Avengers: Endgame

While they’ve had no shortage of spectacle (and as of this movie, that hasn’t changed), the heart of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is its characters: the sarcastic smugness of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, the pure-hearted resolve of Chris Evans’ Captain America, the lovable dimwitted arrogance of Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, the oddball chemistry of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the essential work of the heroes without their own solo movies, as well as the unsung supporting players who’ve come along for the ride. Even in the lower-stakes MCU entries, the viewer knows they’re in for a good time on account of the repartee between these familiar faces.

Low-stakes, Avengers: Endgame certainly is not. It’s the biggest superhero picture so far, in runtime and sheer massiveness of its cast of characters, and could very well finish its run in theaters as the biggest film ever. And of course, we all saw what happened at the end of Infinity War.

But, it finds the survivors of Thanos' (Josh Brolin) universal genocide far from spoiling for a fight. Instead, the movie takes its time—nearly the whole first of its three hours—to let the audience mourn with the characters. These scenes cut like a knife. You can’t spend 11 years and twice as many movies with these people and not feel their loss. It’s moments like these that show why comic book characters and stories can mean so much to fans.

Act two sees the remaining heroes attempt a complicated time travel plot to fix the events of the previous movie, and the film turns into a bit of a Back to the Future Part II-esque jumble. Not only is its treatment of timeline-altering left rather muddled and inadequately explained or resolved, but it also turns a bit into a cameo-fest, like one of those cheesy final seasons of a TV show where every supporting character drops in to say goodbye. Although, to the picture’s credit, most of it feels organic, not forced, and it also mines these sequences for some great gags and emotional character moments.

And really, what are some minor plot point inconsistencies in the face of so many terrific character moments? Oh, and the biggest superhero battle ever. It's a fool's errand to doubt Marvel at this point, but it would seem a monumental task to surpass the gigantic crossover finale of Infinity War just a year ago. Yet top it they do. Fights both one-on-one and on a giant scale are eye-poppingly thrilling, every hero big and small gets at least one moment in the spotlight, and it’s packed to the gills with turns that will elicit cheers and tears, sometimes both at once.

As a superhero team-up event, Endgame more than satisfies. As the conclusion to a yearlong cliffhanger, it sticks the landing and then some. As the exclamation point on the last decade-point-one of Marvel movies and the superhero genre they’ve changed, it hits it out of the park. But it’s the character moments that touch the most, and many of them are unlikely to leave dry eyes. On that level, this is probably the best superhero movie ever made.