Time to play the (end)game

Rating: 10/10 (7 May 2019)

I usually do not watch movies twice in such a short amount of time. But after I did the Double Feature (at the Midnight premiere) with Infinity War almost 2 weeks ago, I re-watched Endgame yesterday and it was as amazing as my first impression of it was! And while I will not spoil anything about Endgame, I will talk about things Infinity War! So if you have not seen that yet, do not blame me for anything revealed here.
My summary is a pop culture reference and there are quite a few in the Marvel movies, hinting at other franchises (Alien got name checked for example in Infinity War and even "copied" or "homaged" if you will and there are a few in Endgame too). But those little digs are not too important, they are just nice touches for those who know them. Having an understanding of the MCU as a whole, from Phase 1 to now Phase 3 is way more important. And as someone who is not too familiar with the comics myself, I can tell you that knowing the movies is enough to enjoy the franchise.
Still you can google the other stuff or even make your own conclusions. Now that is a lot of foreword and I haven't even gotten one word about Endgame. But as I said above, no spoilers here. What we do know (from the trailers) is the beginning. But whatever we saw and thought we knew - what happens not even half an hour into the movie, will rattle you. Now what?
Yes the first hour of the movie is "slow", but it had to be. There are ramifications after the snap and the characters we learned to love, that we have close to our heart, have been torn apart. Quite literally gone with the wind - everyone is thinking how is this going to be resolved (no pun intended)? And the movie will give you answers, and will even try to sort of explain things that are quite - unexplainable.
And while there is full on drama, there is still a lot of humor. The movie takes beloved characters and does things to them - or rather the weight of what happened does things to them. What exactly? Well that would be telling, but let me tell you some very bold choices have been made. And if you are not emotional at least during some scenes, you are taking away a lot of fun for yourself.
I can be a cynic too at times, but taking this apart (which you can do with every movie), is only hurting your own viewing pleasure. There is so much love in this, for the characters, for details, for the fans - it's just a rollercoaster and I'm not afraid to say that I shed a couple of tears. It is after all tying knots and bringing certain things to a conclusion.
That doesn't mean there isn't anything more coming (because we know there is, next up Spiderman as an in between movie before Infinity War?). And there are some familiar faces coming back to Endgame from other movies that we haven't seen in a while but also new cameos like Ken Jeong. I'm guessing there will be a deleted scene with him, his scene seems to short for storytelling purposes I reckon.
Epic fights, epic emotions and dialog that is hinting at things to come later in the movie ... which you will see even clearer with repeat viewing(s) ... The Russos did it - Kudos to them, Kevin Feige, Stan Lee (RIP) and everyone else involved in this of course
Edit: Endgame works even for people who have not seen a single MCU movie yet (confirmed by a friend of mine). But of course the gravitas and the conclusions of everything will work way better if you have seen the rest of the movies. Also let me add that this is "technically sound" as some would put it - or just plain great visually speaking. But I reckon this is a given anyway. Popcorn (or Nachos or whatever you prefer) to perfection