3. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
The history books may remember Avengers: Endgame for bringing about the culmination of the Infinity Saga but the fact of the matter is that that film was only an extension of a story that Avengers: Infinity War started.
The beginning of the end, so to speak, the film was responsible for pulling the trigger on Thanos’ long-teased master plan and, in doing so, also pulled the trigger on the long-teased crossover between the Avengers and the Guardians of The Galaxy – who had, up until this point, only featured in their own films.
Infinity War was many things all rolled into one. It was a beginning, it was an ending and it was something that had never been done before – bringing together a number of long-running arcs in a bid to give fans the best (and most shocking) opening to the bumper-sized final chapter of the MCU.
From the multiple different narratives to the new dynamics between characters who had never interacted before, the film felt larger scale (if that’s at all possible) than every single previous offering and, as result, set the stage for what may have been (at the time) the most incredible battle in Hollywood history. And it’s worth it just alone for Thor’s epic entrance.
Heartbreaking, triumphant and jaw-dropping all at once, Infinity War is an emotional rollercoaster that, most of the time, actually flows better than its successor and, even though there are times that it often just feels like the beginning of the end(game), it accomplished everything it set out to do and, in the process, amazed audiences beyond belief.
2. Avengers: Endgame (2019)
How do you pull off the official conclusion to a 22-chapter series? That’s been the question that has been on the collective minds of fans for years – and it’s one that Marvel Studios found themselves having to answer this year.
Avengers: Endgame provided the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the closure that it had been building towards for quite some time, and it did so by pulling together a number of different elements.
Focused primarily on the events in the present, it dealt with the fallout of Thanos’ infamous snap, as the survivors sought out a way to undo the damage he caused. However, it also wasn’t afraid to call upon faces from its past (through a series of time-travel tributes) and its future (Captain Marvel and Spider-Man) in order to give fans the star-studded smackdown they had been waiting for.
The fact that it relies heavily on its predecessors may render it virtually unwatchable to those who haven’t seen Infinity War (at least), but therein lies the charm of the movie. No one thing functions on its own, as the majority of the story is an ensemble narrative in which every moving part relies on the other. And the emotional rollercoaster is worth every single laugh, tear and look of awe, as the final battle exceeds expectations and could very well be the greatest cinematic showdown of all time.
So just how do you pull of the conclusion of a 22-chapter series? Well, the answer to that question is a tricky one but it probably looks something like Avengers: Endgame. It may not be a perfect movie, but it is, without a doubt, the perfect conclusion to this awe-inspiring tale – and one that does justice to almost every major character involved.