‘Avengers: Endgame’ brings good writing, direction and a satisfying end

In “Endgame,” Avengers assemble. Some for the final time.

“Avengers: Endgame” is the much-anticipated wrap-up to the opening cycle of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which began with “Iron Man” in 2008. It brings back virtually every important character from the 21 movies that have preceded it. And that’s a whole lot of characters.

Fittingly, “Endgame” is a whole lot of movie: It needs three hours to fit them all in. And there’s hardly a wasted minute in the whole epic. The picture streams along smoothly as it manages to give most of those characters significant on-screen moments.

It’s all about getting the “Avengers” gang back together. Some of them, anyway.

Those would be the surviving members of the superhero team who evaded extermination when uber-villain Thanos (baleful Josh Brolin) dissolved their compatriots (along with half of humanity) with a snap of his gauntleted fingers at the end of last year’s “Avengers: Infinity War.”

To accomplish that reunion, Marvel honchos reassembled the creative team that made so many of these pictures so successful. Principal among those are screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely who have co-written four previous “Avengers” movies (“Avengers: Infinity War,” “Captain America: The First Avenger,“ “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Captain America: Civil War”) and brother-directors Anthony and Joe Russo, who directed three of those earlier “Avengers” by those writers.

With that level of involvement in the franchise, their knowledge of the characters and the plot strands is deep. They understand these characters inside and out and fit together the disparate people and plot lines from all previous “Avengers” movies with sure-handed skill. The result is a picture that is hugely satisfying.

It starts grimly. And how can it not, with half the world’s people dissolved by Thanos. The survivors are left to despair and mourn. They include Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Rocket raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), James Rhodes/War Machine (Don Cheadle), Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Nebula (Karen Gillan).

Roused from their despair by Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), they set forth to find and kill Thanos and then fall back into a funk for five years.

Gradually, the mood lightens. There are genuinely tender moments as Stark, now mellowed and married to Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), finds solace in fatherhood.

Mellowed too is … the Hulk? Sporting a pair of spectacles these days. Meanwhile, Thor has let himself go to pot. As in belly. With ratty long hair and a scraggly beard to go with that beer gut, Hemsworth is clearly having a ball playing demigod as slob. (Seeing him, someone snarks, “Lebowski.”)

When Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) shows up and suggests that maybe a visit to the so-called Quantum Realm could hold the key to reversing the Thanos disaster via time travel, they figure it’s worth a shot. So off the survivors go to visit key episodes in Avengers history where they encounter just about everyone of any significance in the series. Avoiding running into their past selves is a problem (temporal paradox you know). Together those episodes, laced with humor and livened by action beats, make up a goodly share of that three-hour running time. At the finish there’s a tremendous battle scene. This thing climaxes with a giant bang.

And, at the very end, more tenderness. Reunions, revelations, and yes, sweet sorrow, are in the conclusion.

Very satisfying indeed.

“Avengers: Endgame”

3 1/2 stars

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Brie Larson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Josh Brolin, Tom Holland, Don Cheadle.

Directors: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo

Running time: 3:01

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

This story was originally published April 24, 2019 at 9:51 AM with the headline "‘Avengers: Endgame’ brings good writing, direction and a satisfying end."