Avengers: Endgame sticks the landing

Rating: 9/10 (24 April 2019)

Go ahead and watch the trailers for Avengers: Endgame, they won't give anything major away. It's amazing for a huge movie to be so self-aware of itself, as well as, the movie genres that they're overtly borrowing from. The minor characters or those not even in Avengers: Infinity War, step up and help set up huge sequences that are highly entertaining and actually answer questions. Avengers: Endgame acknowledges every aspect of the characters emotions in their previous MCU film's and succeeds in the most Meta way possible.
Ant-Man is a major reason for this. It's no spoiler to say that he's in the film as he produces some of the biggest laughs from the trailer of him ringing the bell at the Avenger's front gate. It's Paul Rudd's wry jokes, quick timing and fish out of water facial expressions that really assist things.
The pacing of Avengers: Endgame is amazing and not for the reasons you might think. It's brilliantly paced, but it throws the entire formula and how MCU films are done on their head. Battle, loss, battle, loss, humor and then victory, take those ingredients, shake well and you've got a loose description of some average superhero films.
If Avengers: Infinity War left you feeling betrayed and bummed out, I feel you. Avengers: Endgame more than makes up for any ill feelings that it caused. I see why they played it the way they did, and doing so any other way would've cheapened the film, watered down the MCU and made it all disposable. It is also worth noting that the film balance lots of humor with the drama, all the while putting it in a nice bow with stones.
What we're left with is a 10 year opus that spans more arcs than Lord of the Rings and encapsulates it all in a perfect manner. Granted, they will still make many MCU films, this is not their swan song. However, there is a victory lap feeling about Avengers: Endgame. It respects the fans, adds to the dramatic elements, answers questions that fans have wondered about and plants a couple new seeds to grow on.
Is Avengers: Endgame OK for children? If your child has seen any MCU film then they'll be OK with this. The film has fair number of bad words, but the violence is on par with what younger fans are accustomed to. For example, there isn't any one instance that's as graphic as when the monster ate the businessman in Shazam!, but there are sustained action sequences that might test those 8 years old who haven't seen an MCU movie before.