The "Endgame" of an Era !!!

Rating: 7/10 (24 April 2019)

"Avengers: Endgame" is the continuation of "Avengers: Infinity War" concluding both the Avengers saga and the MCU as we know it. Endgame is mostly a movie of its own although sometimes it does feel like Infinity War part 2. The movie was very enjoyable. The most important reason as to why I enjoyed it is because it wasn't trying to be as action packed as Infinity War and instead was more character driven and emotional. I'm going to break down the things I liked and didn't like down below but braise yourselves because I'm gonna be talking MAJOR SPOILERS.
The things I liked:
One of the things I loved in this movie, as I mentioned above is that it was very character driven. Pretty much every character has a moment to shine with Steve and Tony being the best characters hands down. Black Widow was seriously devastated from her defeat and I really liked her journey in the movie considering we all know how she's constantly trying to make peace with herself and find redemption through her heroic acts. Hawkeye/Ronin goes from being the worst character in "The Avengers" to being one of the best characters in "Avengers: Endgame". With his family being snapped away by Thanos the movie literally starts this way, setting up one of its most promising characters. We also have Hulk and Thor who despite being used mostly for comedic purposes they did have their moments, Antman who is more serious than usual, War Machine and Rocket who are just ok and Nebula whose involvement in the story was much bigger than I though.
"Avengers: Endgame" also has some small (and big) character moments that make the first act a bit slow passed and despite I've heard people saying that this is one of the movie's problems, I genuinely believe it's one of its best decisions. That is the stuff that was missing from Infinity War, the small character moments that makes us take a moment with them, understand them and sympathize with them. If this movie has a strong suit that would be the character aspect of it and how it complements Infinity War and the rest of the MCU movies that it constantly revisits.
Other things I liked:
I really enjoyed the time travel missions, mostly the one in the battle of NY. That elevator scene was breathtaking by the way and I like how after failing to obtain the Tesseract, Steve and Tony travel at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s first headquarters in 1970 resulting in the first seeing young Peggy again and the later meeting with his young father. I also adored the 3rd act. The action sequences were amazing including the fact that all the fallen heroes returned to oppose Thanos and his troupes. Plus, Cap wielding Mjölnir and Tony using the infinity stones being aware of the consequences were both orgasmic. Also I liked the fact Thanos is defeated right from the get go, the 5-year time jump the movie did, Tony having a child and the scene where Widow and Hawkeye (I just can't call him Ronin) are both trying to sacrifice themselves so that they can save the other which made a beautiful scene considering the only thing in the world left for them that they love the most, is each other. I honestly didn't know who was going to die. At one moment I thought Clint would die because Natasha has a solo movie coming out (probably) and at the other I thought Natasha was going to die, which eventually it did happen. Finally, apart from Tony Stark getting the great ending he deserved as the Godfather of the MCU, Steve Rogers' arc completion is emotional, brilliant and exactly what I wanted to see in this movie. He did get that dance after all and it was the closing shot of the movie...pure magic.
The things I didn't like:
One of the things I didn't like in Infinity War was the mixed tone that should have been adjusted to the movie's tone instead of the movie being adjusted to the characters and their respective tones. Despite being more serious and darker, "Avengers: Endgame" isn't without its funny but most of the time ridiculous jokes that ruin the moment. As I said above Hulk and Thor are mostly used for comedic purposes but at least I can stand Hulk saying one or two jokes and occasionally dabbing. Thor on the other hand, is easily one of the movie's worst (if not THE worst) characters and I can now see how the more comedic approach the character was granted in "Thor: Ragnarok" hurts both him and "Avengers: Endgame" which makes the character of Thor more useless, uninteresting and ridiculous than he's ever been in the entire MCU. Heck there's even a scene where he's playing Fortnite with Korg on PS4 cursing a player named noobmaster69 online...it really can't get any worse.
When it comes to Thanos, I felt like the villain was a much lesser version of the Thanos we saw in Infinity War where he had vision, strong motivations and a pretty understandable ideology and cause. In Endgame though, the past version of the villain that captures Nebula during a time travel mission and makes it back into the original time stream knowing that his future version eventually succeeds, just wants to erase all life from the cosmos and rebuilt it anew. The excuse is that due to the Avengers resisting by trying to undo the snap, he realizes that for as long as someone is aware of the decimation there will always be resistance. So his soul purpose becomes the annihilation of the universe and the creation of a new one. For me that part ruined the whole beauty Thanos had as a character in Infinity War. He was a three dimensional character that just turned into a no brainer villain who simply wanted to destroy literally everything. Then again, Infinity War was Thanos' movie and Endgame isn't, some people will say and yes it's totally fine I understand that...but I felt Thanos was downgraded in Endgame.
Last but not least I couldn't help but notice the time travel rules of the movie which for starters are worse than the ones seen in "Back to the Future". It is briefly explained by the Ancient One that for as long as the infinity stones are not in their right place in time the timeline would be endangered which leads to Bruce Banner commiting to return the stones back to the timelines they were taken from (which are the timelines the Avengers create after going back in time to gather the stones, branching the original MCU timeline in the process). But the fact Thanos gathered the stones eventually destroying them in the original MCU timeline still remains. What does that mean for the MCU and all the other similar realities out there in which the stones meet the same fate? And if Cap went back in time to live his life with Peggy how does he end up in the same timeline since he would have branched it ultimately living in a parallel one? Plus, the Ancient One says that ONLY by removing a stone from its timeline a branched reality can be formed. But how does that make sense considering the Avengers create new timelines each time they travel back in time thus changing (even slightly) some events in the original timeline? Do we assume that if no stone is taken from a newly created timeline that it autimatically deletes itself as soon as the ones who created it abondone it and if Cap returned all the stones back to their respective timelines that would mean the newly formed realities got deleted right? So the question is did he completely change the MCU by erasing Peggy's husband and children but being careful enough not to alter key events in the MCU or was he on a time loop all this time being Peggy's husband all along? I like how they keep the events of the past MCU intact while still being able to use time travel as a plot device and how they also use the whole "branching reality" concept but it would have been better if the movie cared to explain its time travel mechanics a bit more and how they connect with the infinity stones.
Nitpicks:
Captain Marvel saving Tony and Nebula was the easiest way to resolve their isolation in space, a rat triggering Scott Lang's exit from the Quantum Realm practically saving the universe and Tony figuring out the key to achieving time travel so fast and without any struggle (at least on screen) were some of the most important ones.
Bottom line:
"Avengers: Endgame" isn't without its problems but it is a worthy ending to Marvel's Infinity saga providing a good experience and payoff.
DECENT: 7/10