The Resolution We Have Been Waiting For

Rating: 10/10 (21 August 2019)

The hardest thing to do is end something. The ending of a story, novel, or movie is probably the hardest thing to write. This is not the climax and falling action, but the resolution, where all the dangling threads are tied up and resolved. Very few writers can create one with supreme satisfaction - mostly because in this day and age writers want sequels and franchises. Avengers Endgame is the pinnacle of Marvel movies. It is a masterpiece of the super-hero genre. It gives closure, and resolution.
The movie picks up almost immediately after Thanos snapped half the world out of existence. The remaining Avengers, Iron Man (Tony Stark), War Machine (Don Cheedle), Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Rocket (Bradley Cooper) are trying to gather their wits after they had their asses handed to them.
Tony is on his way back to Earth from Titan. His only companion is Nebula (Karen Gillian). Fortunately, Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) comes to the rescue. Bringing them back to Earth, they are reunited ... for a moment. Tony wants nothing to do with them after Cap's betrayal. He goes back to Pepper.
The remaining heroes track down Thanos (Josh Brolin) and find the Infinity Stones have destroyed themselves, as well as him. Now, what do we do?
Five years later, a van in San Francisco has its computer activated by a mouse. It activates the shrinking device that left Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) stranded in the shrunken universe. He comes back - but the five year isolation was only five hours to the Ant Man. He traverses the nation to find the Avengers. When he learns of what happened, he has an idea. The microscopic universe has entry and exit points in time.
Yes, they can travel back in time and find the Infinity Stones, bring them back, and snap everyone back into existence. Hey, you have to realize that time travel was going to come into this sooner or later. The Avengers need Tony to figure out a way to take out the random effects, but he is tied too much to Pepper (Gwenyth Paltrow), and their daughter, Morgan.
Tony, though, cannot back out of a possibility of setting things right. He is onboard with the idea, so three teams travel back to different points. Tony, Bruce, Steve, and Scott (hey, my name's Steve Scott!) head to New York after the Avengers battle. Roadie, Nebula, Nadia, and Clint (Jeremy Renner) return to the stellar world where two other stones exist. Rocket and Thor return to Asgaarrd before its destruction to fetch a couple of others.
As they find the stones, they find themselves - as well as a slew of MCU characters that helped and hindered them on the way. Loki, Brumlow, Sitwell, Pierce (Robert Redford) all have their cameos as former HYDRA secret operatives. Of course, it would be a sin not to have Tom Hiddleston return as Loki. Tony and Steve go to another spot where Steve catches a glimpse of Peggy Carter (Haylee Atwell), and Tony gets to have some words with his father, Howard Stark (John Slattery).
Thor gets to see Jane again (Natalie Portman), as well as his mother, Frigga (Rene Russo). Rocket has to work hard and convince him to take the stones back. Of course, Thor cannot leave without one particular thing.
Meanwhile, Clint and Nadia have to retrieve the Soul Stone. They need a soul to get it. At the same time, Thanos, who is alive at this point, realizes the Nebula of the past is having glitches. He and Gamora (Zoe Saldana) are able to figure out what they are doing there. Realizing their plan, he has to stop them and make sure his plan comes through.
You can tell this all-star cast was handled well, providing story, action, laughs, and even tears. A few of these heroes sacrifice themselves for others. They get to reconcile themselves over past mistakes, regrets, and get to redeem themselves. They are reunited with loves ones lost five years ago when Thanos snapped his fingers. And they fight together against a foe for the first time since Avengers Age of Ultron. They were one team.
Someone could easily nit-pick this one, especially on the time travel. However, the ending brings so much satisfaction. Between the sacrifices, the second chances, the characters all have their resolutions tied up, with no post-credit scenes. Some of the character arcs are messy, but the movie provides an emotional satisfaction unheralded in motion picture history. Avengers Endgame gets a perfect score.