A story of a super loss and a super recovery

Rating: 9/10 (7 August 2019)

Ten years the MCU has been with us, and through all these years I've been watching their films and grading them like a teacher grades homework. Sometimes too harshly maybe. Today I'll be at my most benevolent, so the rating might be somewhat biased.
Let's be honest. All the previous MCU movies, except the Captain America ones, were inherently flawed (as Thanos would've said, those flaws were "inevitable"). Not because of the writing or the visuals, but because of the heroes' nature. Only Steve Rogers was both mature and complete from within, so his story was always solid and compelling on all levels. All the other "heroes" were more or less kids in powersuits, fighting their own childhood traumas or searching for their purpose. And, as much as I love the coming-of-age movies, a certain annoying goofiness is always their prominent part.
But not today. Thanos' Snap didn't just remove a half of the universe's population - it forced everyone to re-evaluate their whole modi operandi. When so many people just... vanish all of a sudden, you just can't stay the same, especially if you feel like it's in a way your fault.
And this turn has given us the first hour of this film, maybe the deepest and the most sincere hour in the history of the superhero genre. The post-apocalyptic fright isn't anything new, but this time it's not about the actual survival, but rather trying to accept the new reality, in which, by some lucky coincidence, you were... allowed to live, while some people hadn't been.
This, and the whole grandeur of the culmination, are the things that mark out Endgame as a masterpiece of its kind, which deserves to be remembered. The rest is a pretty typical Marvel'esque stuff, lots of pathos and bright CGI effects. Towards the end the movie becomes almost too sentimental, but I guess I would be too, if that universe became my second family for ten years.
One more thing. I've been a part of the Team Cap since his first film, and I rooted for his side in Civil War. But this time Steve Rogers and Tony Stark managed to play it together and create a duo that truly shines. I guess when a story that big comes to an end, everyone has a chance to be a hero without overshadowing anyone else.