re-examine the choices they’ve made along the way and the paths their lives are taking now. The most surprising thing about Avengers: Endgame is its structure: unlike Infinity War , which sped along on a constant stream of high-octane action sequences , Endgame ’s first hour contains few pyrotechnics by comparison, and it’s a testament to how involved we’ve become with these characters that the viewer doesn’t care and the time flies by anyway (except for the first few scenes, as the picture starts up, the movie does not feel like three hours at all).

Those who were disappointed that some of the original Avengers were either short-changed (or missing entirely) in Infinity War won’t have any complaints here. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson), Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) are front and center, with each of them facing decisions and actions that in some cases have roots going back to their very first screen appearances. Also playing important roles are Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and Nebula (Karen Gillan), while Brolin’s Thanos is as menacing and imposing as ever — if a tad less complex than he was in Infinity War .

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That and a few other flaws do take a little of the gloss off this otherwise sumptuous and exhilarating adventure. While the pacing is fine for most of the movie, a handful of sequences feel a bit rushed; one in particular, a real crossroads moment involving two characters, mirrors a similar scene in Infinity War but doesn’t seem to get the same space to breathe and be as emotionally impactful as it should. A few developments for certain characters happen offscreen but could have perhaps benefited from a little more exploration. And some of the mechanics of the plot, without getting into spoiler territory, may benefit from a second viewing if they hold up at all (but given the nature of the story, that material was always going to be tricky anyway, a point that the film even sort of acknowledges).

As for the common objection that one hears from critics of the MCU — that the viewer will be lost if they’re not up on a good chunk of the previous movies — the only answer to that now is “too bad.” Perhaps more than any other MCU film, it will be pretty damn hard to walk cold into Endgame and fully grasp what’s happening — not just in its relation to Infinity War , but with regards to the many callbacks to earlier moments in the other 21 movies. But frankly, if you’re walking into this movie without having seen “enough” of the others or at least being versed in what has come before, then what the hell are you doing there? After 11 years, Marvel Studios has earned the right to operate on its own terms, and is long past the point of coddling the paying customer.

Avengers: Endgame is the pinnacle of that, a three-hour celebration of everything that has come before and a deep dive into all-out fan service that doesn’t feel forced. Sure, there are little in-jokes and references (to both earlier movies and the comics themselves) that are going to fly over some viewers’ heads, but the overall warmth, humor, and emotional connection that has helped almost all these movies work so well over the past decade also go a long way here. With the sense of finality that pervades the movie, there are also moments that will have fans on the edge of their seats, expecting the worst — and in some cases getting it.

Avengers: Endgame – Complete Marvel Easter Eggs and MCU Reference Guide

The final third of Endgame is simply overpowering, a senses-filling extravaganza that pays off the build of the first two hours and fully embraces the comic book origins of the MCU in a way that surpasses the visual cues of the films that have come before. By the same token, the movie opens the floodgates once and for all in the MCU in terms of what kinds of stories can be told, and how: nothing is ever going to be too weird or cosmic or “out there” again. Marvel’s careful, gradual cultivation of the many bizarre corners and aspects of its realm has now allowed the studio to make almost whatever movie it wants to.

Kudos are due to screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely for their (in this writer’s opinion, underrated) ability to juggle a multitude of characters and plot strands while keeping their eyes squarely on the characters and how their actions drive the story, and to directors Anthony and Joe Russo for putting it all on the screen in an often beautiful and panoramic vista that bounces from images of almost poetic power to searing explosions of comic book insanity. After four movies in a row, one almost wishes this quartet would keep hanging around the MCU. Overseeing them and their always magnificent cast is Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, who has shepherded this universe to the screen in a way many didn’t think possible, and seen it through to this culminating moment with few missteps.

Of course, more Marvel movies are coming . And some of the many characters in Avengers: Endgame will appear in them. But even for a franchise that seems comfortably able to go on and on as long as the audience keeps showing up , Endgame does pull off the feat of feeling remarkably like a finale, and even the most casual fan may feel the emotional tug of those moments. For long-term, fully invested Marvel fans, Endgame will be both devastating and life-affirming, a story of sacrifice, memory, guilt, and loss that is also a mind-bending superhero blockbuster and a poignant exploration of what it means to be a hero. As Iron Man himself says, part of the journey is the end…but the end is also a new beginning.

Avengers: Endgame is out in theaters.

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Don Kaye is a Los Angeles-based entertainment journalist and associate editor of Den of Geek . Other current and past outlets include Syfy, United Stations Radio Networks, Fandango, MSN, RollingStone.com and many more. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @donkaye

Don Kaye | @donkaye

Don Kaye is an entertainment journalist by trade and geek by natural design. Born in New York City, currently ensconced in Los Angeles, his earliest childhood memory is…

Avengers: Endgame Review

25 Apr 2019

Avengers: Endgame

Last year’s Avengers: Infinity War was as finely calibrated a piece of action cinema as you’re ever likely to see, with a vast host of characters taking their turn upon the stage. There, each one generally did something awesome during their moment in the spotlight and passed the metaphorical baton gracefully to the next comer. You might expect more of the same in the Endgame that now follows, but this time Joe and Anthony Russo have delivered a stranger, scrappier beast. This deals with the messy business of emotional fallout and character development. The trick is that it does so in a way that’s equally satisfying – and that the action, when it comes, is less precise but far more impactful.

Marvel fans won’t be surprised to learn that most of the clips you’ve glimpsed in the trailer come in the first 15 minutes of the movie and were given to you a little out of context. But virtually everything that you haven’t seen in that 15 minutes will surprise you, and that’s just the prelude. This entire first act is primarily about coping with grief and loss, and the many different forms that takes. All five stages of grief are here somewhere, though no-one has made it all the way through depression to complete acceptance. As Steve Rogers ( Chris Evans ) said even in the trailers, “Some people move on. But not us.”

Nothing is safe until everything is safe; nothing is over until it’s really, completely over.

They’re struggling – even those whose lives and families were ostensibly left untouched. Steve may run to a returning Tony’s ( Robert Downey Jr. ) side, both united in failure, but there’s still bad blood between them, and Steve’s attempts to hold up everyone else’s morale are clearly paper-thin covers for his own vast despair. Rocket ( Bradley Cooper ) and Thor ( Chris Hemsworth ) may still crack wise, but they’re barely functional without the support networks that once sustained them. And Hawkeye ( Jeremy Renner ) is taking out his fury at the universe, and at an unreachable Thanos, on any criminal who had the temerity to survive when his family did not. There’s alcoholism, depression, drastic lifestyle changes and simple avoidance of things too painful to face.

So yes, expect metaphorical gut punches galore in this early section, before they come up with a plan that just might work to put things right and deliver a satisfying gut punch to the purple bastard who ruined the universe. But it’s surprisingly funny even in its darkest moments. “I get emails from a raccoon so nothing seems crazy anymore,” says Natasha ( Scarlett Johansson ) wryly. Tony and Rhodey ( Don Cheadle ) snark dependably, and Thor delivers a piece of, er, call it physical comedy that subverts expectation brilliantly and offers one of the biggest laughs of the entire franchise.

If the theme of the last film was, “We don’t trade lives, Vision,” this one is all about responsibility, and self-sacrifice, and being willing to do “whatever it takes” to win the day. It’s a battle between the past and future, and an argument about which one we should do more to protect. Here, nothing is safe until everything is safe; nothing is over until it’s really, completely over.

This is not just about getting the gang back together, but taking the time to share knowledge, form a plan and work as a team in order to do some actual avenging for once. It’s a long film, but it doesn’t feel it even with all these talky scenes. We get a steady stream of returning characters – and not only heroes – who ensure your interest never has a chance to wane: the cast of this film is an indie director’s fever dream, an embarrassment of riches that is well invested at key moments. Inevitably a few characters are underserved, with Rocket, Okoye ( Danai Gurira ) and maybe even Natasha short a scene or two while others get far more than before, but it’s hard to see what else could have been cut without losing something important. Cap, in particular, becomes the heart of this film in a big way. Screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely came up through his films and let the love show here, though to be fair, this is a film that trips back through characters, moments and lines from the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe back catalogue.

Then there is the action. There are a few feints early on that skew far from the expected template, but the big brawl that finishes – that had to finish this – is one for the ages. The action sometimes moves a little too fast to really grasp, but there’s so much to entertain that it seems unfair to complain. It’s punctuated by moments of pure, giddy delight that put Thor’s arrival in Wakanda into the shade, and moments of emotion that hit hard; if this is fan service (okay, it’s definitely fan service) it’s exceptionally well deployed. Except, maybe, for one nod to grrrl power that is uncharacteristically clumsy.

That moment doesn’t drag it down for long; there’s too much else happening that is awesome. Sure, there’s a touch of Return Of The King syndrome creeping in at the end. Sure, the plot has a particular breed of logic hole that you could drive a bus through. You won’t care. We’re never going to object to another five minutes in the company of this company.

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The Avengers gang, each haunted by their own ‘existential quandary’, in Avengers: Endgame

Avengers: Endgame review – a giddily cathartic final battle

The climactic instalment of the blockbuster series is a galvanising victory lap and the ultimate love letter to superfans

I t’s only taken 11 years and 22 feature-length films , but the end of Marvel’s Avengers series is in sight. Sceptics might feel assailed by the 181-minute running time; a three-hour movie is the ultimate act of fan service. A pleasant surprise, then, those three hours zip by at lightspeed.

To recap: in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War , evil Thanos (Josh Brolin) seized control of all six “infinity stones”, wiping out 50% of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and erasing many beloved characters from existence. Endgame picks up in the aftermath, skipping ahead five years. Grief has softened some of the Avengers (Chris Hemsworth’s Thor has acquired a drinking problem and a beer belly) and calcified others (Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye has taken up street fighting with petty criminals).

Franchise logic dictates that, in its final instalment, at least some of the vanished superheroes will return, but screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are forced to figure out how to pull this off without simply pressing a giant reset button. The opportunity to rewrite history via a time machine (not a spoiler, but an inevitability) brings the gang back together again for one last mission. En route, we get flashbacks to earlier outings (2012’s The Avengers and 2013’s Thor: Dark World , for example); these bits are, quite transparently, for the superfans, but on balance, the film is more satisfying than an assemblage of meme-able moments designed to please the already initiated.

The variables of human emotion and fallible judgment are what drive the series; each character is haunted by their own, specific existential quandary. Who is Captain America (Chris Evans), once his optimism has been worn down? What of Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr) cold logic now he is a father? Will Nebula’s (Karen Gillan) inherent humanity override her tampered wiring?

The final battle is giddily cathartic, but the catharsis arises from prioritising character development over plot and spectacle. This, I imagine, will be the Avengers ’ legacy.

Avengers: Endgame
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Avengers: Endgame First Reviews: Best Marvel Movie Ever, Say Some

The first reviews of marvel's superhero extravaganza say it fulfills a decade's worth of promises with wit, heart, and action like we've never seen before..

TAGGED AS: MCU , Superheroes

The initial reactions to Avengers: Endgame following the first screenings were extremely positive. But now critics have had time to process what they saw, and well, they’re still mostly raving about the 22nd entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — it’s currently Certified Fresh at 97%. Of course, there are some quibbles here and there, mainly about the length. Also, the long-form responses to the Avengers: Infinity War follow-up have some extra thoughts to share regarding Endgame ’s best moments, as well as the movie’s MVP. Basically, just icing on the cake to get you even more hyped for this thing.

Here’s what the critics are saying about Avengers: Endgame :

How does it compare to Avengers: Infinity War ?

Endgame is a different type of film than Infinity War … there are actually moments of calm, where the audience can catch its breath. – Charles Barfield, The Playlist

Infinity War floundered, it seems, so Endgame could soar. – Angie Han, Mashable

Where Infinity War had trouble finding time for characters, Endgame is about nothing but character work. – Susana Polo, Polygon

The Russo Brothers were able to best themselves yet again. – Dorian Parks, Geeks of Color

There’s something considerably less elegant to the storytelling this time around. – Peter Debruge, Variety

Is it the best Marvel movie yet?

Avengers: Endgame is everything you’ve ever dreamed a Marvel movie could be…You will not be let down. – Germain Lussier, io9

One of the most ambitious, entertaining, emotional, and stunning blockbusters we’ve ever seen, and the best film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe canon thus far. – Eric Eisenberg, Cinema Blend

Avengers: Endgame is not the best Marvel movie ever made…But it is the most Marvel movie ever made, and there’s something incredible about that. – Angie Han, Mashable

Avengers: Endgame is the most “Marvel” movie in Marvel Cinematic Universe history. – Charles Barfield, The Playlist

Avengers: Endgame is, without a doubt, the most confusing and convoluted of any of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, yet it’s also unbelievably satisfying. – Mike Ryan, Uproxx

Avengers: Endgame is now my favorite MCU movie and is probably my favorite comic book movie to date. – Dorian Parks, Geeks of Color

It’s not the best of anything in terms of the Marvel franchise… Avengers: Endgame is a merely okay MCU movie. – Scott Mendelson, Forbes

(Photo by @ Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, @ Marvel)

Should we be surprised at this?

Whatever you think Endgame will be, it will still confound and amaze and thrill you in ways that is hard to imagine. – Mark Daniell, Toronto Sun

One of the nicest surprises of Endgame is how fun it is… So much so that the three-hour run time seems to fly by. – Angie Han, Mashable

There are things in Endgame you never could have guessed would come back to light, but they do, and it’s glorious . – Germain Lussier, io9

Endgame is truly a masterful piece of storytelling, which both goes exactly where you expect it to, and not at all. – Anne Cohen, Refinery29

How busy is the movie?

The Russos juggle the tones with balletic finesse. – Eric Kohn, IndieWire

The film is sometimes juggling five or six stories simultaneously, but the Russos and their editors never let the audience get too far from one or the other. – Germain Lussier, io9

It’s strangely sentimental for a movie that features the biggest all-out superhero fight I can ever remember seeing. – Mike Ryan, Uproxx

How is the action?

The fight scenes that do take place are epic… seeing the epic battle in the third act makes the last decade worth it. – Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies

The action sequences were choreographed and shot so beautifully. Without spoiling anything, you will need to be prepared for the third act. – Dorian Parks, Geeks of Color

Are we going to cr y ?

As emotionally affecting as any Marvel movie has ever been… a genuinely moving drama. – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times

Endgame focuses on the original Avengers…it’s immensely gratifying and emotional to see them struggle on a plethora of levels. – Germain Lussier, io9

How satisf y ing is it as a finale?

Endgame does pull off the feat of feeling remarkably like a finale, and even the most casual fan may feel the emotional tug of those moments. – Don Kaye, Den of Geek

As a Part 2, Endgame is a hugely successful ending to a story that began a year ago but truly dates back a decade. – Charles Barfield, The Playlist

[It’s] a moment to stop and look back in amazement (or terror) at what the MCU has pulled off… Endgame is Marvel’s crowning achievement. – Angie Han, Mashable

How lost will we be if we haven’t seen all 21 previous movies?

There’s no shaking the fact that Endgame is very much a Part 2 (or Part 22, honestly)… not for MCU newbies… casual fans need not apply… If you’re not someone that knows every character by name, you’re in for a confusing three-hour film. – Charles Barfield, The Playlist

My daughter hasn’t seen very many of these and only had a few in-movie questions… it works on its own terms and unquestionably sticks the landing. – Scott Mendelson, Forbes

This is a film designed for fans… Newcomers will likely find themselves totally lost in this tangle of characters and relationships and mythologies. – Angie Han, Mashable

It does feel like a wonderful gift to all those who have spent the last decade-plus emotionally engaging with the lives and adventures of these characters. – Eric Eisenberg, Cinema Blend

(Photo by )

Can y ou give me some comparative context?

Newcomers to the series may as well be watching a Transformers movie. – Eric Kohn, IndieWire

While there is a big third-act action sequence, it’s (despite some grand fan service) closer in structure and visuals to Ready Player One than The Two Towers . – Scott Mendelson, Forbes

Avengers: Endgame feels like the last scene of Titanic with everyone back on the ship, applauding. And, you know what? I’m okay with that. – Mike Ryan, Uproxx

Who is the movie’s MVP ?

From a performance standpoint, Chris Hemsworth, for the second film in a row, delivers the best outing of the large ensemble. – Clayton Davis, AwardsCircuit.com

Hemsworth especially has quickly become, due to Thor: Ragnarok and the last two of these Avengers flicks, a subtle MVP of the franchise. – Scott Mendelson, Forbes

Hemsworth has inexplicably become the MVP of this franchise, able to balance big, broad comedy with soul-searching pathos. – Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm

Are there any big criticisms?

Its biggest fault, however nitpicky, is that it doesn’t really confront or advance any of the big philosophical questions that have been running through the saga from the beginning. – Scott Mendelson, Forbes

I feel that Marvel’s secret weapon [Captain Marvel] is underused. – Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies

Has a sitcom episode like feel to it that is reminiscent of a ‘clip show’ – where the viewers get excerpts and highlights from previous episodes of the series. – Clayton Davis, AwardsCircuit.com

Will there ever be anything like this movie again?

One can only hope that the next 10 years of Marvel storytelling — which will feature new heroes and villains — comes close to this. – Mark Daniell, Toronto Sun

Avengers: Endgame opens everywhere on April 26.

Avengers: Endgame (2019) 94%

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Entertainment

Avengers: Endgame best and worst -- our global review

The CNET global crew reacts to the final chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sheer perfection or a waste of time? Spoilers ahead!

Everybody's talking about Avengers: Endgame . And here at CNET, we're no exception. Our global team is bursting with opinions -- was Endgame a perfect final chapter to the Marvel Cinematic Universe , or a plot-hole-riddled waste of time?

If you haven't seen it, check out our spoiler-free review . And if you have, read on for a range of thoughts...

Core characters

Comic book events are often messy, convoluted affairs, and it would've been so easy for Avengers: Endgame to fall into that trap. Luckily, the Russo brothers focused on the characters we've come to love over the last 11 years. Their emotional journeys anchor this wild adventure. Each of the core Avengers gets at least one fist-pumping standout moment, and I even got choked up a few times. I was confident this movie would at least reach the dizzying heights of Infinity War , but somehow it managed to exceed that superhero masterpiece.

-- Sean Keane (London)

An offer you can't refuse

I expected Endgame would be The Godfather II to Infinity War's The Godfather, on par in quality if not better. I was very wrong. Endgame is like watching The Godfather and Godfather II combined, leaving Infinity War looking like Godfather Part III. It's so rare when a three-hour film has nothing worth trimming, but this film is as tight as Thanos' rear end after hearing the Ant-Man "theory." Endgame will leave you laughing, crying and cheering more than you've ever done in any MCU film.

-- Rebecca Fleenor (San Francisco)

No time to pee

I've never seen so many people get up to pee in one film -- and I couldn't believe they were sacrificing even a second, because Endgame is incredible. I knew it was three hours long going in, but I didn't notice the time go by at all. I just sat and watched something that was both classic Marvel and its own fresh thing. It gets superweird. Weirder than a raccoon sending emails. It mixes time travel film with heist film -- I can't get enough of both of those genres. It proves Nebula is the best character of all (just saying). And it has real stakes. The peeing people in my screening redeemed themselves with the many whoops and cheers that made this a perfect filmgoing experience.

-- Jennifer Bisset (Sydney)

There are some problems...

OK. It's great. Obviously. Emotional, funny, epic, all those good things. Five stars, eight thumbs up.

There's so much wrong with Endgame that I can't get out of my head. Primarily, time travel removes all jeopardy from all future stories. Something goes wrong tomorrow, hop back in the time machine, grab the stones again, solve it and return them. Which leaves the MCU kind of broken.

While we're on the subject, how do you return a Soul Stone? Do you chuck it over the edge and Black Widow comes back to life? Or do you just get store credit?

Also that means Cap bumped into the Red Skull again -- and we didn't see it!

My main gripe about time travel though is that the filmmakers go to great lengths to explain their logic and how it all works, and then just ignore the rules when it suits them. Seriously, @ me if you want to see my corkboard covered in red string, because Ol' Cappy at the end breaks every rule previously established.

-- Drew Stearne (London)

All bets are off

Yes, Endgame cheats. As soon as you introduce time travel in the mix you know all bets are off. But who cares: This is a glorious final chapter to what has been an extraordinary cinematic journey. Endgame's filmic qualities as a standalone piece of cinema are secondary to the opportunity to say goodbye to the MCU's beloved characters, but the intimate character-focused story makes it enormously compelling. I laughed, I cried, and that's nothing compared with how the superfans next to me lost their minds. So what if it cheats -- Endgame is the end of a beautiful friendship.

-- Richard Trenholm (London)

And another thing...

Hulk Banner kills the entire concept of the character. Yes, there's comic book precedent for it, but fusing the two sides of the character removes the core premise that makes him work. The mock "Hulk smash" was very funny, but by giving us "the best of both worlds" we've ended up with the true characteristics of neither.

In fact, Hulk is dead. Bruce Banner killed him and is wearing his body like a viper green party suit. I'm supposed to shed tears over the death of Black Widow or Iron Man, but the Incredible Hulk was slaughtered off screen and we just laugh at the selfies. The puny humans finally defeated the Hulk. Boo, I say. BOOOOO!

Class reunion

First off, Infinity War and Endgame are two very different movies. Though the first felt like a roller coaster full of action, the new Avengers flick feels more like a chess match that turns into a rumble in the jungle -- yes, there are fights, but not as many as in other Marvel movies. Or it's a class reunion full of long-held emotions, where not everyone is where you'd expect them to be. The party is headlined by Captain America and Iron Man, with strong support from Hulk, Thor , Black Widow, Nebula, Rocket, Ant-Man, War Machine and Ronin. And as with many large soirées, you might end up feeling happy you went but not sure of who you actually saw or what exactly happened... but at least you enjoyed the fireworks at the end. You can read my review in Spanish here .

-- Gabriel Sama (San Francisco)

hawkeye-black-widow-avengers-endgame-promo

And ANOTHER thing...

Oh, ALSO, the film continually throws away long-established lore in search of a gag or crowd-pleasing moment. I can just about get Cap being able to wield Thor's hammer, but is he now also the God of Thunder shooting lightning? Because last time I checked, those powers didn't come with the tool. Awesome? Abso-damn-lutely! Still bugs me though.

Bear witness

It's difficult for me to put into words how perfectly realized Avengers: Endgame is. There was no other way to complete an 11-year narrative that's snowballed into a cinematic feat I feel downright privileged to have witnessed. There were amazingly awesome comic book moments in this film that were so powerful to witness I couldn't help but exclaim! However, the heartfelt character moments show the medium at its best. Its absolute best. These scenes are the reason you care about the last hour of this movie. I can't wait to watch it again.

-- Eric Franklin (San Francisco)

One MORE thing...

I've seen some negative opinions about the representation of Thor, the fact that his grief and depression have been channeled into drinking and weight gain and that his loss of confidence and drive make light of mental health issues. I'm not sure the MCU is the best place to explore that fittingly, and Marvel bailing on Tony Stark's mental health and addiction issues pretty sharpish showed they weren't going to delve into that angle. What it did do, though, is make me feel better about my own dadbod, so there's that.

Looking ahead

Avengers: Endgame is the ultimate form of fan service. But after 11 years and 22 films, it's the kind of fan service that seems organic and earned. After deftly balancing the screen time of so many characters in Infinity War -- including a fleshed-out villain in Thanos -- Endgame smartly pares back the focus to the core Avengers crew, giving them a fitting swan song.

Endgame is here

Spoiler-free review: Love letter to fans tops Infinity War
Spoiler-packed review: MCU clincher so close to perfect
No postcredits scene, but there's a tiny audio stinger
The biggest spoiler-filled WTF questions
It's three hours long: The best times to pee
Captain America will always be my favorite Avenger

You might be disappointed that some of the newer characters don't get much screen time beyond glorified cameos, but there will be plenty of time for the spotlight to go around in Phase 4 . Endgame doesn't always make sense -- inevitable given the plot tricks and twists employed here -- but it has plenty of heart, hits a lot of emotional chords and is just downright funny. The Russo brothers crafted a fitting end to this first era of Marvel films, offering a satisfying conclusion while also laying the groundwork for future films.

-- Roger Cheng (New York)

Show Us Yours: Marvel fandom pictures from our readers

One LAST thing...

OK, everything that's so good about Endgame more than makes up for anything that's overwritten, under-written or just plain stupid. I laughed, it somehow started raining on the faces of many a grown person in the theatre and there were more than a few cheers.

Now, if Spider-Man: Far from Home could address how 3 billion people just reappearing doesn't throw the planet into utter chaos, I might be able to sleep at night...

The perfect final chapter

I watched Avengers: Endgame at the end of an insane 59-hour marathon featuring all 22 Marvel movies, and no amount of fatigue could diminish the power of this film. It made the entire experience worthwhile. I woke up the next morning still trying to absorb everything that had happened. I feel a mixture of happiness and heartache when I think about it. It was also so satisfying.

Watching this movie was actually the perfect way to wrap up a marathon during which I was introduced to (many, many) characters and plotlines. It brought everything together so well, and provided much-needed resolution following the ending of Avengers: Infinity War, which had left me thoroughly heartbroken. After Endgame I could sleep soundly, albeit after the thrills and emotions kept me awake for quite a bit.

I'm going to be taking this one in for a while, as one should with any masterpiece.

-- Abrar Al-Heeti (San Francisco)

2019 movies to geek out over

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‘Avengers: Endgame’ Review: A Messy Love Letter to the Biggest Movie Franchise of the Century

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By assembling a decade of superhero narratives into the spectacular package that was “Avengers: Infinity War,” Marvel Studios pulled off the most dramatic blockbuster gamble of all time. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo imported the complex world-building approach from generations of Marvel Comics into a cinematic whole, creating a noisy mishmash of beloved characters and CGI-laced showdowns. It was a unique negotiation between spectacle and character, more impressive than anyone could have anticipated. But it would have been little more than a costly collage without the most dramatic cliffhanger in modern history, and “ Avengers: Endgame ” strains from contending with the fallout of that twist.

Few spoilers follow here, though sensitive viewers may consider even general observations as such. Suffice to say, “Endgame” delivers the payoff countless fans hoped for, even as it struggles to fuse that commercial mandate into a gratifying whole. There’s much to enjoy about this mishmash of tender goodbyes and last-minute strategies to save the universe, but after an intelligent first hour, “Endgame” amounts to a dense nostalgia trip. With “Infinity War,” it was thrilling to watch a mass-market movie let the bad guy win, and it’s less satisfying to see the Avengers clean up the mess one last time. The title of “Endgame” is misleading: This busy love letter to the biggest movie franchise of all time unleashes several endings at once, resulting in a fascinating — if at times messy — collection of competing agendas.

“Infinity War” rose above expectations with the bleak jolt of its finale, and the first act of “Endgame” takes its cues from that remarkable shift. For the underground dwellers among us, the gist is alien warlord Thanos (Josh Brolin) fended off various efforts by the Avengers to prevent him from getting all six Infinity Stones into a giant metallic gauntlet. With those powerful devices in his grasp, he achieved his psychotic plot to reduce all life by half, with the disturbing simplicity of a finger snap. Nothing that Iron Man (Tony Stark) or Captain America (Chris Evans) did could stop him. The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) was useless. Ditto Norse god Thor (Chris Hemsworth), martial arts expert Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and expert marksman Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), who doesn’t even show up. And dopey Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), as “Ant-Man and the Wasp” later explained, was trapped in the quantum realm the whole time.

That left a lot of the more popular Marvel characters who were introduced in the aftermath of 2012’s “The Avengers,” from Spider-Man to Black Panther, whisked out of existence in a now-iconic fizz of evaporating dust. When the credits rolled on “Infinity War,” it was the most devastating act of cultural misdirection since Stephen Colbert tried to be funny on the 2016 election night. For Marvel and parent company Disney, the “Infinity War” finale was at once a radical storytelling maneuver and brilliant marketing savvy that guaranteed audiences would be primed for the concluding chapter. A zillion possibilities abounded around one intimidating question: How could the Avengers get their hands on Thanos’ gauntlet and make things right?

Despite its many moving parts, “Endgame” actually resolves that query with a series of tidy developments (a reminder that internet fan theories are often too smart for their own good). But it also proves that the question matters less than the colorful personalities tasked with getting there. “Endgame” opens 23 days after Thanos’ finger snap, as the remaining shellshocked Avengers assemble just long enough to argue and mourn before they realize they have to take action. That means tracking Thanos to his tranquil planet-sized paradise, where a violent showdown proves that fixing these circumstances won’t come so easily (or, at least, this quickly). The movie then travels even farther into the future, depicting a world coming to grips with the possibility of an unhappy ending.

The Russos were best known for NBC’s “Community” prior to directing 2013’s “Captain America: Winter Soldier,” but their entries in the franchise have excelled at oscillating between grim, consequential storytelling and the sense of fun necessary to make these movies click. That talent reveals itself in their fascinating depiction of how the Thanos snap reverberates across the world, forcing the Avengers to confront the turmoil of actual defeat. Some find new beginnings, and families, or freelance gigs; others settle into empty celebrity. It’s remarkable to consider the possibilities of an actual superhero movie in which change is immutable, but come on: Sometime before the one-hour mark, a key character comes up with just the idea that could reverse at least some of Thanos’ destructive effects, and so begins the real quest at hand.

The gimmick may be a cheap sci-fi device, but it arrives in fancy wrapping as an excuse to revisit aspects of all 21 previous movies. Familiar settings come and go, alongside tidbits of cameos from major and minor characters, as well as some engaging filmmaking trickery that allows old settings to take on fresh identities.

Even as it careens into a heavy series of complications, the Russos juggle the tones with balletic finesse. From the blue-hued opening with Tony Stark in deep space to the reemergence of Thor as a burly, booze-guzzling online troll, “Endgame” offers snippets of endearing moments with astonishing visual flair and first-rate music cues (The Kinks’ “Supersonic Rocket Ship” is especially well placed). And while it gives a little extra screen time to some newer additions to the MCU (especially former “Guardians of the Galaxy” villain Nebula, played with moody intensity by Karen Gillan), the bulk of “Endgame” revolves around the original Avengers.

That means more passive-aggressive banter between Iron Man and Captain America, a disarmingly insecure Bruce Banner, some dreary asides from Black Widow, and so on. The MCU has grown more diverse over the years, but newer characters who may guide the series into its next chapters, such as Captain Marvel and Black Panther, have been relegated to the sidelines. Despite a few applause-worthy achievements in the climactic battle, their minor subplots serve as little more than teasers for the representational strides around the corner — exciting in theory, but less so in the context of this particular story.

“Endgame” mostly unfolds as a prolonged embrace of the long-term challenges facing its beloved mainstays, like Banner’s ability to merge his meek-scientist persona with the raging testosterone monster within, and Thor’s lingering grief over his departed mother. (Here and there, Bradley Cooper’s Rocket Raccoon scores a good laugh, but the potential of this cartoony troublemaker remains unfulfilled.) Alan Silvestri’s epic score keeps the plot moving through various overlapping circumstances, but “Endgame” works best in small doses of the greatest hits — at least until the Russos throw up their hands and bring together every possible strand for a cacophonous showdown. Amid the noisy CGI of the final-act battle, there are plenty of rousing moments — but they’re all fragmentary, with payoffs according to the level of viewer investment. Newcomers to the series may as well be watching a “Transformers” movie.

Still, Thanos remains rare among blockbusters as a brooding villain with a profound sense of purpose, and Brolin continues to inject the character with bonafide menace right down to a final telling expression. “Who?” was the question when the purple-faced destroyer of world’s name was uttered in “Infinity War,” but “Endgame” opens with an assertion from another major figure who makes it clear just how much the world has changed: “Let’s go get the sonofabitch.”

Yet as they do, the Thanos factor is really beside the point. Watching Downey embody his exuberant riff on Elon Musk (with ample Jagger swagger) once more is a reminder of just how much this versatile actor elevated the material — and his career — with a cocky screen presence all his own. Chris Evans’ stiff and serious Captain America has felt antiquated for years, but the actor finally gets a chance to play up the lifelong regrets that dogged Steve Rogers since he was frozen in ice decades ago. Johansson and Renner have less screen time, but there’s a key moment between them that marks the rare case of action-based storytelling serving a complex emotional agenda. At their best, the MCU movies have shoehorned in rapid-fire action in tandem with appealing personalities, so it’s gratifying to see at least one occasion that achieves both goals at once.

The hits keep on coming: Diehard MCU viewers will be just as pleased to see supporting players like Anthony Mackie’s Falcon and Tony’s resilient lover Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) juggle a handful of warm scenes with their closest peers; the same goes for scores of other MCU staples (some of whom arrive at unexpected moments).

It’s an exhausting collage that bears no resemblance to any kind of franchise filmmaking other than its own overpopulated ensemble. (The “Star Wars” expanded universe may have more characters, but never stuffed into a single scene.) More than that, this speedy arrangement of catchy exchanges and brawls feels like it was crafted with internet memes in mind. As “Endgame” sputters to the finish line, it leaves the impression of witnessing a Marvel Movie Marathon compressed to three hours — and 58 seconds, but trust me, they’re disposable — of unbridled fan service.

Much of that service radiates with a sincere, even soulful, embodiment of the crackling wit and playful self-awareness that has helped these movies keep fans engaged for so long. And it suggests the next phase of that loyalty, with a spate of new movies and Disney+ TV series around the corner. As “Endgame” drops hints of additional subplots readymade for future entries, and sketches out concepts for new heroic pairings to come, its ultimate coup is the implication that every good story is readymade for a reboot.

“Avengers: Endgame” opens April 26, 2019.

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‘Tokyo Vice’ Season 2 Finale Recap: Case Closed

Where to stream:.

Unless I’m way off the mark, we have now seen the last episode of Tokyo Vice . Tozawa is dead. Sato is in charge. Katagiri retires. Misaki leaves anyone associated with the yakuza life behind, like Erika did before her. Emi has a new job offer away from the Meicho ’s grubby politics and back with her ex-boyfriend Shingo. Sam collects a payout from Mrs. Tozawa and bikes off into the sunset. Jake is married to his work. Ties everything up pretty neatly, no? Even the flash-forward that opened the series has already been accounted for, with that re-staging of Katagiri and Jake’s meeting with Tozawa’s henchman Yabuki prior to this episode. Everything that can be paid off has been paid off. I mean, the finale is literally called “Endgame.”

This filters down even into smaller storylines. Look at Jake’s relationship with his colleagues Tin-Tin and Trendy. Tin-Tin getting stabbed is one thing, but even before that, I wondered why Jake was so anxious to get back into the guy’s good graces after he plastered Samantha on the front page to get a story out there. I’d stay pretty mad about that!

But now I think Jake recognized some sort of “all’s fair in love and journalism” instinct at work in Tin-Tin’s actions, an instinct he himself shares. In this episode, we learn that Jake himself burned a source, Trendy’s American boyfriend Jason, in order to get the intel he needed from the FBI. Now Jason has been fired from the embassy and sent home where he may face charges — thousands of miles from Trendy, the man who loves him. Trendy practically has to beat a confession out of Jake, who lies with alarming ease; he then tearfully tells Adelstein to steer clear of him from now on. These two characters have brought a lot of shading to Jake, which good supporting characters do.

Looking back at the show overall, it’s fascinatingly structured in terms of its primary antagonist. Shinzo Tozawa is an iron man with feet of clay in the first season; even as he makes unprecedented moves against Chihara-kai, he’s struggling to stay alive.

Will There Be A ‘Tokyo Vice’ Season 3? Everything We Know

‘tokyo vice’ season 2 episode 9 recap: publish or perish, ‘tokyo vice’ season 2 episode 8 recap: takeover.

But that plot resolves itself offscreen between seasons. When he returns, Tozawa does so with a huge lead and only five minutes left on the clock. His men knock over the other yakuza clans with ease. He gets the future prime minister under his thumb almost instantly. The effect is a lot like what you see in a boss fight in a video game, where you get their health meter all the way down only for them to reveal a new form and start the fight afresh. I can’t recall seeing anything quite like it.

And he’d have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids. But it’s not journalism or legit policework that takes Tozawa down. On the contrary, writer-creator J.T. Rogers’s script is bearish in the extreme about the ability of these institutions to hold powerful people to account, at least under the circumstances of the time period portrayed in the show.

In the finale, Katagiri’s maneuvers depend in large part upon squeezing the last bit of juice out of his superior Nagata’s powers prior to her transfer, scheduled for just a few hours later — a transfer occurring precisely because she’s used her powers well. Jake and Emi can’t get their Tozawa or political corruption stories published at the Meicho not because Tozawa has an inside man at the paper, but because the editor of the National News desk simply refuses to risk losing access to the corridors of power over a story, any story. These are massive institutional problems, not the work of one charismatic crime boss and his minions. It’s not The Untouchables , it’s The Wire .

And in the end, neither policework nor reporting takes Tozawa down. Murder does. Knowing neither he nor Jake can get the job done, Katagiri turns over the memo that nails Tozawa as an FBI informant to Sato, in whose custody much of the gang remains safe for as long as they can. He does so not only knowing but hoping Sato will turn the file over to the other bosses, who will rise against Tozawa for being a rat. This they do, demanding he kill himself, unless he’d prefer they do it for him. Tozawa takes the honorable route. Hey, there’s a first time for everything.

No one in Tokyo Vice , on either side of director Josef Kubota Wladyka’s camera, seems particularly broken up about this. The guy is a multiple murderer, who begins this episode in the process of both having his mistress executed for sleeping with another guy and taking over the entire Japanese government and business infrastructure. If it takes yakuza to stop a yakuza, I mean, the guy’s been hoisted by his own petard.

Moreover, this happens in the same episode as arguably the series’ eeriest and most uncomfortable scene: Jake exploring the room where he watched his and Sam’s friend Polina get murdered, then watched that murder get covered up by gangsters and the next prime minister of Japan. He’s even shown from the same black-and-white security camera viewpoint, complete with the running time stamp, like he’s somehow stepped out of the present and into that horrible moment in the past. No, an episode that makes us relive something that awful that viscerally is well aware that no one will shed any tears for the guy responsible, regardless of how he meets his fate.

That said, it’s a hugely cynical finish, however feel-good it might be for both us and the characters we care about. Jake, at least, has the excuse of Katagiri covering up his true intentions until it’s too late. But for his part, Katagiri straight-up gives up on both the justice system and the fourth estate. All the values he and Jake have embodied and espoused for the past 18 episodes? Thwippp , right out the window, chucked away by Katagiri in favor of having a man extrajudicially executed to get the job done. Not to sound corny, but perhaps the real Tokyo Vice was the friends we made along the way.

Could they keep it going? Sure, I don’t see why not. Jake always has other stories to work. Katagiri could get pulled back in — or not, if Ken Watanabe’s contract is up. Jake and Trendy’s falling out feels like something set up with a story in mind. So does Mrs. Tozawa’s warning to Jake that she won’t forget how he failed to take Tozawa down with the surveillance tape, which it turns out she sent him. Boss Sato opens up a whole new world of storytelling possibilities. We don’t know where Sam’s headed, what she’ll do when she gets there, or what she’ll be like when she gets back. Emi unchained seems interesting to me. There’s plenty left to explore.

But if that doesn’t happen, that’s fine! Then there’s plenty left to imagine, the way we daydream futures for all kinds of characters in our favorite stories. I like the sense that the world of Tokyo Vice will keep on turning even if we’re not there to see it. Crime will still be committed, and cops and reporters will still investigate it. There will always be people eating and drinking and working and fucking behind those big glass windows. The lights of Tokyo will always stay on.

Sean T. Collins ( @theseantcollins ) writes about TV for Rolling Stone , Vulture , The New York Times , and anyplace that will have him , really. He and his family live on Long Island.

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Screen Rant

Babes review: michelle buteau & ilana glazer earn big laughs in endearing & deeply heartfelt comedy.

With Babes, the filmmaking team captures an authentic, and often underrepresented, facet of sisterhood and motherhood.

Babes heavily relies on Michelle Buteau and Ilana Glazer's exceptional comedic talents.
The film evenly focuses on both Dawn and Eden, offering a complete picture of their personal growth and friendship.
Babes showcases dynamic characters and thoughtful insights on friendship, motherhood, and societal expectations.

Babes follows two life-long friends as one of them embarks on a new adventure — motherhood. Dawn (Michelle Buteau) and Eden (Ilana Glazer) consider themselves sisters. Their relationship is seemingly unbreakable, as everyone understands what they are to each other, including Dawn's husband, Marty (Hasan Minhaj). But when Eden accidentally gets pregnant just as Dawn welcomes her second child, the two find their relationship tested as their family obligations, distance, and the responsibilities of motherhood threaten to tear them apart.

After becoming pregnant from a one-night stand, Eden leans on her married best friend and mother of two, Dawn, to guide her through gestation and beyond.

Ilana Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz's script is well-intentioned and funny.
Michelle Buteau & Illana Glazer have great chemistry and comedic chops
Pamela Adlon's feature debut is sincere & authentic
The film is heartfelt and touching

Despite the rather dramatic description, Babes is a comedy with some poignant dramatic parts . With Babes , the filmmaking team — Pamela Adlon, in her feature directorial debut, who works from a script by Glazer and Josh Rabinowitzand — captures an authentic, and often underrepresented, facet of sisterhood and motherhood.

Michelle Buteau & Ilana Glazer Have Incredible Chemistry

They're perfectly matched with the material.

Babes is nothing without Glazer and Buteau. The actresses are among the most highly recognized and beloved comedians working today, and both are still riding the high of their respective TV success. Broad City put Glazer on the map, so to speak, and she carries a bit of her character from the series with her as she plays Eden. She is an eccentric, charismatic, and cheerful woman who is content but doesn't necessarily have her life together.

Buteau is riding the high of her hit Netflix series , Survival of the Thickest , which has miraculously gotten a second season. As Dawn, Buteau, like Glazer, has some familiar traits from her TV character and a bit of her public persona, but there is a touch more gravitas to her performance as she plays the "serious" friend. Dawn is accomplished, married, and has another child on the way. She has moved to the suburbs and is living the kind of life many career-driven women dream of, with a supportive husband by her side to boot.

Babes is more than just a movie about motherhood; it's about the growing pains of being an adult, love, friendship, and finding new ways to come of age.

Babes relies so much on the pair's comedic instincts, which they adjust for every scene based on what is needed. Even when poignant moments arise, the actresses are acutely aware of how some levity in their delivery makes their character's plight more relatable and touching. Additionally, Glazer and Buteau have incredible chemistry, bouncing off each other so naturally.

The characters are not strictly defined, allowing Glazer and Buteau to imbue their own sensibilities, experiences, and quirks into their respective characters. It makes them so much more than characters in a story, as they represent the many women who have long-lasting friendships that can be more profound than the relationships they have with family members or romantic partners.

Babes Is Insightful About Motherhood & Sisterhood

But it doesn't forget about the comedy, which is genuinely hilarious.

With a premise like Babes , there is an assumption that Glazer's Eden would be taking center stage, while Buteau's Dawn is a supporting player. Thankfully, the movie is evenly split between the two, creating a complete picture of Eden's progression and Dawn's awakening. Eden is in a somewhat stagnant position. She is a mostly functioning adult, but due to some parental trauma, she is lacking in the responsibility department.

Babes (2024)

In a way, Dawn is more stable with a husband, child and a flourishing career. However, much like Eden's decision to become a mother, Dawn must reckon with the reality of being a mother of two, with her responsibilities quadrupling after promising to always be by Eden's side. Both women approach motherhood from very different places and perspectives, yet their journey involves more than just their children.

Glazer, Rabinowitz, and Adlon do an incredible job of creating dynamic, complex characters who express varying emotions and thoughts. The film showcases how there is never a singular problem when it comes to a friendship being tested. After years of pent-up emotions, recent life developments, monumental choices, and critical personality differences, Dawn and Eden's friendship reaches a point where it will either evolve or dissipate.

Babes is an absolute blast; it's honest, intentional, funny and moving.

Babes is genuinely curious about how that would happen when the relationship is built on such profound love and appreciation for each other. It also illustrates how societal structures that demand women hold space for more than just themselves and their families are significantly detrimental. Yet, Dawn cannot articulate or even recognize the grander ideas that influence her decisions. For a comedy to have this much nuance and still be funny is impressive. And rest assured, the comedy is very, very funny.

Babes is an absolute blast; it's honest, intentional, funny and moving. With brilliant lead performances from Buteau and Glazer, as well as an endearing supporting cast, the movie is engaging and entertaining from beginning to end. Glazer and Rabinowitz pour considerable care and consideration into this film, making Adlon's job easier when translating their work onscreen. Babes is more than just a movie about motherhood; it's about the growing pains of being an adult, love, friendship, and finding new ways to come of age. It's truly sensational.

Babes premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival.

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Tokyo Vice Finale Recap: A Different Kind of Justice

“I want to report on what really happens. That’s it.”

That’s what Jake Adelstein told Samantha Porter in the first episode of Tokyo Vice . They were both cast as vintage Michael Mann protagonists, then — driven outsiders with an insatiable lust for greatness in a subterranean field. Navigating the complex underworld of Tokyo crime, politics, finance, and violence has brought its fair share of consequences to both of them. They’re both woven into a thicker, more intricate fabric of society now, just as the balance between Japan’s over- and underlords is about to see a huge upset. As Shinzo Tozawa’s plans to merge his newly acquired yakuza conglomerate with the highest levels of Japan’s legit government (including a newly minted Prime Minister in his pocket), our season-two finale serves up a lean, mean microcosm of Tokyo’s macro plots. The yakuza, police, newsroom, organized “crime” at the top levels of finance and government, all moving in byzantine sync toward a thrilling endgame.

So where do we start? With the Yoshino, of course. It’s always been about that damn boat. At the end of the last episode , Katagiri had just gotten word from Kazuko Tozawa (thanks to Misaki’s intel, given under duress) that her husband would keep any documentation of his FBI deal in one of two places: the safe in his suite, and a safe on board the Yoshino. Now, he and Nagata are planning a simultaneous raid on both locations — one last ride for Superintendent Nagata before she’s transferred somewhere less exciting.

The plan is to raid Tozawa’s suite and the Yoshino at once to avoid tipping him off. If they find what they’re looking for, Katagiri wants to give the evidence to Jake to run the story. But Tozawa will find a way to kill it like he always does, Nagata reminds him. “But if Tozawa’s enemies learned of his betrayals, they might exact revenge on their own.” Katagiri sees the wisdom of this pretty quickly, but he wants to give Jake a chance to wrap things up “properly” first. Plus, Katagiri’s going to need Jake’s help to get on the Yoshino.

Jake, meanwhile, is still hiding out with Misaki, Sam, and Sato, courtesy of Chihara-kai (one of the great joys of the last half of this season has been watching everyone’s reaction to Jake hooking up with Tozawa’s mistress). Sato’s getting antsy, to say the least, not sure how much longer they can hide before Tozawa’s men find them. Little do they know, all four of them are about to play major roles in the grander scheme to take Tozawa down. Get ready to chomp on your cigar and say through a toothy grin, “I love when a plan comes together.”

Anyway, Jake borrows Misaki’s phone and, against Sato’s demands for no phone usage in the hideout, calls Emi to dictate the FBI story. That’s when he finds out the story isn’t running, and Tin Tin’s in the hospital, stable but still in a bad way from his stabbing wounds. “I promise you,” Emi says over the phone, “I’ll find another home for the story.”

And find another home she does. Emi is the Obi-Wan of Meicho Shimbun reporters, the most well-rounded harbinger of her profession’s ideals, if not the highest-ranking one. Despite the disastrous events between her, brother Kei, and boyfriend Shingo (culminating in last Kei’s manic, failed soft-kidnapping event last episode), she knows she can take the story to Shingo to publish in his magazine. Shingo understands the stakes, but he’s not in a position to endanger his own staff and publish. “Are the lives of my reporters less valuable than yours?” he asks. (He’s also understandably stand-offish in the immediate aftermath of the ultimatum he dropped on Emi: I’m out, let me know when you figure shit out with your brother. )

So that’s on ice for now. Meanwhile, Jake’s stuck at the hideout with the news of Tin Tin’s stabbing and a head of racing thoughts, wondering “what the fuck is wrong” with him. “It was my fault. I pushed this story. I dragged everyone into it.” There’s some truth to that, but as Sato reminds him, this is also happening because Jake did his job. Not necessarily all in the bounds of his “official” job description, but his job as it’s needed in the greater Tokyo underground organism. “And when we do our jobs,” Sato says, “there are consequences.” Every move, no matter how critical or out of pocket, draws blood somewhere.

Our boy Sato’s already coming in full force with his hard-earned, reluctant oyabun’s wisdom. It hits with Jake enough to knock loose an idea. That’s right, partner, this ain’t exactly a Western you’re living in. You can’t just go charging in on enemy territory like Sonny Crockett, not even in a metaphorical reporter’s sense. This is Tokyo. Moving parts abound. Ripples in the fabric of society, not splashes. Time to call in your real partner in the job of Tokyo underground operator.

Sato gives up his phone and Jake gets Detective K on the line, let’s him know about Tin Tin’s stabbing. The story is shelved. Time for the Plan B (filed under “Breaking Bad”). Katagiri arrives at the hideout real quick, and the main players in the endgame are all lined up. From Misaki, the owner of the Yoshino on paper, Katagiri gets a signature to warrant a search of the yacht. And for Sato, a deal to do whatever Chiahara-kai sees fit with the FBI documents. Cool with Sato, who’s fixing to show the rest of the yakuza bosses proof that Tozawa was an FBI informant directly responsible for the yakuza busts in Hawaii and San Francisco. But why not take this to the newspaper or the police? “We are past that now,” Katagiri says.

With the warrant in hand, Katagiri sets off to search the Yoshino, with Jake riding shotgun (okay, maybe sometimes you can just straight up do Miami Vice on Tokyo Vice ). At the same time, Nagata barges in on Tozawa’s suite with a warrant to search his safe. Hot off his official unveiling on the Suzaku Financial board and a new toy Prime Minister all but secured, Tozawa offers up his usual sinister-pleasant demeanor. Nagata finds nothing of consequence in the safe and bolts, then calls Katagiri to confirm. Once on board, Yoshino, Katagiri, and Jake find the safe already open and empty. The guy who grabbed the documents doesn’t get far, and they’re able to use him to call Tozawa and make him think the documents are safe.

“It would have been a great story,” says Jake, looking over the secured FBI documents. But wait, what’s this thing with Shigematsu’s signature on it? It looks like we have a story, after all. We’re minus a player, fallen in the line of duty, but we’re getting the newsroom band back together, baby. While Katagiri drops the FBI documents off to Sato, Jake meets up with Emi and Trendy with proof Shigematsu received big, otherwise unreported campaign donations from Tozawa. “Tokyo’s most notorious gangster tries to buy the next Prime Minister,” Jake lays out the headline. “We print this, Shigematsu’s done.” Trendy figures Meicho won’t print if they fear more attacks, but now that Emi’s confident Baku isn’t the mole in the newsroom, she will give him a chance to publish. “Write it. And give this bastard what he deserves,” Baku tells her after reviewing the documents.

Say, while we’re on the subject of who we can trust at Meicho, I can’t say the reveal of the Meicho arsonist was something I saw coming by a long shot. I suppose that, much like Emi, I was too involved in the action at hand to grasp the full institutional corruption at Meicho Shimbun.

“I destroyed that tape,” Ozaki tells Emi behind closed doors. “ If we had run a story about a minister involved in a sex cruise, the government would have frozen us out for years. No access to sources. No access to the truth.” There it is: the institutional version of “truth” corrupted on arrival, vested interest, and so forth. “How would that serve our readers?” For now, Ozaki aims, or at least says he aims to show the uncovered documents to “the right people,” Shigematsu will withdraw his name for consideration for P.M. “Justice will be served.”

Emi’s not buying it. No dangling of a promotion will get her to forget who she is and the fates of justice she serves. “If making such decisions is a prerequisite for sitting in your chair, then I do not want it.” The choice is clear but no less devastating. Rinko Kikuchi’s performance in this scene, particularly the incredible mix of resilience and heartache she expresses as she walks out of Ozaki’s office, is a hell of a reminder that Emi is the true heart and soul of the show.

Elsewhere, Samantha, Misaki, and the boys of Chihara-kai go to Club Polina to hide out. Good for Misaki that Sam is a bona fide expert at making B, C, and D plans under a tight deadline. They’ve just sat down in Sam’s office when Tozawa calls Misaki, demanding she come back to him, and bring “her gaijin” with her. “Him or your mother,” he says. “The choice is yours.” Sam advises to set the meeting at a fancy restaurant Tozawa used to take Misaki to, then calls Sato so he can arrange the simultaneous arrival of the yakuza party.

“I’m sick of discussing Tozawa,” one of the other bosses says in the emergency yakuza meeting. “We’ve all made our deals with him.” The tone is hostile at first, but the tune changes the moment Sato lays the FBI documents with Tozawa’s signature down in front of them. “He has lied to your face and stabbed you in the back,” Sato tells his elders. “He has no respect. I respect every man in this room.” Now’s the time to take down Tozawa, for which they all must play a part.

Under a bridge, tucked in the shadows, taking stock and gearing up for the final showdown, Katagiri lets Jake know he won’t be arresting Tozawa. He gave the contract to Sato, who will administer “a different kind of justice.” The right choice isn’t always the moral choice, and Katagiri waited till now to tell Jake to keep his partner’s hands from getting too dirty. A bit of a feeble gesture. Every player’s hands are getting dirty by the minute in this endgame. But it’s no less genuinely and deeply felt.

Once Jake gets the call from Samantha, our whole interconnected underworld gathers at the pivotal moment, having hit all the right pressure points at the right time to bring down a common enemy. Tozawa’s final shellacking is a still, yet fever-pitched climax to the central conflict that’s made up Tokyo Vice thus far. It would have been delicious enough to watch him verbally squirm around the proof of his betrayal, but the real chef’s kiss comes when Kazuko Tozawa comes through the door, leveling a room full of dick-swinging gangsters with her ultimate air of authority. She lays a beautiful dagger down before her husband. “You have become a liability to us all. So you will settle accounts, or we will settle them for you.” Shinzo’s cooked. And with her punk husband out of the picture, Kazuko gets one more icy line in on another young punk on the scene. “I gave you a chance to take care of things so it would not come to this,” she tells Jake. That’s right, Kazuko was the one who sent him the Yoshino tape. Exposing it would have checked Shinzo’s power much sooner. “But you let it slip through your fingers. I will not forget that.” Ooof. That’s when I’d be like, “Nice knowing ya, Tokyo, I gotta bounce.”

From there, things nicely wrap up to varying degrees on Tokyo Vice . (For everyone except Trendy, who ended up bearing the brunt of Jake’s inability to be a friend first and reporter second. Turns out, Jake couldn’t help but give up American embassy BF Jason’s name to Lynn Oberfeld. “From now on, stay away from me,” Trendy says. It’s a heartbreaking rift.) The Tozawa FBI informant story is published. Meanwhile, things are mostly looking up for Emi and Shingo (good for them). Samantha arranges a meeting with Kazuko and secures a hefty “finder’s fee” for some insider real estate investment info, courtesy of the late Masahiro Ohno. Sato is officially and ceremoniously instated as the oyabun of Chihara-kai. The job is looking good on our boy when Sam shows up at his door for a sultry see ya later . “I’m gonna recharge my batteries and do some thinking,” she says. “Then I’ll be back.” Something tells me this won’t be your typical white girl’s eat-pray-love trip.

And we can all breathe a sweet sigh of relief now that Misaki has broken up with Jake. Let’s be real: Who among us thought this would ever go anywhere serious? Misaki is ready for a boring, safe life away from the yakuza and the police. Jake is always going to have one foot in the danger that birthed their romantic dalliance to begin with. It’s not long-term partnership material. “You will do, daring, exciting things,” Misaki’s parting words. “And I will read all about them in the paper.”

So we close out the show (hopefully not forever, fingers crossed) nestled in the warmth of the show’s central bromance. Our true partners in Vice , Adelstein and Katagiri, nursing some whiskeys from the retired detective’s back porch. “I love doing nothing,” Katagiri says in response to Jake’s protest that he won’t stay retired. “It is you, Jake, who cannot do nothing.” There will always be another them to get, another case to crack. Peace isn’t an option, not even for a moment.

“I can do nothing better than you,” Jake retorts, insisting on a competitive game of count-to-ten. At the end of the day, Jake can’t meditate for ten seconds without having to take a leak, and Katagiri can’t do it without the infernal hum of Tokyo, in all its movement and machinations and people living and breathing and fighting and dying, bringing him back to earth. The city never sleeps, and neither do the reluctant harbingers of her rippling underground. Action, consequence, repeat.

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Movies | Review: ‘Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of…

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Movies | review: ‘do not expect too much from the end of the world’ — but do expect one of 2024’s best movies.

A harried Bucharest production assistant (Ilinca Manolache) guides the satire "Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World." (MUBI)

I don’t know he did it, exactly, but filmmaker Radu Jude has conjured a rarity: an angry, clear-eyed satiric flaying of modern capitalism and humankind’s infinite capacity to disappoint that doesn’t settle for a tone of “well, that’s the way things are, might as well give up.”

Direct from Bucharest, with tough love, the film carries the title “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World,” opening this week at the Gene Siskel Film Center. It is a bracing and chaotic and memorable experience. Writer-director Jude’s previous feature was, too: “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,” about a Bucharest high school teacher whose sex tape leads to a series of bureaucratic, hypocritical and institutional nightmares. Jude hasn’t toned down much with “End of the World” but the result feels more purposeful, its scope wider, its empathy more fully invested in its hardy female protagonist and the workday she’s up against.

Her name is Angela, played by the extraordinary screen presence Ilinca Manolache. Her story amounts to a workplace serio-comedy on wheels. Working long hours as a production assistant at a film production company, Angela’s job requires her to bomb around Bucharest, with her aggressive and uneven driving skills, interviewing seriously injured factory employees for possible inclusion in a heavily lawyered workplace safety video.

Along the way, Angela fights back her fatigue and her creeping sense of something very wrong with the ethical core of the video in progress by turning herself into another person entirely. Using a gender-swapping filter, she’s Bobita, a swarthy uni-browed reactionary blowhard and misogynist and fan of Vladimir Putin. She’s making fun of all the real-life Bobitas she’s known, probably, but she knows how TikTok draws all kinds, half of them happy to miss the joke.

Is Jude’s film kidding, or serious? The answer’s yes. It’s kidding and it’s serious, and the mundane particulars of Angela’s interview sessions with the safety video “contestants,” or the painfully relatable pre-meeting banter of a Zoom session with management, keeps all 10 toes of “End of the World” in the world as we know it, right now. And, in fact, briefly, right here in Chicago: Nina Hoss of “Tár” enters the narrative on Zoom camera with the Chicago River and Trump International Hotel and Tower behind her, reminding us all that we’re still paying for the allure of “Wall Street’s” greed-is-good mantra.

Jude bounces Angela’s travails against scenes from an earlier Romanian film, the 1981 Ceaușescu-era “Angela Moves On.” The taxi driver of that story mirrors, to some degree, the Angela of Jude’s story. But times have changed; the insistent, placating sweetness of the older film becomes the uncomprehending parent of the one we’re watching. “End of the World” culminates in revealing stasis: a long, long fixed shot of the maimed factory worker chosen for the video, on camera with his family. How the true account of his injuries gets massaged, gradually, insidiously, into an entirely different story gives Jude’s film its true nerve, and teeth, without polemics.

It works, I think, because we taste ashes in the mouth. But because Angela never leaves the film for long, we know — we hope — she is a voice of dissent, finding her way to action. Trained in the Romanian theater, Manolache has fantastically dry comic timing. As Angela, her every move, every pop of bubble gum, every trash-talk insult to someone she’s just cut off on the road, every under-compensated indignity of the character’s workday adds up, detail by detail. Most anti-capitalist screeds are just that: screeds, nothing more. This one’s more essay than screed, full of discursions, but it’s unpredictable, vital and a lifeline for adventurous Chicago filmgoers.

“Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World” — 3.5 stars (out of 4)

No MPA rating (language, some nudity)

Running time: 2:43 (in Romanian and English with English subtitles)

How to watch: Opens March 29 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St.; siskelfilmcenter.org

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

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Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 1 Recap

The final season of Star Trek: Discovery opens with an action packed first episode, with Season 5 promising to be a great end to the spin off series.

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What happened in star trek: discovery season 5 episode 1, how does star trek: discovery season 5 episode 1 end.

The end is near for Star Trek: Discovery , as Season 5 premieres on Paramount Plus, with 10 more episodes before it's time to say goodbye to the popular spin-off series forever. Fans have had to wait over two long years for this season to arrive, and episode 1 really doesn't disappoint with some jaw-dropping action, and a more serialized story that looks set to end the show on a high.

Sonequa Martin-Green reprises her role as Captain Michael Burnham, alongside Callum Keith Rennie, Doug Jones, Elias Toufexis and Eve Harlow. The story sees an 800-year-old Romulan vessel found by Burnham, and the Discovery is sent to retrieve it, but the artifact inside of it is stolen, which brings about an epic battle to find it, and the prospect of them coming up against some of the most evil characters in the Star Trek universe .

Star Trek Discovery: 5 Biggest Retcons The Series Has Made

Episode 1 of Season 5 is titled "Red Directive" and it opens with Captain Michael Burnham on board an unknown ship.

It cuts to a flashback of the beginning of her night at a reception aboard the Disco celebrating Federation Day. T he Kelpien has some big news: he has been offered a job as a Federation ambassador, but he is conflicted about leaving the Discovery. Vance takes Burnham away to Kovich’s super double secret “Infinity Room” for a briefing about a 24th-century Romulan science vessel which was found at the edge of the Beta Quadrant. She declares the mission a “Red Directive”.

Elsewhere, Vance orders the Antares and the Discovery to head to Q’Mau. Before she leaves, Burnham gets Sylvia Tilly to do some database investigation at Fed HQ to get around Kovich.

The thieves head to the desert planet and find Fred, who it turns out is an eccentric android. He is interested in the puzzle box, which he opens and speedily reads the old journal of Romulan scribbles and diagrams. He offers three bars of latinum in a risky deal. Moll and L’ak choose to get shot, but Fred’s henchmen end up dead, and the synth is left with a big hole in his chest. The Federation arrives too late, but they beam what remains of Fred up to the ship as they split up to find the bad guys.

Back at the Academy, Tilly gets caught hacking, but Vance covers for her, as he’s growing tired of Kovich’s behavior as well. She finds an old recording of a Romulan scientist talking about the secrets he has written in the journal, dropping clues about “twin moons” and an “ancient technology” that “cannot fall into the wrong hands.”

Michael, Book and Rayner head into the desert for a bike chase, while Moll and L’ak get to their ship and plan an escape with the use of some tunnels. The trio debate over how to counter this move, with Burnham warning Rayner that if they order the Antares to close the tunnel, it could trigger an avalanche that could destroy the town.

Rayner decides to take the risk, and avoids an avalanche of epic proportions, but the thieves decide to trigger one anyway. They try to figure out a way to save the town, and figure the only logical solution is to use both ships as giant sand wedges to build a shield wall. However, Rayner isn't convinced about the plan, but agrees to it when she is reminded that Starfleet is all about saving innocent people. The ships save the town, and the locals cheer in relief. However, Rayner doesn’t join in with the celebrations as Moll and L’ak have escaped again.

Disco returns to the space dock and reflects on the day’s events and realizes his future lies with T’Rina. Meanwhile, in sickbay, Hugh and Paul are sorting through Fred’s positronic brain, when Burnham spots a clue that identifies the “twin moons” location, which gives her justification to confront Kovich, who is looking at the wrong planet. He briefs her on what’s really going on. Turns out, t he long-dead Romulan scientist was named Dr. Vellek, and he was present when Captain Jean-Luc Picard found a message left by ancient beings who created “every humanoid species in the galaxy.”

Vellek found their technology and now “the greatest treasure in the known galaxy” is up for grabs and Moll and L’ak are already in line to find it. However, Michael and the Disco are competing with them to get there first.

Star Trek: Discovery is available to stream on Paramount Plus.

Star Trek: Discovery

Star trek discovery: 9 best episodes (so far).

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After 11 years and 22 films, the ongoing saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come to a turning point. Avengers: Endgame serves not just as the conclusion to the story started last April in ...
Avengers: Endgame Movie Review
Avengers: Infinity War undoubtedly struggled under the weight of balancing so many characters. With half the universe gone, Endgame is able to focus on the original six Avengers, who are the true center of the MCU (at least, so far). The film remarkably balances its character arcs so well it's as if each hero gets a solo movie in Avengers: Endgame.
Avengers: Endgame Review
Avengers: Endgame Review. Following the Thanos snap that wiped out half the life of the universe, the surviving Avengers must find a way to come back together and put right what once went wrong ...
Avengers: Endgame review
I t's only taken 11 years and 22 feature-length films, but the end of Marvel's Avengers series is in sight. Sceptics might feel assailed by the 181-minute running time; a three-hour movie is ...
Avengers: Endgame First Reviews: Best Marvel Movie Ever, Say Some
Avengers: Endgame (2019)94%. Critics Consensus: Exciting, entertaining, and emotionally impactful, Avengers: Endgame does whatever it takes to deliver a satisfying finale to Marvel's epic Infinity Saga. Synopsis: Adrift in space with no food or water, Tony Stark sends a message to Pepper Potts as his oxygen supply...
Avengers: Endgame best and worst -- our global review
I watched Avengers: Endgame at the end of an insane 59-hour marathon featuring all 22 Marvel movies, and no amount of fatigue could diminish the power of this film. It made the entire experience ...
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
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'Avengers: Endgame' Review: A Messy Love Letter to the Biggest Movie
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Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Rating: 8.6. Not as good as Infinity war pacing-wise, but is a satisfying ending to the saga. High production quality, and a great soundtrack like its predecessor. The final fight did feel a little cliché (two armies brainlessly charging at each other for a typical smackdown).
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Reviewed at Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, April 22, 2019. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 181 MIN.

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Avengers: Endgame First Reviews: Best Marvel Movie Ever, Say Some

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Avengers: Endgame (2019) 94%

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Avengers: Endgame best and worst -- our global review