With the way Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” ended, it is no surprise the amount of anticipation for this movie was high. Fans were horrified leaving the theaters after “Avengers: Infinity War” about a year ago as many had lost their favorite characters.

Out of the dust of disappointment came high stakes for the finale. A completion of the Avengers saga, brothers and co-directors Anthony and Joe Russo said Marvel’s “Endgame” was “the end of an unprecedented narrative mosaic spanning eleven years and eleven franchises”, as reported by CNN.

Some scenes are epic and action packed, while others show the more human side of the Avengers. I was genuinely surprised– in a good way– to see a more vulnerable side of the heroes. Their raw sides were exposed, showing true pain and suffering most superhero movies typically don’t show.

Naturally, more than a few obstacles are thrown in the path of our heroes, forcing them not only to reconsider their options, but to re-examine the choices they’ve made along the way and the paths their lives are taking now.

The most shocking thing about “Avengers: Endgame” is its structure– unlike Infinity War, which sped along on a constant stream intense action scenes, Endgame’s first hour contains less action. Its lack of excitement in the beginning shows how involved we’ve become with these characters– so much so that I didn’t even care and the time flies by anyway.

It also frequently loses the thread during the movie, especially when the remaining Avengers broke into teams and embarked on their own separate missions in a series of plots and subplots to defeat Thanos once and for all. Part of the problem is simply that defeating him isn’t enough– the Avengers want to undo what he did as well. Their methods for doing so create infinite potential for plot holes, hand-waving and rules that are established in one scene and broken in the next.

In other words, the Russos and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely wrote themselves into a corner– writing themselves out of it became more complicated than any movie before, ultimately resulting in a three-hour end game.

The much-discussed three-hour runtime is no joke, but almost every minute of it is used well. “Endgame” manages to tie the entire MCU up with a beautiful, emotional, gut-wrenching and hopeful conclusion. It is certainly an undeniable achievement.

There are a ton of twists and turns in every scene through “Endgame” that will turn your expectations upside-down. Even diehard MCU fans will struggle to recognize every random side character who makes a cameo, every one-liner that’s actually a callback to a callback from a movie from years ago and every other seemingly familiar reference you just can’t quite place.  But right now, amongst the aftermath and shock, it definitely feels like a win.