‘Avengers: Endgame’ Proves That Thrills, Humor, Emotional Payoff & Messiness Can All Co-Exist [Podcast]

Welcome to another edition of The Playlist Podcast, a discussion about film, television, and any other pop culture topics worthy of discussion, and this week, it’s arguably the pop culture event to end all pop culture events: “Avengers: Endgame.”

READ MORE: ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Is The Marvel-iest Of Marvel Movies In The Most Glorious & Frustrating Ways [Review]

‘Endgame,’  the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, acts as both the second part of last year’s “Avengers: Infinity War” – answering the question of how the remaining Avengers deal with the aftermath of Thanos’ infamous snap, and the “season finale” of the entire MCU. That’s a Herculean task for just about any group of writers and directors to take on, even for seasoned Marvel veterans like the Russo Brothers. To help unpack this sprawling epic, I’m joined by Playlist Editor-in-Chief Rodrigo Perez and Managing Editor Charles Barfield to dive into the film’s various narrative threads and convoluted storyline to decide whether or not the film succeeds as an emotionally satisfying finale to an entire decade’s worth of storytelling. It’s worth noting up front that all three of us had varying degrees of enjoyment with ‘Endgame,’ while acknowledging some of its problems and that the film can be quite a mess at times.

READ MORE: ‘Avengers: Endgame’ May Give The ‘Black Widow’ Solo Film Some Unexpected Layers

As usual with our review episodes, we start with a non-spoiler section, followed by a spoiler section. To honor the bang-up job that the film’s marketing department has done at concealing information, we are extremely brief with the non-spoiler section. At the 13:17 mark, we dive into full-on SPOILERS, so if you want to go in fresh, we suggest seeing the film first, and then coming back to the episode.

READ MORE: The Russos Reveal Thought Process Behind Marvel’s First Openly Gay (Non-Superhero) Character In ‘Avengers: Endgame’

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