The sun is shining again.

Rating: 10/10 (25 April 2019)

I walked out of the cinema and rode home on my bike. It was raining outside - oh how poetic - and I had a smile on my face. In the next moment I had tears in my eyes. Then I was smiling again.
Funny, what a movie can do to you.
In that moment I felt infinitely grateful to be born in this time. I mean, I could have been born around 1600. I would have had the chance to watch Shakespeare plays live. But I'm pretty happy to watch what must be todays equivalent of a Shakespeare play. I just witnessed a cinematic masterpiece. But not just that. I had the feeling I just experienced a final step and the end of an era.
If you think Infinity War was overwhelming in it's quantity of superheroes in one place, then, oh boy, you've no idea what's coming for you. You think you're prepared for this movie? Think again, you're not.
Endgame is a new level.
In some regards it's more of an Avengers movie than the previous one. We're very limited in our assembly of heroes. It really focuses on our beloved six.
Clint got a rogue makeover. The scene where he lost his family was really heartbreaking. You can understand his motives. He's clearly in distress. He needs to be woken up by Natasha to get onto the right path, again. But when he's awake Hawkeye is the hero that we once met.
Natashas development from deadly assassin who works for scrupulous leaders to a leader who holds her new found family together and sacrifices herself to protect this family is one of the most incredible character arches to watch. Truth be told I never expected her to be the sacrificing one.
The MCU lost its greatest badass. Black Widow, I'm going to miss you.
Thor! Please, get back into shape. I mean think of all the fun Loki would be making of you if he could see you! Brother, have you swallowed a planet? (Well, Loki is still dead, but he still managed to steel some moments in the true God of Mischief fashion. Wherever you are I hope the sun is shining on you and could you please not be dead? That would be great, thank you! I mean really, you have to be alive - somehow. Are you sure you checked that you really don't have a heartbeat?) Thor is the one who takes the finger snap the hardest and drowns his sorrows in alcohol which shows in his not so fit form than what we're used to. It's one of the funniest aspects of the whole movie. In general this movie is not just epic, it's funny in moments that are totally serious. With a little bit of mummys help you got yourself together again.
You couldn't resist, could you? You just had to get Mjölnir back.
The decision to join the Guardians of the Galaxy... oh how much potential I see.
No Hulk in the last movie, therefore more Hulk in this one. A very different Hulk. I think Bruce Banner did something, that nobody expected. He accepted the Hulk as something that is a part of himself. Not as the green rage monster, but as something that isn't a mistake but a gift. A great massage: accept your faults and turn them into something beautiful. Embrace them and be proud.
Captain America, you fought Red Skull, you fought Iron Man, you fought Thanos and now you fought yourself. Now you're worthy enough to wield Mjölnir. Truth be told it was the most beautiful and epic moment of my fangirl life to watch you pick up that hammer. It's a moment that I'll never forget. You're worthy of another big part of a heroes life. After years of fighting and suffering you're finally worthy enough to get your happy end. Steve, I'm so unbelievably happy for you and Peggy. You gave your shield to Sam. America, you have a new Captain.
Sam, be sure, we will follow you to the end of the line.
Iron Man, to be honest I didn't like you when I first watched Iron Man. With time you grew on me. Now I can't imagine the MCU without you. But sadly it's a thought that we all have to live with. You're the beginning and the end of the whole infinity saga. You're the heart of the Avengers. Now more than ever.
And you invented time travel. Which definitely makes you the coolest Avenger.
Tony Stark, who gained the most after Thanos finger snap and lost the most while attempting to undo it. We should all pay our respect to the genius, billionaire, playboy (now married and the father of one daughter) and philanthropist that was Tony Stark.
Tony, I assure you, we will remember you.
One in particular will do that.
Guess who's back? Spider Man!
And everybody else!
But most importantly Spider Man! You had like what? Three minutes of screen time? It's an accomplishment that you managed to leave tears in my eyes nearly every time I saw you. Especially your reunion with Tony was a moment of genuin happiness. The moment of your goodbye was a moment of genuine sadness.
Seeing you again... that was nice. Thank you for coming back, I guess. You can make all the tears up to me with a hell of a movie in July this year.
Ladies and gentleman, it seems the superhero business finally understood that women can kick ass just as well as man. The symbolic act of gathering every female character together in one scene and let them kick Thanos in his purple behind, should be an eyeopener. Beware, everybody who lives under a rock and thinks a woman belongs in a kitchen, there are woman out there with brains and skills you could never imagine and together we will come for you.
Often small people aren't taken seriously. I should know that, because I'm not that tall of a person myself. So it took me great satisfaction to see that small, underrated Ant-Man brings us the solution to this whole mess. Remember: especially small people can have the biggest impact.
It's quite poetic, ironically tragic, how Thanos finds his end. Well, both times are. Thor took his advise and aimed for the head. The rest is dust in the wind.
People might say it's an overly long attempt of making money with a storyline that took ten years to set up, an overwhelming amount of characters and too many references to all the other MCU movies. Well, my response to those people is: I don't care. Because I look at what this movie does with those who watch it. And what I see amazes me. I'm a strong believer that the fictional world is in some regards real because the fans let it become a realistic thing.
There are people who join you because you're your annoying self, sit through this three hour long epos and laugh with you even though you had to explain to them what was going on during the movie.
There are men sitting behind you in the cinema who don't even try to hide their tears when their favorite superhero dies.
When the whole theater gasps, cries out and is nearly getting a heart attack every time someone throws a punch at one of our heroes, because they can't stand watching them get hurt, you know you're sitting in a brillant and mind blowing MARVEL movie.
Give me one other movie franchise that has accomplished that. I dare you.
I think superhero movies have this prejudice that they are supposed to be simple. There is a good and a bad guy. They fight and in the end the good guy wins. It's not like that anymore. MARVEL changed that. The whole MCU connects so many dynamics, storylines and characters that you really are lost if you don't watch all movies. It's quite clever. You have to watch every MARVEL movie to get the full experience in the end. So yes, some people will watch this movie and be completely confused in some scenes, because we're taking a trip down memory lane through a lot of MARVEL movies. But that's not what this movie stands for. It's not for falling asleep halfway through the movie or leaving the cinema before the credits roll down.
This movie is a gift, a treasure and a reward for all the love and passion and tears, for all those who stuck with MARVEL for the last ten years.
The ones who watched every minute and sat through every end credit scene just to get a few more seconds out of the movie.
It's for those who where in awe when Captain America was turned into a super soldier; who had goose-pimples when the Avengers first assembled, who fell a little bit more in love with Loki than with Thor, who where torn during the Civil War and wanted to protect Spider Man in his fight against the Vulture.
It's for everybody who felt like their heart was just ripped out of their chest after Infinity War.
We get a thank you, a band aid and a promise for much more to come.
The end is not pleasing, there are things that could've been better, people that could've survived and people that could've come back.
But I think it's the best possible and most perfect end that we could've gotten out of all options. And there were fourteen million six hundred five other options. If this is what it takes to win, I take it. Where Infinity War was a brutal crushing of all our hearts, Endgame was the difficult task to put all of us back together, to reunite what was torn apart, to mend what was broken. It was as challenging as the collection of all the infinity stones for the avengers.
But it worked.
It's not undone. All the chaos not just disappeared, Infinity War wasn't simply erased. There are still broken parts and pieces, the events are going to leave scars.
But our family is back together again.

To quote Iron Man: »Part of the journey is the end.«
But an end doesn't have to be sad. Look at the Avengers:
One gets his peace.
One gets his time back.
One accepts himself for what he is.
One gets the chance to recover from his loses.
One protects her family.
One gets his family back for good.
If you look at it like that, I think everybody got their happy end.
An end can also be the start of a new beginning.
There was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to to fight the battles we never could.
They could.
Earth mightiest heroes avenged us.
All is well.
The sun is shining again - on all of us.
There is just one more thing to say:
Thank you, Avengers!