NON-SPOILERS BELOW:
Well, today is the day! Avengers: Endgame is out in theaters and audiences have already begun watching the culmination of 11 years and 22 films. It was a daunting task, to say the least, for the Russo brothers, who directed the film. But they did it! When you have to literally close the book and give closure to beloved characters and millions of fans, it would be like facing off with Thanos himself. 

Was it a perfect movie? No. Was it a great movie, worthy of the expensive movie tickets and waiting in lines with throngs of sweaty nerds clamoring to get in? You bet! This is one of those movies you need to see in a sold-out theater and not wait for it to come out on Disney+. Movie theaters owners and managers are already extremely worried about the "small screen" killing their business, much like the entire motion picture industry struggled with the predominance of television in the 1950's. Back then, their solution was inventing "Cinemascope" and other anamorphic lenses to keep people coming to the theaters. Today's solution is showing movies like Avengers: Endgame.

This movie has moments where, if you have invested any bit of time or connection with the characters, will have you in tears. It will also have people rising to their feet and cheering! It will have moments of you audibly saying, "that is so cool!" I can't actually remember the last time I was taken out of the story because I thought what I was watching was just too awesome. That being said, there were some moments that took me out of the story for not so good reasons... one is a running gag that they carried throughout the movie... and that was a shame. There were other moments of pure convenience that left more to be desired.

That being said, some characters got great moments to really shine. The first two acts of the movie is all character building and getting ready for the inevitable third act. There were times when I was even questioning "Well, how are they going to get out of this one?" But in true heroic fashion, they fly through it all, while we stand on our feet and cheer them on. 

The over all arc of the massive Marvel Cinematic Universe is epic is scale, which also wouldn't have happened without the trailblazing filmmakers behind the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series. Like those series, you may need to catch up on previous films if you don't want to be totally lost. However, you will cry and cheer right when the directors wants you to, which means you're going to be invested in the characters and the movie. This film isn't without it's flaws, but in terms of movie-going experiences, it's a top-notch adventure film which is worthy of a 3-hour popcorn filled adventure to the movie theater... maybe even twice.

Also, they say not to spoil the movie... and you don't want to after seeing it. This final Marvel gift needs to be unwrapped be each true fan in person.

​4/5 Stars.

Hello, everyone! 

I'm Daniel Lahr and I'm the Executive Director and Founder of the Central Coast Film Society. We're going to begin having a regular blog going on here where I'll be sharing my feelings on local events, news and movie events (ie. movie reviews)! 

I hope you all enjoy and get to know us a little bit better as we continue to grow. This will also be a place where I'll share all of my recaps of events we have, give special thanks to people who help us out along the way, and maybe share some news here first with you! 

That being said, the summer blockbuster movie season is just getting started this week with the arrival of Avengers: Endgame. I'll be seeing it on Thursday night and I couldn't be more excited! So I will follow up with our first review. That being said... there's many, many more movies coming out this year. What would you like to see me review?