After apprehending the Mad Titan, “Endgame” makes a borderline provocative storytelling decision to skip ahead five years. Last summer’s “Avengers: Infinity War” ended with purple party pooper Thanos (Josh Brolin) completing his dunderheaded mission to eliminate half of the universe - effectively taking away half of the franchise’s action figures. As such, it has eccentric qualities as a pop culture paradigm shift while remaining predictable in terms of its actual narrative, restricted to the loose ends it must tie up. It is a movie that is entirely, even respectably, about its event status and nothing else.

It’s an event closer to the intellectual property swagger of “Super Smash Bros.,” the civic duty cheerleading of the Super Bowl, the corporate messianic meme of the McRib. Primarily marketed as “long” and “full of spoilers” (whatever that means), it’s a blockbuster that’s been promoted through tantalizing vagueness and grandiose gestures toward a farewell. Sitting at the end of a 21-movie red carpet, “Avengers: Endgame” does not operate under the laws of other movies.

Marvel heroes 2019