Back to the Future or not

Rating: 8/10 (27 April 2019)

Hawkeye loses his family with the snap. Tony Stark and Nebula are stranded in space. They are rescued by Captain Marvel. What remains of the Avengers set off to confront Thanos only to find that he had already destroyed the Stones. Five years later, Scott Lang escapes from the quantum realm. He is shocked by the new world order and comes up with an idea to save everyone, a Time Heist.
This is the 22nd film in the MCU. The best aspect is that it pulls together the whole series of movies and fulfill many of their emotional storylines. Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Ant-Man, and Nebula all get some powerful personal stories. Thor is doing a funny "The Dude" Lebowski. Iron Man is his family. Captain America finally gets his love. Hawkeye becomes vengeance. There are some other aspects that I would alter with the Infinity Gauntlet.
For Ant-Man, Paul Rudd's comedic takes diminishes his pain from losing Hope. He's not quite as broken as Hawkeye. His lost keeps conflicting with his humor. Black Widow's fight with Hawkeye lasts too long. Sometimes, less is more and doing fewer reversals would add power to each turn. Nebula's final confrontation with herself needs some better work. She needs to have a talk with herself or do an Indiana Jones and shot right away. She could give a punchline like "I don't like how she looks". The movie yadayada a lot about time travel. The only explanation is that it's not any of those movies. It's a funny line but it's basically saying that it has no rules. Then the characters say that there are rules. I don't begrudge the MCU for yadayadaing the rules because that could get real complicate. Finally, this MCU ends like many MCU movies, with a chaotic massive final battle. I'd prefer cutting that back and the female Avengers assemble is a little too convenient. Just have two other women. That's enough. It becomes fan service. Overall, the emotional resolutions are great. The recalls to the other movies are satisfying. The story works for the most part. In a franchise that is sure to keep going to infinity, this is a great rest stop to say a few goodbyes.