The Avengers: End Game -- not that fun but ultimately satisfying

Every now and then there's a movie that you really must see, and ideally on its opening day. Those are what you call "event movies". They are things you really look forward to and it thrills you just to think about plunking down on the cinema seat and waiting for the show to start.

Star Wars movies are always like that. Many Marvel movies are too (not all but certainly be bigger ones like The Avengers movies or the Captain America ones).

And it was with great anticipation that I went to see The Avengers: End Game. Although there are already many spoiler-ridden reviews online, I will keep this one spoiler free because I know there are many people who prefer to see the movie without having read any spoilers. So, I will oblige.

In a nutshell, I would describe the movie as epic, not quite as fun as previous Avengers installments but ultimately very satisfying as it does tie up all the loose ends. It is a fitting end to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's "Infinity Saga" phase that encapsulates 22 movies.

I once saw a documentary about how Marvel created a share universe and was awed by really how incredibly complex it all is. It's not easy weaving common threads among so many movies. Sometimes there are some inconsistencies and plot holes caused by the fact that there are so many installments involved (22 in all). For example why wasn't Captain Marvel called during the invasion of New York in the first Avengers movie? But on the whole, the 22-movie story arc does make sense.

Robert Downey Jr was quoted as saying that there's no way you could guess what happens in this movie. And I can report that he is absolutely right. There's no way you could predict some of the stuff that  happens in this movie.

A pretty conventional approach would be to have The Avengers the bulk of the movie figuring out how to defeat Thanos and to only confront him at the end of the movie. That would be oh so conventional but that's not what co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo have opted for. The Avengers confront Thanos very early on in the movie. I won't tell you what happens but it's not what you would expect. That's for sure.

You can't say that there are any plot twists per se in the movie. What you can say is that there are quite a few unusual plot developments that completely catch you by surprise.

The movie is not dark and brooding like some DC movies. It's always colorful, bright and punctuated with humor throughout. But somehow it's just not as fun as most Marvel movies are despite the fact that there are some real comic relief moments provided by Thor and Rocket. Maybe it's because many scenes deal with serious and poignant scenarios. It's certainly not a happy-go-lucky movie in the way that Thor: Ragnarok or Guardians of the Galaxy movies are.

You might not be happy with the way some things turned out but by the end of the movie, you will feel the movie does very satisfactorily ends the 22-story arc of the Infinity Saga. It's clearly time to move on to the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.