Avengers: Endgame (Anthony & Joe Russo, 2019)

With half the universe and therefore also half of all heroes dead after Avengers: Infinity War, the 'final' (for there are of course never such things when billions of revenue are involved) instalment in the most all-encompassing MCU saga rather has its hands tied from the outset by the need to kill the omnipotent Thanos and resurrect its key money-spinners at the same time. The decidedly bleak state of affairs also denies the humour of the previous films to leaven the inevitable mass pagga. And then there are so many characters to try to serve some kind of closure for, whereas before they could be brought in briefly, with the possibility to promote them to the forefront if that suited narrative or marketing purposes. Finally, it must somehow be made feasible that the rump of the goodies can succeed against far bigger odds than their full complement last time.
The attempted solution to all these troublesome challenges consists of a two-fold approach: firstly, making the running length a bladder-torturing three hours, and secondly, time travel, which is what you do when you have really painted yourself into a corner. It goes without saying that each hero must get an equal turn, regardless of their capabilities, and that each must be given a task that they might just about feasibly pull off. And so the tidal wave of fighting against conveniently weight-matched opponents ensues and doesn't abate for about half a lifetime.
It is as visually awe-inducing as you'd expect, you will find yourself at frequent intervals on the edge of your seat at the sheer speed, gall and peril of the action, and there is a small shock with exactly how the end pans out, but this really can't go on. Let's hope that Disney at least gives us a breather with some smaller-scale stories before the inavertible resumption of business as usual.

6/10