3 hours? You need a super bladder to get to the end...
holed up in a nordic-style fishing village, where he has run to fat and selfpity, is very funny.
But there is a narrative to pursue here. a caption winds us forward five years. the avengers are scattered, beaten, demoralised, none more so than tony Stark (Robert Downey Jnr), who has no use any more for his iron man alter ego.
thanos has won, with the help of the six radioactive infinity stones he needed to wreak intergalactic havoc. So even with enthusiastic newcomer captain marvel (Brie Larson) raring to go, how can the avengers turn back the clock?
With a spot of nifty time travel, that’s how. ant-man (Paul Rudd) is already acquainted with the Quantum Realm, a kind of parallel universe, so if Stark, the gang’s technological genius, can work out how to whizz back in time just the right distance, maybe the infinity stones can be kept from thanos’s giant grasp? naturally, this is not as easy and certainly not as concise as it sounds. especially given the need in this valedictory outing to bring together all the avengers accompanied by their back stories.
Some, like Doctor Strange (Benedict cumberbatch) and Spider-man (tom Holland), make a much later entrance than others. and some make the ultimate exit, perishing in the fight against evil. For months speculation has raged over which avengers will be killed off. i’m offering no clues.
What i can report is that the special effects are dazzling, sometimes literally so, but that the film is never in danger of taking itself too solemnly.
it is often downright playful, especially when ant-man, Rocket Racoon (Bradley cooper) and Hulk (mark Ruffalo) enter the fray.
all in all, it is a wonderfully exhilarating conclusion to the saga. Last night’s audience whooped its approval. But heavens, it’s long. Avengers: Endgame opens across the UK today.