A Movie That Took Itself Far Too Seriously

Rating: 7/10 (6 May 2019)

Avengers: Endgame forgot that it was just a superhero, and suffered from trying to be far too "epic". Along the way, it lost the brisk pace and light humor that brightened up the first two movies of the series, as it tried to do too much, with too many characters, over too many needless scenes. The whole thing felt overly drawn out. 30 minutes of this film could easily have found it's way onto the cutting room floor, and the movie would have been stronger for it.
In many ways, it was like the writer's of this installment lost their touch. The fat Thor joke was funny for the first 5 minutes, but they kept coming back to it again and again and again. Ya, ya, we know he got fat and lazy. Ha, ha. Now move on! But at least the overweight, drunken Thor gave us something to chuckle about, as there was very little else of a lighter, funny nature in this over-serious marathon of a movie.
There was also far too much posing. A good example of this was during the huge final battle, with the fate of the world, nay the entire galaxy, hanging in the balance .... and all the female superheroes found the time to line up for a photo op! What was that all about? From across a battlefield that stretched over seemingly several square miles, all the female superheroes left whatever they were doing, in order to travel clear to where all the other female superheroes were, so that they could stand shoulder to shoulder and go "Ok, girls, now that we're all here, lets look really serious and determined for the camera! Now, Charge!
Ya, way overdone and unnecessary.
As was the final funeral for .... SPOILER ALERT!! .... Ironman. I mean, come on. All that was needed was a nicely written 5 minute scene around his grave, or perhaps a memorial. What the movie didn't need was a 20 minute movie within a movie, tagged on to the end of what was already a very long film.
But that was the story of this movie. Many scenes seemed overplayed and overwritten, and just a shade too long. I still enjoyed the movie, and still gave it a 7, but it could have been so much better if it had just relaxed and been more like the movies that had gotten us here. It simply tried too hard to be the greatest superhero movie of all time, and as a result, fell far short.