Avengers Endgame was... just about everything it needed to be.
Copious amounts of fan service with callbacks to various points in the MCU's history are paired with its trademark irreverent wit which is balanced with the overwhelming weight of the task at hand.
The movie is very long and at times during the first half, noticeably so, but by the time the credits roll you'll have forgotten most of that as you leave the theater abuzz with excitement from the final battle and the consequences therein.
The special effects are impressive as befits the finale of such a franchise. Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Hemsworth give possibly the best performances of their careers in the MCU.
There's not a whole lot to say beyond that without getting into spoiler's so I'll have to pause here for the folks that haven't seen it yet, all four of them.
8/10 Must See if You're a Marvel Fan / Incomprehensible if You're Not
SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT
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Okay, so let's talk about the movie’s plot choices.
The film makes a lot of logical leaps as is almost inevitable when introducing a time travel plot but even allowing for some wonkiness there are some indefensible choices here.
First of all, their plan sucks, they go back in time to various point to get the stones, ok fine. Why didn't Nebula tell them about Vormir? It's implied that she at least knows it's where Gamora died in Infinity War. Even if she doesn't know the details, she could probably have at least mentioned that. Also, why does she stay in the past to get captured? I was under the impression she had her own Pym particle source so why is she just waiting for Thanos to show up? (It's possible these things could be explained away but the movie doesn't explain them and so they just look like sloppy writing contrivances)
Secondly, I get that they were going to have to lose someone on Vormir but Black Widow? Why? I get that Hawkeye has a family, but the sequence honestly didn't work for me, it was relying a lot on a relationship that's been in the background of a lot of the films but honestly still felt kind of undercooked. Especially since she's apparently getting her own movie soon. This is mostly a personal gripe; Black Widow is the shit.
Thirdly, in regards to the passing of the torch I'm glad they chose to have Captain Marvel sit this out and let the OG's handle their own shit but my god when she is in the movie she's got like zero charisma so I don't know how they expect her to take over as the leader of the Avenger's trying to replace Tony Stark and goddamn Captain America. I was happy that they picked Falcon over Bucky to take up the shield for Cap though, he's the more charismatic and cleaner cut of the two and he doesn't have any of the baggage.
Tony's death is perfectly set up and handled with the care it deserves. The film brings every character he ever impacted into frame during his funeral. I did find it weird and a little off putting that Black Widow's death was kind of a footnote in comparison, one that isn’t acknowledged again when the war is won.
Despite my gripes about some of the choices I had a blast with the film overall, that Marvel managed to pull this whole thing off without a significant misstep is still amazing to me
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