Avengers: Endgame: reviews, spoilers, news, and analysis of Marvel’s biggest movie ever

Not long after surpassing Avatar to become the biggest movie of all time, Avengers: Endgame is now available for purchase (on digital, and on Blu-ray August 13), and its home release comes with six deleted scenes, one of which should have been in the movie.

Spoiler warning: For those who haven’t seen the movie, which first hit theaters in April, now’s the time to check out.

Avengers: Endgame’s mantra is “whatever it takes” — primarily in the context to defeat the mad Titan known as Thanos. But over the past few weeks, that mantra has also been quite appropriate to describe Marvel’s efforts to push Endgame past 2009’s Avatar as the movie with the biggest worldwide box office in history (unadjusted for inflation). And this past weekend, Endgame finally surpassed the reigning champ.

It took 13 weeks at the box office, a post-credits trailer from the then-upcoming Spider-Man: Far From Home movie, and a final rerelease in theaters late last month with new post-credits material.

Now that Spider-Man: Far From Home has arrived, it’s once again time to answer that eternal question: Which Marvel Studios movie is best?

There are now 23 movies on the studio’s roster, dating back to 2008’s Iron Man, and Vox has ranked them all from worst to best. To come to this completely scientific and definitive assessment, four Vox culture writers each assigned every film a point value from 1 to 23, with 23 being the best. Then we tallied the results for each film; the movie with the highest total won the top spot, the second-highest total came in second, and so on.

If one knowingly buys a ticket to Avengers: Endgame to see what Marvel has called an “unfinished deleted scene,” does that person give up their right to be disappointed in what said scene entails? That’s the question facing fans who have already seen the movie, but have now shelled out to attend its rerelease this weekend.

In what is pretty clearly an attempt to beat 2009’s Avatar as the movie with the biggest box office returns of all time, Marvel recently announced that it would rerelease Endgame in theaters on June 28, 2019, with special features: an added introduction from director Anthony Russo, a sneak peek of Spider-Man: Far From Home, a tribute to Stan Lee, and an “unfinished deleted scene” that will appear during the end credits.

Avengers: Endgame, the concluding chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 11-year Infinity Saga, isn’t quite finished yet. While Endgame’s original release lacked the hallmark post-credits scenes of the studio’s 21 previous movies, Marvel is amending that by releasing an updated version of the film to theaters.

According to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, the movie will now include post-credits scenes that were not initially present in Endgame’s opening run. Feige told ScreenRant that the new scenes will be added when the movie is rereleased on June 28:

The most beautiful moment of Chris Evans’s eight years as Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, lasted about seven minutes.

That’s a microscopic piece of the time that Evans spent onscreen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a franchise whose world was built across 22 movies over 11 years. And three of those movies were solely devoted to Rogers, a puny runt who, with the aid of super soldier serum, turns into the superpowered patriot Captain America. That elixir grants Rogers barn-door shoulders, a chest that seems like it could stop an oncoming train, biceps that can curl helicopters, and a butt so turgid and round that it threatens to redefine the idea of American exceptionalism. As appealing and character-defining as each of those were, none compare to the devastating beauty of what came later: Steve Rogers’s beard, and the glory of seeing it for the first time.

Avengers: Endgame doesn’t have a post-credits scene, but going into its third weekend in theaters, there will now be something to stick around for after the credits roll: the second and latest trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Endgame is three hours long and wraps up the 11-year story of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Thanos, and the quest for the Infinity Stone nicely — it’s a good movie that doesn’t need the promise of something extra. A credits scene teasing out the Avengers’ next adventure would take away from the big story moments that happened in the movie, while also raising the question of why a three-hour behemoth of a movie needs one more scene.

Fans always knew Spider-Man: Far From Home was going to take place in a post-Avengers: Endgame world. They just didn’t know what exactly that world would look like until, well, Endgame hit theaters — and even then, that movie offered more of an endpoint for this phase of the MCU following the death of Tony Stark, the retirement of Steve Rogers, and Thor’s new adventures with the Guardians of the Galaxy than a hint at how the world changed after the Avengers undid Thanos’s snap.

But this week, we finally got the first glimpse of that post-Endgame Earth in a new clip from Far From Home, featuring Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) talking nerdy about how the MCU’s new reality is just one dimension, timeline, or world that is part of a bigger set of dimensions, timelines, or worlds. In comic-speak, a multiverse exists:

Avengers: Endgame is now the second-biggest movie in history (unadjusted for inflation), crossing the $2 billion box office benchmark in a record-breaking 11 days.

After spending its second weekend at the top of the charts, with an estimated haul of $146 million domestic and $282 million overseas, Endgame’s total global box office sits at $2.189 billion — surpassing 1997’s Titanic ($2.187 billion) on the list of film’s highest grossers. Further perspective: Only five films have ever reached the $2 billion mark — and none have done so faster than Endgame.

For the first time in Marvel history, a spoiler warning appears before one of its trailers. The newest trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home opens with a cautionary message from Tom Holland, a.k.a. Spider-Man himself. And it’s for good reason: The trailer and the movie very clearly take place after and reference the events of Marvel’s currently-in-theaters juggernaut Avengers: Endgame.

Suffice to say, if you haven’t seen Endgame but decide to watch the new Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer, you should prepare yourself for spoilers.

Warning: Spoilers, obviously.

Losing someone you love always hurts. But losing them too early — to terminal illness, or an accident, or in a war, or something else — is extraordinarily hard. There’s no one way to respond. Everyone deals with grief differently.

Avengers: Endgame would like you to think of it as a woke movie. Feminist, even. Not feminist in any way that might be annoying or challenging or alienating to its audience, but in a fun, empowering way.

At one point, all the super ladies take a moment to team up and fight together! Captain Marvel’s out there being more powerful than anyone else on the squad! Valkyrie gets textual acknowledgment as the most competent person in Asgard! Girl power!

In the wake of Thanos’s snap at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, the Avengers had to resort to risky, drastic measures in Endgame to restore balance (and a bunch of their dusted peers) to the universe — and so did the film’s screenwriters.

Endgame revolves around the Avengers going time-traveling, back to specific moments in Marvel history — 2012 New York, 2013 Asgard, 2014 Morag, and 2014 Vormir — to obtain the Infinity Stones and assemble their own Infinity Gauntlet and undo the effects of Thanos’s snap.

The end of an era for the Avengers has kicked off a new one for box office successes. Avengers: Endgame, which marks the end of Marvel’s 11-year narrative known as the Infinity Saga, grossed $1.2 billion worldwide in its opening weekend, including $350 million domestically, breaking all kinds of records in the process.

To put that astronomical figure in perspective, Endgame had the biggest worldwide opening in history. (Avengers: Infinity War held the record previously, having opened to $640 million worldwide in 2018.) It also had the biggest domestic opening in history (Infinity War also held that record previously, at $250 million). And Variety points out that Endgame also reached the $1 billion mark faster than any other film in history, doing it in only five days (it’s a pattern, but Infinity War held that record previously as well, reaching $1 billion in 11 days). With just one weekend on the books so far, Endgame already has the 18th-largest box office gross of all time.

Should you be champing at the bit for more Avengers: Endgame-related anything at all now that you’ve seen the movie — and surely you are! How could you not be? — Google has stepped in with a very cute, very funny Easter egg.

The gag isn’t much, but it’s a sign that even the biggest search engine on the internet wants a piece of the Marvel pie. And it even suggests the spoiler culture that has reached its height in the lead-up to Endgame has dug its claws into Google, of all things.

This post discusses Avengers: Endgame in depth, and spoilers abound. If you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want to be spoiled, this is your chance to leave.

By now, if you’re a Marvel fan, or even just Marvel-curious, you’ve seen the big conclusion to the studio’s first 11 years of films. Avengers: Endgame goes out of its way to shake up the Marvel status quo, and even if the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a comic book franchise where changes never stick for long, Endgame’s overall effect is still exhilarating.

Over the past 11 years, Marvel has trained its audience to sit in their seats a little while longer as the credits roll, baited by the promise of seeing at least one more scene before the movie is really over. For Marvel, it’s a way to get the names of every person that helped with its movie in front of some eyeballs; for fans, it’s a treat, a tease toward the next big thing.

So it’s a surprise that this time, for the studio’s biggest movie ever, Marvel has bucked its own trend. Avengers: Endgame has no post-credits scenes. And I’m not mad about it; the movie doesn’t need them, nor should it have them.

The next few days are perhaps the apotheosis of mainstream geek culture.

Avengers: Endgame will bring the current iteration of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a close on Thursday, April 25, and Game of Thrones will reach the midpoint of its final season with an episode rumored to be its biggest ever on Sunday, April 28. It’s gonna be a big weekend if you love this kind of thing. And in 2019, a lot of people love this kind of thing.

The most shocking thing about Avengers: Endgame is that there are several moments within this colossal movie that feel like a Marvel miracle. These are the pockets of time when what you watch on screen sends a shock of joy jumping through your skin, making your eyes go wide and watery at the spectacle.

After 11 years and, as of Endgame, 22 superhero flicks, dating back to Robert Downey Jr.’s spin in Iron Man, the examples are numerous. But with each successive film, those moments become harder to earn, and the returns diminishing.

Several minutes of Avengers: Endgame footage have leaked online. I haven’t seen that footage, nor have I tried to see it, but descriptions of it exist. (No, I’m not going to link to them. On this one occasion, you can use Google, I’m sure!)

Marvel, unsurprisingly, treated the leak like some sort of high-level state secret had been divulged. The entirety of the massive Marvel publicity machine sprang into action with one goal in mind: Preserve the surprises of Endgame, or, at the very least, get people to feel guilty for watching the footage.

In a few days — which will feel like an eternity to Marvel’s biggest fans — 11 years of Marvel movie-making, spanning more than 20 movies and 25 heroes, will come to an end with the biggest superhero film in history.

We are officially in the endgame for Avengers: Endgame.

One of the biggest mysteries headed into Avengers: Endgame is which of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will live and which ones won’t make it out alive. And in a roundabout way, it seems like Marvel Studios has revealed that Hawkeye (played by Jeremy Renner) will live to see another day.

Marvel has been keeping everything that happens in Endgame tightly under wraps, but its announcement of a new Disney+ series starring Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye is what may have given away the surprise.

Avengers: Endgame is less than a month away, and by the time you read this, tickets at your local theater may already be sold out. Tickets went on sale on April 2 and some sellers’ websites and apps crashed, apparently due to the high volume of people clamoring to buy them. The demand is understandable: Endgame is the culmination of 11 years’ and 21 films’ worth of Marvel moviemaking, as well as the bookend to 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, a $2 billion movie with a game-changing cliffhanger.

To help meet that demand, AMC is offering a Faustian option to Marvel fans who may not already have an Endgame ticket or who want to see it early: The theater chain is hosting a 60-hour Marvel movie marathon starting on April 23 and featuring all 21 of Marvel Studios’ previous films back to back, then capping things off with Endgame — allowing attendees to see it about an hour earlier than the first Thursday screenings of the movie. AMC’s official site has been down since ticket sales began:

“It’s not about how much we lost, it’s about how much we have left,” Tony Stark says in a new “special look” trailer for Avengers: Endgame.

For the last year or so, Marvel fans have dealt with the vaporization of their favorite characters in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. Thanos snapped his fingers, half of the universe’s life turned to dust, and ever since then, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have been trying to figure out a way to get their friends, family, and Earth’s general population back from the dead.

Avengers: Endgame will reportedly spend a full three hours on the climactic battle between the Avengers and Thanos, the unstoppable force that turned great swaths of Earth’s population into dust at the end of 2018’s Infinity War. But while Marvel Entertainment continues to build buzz and uncertainty around the highly anticipated end of a saga told by more than a decade’s worth of superhero movies, some fans already have a theory as to what’s going to go down. It’s a theory that has gained so much traction online that even the movie’s directors — and the man behind Thanos himself — have joined in.

I’ll toss out a spoiler warning, just in case this theory turns out to be true. Because what we are about to discuss is so stupid, so implausible, it almost makes sense: