AVENGERS : ENDGAME : Wednesday 24th April 2019.

I saw 'AVENGERS : ENDGAME' at my local Multiplex on its Australian opening night and sat in a packed out theatre showing back to back sessions throughout the day - all to sell out audiences. And so if you didn't already know it, this is the direct sequel to 2018's 'Avengers: Infinity War', a sequel to 2012's 'The Avengers' and 2015's 'Avengers: Age of Ultron', and the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 'Avengers : Endgame' arrived this week following much hype, eager anticipation from legions of fans across the world, and plenty of record breaking buzz despite the plot secrecy from Marvel Studios, Directors Anthony and Joe Russo and the principal cast and crew. Following on immediately from where 'Infinity War' left off the film picks up after half of all life in the universe was killed due to the actions of Thanos once he had amassed all six infinity stones and placed them strategically in his Infinity Gauntlet, and simply clicked his fingers. The remaining Avengers and their allies must reassemble to revert those actions in one final stand to restore balance to the universe and save all humanity . . . or half of it at least!

With an ensemble cast that consists all of our much loved Superheroes and a few nefarious intergalactic villains too, and the conclusion of eleven years of MCU story telling that has so successfully interwoven individual standalone films with cross-over episodes to drive a franchise that we're invested in, Box Office records could well & truly be smashed here. Advance ticket sales amounted to about US$130M, with the potential to top the worldwide Box Office takings of US$2.05B as seen for 'Infinity War'. At a running time of three hours and two minutes, the film has so far received generally positive Reviews with Critics praising the Direction, the Acting, the sheer entertainment factor, the emotional heft and this being a fitting end to the 22 film spanning story. And all this is off the back of a production budget somewhere in the region of nudging US$400M, which must qualify this film as the most expensive of all time. At the time of publishing this Post on 27th April, Box Office receipts were at US$305M, having been released on 26th April in the US, on 25th April in the UK, and in China, Australia, parts of Asia and Europe on 24th.

The film opens up with Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) at home on his remote property on a bright sunny day. He is teaching his daughter to shoot arrows into a target while his wife and younger son prepare lunch. It's a picture of domestic bliss. His daughter shoots a bullseye, his wife calls lunch ready. As Clint retrieves the arrow from the target he momentarily looses sight of his other beloved family members. When he turns around there is an eerie silence and they are all gone, vanished into dust . . . victims too of the Thanos snap!

Up in deep space a thousand light years from the nearest 7/11 Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jnr.) are drifting, having run out of fuel, food, water and pretty damn soon oxygen. They are stranded following their defeat at the hands of Thanos. Stark sends a final farewell message to Pepper Potts using his Iron Man helmet, before falling asleep from exhaustion. Saviour however, comes perhaps when you least expect it.

Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) in the form of Captain Marvel arrives in a flash of bright light and escorts the stricken ship of Stark and Nebula back down to Earth and the Avengers Headquarters. There she reunites the pair with Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Rocket (Bradley Cooper/Sean Gunn), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and James Rhodes (Don Cheadle). After a somewhat frosty reception between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers and a status update from the remaining Avengers, Nebula comes forward with the strong possibility of knowing Thanos' whereabouts since the team have drawn a blank in locating him since the snap of five weeks before.

The assembled Team converge on the defenceless, unarmed unguarded garden planet where Thanos is the sole resident, and take him by surprise. Thanos confides that he used the infinity stones to destroy themselves so preventing the Team from using them to reverse his actions. In a fit of rage, Thor uses his new Stormbreaker axe to decapitate Thanos.

We then fast forward five years, and Steve Rogers is chairing counselling sessions with a self help group, Bruce Banner has merged permanently with his Hulk alter ego and Thor has become the drunken ruler (boasting an impressive beer gut) of Asgard's refugees in a remote fishing village on the Norwegian coast which he has affectionately named New Asgard. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) meanwhile escapes from the Quantum Realm not knowing what has gone down in the last five years. After learning the truth from his now adult daughter which he has been able to track down as one who survived he makes for the Avengers HQ where he is met by a surprised Rogers and Romanoff. He explains that for him only five hours had passed and suggests the Quantum Realm permits time travel. The three travel to Stark's lakeside residence where he is now happily married to Pepper Potts and the couple have a five year old daughter Morgan. They discuss with Stark the possibility that they can travel back in time to retrieve the Infinity Stones before Thanos collects them. Stark rejects this, concerned over what altering history will mean for his young daughter, but after reflecting upon the loss of sixteen year old Peter Parker (Tom Holland), he designs a working time machine that can be used to enter the Quantum Realm.

Stark drives to the Avengers HQ to reveal that he has built a stable time travel device just as Banner and Co. have been experimenting somewhat unsuccessfully on Scott Lang with his own time travel techniques. And so the regrouped Avengers split into separate teams for their mission to retrieve the infinity stones before Thanos has done so.

Banner, Rogers, Lang, and Stark travel to the Battle of New York to retrieve the Time, Mind, and Space Stones. Banner visits the Sanctum Sanctorum also in New York and convinces the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) to give him the Time Stone some five years before Stephen Strange even arrives on the scene, and Rogers overcomes undercover Hydra agents and his past self to retrieve the Mind Stone, but Lang and Stark's failed distraction enables Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to escape with the Space Stone. Rogers and Stark then are forced to travel back further to the U.S. Army's Fort Leigh in 1970, to steal both an earlier version of the Space Stone and vials of Hank Pym's (Michael Douglas) size-altering Pym Particles to enable them all to return home to their present day afterwards. The pair succeed, but not before Rogers has a close encounter with his one true love Peggy Carter, and Tony Stark bumps into his Dad, Howard Stark en route and strikes up a conversation about his pending fatherhood to the as yet unborn Tony Stark.

Back on Asgard before it was wiped out, Rocket and Thor retrieve the Reality Stone from Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). Thor comes across his mother Frigga (Rene Russo), whose wise counsel restores his conviction, and he obtains a past version of his hammer, Mjolnir, proving that he is still 'worthy' to wield it. Barton and Romanoff travel to Vormir for the Soul Stone. They learn there from its keeper, Red Skull (Ross Marquand), that it can only be retrieved by sacrificing someone they love. After a struggle between the pair, Romanoff sacrifices herself. Barton returns to the present day, with the tragic news of Romanoff's untimely death, in which the other Avengers share in his mourning.

On Morag, Nebula and Rhodes steal the Power Stone before Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is able to do so. Rhodes returns to the present with the Stone, leaving Nebula stranded behind as her cybernetic implants interface with those of her past self. Thanos leverages this fact and is able to tap into her memory banks to see present-day events. In turn, he sends the past incarnation of Nebula to the future in present-day Nebula's place.

Back at Avengers HQ with all the Infinity Stones now retrieved, Stark has been able to model a new Infinity Gauntlet in which the Stones are placed one by one. Banner steps up to volunteer to wear the Infinity Gauntlet as in doing so it gives off enough gamma radiation that Banner retorts that he was made to wear it, given his exposure to Gamma Rays that turned him into what he is today. Upon wearing it and activating the amassed Infinity Stones, the world is restored to its pre-Thanos snap. However, having come through the time machine with the other Avengers, past Nebula uses the time machine to transport Thanos and his ship from the past to the present day, whereupon he unleashes the might of his firepower upon the Avengers HQ and reduces it to rubble.

Amongst the rubble and wreckage of the Avengers HQ, Rogers, Thor, and Stark confront Thanos, though he overpowers them, even when Rogers proves that he can wield Mjolnir.

Thanos summons the entire might of his armed forces, but the revived Avengers arrive on the battlefield, along with the Sanctum Sorcerers and the armies of Asgard and Wakanda. Present-day Nebula convinces past Gamora (Zoe Saldana) to turn on Thanos, and in the ensuing standoff Nebula kills her past self. Following an epic battle between the two factions, Stark eventually retrieves the Infinity Gauntlet from the battlefield and activates the Infinity Stones with a snap of his fingers which disintegrates Thanos and his army into dust which quickly disappears on the wind.  

Enough said, right there! You'll just have to catch the last fifteen minutes to see how it all plays out, but suffice to say, the Avengers survive to battle it out another day - well most of them do!

'Avengers : Endgame' is everything you would wish for in the conclusion of a hugely successful eleven year run of twenty-two films, and then some. It delivers on many levels - the script penned by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely tightly blends action, emotion, humour and the smarts to satisfy even the most die-hard MCU fan; the deft touch in remaining true to what has gone before by Directors Anthony and Joe Russo; and for giving believable grounded performances by the principal cast and most notably Downey Jnr., Ruffalo, Hemsworth, Evans, Brolin, Rudd, Johansson and Renner plus the entire ensemble who all contribute amiably in their own small way to the bigger picture. Epic, exciting, intimate, powerful, expertly rendered down to the smallest detail, and truly a very fitting end to this phase in the MCU that still leaves the door open for some of our much loved Superheroes to return and reunite at some future date, while introducing others that we're only just getting to know. Join the legions of fans flocking to see 'Avengers : Endgame' - and see it on the biggest screen you can - you won't be disappointed. Watch out too for what is probably the last cameo appearance of the late great Stan Lee.

'Avengers : Endgame' merits five claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-