Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame was released on Thursday, April 25, and I, like millions of others across the world, was very excited to see the conclusion and culmination of over 11 years (22 films) of Marvel Studios’ now titled “Infinity Saga.”
Don't worry, If you haven't seen it, I won’t go into plot points or spoilers for the movie, but what I began to realize is as the credits rolled, was that this was not only the end of a truly remarkable series of connected films, but this is most likely the first and only time we are ever going to see anything of its kind in the history of film.
Not every film that was released has been perfect, I dislike quite a few of them actually, but as a whole, I can honestly say that there is nothing quite like what has happened in the past 11 years that could ever be compared to what Marvel Studios has done.
I began reading comic books as a kid, maybe 12 or 13 years old. I was obsessed with Thor and Spider-Man, Thor especially. I would always talk to my uncle about The Avengers and the various villains they would come up against.
I was only 14 years old when the first Iron Man was released in 2008 I vividly remember sitting in the theater after the credits rolled and, as dramatic as it may sound, a few words changed the shape of cinema as we know it today, “I’m here to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative.”
I remember thinking to myself, “No way are they going to pull this off, how are they going to make all these movies?”
But sure enough, year after year we were introduced to my favorite comic book heroes on the big screen and surprisingly, the stories intertwined in a way that wasn’t all that confusing or exhausting.
Over the past 11 years, multiple genres of film were used to introduce the masses to the characters I grew up loving so much and honestly, I’m still blown away that it worked out as well as it did.
We even got a few movies that featured a talking racoon and a talking tree in space and everyone loved it, that in itself is a feat.
With Avengers: Endgame, the fourth Avengers film in the 22-film saga, Marvel set out to wrap up what they had started in the first Iron Man movie back in 2008.
Again, I won’t go into plot and especially won’t spoil it for those who haven’t been able to see it, but in short, they did it.
Marvel took stories and characters spanning across a vast cinematic universe that they created over a decade ago and successfully intertwined them into a massive and overwhelming cinematic experience, and it actually worked.
As a massive lover of almost all things film, it’s been one of my favorite experiences going every year to see the next installment of these movies and how they would all connect. Now I realize something that is a little sad, we may never get this kind of experience ever again.
To my memory, I can’t think of a single studio to create an entire universe of films all connected the way that Marvel has. That thought made me slightly sad to see Endgame as it was definitively the end of what Marvel had been building up to all of these years. As one of the lines in the film says, “part of the journey is the end,” that’s where we find ourselves.
As the film finished, a friend of mine, who had seen the movie in New York at an almost identical time as myself, messaged me with a fairly saddening thought.
“We are never going to see that for the first time again.”
He was right. Again, I might sound a little over-dramatic, but for me, film is all about experience. The twists and turns of a movie are something I get very excited about, but the downside is, you can only really experience it one time when you first see it.
It’s amazing to have experienced the kind of filmmaking feat that Marvel has accomplished over the past 11 years. It’s done now, they pulled it off, but I guess now that thought still haunts me a little.
At the end of the “Infinity Saga,” for better or worse, we are really never going to see what we’ve seen for the first time again, but I’m glad we did.