Avengers: Endgame left me in need of a little group therapy.

I mean, c'mon, we've been with some of these characters for years. And now, our journey with some of them is over.

Don't worry, I'm not going to spoil the movie for those of you who haven't seen it ... but, seriously, what are you waiting for?

For the few people who don't know what's going on, Endgame is the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the culmination of more than a decade's plotting and character development. In the preceding movie, Avengers: Infinity War, numerous heroes from Earth and elsewhere -- including Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and the Guardians of the Galaxy (Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, et al) -- fought Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his minions to stop Thanos from collecting the six all-powerful Infinity Stones and snapping half of the universe's population out of existence.

The heroes failed. And many fan favorites -- among them Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and the Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) -- turned to dust as a result.

Endgame picks up right where Infinity War left off. Then, after a few establishing scenes and one climactic encounter, it moves forward five years, where the surviving heroes are trying to move on from their tragic defeat.

Then new hope arises in the form of Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), who has been trapped in the Quantum Realm (a very tiny place) since the Big Snap. And, with renewed vigor, the Avengers and their allies spread out through time to try to undo what Thanos did.

Many of these characters feel like old friends after so many adventures together, so fans of the MCU are a little emotionally invested in the events of this chapter-ending movie.

It's a WOW experience in many ways, wrapping up plot threads and giving fans moments that want to make them stand up and cheer -- as well, let's be honest, as some that might bring a few to tears. There is a great deal of character growth in Endgame, and there's also plenty of pulse-pounding spectacle, and there's sadness and loss.

But it's not a perfect film.

It's OK, I think, to bask in the action and the feelings this film evokes and try to overlook the inconsistencies that are so hard to avoid in films involving time travel. It's easy to second guess the writers' and directors' decisions, some of which, in hindsight, seem like they veered a little off course. It's all right to wonder where they will go in the future, now that some heroes are dead and the circumstances of others are significantly changed. Will the MCU, which has dominated cinemas for more than 10 years, be able to continue its pattern of success with its new and surviving heroes?

Time will tell. As for Endgame, I left the theater with some sense of dissatisfaction over certain plot resolutions, but those feelings faded in comparison to the sense of wonder from a movie well done, a saga well ended, and characters who earned a place in my heart.