'Avengers: Endgame' Review Roundup

Adam Barnhardt

04/23/2019 10:28 pm EDT

The world premiere of Avengers: Endgame was last and not even 24 hours later, the review embargo lifted, allowing critics from all over the world to release their reviews of the mega-blockbuster. As you can see through some of the reviews compiled here, the responses are nearly overwhelmingly positive, with most critics applauding Marvel Studios for putting out a major video that adequately wraps up the past 22 films of storytelling.

Keep scrolling to see what critics are saying about Avengers: Endgame, or read our review of the Russo Brothers-directed film here.

Avengers: Endgame opens in theaters April 26th.

What film are you looking forward to most as Marvel Studios pushes into Phase 4? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or join the conversation on Twitter by hitting me up at @AdamBarnhardt to chat all things MCU!

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Brandon Davis - ComicBook.com

"The final movie in Marvel's Infinity Saga is a masterpiece. It's an absolute spectacle which needs to be watched on the biggest screen possible. It's a love letter to fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, I'd argue that Avengers: Endgame is the film event of our lifetime and lives up to every bit of global hype it has garnered. It is setting a new standard and raising the bar for event films and likely will not be matched in this generation of filmmaking."

You can read the full review here.

Todd McCarthy - The Hollywood Reporter

"Nonetheless, it's an amiable brand of melancholy that pervades the film, one that scarcely gets in the way of the enthusiasm and excitement that Marvel adventures almost always deliver in some measure or another. The feeling of finality and potential farewell is sometimes suggested quietly just in the way certain moments are lingered over, conveying the fatalistic sense that this might well be the last time around the block for some of these characters. At the rate it's going, Marvel will be around for the better part of forever, but this will likely be the studio swan song for a number of the cast members."

You can read the full review here.

Peter Debruge - Variety

"That said, readers should also be warned that "Avengers: Endgame" hinges on the most frustrating of narrative tricks, and that no meaningful analysis of the film can take place without delving into some of the choices made by the Russo brothers and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. If "Infinity War" was billed as a must-see event for all moviegoers, whether or not they'd attended a single Marvel movie prior, then "Endgame" is the ultimate fan-service follow-up, so densely packed with pay-offs to relationships established in the previous films that it all but demands that audiences put in the homework of watching (or rewatching) a dozen earlier movies to appreciate the sense of closure it offers the series' most popular characters."

You can read the full review here.

A.O. Scott - New York Times

"Still, "Endgame" is a monument to adequacy, a fitting capstone to an enterprise that figured out how to be good enough for enough people enough of the time. Not that it's really over, of course: Disney and Marvel are still working out new wrinkles in the time-money continuum. But the Russos do provide the sense of an ending, a chance to appreciate what has been done before the timelines reset and we all get back to work. The story, which involves time travel, allows for some greatest-hits nostalgic flourishes, and the denouement is like the encore at the big concert when all the musicians come out and link arms and sing something like "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." You didn't think it would get to you, but it does."

You can read the full review here.

Mike Sorrention - CNet

"Endgame is a giant sequel to every MCU movie ever, but thankfully an in-depth knowledge of those films is unnecessary. The plot does jump around at times, which might confuse casual viewers, but bottom line: this thrill ride kicks off big and never lets up. It's so much fun."

You can read the full review here.

Michael Rogeau - Gamespot

"Avengers: Endgame absolutely works as a blockbuster movie experience. If you're at all invested in the plight the remaining Avengers face after the events leading up to and including Infinity War, you will feel satisfied with this movie. The much-discussed three-hour runtime is no joke, but almost every minute of it is used well, barring some extended gag scenes that probably could have been left for the Blu-ray. Endgame manages to tie the entire MCU up with a beautiful, emotional, gut-wrenching, hopeful conclusion, which is an undeniable achievement."

You can read the full review here.

Angie Han - Mashable

"Endgame does not, despite its title, spell the end of the entire franchise. There's still Spider-Man: Far From Home to come, and movies about Black Widow, Black Panther, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Eternals, etc. in the works. It is, however, a moment to stop and look back in amazement (or terror) at what the MCU has pulled off. From the relatively humble Iron Man — a Paramount picture about a then C-list comic book hero — the MCU has grown into an empire. And Endgame is Marvel's crowning achievement."

You can read the full review here.

Brian Truitt - USA Today

"It's peak Marvel in terms of sheer spectacle, although for once Endgame is one of these hero-fests that revels in its present rather than looking to the future. The main characters here, although their abilities are otherworldly, are seen at their most human weighing loss and life. What is worth the ultimate sacrifice to those who can seemingly bring the world to its feet, and what do amazing folks do with second and third chances after proving they're not as amazing as they once thought?"

You can read the full review here.

Russ Fischer - Birth.Movies.Death

"Ultimately, Endgame is an entire movie of payoffs. It plays off and completes thoughts begun in Age of Ultron and Civil War, and even in comics. Conventional wisdom says that a sequel should be able to stand on its own. For the past decade, Marvel has worked to make that true, to whatever degree is possible in a series of more than 20 interconnected films. That changes with Endgame, which has no ambition to stand on its own, and no need to. This Avengers finale is an event as much as a movie. It is quite possibly a one-time thing that can only happen at this point in time. Endgame is a giant flex of fan interest and industry power, and in that respect it is spectacular."

You can read the full review here.

Eric Kohn - IndieWire

"Endgame mostly unfolds as a prolonged embrace of the long-term challenges facing its beloved mainstays, like Banner's ability to merge his meek-scientist persona with the raging testosterone monster within, and Thor's lingering grief over his departed mother. (Here and there, Bradley Cooper's Rocket Raccoon scores a good laugh, but the potential of this cartoony troublemaker remains unfulfilled.) Alan Silvestri's epic score keeps the plot moving through various overlapping circumstances, but Endgame works best in small doses of the greatest hits — at least until the Russos throw up their hands and bring together every possible strand for a cacophonous showdown. Amid the noisy CGI of the final-act battle, there are plenty of rousing moments — but they're all fragmentary, with payoffs according to the level of viewer investment. Newcomers to the series may as well be watching a Transformers movie."

You can read the full review here.

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