Cinematically, Endgame is everything an MCU fan could have hoped for! Plotwise, it chews slightly more than it can swallow. [+83%]

Rating: 8/10 (3 May 2019)

Having followed the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the last eleven years, Endgame proves to be an extremely satisfying conclusion to the current phase. The damage had been done in Infinity War (which I thought was superior from a storyline perspective) and it's up to the remaining Avengers to undo the catastrophe. The route that they take is pretty far-fetched (yes, there's a time-travel subplot involved; and that's not a spoiler!), but entertaining nonetheless. An attempt is made to retrieve each of the six Infinity Stones from different timelines thereby negating the destruction done by Thanos.
It takes a while before the Avengers assemble once again - Thor is chilling (and growing fat in the process) with his buddies in a make-believe Asgard; Stark is enjoying his family life; Banner is living a life as a Banner-Hulk mutation; Rogers, Natasha, Rocket, Danvers, Rhodey, and a few others are responsible for (low-key) taking care of unruly happenings around the world (and reporting them to base). But it's the return of two major characters (Barton and Lang) who were absent during the events of Infinity War that sets the story in motion once again. Once the team is reunited and their strategy is unfolded, Endgame gets super engaging.
I like how the Russos retained the Ragnarok vibe for Thor. He regrets his decision of not having aimed for Thanos' head when the had the chance to. In Endgame, he's got a beer belly, loves video-games (and an indoor life), and has grown a scraggly beard. He's still got a great sense of humor though. And what could have been an abomination of a character instead, turns out to be more-than-exciting. Stark, on the other hand, has settled down into a quiet countryside life with his wife Pepper and daughter Morgan. Cap is the only one among the lead trio who hasn't 'retired' officially and is still dispensing his Avenger duties in a less showy manner. The screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, in fact, provides emotional closure for almost all the lead characters that drove the MCU to its massive success in the last decade. That way, Endgame is an astounding success.
But, in the process, the film also reduces Thanos to a plain-vanilla bad guy as opposed to his reason-driven intentions in Infinity War. I believe there is no cinematic device that's more difficult to pull off than 'time-travel' and here too, it's got some issues. X-Men: Days of Future Past was one movie that managed to effectively work it out. In Endgame, everything is explained very briefly (while dissing Back To The Future and The Terminator movies) in a way that it needs to make sense only when the concept is in question and not throughout the entire film. Well, maybe it does. Every change made to the original timelines would, in fact, result in a divergent timeline and altered character choices and motivations.
With the humongous cast at their disposal, the Russos had to get things going rather quickly even with a 188-minute run-time. Also, the MCU has always been a character-driven franchise, and it did make sense to offer significant scenes to some of its earliest heroes. It's an enthralling journey, however you look at it, and it leaves the ardent MCU fan teary-eyed at the end of it all. The time-travel plot could have benefited from better detailing, but the Russos keep the proceedings fast-paced in the latter half so that the viewer doesn't go bonkers over the elucidation of alternate realities and timelines.
Thankfully, it focuses on closing the books of Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man more compared to the rest. As an MCU fan from 2008 (right from the first Iron Man flick), I feel that was what I'd expected, and I couldn't have asked for a better ending (at least, from an emotional standpoint).