The perfect end to an era

Rating: 10/10 (3 May 2019)

A culmination of character arcs, narrative threads, a decade of cinema history, and like so many films in the MCU before, the guiding theme boils down to this: "Everyone fails at who they are supposed to be; the measure of a person, a hero, is how they succeed at being who they are." No doubt, I have my quibbles---"I amÃ¢Â¦an Avenger" would have kept something of the parallelism, but with a deeper sense of growth and better ethics---and some confusion, but at just over three hours long while carrying the weight of so many franchises, that is to be expected. At bottom, having already invested so many hours and years into these characters and these films, these stars and these stories, the mark of success is the emotional resonance and historic importance pushing the possibility of the medium (and its economic footing) forward, not the cinematic flourishes or compelling performances or memorable quips---that the film has a few of those, too, is merely a bonus.