Clumsy Choices Spoil a Perfect Superhero Movie

Rating: 7/10 (26 April 2019)

I'm going to break this film into 3 parts.
Part 1 - 10/10
Part 2 - 7/10
Part 3 - 4/10
Part 1:
It starts off perfect - the scenes with Hawkeye, Nebula and Tony, and the twist with Thanos destroying the stones are all top notch.
The perfection continues as we jump ahead 5 years. The emotional weight of the snap is still felt in our characters, and you really get a sense of the dread and despair.
Then Tony discovers time travel in about 11 seconds.
Part 2:
We get to the meat of the film, and some odd choices are made. The first are the drastic changes in two characters: Thor and Hulk. They are now pure comic relief. I am not a particularly big fan of either of them, and I thought Thor's transformation into The Big Lebowski was very funny at times; but boy do I feel bad if you're fans of these characters.
The time travel scenes themselves are a mixed bag. Tony, Captain America and Ant Man stealing the Mind and Space stones is fantastic. Tony and Cap going back further in time, not so much. I know Tony has daddy issues - we dealt with this back in Iron Man 2 - and I know Cap likes the lady he knew for a few days back in the 40s. This is the bathroom break scene.
Hulk retrieves the Time Stone by making up an absurd promise he can't possibly know he'll keep. The entire Thor and Rocket scene could've been cut without losing anything except Cap getting the hammer later in the film I guess.
The Soul Stone scene with Black Widow's death didn't work for me. It's one thing if the person getting the stone has to sacrifice that which he loves. It's another if the thing you love makes the choice for you. It didn't work for me. Which is unfortunate because I like Black Widow and was disappointed to see her die.
Nebula (who might be my favorite character in this film) sets up the return of Thanos. Really liked how this was handled, even if it is a bit far fetched and doesn't make a ton of sense how Thanos got to the future.
Part 3:
Here's where the film gets sloppy and makes poor choices. Hulk snaps his fingers, Thanos arrives, and we get the cool action scene of our original 3 heroes vs Thanos. Cap becomes worthy and gets the hammer (and...can also summon lightening?), but still gets his ass kicked. All good stuff.
And then...
Sigh.
The "epic" ending to this film is the equivalent of an 11 year old dumping 3 bins of Marvel action figures onto the floor and playing with them for what seems like 9 hours. I didn't mind what some people lament as "fan service" up until this point, because we were focused on a few characters we really care about, that have been with us for about a decade.
So many characters do so many things that I stopped caring, when the previous fight between Captain America, Iron Man and Thor vs Thanos was so much better. Go back to that! But you know, instead they have to cram every single character into this scene - including Pepper Pots in an Iron Man suit. Captain "Cheat Codes" Marvel comes in and does her thing. Spiderman activates "instant kill." Dr. Strange stops a flood or something.
My mind starts wandering and I think "what is the point of the Space Stone if every wizard can open portals between worlds?" And "where were half these people in the last movie?" And "is Pepper in the Iron Man suit just so the scene with all the women looks more full, especially since they killed off the main one I care about?" And "why isn't anyone saying 'Hulk, wtf do you mean we have to return these stones?!?!?!'"
Tony's death is unfortunately so predictable and crammed into this mess that it doesn't register as strongly as it should. Intimate fight scenes, like in the end of Civil War or Black Panther, are always much better than massive battle scenes. At the least, you need to separate the two.
What should've happened is Tony and Cap decide to take the Gauntlet as far away as possible from the battle. Thor and Hulk try to hold off Thanos. Hulk succeeds in holding off Thanos long enough for them to escape, redeeming himself from his last fight with Thanos. But Thanos manages to catch up with Tony and Cap. They fight him, but Thanos is clearly too powerful. Realizing they can't beat Thanos, Cap puts on the Gauntlet and sacrifices himself (yes - Cap should've died, not Tony). This way, even if there is a still massive CGI fest for the kids, at least there's this more intimate battle between our main characters. That's why Infinity Wars worked so well IMO. You had the big battle in Wakanda, and the more intimate fight with Thanos.
The very end is pure schmaltz. I'm not sure what went on with Cap - if that's a contradiction to how time travel works, or for some reason he was beamed back outside the portal? Either way, didn't like it.
If they put the Stones back in the other universes, aren't there still no stones in theirs, meaning their universe is threatened by all the dark forces or whatever? I think I would've just screwed over those other universes, but that's me.
Wouldn't mind seeing a spinoff movie where Loki has the Space Stone.