Better upon a second viewing

Rating: 8/10 (24 November 2019)

OK so I always struggle with time travel as a plot device. Mostly because I consider it to be lazy in terms of the story writing ... don't like how the ending went? ... we'll go back in time and undo it! It's LAZY.
And when I saw Endgame in the theaters I LOVED the beginning and they kill Thanos and I'm thinking "ok he destroyed the stones ... how are they going to undo this?" and then they go "TIME TRAVEL" and my heart just sank. So the first time through I missed a LOT due to being bummed out. And I walked out of the theater with a disgruntled smirk.
However ... the second time, I had a chance to pause and rewind when Dr Hulk explains the time travel rules and, to my surprise, they actually do make sense.
Which made me far less irritated when he explained why they couldn't just go back and kill baby Thanos. And with that part making better sense I was able to pay more attention to the other bits that bothered me the first time and upon second viewing I realized that they actually did a pretty decent job of telling the story and nearly everything lined up.
I still have bones to pick ... for instance, it was purely coincidence that Nat and Hawkeye went to Vormir? Cuz if Nebula and Rodi had gone then they would've been screwed. Seriously nobody knew the trick to getting the soul stone but they sent nearly the only pair that could make it work? Just dumb luck? OK ... fine. And I don't understand why the 4 had to land on Morag and then split up ... but ok. And then Captain America going back in time wouldn't have messed up his own timeline but he would've messed with Peggy's. Wouldn't that mean he would end up on a different trajectory? So he wouldn't have ended up on that bench at the end?
See this is the problem with time travel.
And I was disappointed by some missed opportunities. What I loved about Infinity War was the mash-ups of the different worlds, the characters meeting and collaborating. And with the exception of Nebula there weren't really that many mash-ups. I would've loved more Okoye ... even some Okoye would've been nice. She was relegated to 1 scene and then the end ... bummer. I would've loved a lot more Rocket. I think it would've been better if they'd left Shuri alive and had her contribute to the science since that part of Infinity War was awesome. And more Captain Marvel of course though I know why they did what they did with her ...
All of that being said, the final battle is one of the greatest things I've ever watched. I loved it both times and wanted to watch it again immediately after finishing which means I'll likely watch this film several more times.
Endgame is a wonderful conclusion to an outstanding film series ... the most epic ever attempted. And while it's not perfect it's still very well done.