Avengers Endgame: Encore

So far in my generation, there hasn’t been a movie that has become more of a global event and cultural phenomenon than Avengers: Endgame. The only other movie I can remember coming close to that level of global hype and excitement was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, which came out almost a decade earlier. When Endgame hit theatres in April 2019, it wasn’t just a regular movie or another entry in the MCU franchise. It marked the culmination of 11 years, countless films, and interconnected storylines, all coming together for one final time. If you weren’t tapped into Marvel at the time, I couldn’t even begin to put into words the sheer magnitude of the moment or its impact on the world. All I can say is this: you just had to be there.

We’re now just a couple of months away from the release of the newest Avengers movie, Avengers: Doomsday. To celebrate the occasion, Avengers: Endgame has returned to cinemas, giving fans another chance to experience the film on the big screen, this time with a few extra minutes of footage added.

Of course, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to relive what is arguably one of the greatest cinema experiences of my life.

Watching Endgame in cinemas on its opening weekend was a special experience. There wasn’t an empty seat in the cinema, and it was the kind of film you wanted to experience with a packed crowd because the audience’s reactions to everything happening on screen were almost as memorable as the movie itself.

So how does it hold up seven years later?

Surprisingly well.

I was nine years old when the first Iron Man movie came out, and I was twenty years old when Endgame was released. Like many others, I genuinely grew up with the MCU, which is why it was so difficult for me to look at Endgame objectively when it first came out. It was such an emotional and significant movie for me that I found myself willing to overlook its flaws, simply because of the personal connection I had built with the franchise over the years and how much this particular movie meant to me.

Going back to rewatch it now, seven years later, meant being able to look at it from a more unbiased perspective and really appreciate it for what it is as a movie. Thankfully, though, it still manages to hit all the marks it sets out to.

The first two hours can feel a little convoluted and clunky, which isn’t much of a surprise when you consider just how much story needs to be told and how many characters need to be given their moment within that runtime. Inevitably, this makes the film feel a little bloated at times. Although the humour still lands for the most part, some of it hasn’t aged particularly well, and there is definitely something to be said about how Thor’s very obvious state of depression is often played out for laughs. The acting, however, remains incredibly strong, and if anyone ever tells you that the acting in the MCU isn’t good, you can laugh in their face. Robert Downey Jr. is phenomenal as usual, Chris Evans is fantastic, and even though I’ve just mentioned how Thor’s depression is used for comedic effect, I genuinely think Endgame gives us some of Chris Hemsworth’s best acting in the entire franchise.

But whatever (small) complaints I might have about Endgame up to that point, they all go out the window during the last forty minutes. From the moment Bruce snaps his fingers to the moment Tony snaps his, it’s arguably one of the most satisfying and unrivalled forty minutes of cinema you could ever experience. The portal scene is simply perfect, and it’s one of those moments that I genuinely believe we’ll still be looking back on fifty years from now as one of the most iconic and defining scenes in cinema history, extending far beyond the superhero genre. It was unlike anything we had seen before and unlike anything we have seen since. I often wonder if we'll ever get to experience anything like it ever again.

The added footage is certainly interesting. For one, I wasn't expecting them to make changes to the ending of the movie, but I quite respect the fact that they're willing to take such a big swing. The remaining post-credit scenes do a great job of setting up Doomsday and what’s to come, while also confirming that Bruce Banner will indeed be returning for the film.

Endgame was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of movie, the sort of film we’ll be telling our grandkids about, proudly boasting that we got to experience it on the big screen. Revisiting it was an emotional experience that only solidified my belief that its status among movie lovers remains undefeated. Nothing will ever compare to it, but then again, nothing needs to.

Bring on Doomsday.