FIRST AUSTRALIAN REVIEW: Avengers: Endgame completes its enthralling Marvel mission

Head-spinning plots and a daunting three hour running time - is Avengers: Endgame everything Marvel fans have hoped for? FIRST AUSTRALIAN REVIEW

This might be the Endgame, Avengers fans, but one thing is for certain: the truly epic and totally spectacular journey plotted towards the finish line is going to be everything you hoped for.

So welcome aboard Avengers: Endgame, which constitutes trip number 22 into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Be prepared for a bumpy ride. Expect to get a little lost along the way. And bear in mind you may not always have a lot of company.

This last proviso is most important. Especially when you recall the funereal crescendo upon which Avengers: Infinity War signed off just 12 months ago.

MORE LEIGH PAATSCH

HOW ROBERT DOWNEY JR MADE THE MARVEL UNIVERSE A JUGGERNAUT

In what has since come to be regarded as one of the great cliffhangers in movie history, the once-bustling ranks of the Avengers superhero stable were thinned down alarmingly in one fell swoop.

Thanos decimated the superhero ranks. Picture: Marvel

The architect of this astonishing mass cull was the villainous Titan despot Thanos (played by Josh Brolin), once again a fearsome force to be reckoned with as Avengers: Endgame swiftly gets down to business.

After rounding up all of the fabled Infinity Stones and enacting what is now known as ‘The Snap’, Thanos halved planet Earth’s population with a mere click of his fingers.

In doing so, Thanos also reduced some major Marvel brand names to piles of ash. As a result, the Avengers team is now a slender shadow of its former self.

At this point, it is worth completing a quick roll call of those who not only survived The Snap, but will also be leading the resistance against Thanos’ ever-darkening vision for the future.

Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man in the film. Picture: Disney/Marvel Studios via AP

Tony ‘Iron Man’ Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) have been catapulted into deep space, but are actively looking for a way back to join their fellow freedom fighters on the ground.

Meanwhile, Steve ‘Captain America’ Rogers (Chris Evans), Natasha ‘Black Widow’ Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), Bruce ‘Hulk’ Banner (Mark Ruffalo), James ‘War Machine’ Rhodes (Don Cheadle), Rocket Raccoon (the voice of Bradley Cooper) and the mighty Thor (Chris Hemsworth) assess the devastation surrounding them, and search high and low for a new way forward.

In the interests of keeping everything as spoiler-free as possible, rest assured the plot specifics of Avengers: Endgame will not be mentioned here.

However, let the record show that Marvel Studios have not been “pulling a fast one” with the heavy veil of secrecy they have draped over the exact contents of this mammoth blockbuster undertaking.

War Machine (Don Cheadle) and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd). Picture: Marvel Studios

The select collection of faces that we have all seen on the much-studied prerelease poster artwork for Avengers: Endgame are indeed the actual protagonists in this sprawling tale.

So it is giving nothing away to mention that recent recruit Carol ‘Captain Marvel’ Danvers (Brie Larson) - who figured vaguely, yet prominently in a very late-breaking development in Infinity War - and the ultra-diminutive Scott ‘Ant-Man’ Lang (Paul Rudd) will also have prominent parts to play in getting the derailed Avengers operations back on track.

While we cannot go anywhere near what will propel the surviving Avengers towards a jaw-dropping date with fate that has irreversible implications for the entire MCU, the franchise’s multitude of fans can be assured that Endgame never once switches to auto-pilot or coasts along on former glories.

For a movie with a daunting three-hour running time, Endgame impresses with how it continually maintains a breathtaking storytelling pace that guarantees boredom is never an option.

Some very complex, head-spinning plotting takes viewers to some places they could not have foreseen going in.

Even sequences which consciously echo key moments from past Avengers instalments are included for reasons which further expand our understanding of the uncertain state of flux in which these once-unshakeable superheroes now find themselves.

AVENGERS: ENDGAME (M)

Rating: Four and a half stars out of five

Director: Joe and Anthony Russo (Avengers: Infinity War)

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Josh Brolin, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Bradley Cooper.

@leighpaatsch