With Great Power, Comes No Responsibility

Rating: 6/10 (2 July 2019)

I watched Endgame twice. And both times, something just wasn't sitting right with me. The jokes generally landed, the fan service was everywhere, and it seemed like everything generally was wrapped up, even if Thanos was strangely overpowered without the Gauntlet and Captain Marvel's Deus Ex Machina appearance was cheap. It was, while no 10/10 amazing art piece (and of course it wasn't, it was never supposed to be), a seemingly solid blockbuster, with a huge, unstoppable marketing machine and legions of ravenous fans, hungry for more.
All movies, irregardless of whether they set out to do so or not, have something to say. It's the same of all art. As human beings, we absorb messages given to us by these art pieces, even if they were designed 'merely' as simple entertainment.
In the world we live in, we're eager to forfeit choice, and in doing so, we forfeit responsibility. I liked Infinity War because it taught the Avengers something. It taught not only the Avengers, but should have taught the audience as well - heroes can't win every time. It's impossible. The Avengers, irregardless of their status, have lost, and we as a world, and they too, had to live with that.
Endgame's message is cheap and rather disheartening. The Avengers, instead of trying to live with their mistakes, are portrayed as people who'd rather cling on to the past and to their past failures. Tony Stark is the only character in the film who has accepted what has happened and moved on. In real life, there's no opportunity to go back and correct one's mistakes - we have to live with them. There's no 'save, reload' function, no time travel button.
The Avengers, rather than showing their strengths as admirable heroes who'd press on despite their losses, try to reverse their mistake, and despite their best efforts, doom several other realities to chaos or even destruction. They are confident at the beginning of the movie, eager to win against Thanos, but when they find that their loss cannot be reversed, they can't accept it. For five years, they grieve - as does the world.
Where is the human spirit of endeavor? During history, people have always stood back up from tragedy and done their best to rebuild. That's what we do as human beings.
Avengers: Endgame presents a flawed philosophy - it's the mistakes in the past that matter, not the choices in the future. In choosing the past, we absolve our responsibility for the future, and damn... that's dangerous.