A fitting end to the Infinity SageA

Rating: 9/10 (3 June 2019)

The past 21 films that have been produced by Marvel Studios as a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have all culminated with the granddaddy of them all, Avengers: Endgame. This movie brought together everything that Marvel fanatics would have hoped for, flashbacks, emotional ties in and of course a great ending to what Kevin Feige called The Infinity Saga. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo did a miraculous job bringing everything together, the movie stars, send offs, and directing. This was all possible with the help of screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely deep understanding of what this movie meant to the MCU. The way that the screenwriters and directors worked together to play with our different emotions is what sets this Marvel film in a different class from the others.
This movie begins directly after the ending of Avengers: Infinity War. We see how Thanos' (Josh Brolin) snap affected each character in a different way. The different uses of lighting by directors Joe and Anthony Russo help set the mood for each scene differently.
The Russo brothers have done things similar to this in their other Marvel films. When the team is down in the dumps they tend to be in darker locations, like when in Captain America: Winter Soldier, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) went to talk to Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) in a dark cave following the collapse of SHIELD. Each actor will use a softer tones to show how they have been knocked down both mentally and emotionally.
The best example of how the Russo brothers did this in Avengers: Endgame was when Natasha Romanoff went to find Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) who had become a vigilante following the snap. The scene is set at night in a dark rainy alley which represented not only how Clint is dealing with the world post snap but also how the entire universe is dealing with it.
Another reason this film was such a success was the use angles during each fight scene. We see how those who are currently winning the battle are shot using low-angle shot while those who are losing a battle are shot using a high-angle shot. While these little changes may seem insignificant, it actually changes the way you think and feel during each fight scene.
The emotional roller coaster that you will experience while watching Avengers: Endgame is unlike any other Marvel movie we have scene. The movie starts out with everyone feeling down due to Thanos' snap but quickly shifts due to an exciting glimmer of hope that they might be able to find Thanos and reverse everything he had done just three weeks earlier. Following every scene where a character seemed to be happy it would be followed by a scene that would make us teary eyed.
The great ending of the Infinity Saga was only possibly due to the great acting of Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man/Tony Stark) and Chris Evans (Captain America/Steve Rogers). The way that they interacted throughout this movie connected me to their characters in a different way I had never felt. The way that Downey Jr. and Evans made their characters seem like normal humans, who can go through the emotional roller coaster just like us, help create the unique connection that I had never seen or felt in any Marvel Studios film.
As in most Marvel Studios films there was a lot of CGI in Endgame. The CGI in was almost unnoticeable in the most intense situations throughout the movie. While you know that there is CGI in almost every scene, you weren't thinking about how it looked and if the computer generated images could be real places. A great example of quality CGI is when Tony Stark is stranded in the Guardians of the Galaxy spaceship.
The high quality acting, directing, writing, lighting, and angle choices helped make Avengers: Endgame truly special. Our emotions were toyed with and I enjoyed every moment of it. There will be a surprise in almost every scene which helped make Avengers: Endgame a great ending to the last 10 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.