Epic scope yet held back by future standards of the MCU

Rating: 8/10 (26 April 2019)

Good, solid, jumbled, chaotic, messy, OTT, PC fun that lacked the stakes, sincerity, intimacy, cohesiveness and the opposing narrative mastery of the utterly brilliant Infinity War.
A love letter to fans? Yes, in the comic book sense but films are not comics, the MCU films are inspired by comics. Film craft is drastically different than book or comic. If you're judging Avengers Endgame by the Russo brothers usual excellent MCU standards, who've mostly managed to please comic fans then the Easter egg laden love letter to fans was at the cost of their ability to craft a visual narrative as well as they have in the past.
A film is the sum of all its parts like a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. To me, this film was more a trojan horse - it felt it was to service future MCU characters than the current - disguised as a love letter. A film should be made to cater for its own ingredients and not to aid others work, past or future, whilst risking not only deflating your own achievements but literally undoing current cinematic sense, logic, reason and reward in order to draw more cash later over a compelling and ripping yarn now.
Suspension of disbelief was mostly removed from this film at the cost of a minefield of forced 'just for laughs' and up-and-coming MCU 'product placement'. The film wasn't allowed to stand alone or, at least stand side-by-side with Infinity War. It felt like the Brothers had orders and those reshoots and last minute edits caused the many, 'what could and should have been' gripes from fans and, potentially the beginning of the End of the MCU.
It was a good film, but that's the problem, it should have been far more. There's plenty of good films. What about classic = 5/5 or Great = 4/5. Evidently the Brothers have a knack for turning out classic MCU, what was with the epic-in-scale but overall 3/5 flick?
I could write forever but I can't in fear of giving away spoilers. What I will say is, if they can make Thanos, one of the greatest and most misguided cinematic villains of all time become just another baddie seemingly overnight then you can imagine what occurred to some of the other beloved characters in this film. On occasion the OG6 feel entirely forgotten/forgettable and that they're merely in the way of the new, which is odd because it took 10 years to build their arch whilst the likes of Captain Marvels arch is, 'just is'. One film. Boom. We seemingly know all there is to know in less than 2hrs and we're expected to except that because we're told to. The potential future of the MCU could be on a path of, 'just is'. Call me old fashioned but I enjoy character development and risk vs reward vs loss etc. 'Just is', isn't compelling enough for me. Very soon, 'just is' won't be enough full stop.
In short there's a lot to like in Endgame just as there was in The Return of the Jedi. That about sums up Avengers 4 really. There are people out there who love Jedi and there are others who thought Empire Strikes Back should have had a much, much stronger follow up. And, what happened to the quality of the Star Wars Universe beyond Jedi?
I've a terrible feeling Phase 4 killed the MCU before Phase 4 even got off the ground...