A bad way to end a a spectacular franchise

Rating: 5/10 (18 August 2019)

I never did side with either DC or Marvel - even as a kid in the 1960's. There were superheroes I liked and ignored the rest. Now, while DC is showing us how poorly a film can be made (particularly "Justice League"), Marvel has aced 60% of their 22 films to date in my opinion. I wish that was the case with this one. It not only underwhelmed me, it didn't serve it's predecessor well.
I certainly don't fault the cast because outside the handful of main characters, the rest were merely background and foreground. After Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow, the rest of the cast were so many that they seemed like they were there for scenery. And like "Justice League", "Avengers: Endgame" suffered from the "more is more" syndrome that may please the under-10 crowd, but takes meaning away for us older viewers.
Let's not overlook the cop-out remedy in science fiction these days - the reliance upon time travel to get out of a script jam. I realize it was a necessity in this particular chain of fictional events, but after a while it seems like (pardon the musical reference) a long, drawn-out guitar solo that has you wishing the band would get back to the song.
This review isn't due to Thor (my favorite Marvel hero) growing fat and channeling his inner surfer dude, Tony Stark losing his life or Gamora 2.0 being the anti-Gamora. My regret is FOR the franchise instead of me as a viewer. They ended on a sad technical note due to unnecessary goings-on that I'm sure they worked very hard at trying to tie up in a movie.
Another point that detracted from this film, and a few others in the Marvel cinematic universe is their social messaging. They didn't need to preach woman power because superheroes already have that built into their character. Here, it's shoved into our faces to signal their fashionable virtuosity. In other words, if there is a female superhero in a film, I don't need to be reminded that there's a sexual revolution going on here in reality. Theirs are formidable personas without need to be underscored.
Using another musical analogy, this movie was like the members of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and The Who taking the stage at the same time and playing their sets. Apart, they're the best. Together, they're just noise. "Avengers: Endgame" would have been better if they pared down the scope, although I understand why they went the way they did. A franchise as successful as MCU set itself up for such a debacle. I'm grateful that it wasn't much, much worse.
I thank those at Marvel for bringing to life the characters I read about in comic books at the corner store. They did a very good job overall.