Day 116. All things must pass (25/4/19)

(Soundtrack: Traffic. 'Dear Mr Fantasy'. Some of you will already know why, some of you will find out soon. But not here.)

I was writing today.

And then I looked on the Odeon website. And the Odeon Luxe at Switch Island, which is nearly three minutes drive from our house, had tickets for the 11am showing of Avengers: Endgame.

So we went. Me and J.

And we adored it.

There's no spoilers here. I could tell you the number of times that I nearly cried but obviously not tell you why. I could tell you the number of times (and that's definitely plural) that I actually cried, I could tell you that I sobbed once. But I couldn't tell you why.

You'll know them when you see them.

What I can tell you is this: Endgame fulfils every promise that the preceding films made to you. It does everything you want it to, some things you thought you didn't want it to but actually needed it to and some things you just wouldn't expect at all.

From a scriptwriting point of view, the writing is a work of brilliance. Nothing is forced or fake. Everything happens because of the characters' wants, needs and nature. Every character, and there are a fair few of them, shines through perfectly. Everybody is individual and human.

Everything is perfectly paced. There is thought and sadness, there is melancholy, there are sudden switches to outright humour. Everybody talks like real people talk, no matter the fantastical nature of their surroundings. Not a beat is out of place.

Most importantly, everything matters.

Everything is predicated in the story that Marvel have been telling across this century. Every choice follows the choices made in previous tales, everything flows. It's the culmination of a 21 film long tale.

For some of us though, it's more than that.

For me, Endgame is the culmination of all the stories I've been following for the last 50 years. Every moment is tied in to my lifelong love of the characters I grew up with. It feels like the end of a story I've invested in since I was five years old.

And it's perfect.

A beautiful film.