I loved Endgame BUT...

Rating: 10/10 (5 May 2019)

First of all I gave this movie a 10 because I want to hype it a bit because it still should serve as a very good example for any superhero movie or blockbuster in general. But if I was honest with myself I would give it an 8.
Let me explain why and before we proceed here comes the necessary
SPOILER ALERT!!
So why did Endgame leave me with a bittersweet taste?
First, because I loved Infinity war very very much. What I loved then was the fact that the story wasn't the usual Manichean hero story with a fight between good and evil. I read the message of Infinity war as an understanding of morality being more subjective than absolute. And I believe that our concepts or ethics and morality in the modern society are often biased and uneducated because we refuse to see what lies beyond the scope of our little self-centered lives.
Wherever you root for Thanos or not, believes he is a horrendous monster or a misunderstood hero doesn't matter in the end. But I believe a story must be honest to its core and should be an opportunity to show us what we don't want to see. A truth that is not as radical as what our reason can bear.
And in that sense, Infinity war did a great job by giving an honest ending. Every character has lost the people they loved, even Thanos. But we had the sense that despite this horrible event, the future of the universe was still hopeful like Thanos predicted.
And that's where Endgame faulted primarily in my opinion. They depict the 5 years later on Earth like a depressed desolated world. And I strongly believed that this is an utterly dishonest and unrealistic version of what it would be. If 50% of the human race would be wiped out in the real world. Of course we would be shocked, traumatized. There would be grief, there would be despair. But whether you like it or not, it is something most people would be able to overcome. And especially after 5 years, humanity would definitely have been able to move on. A lot of people would have been able to support each other because many would share the same grief. Then some people would even have thrived and find opportunity in this chaotic situation turning things around and finding ways to make their country or their world great again. I'm sorry for being cynical but if some people would lose loved ones, some would likely also loose enemies or people who used to be a burden or a competition.
In the end, the survival instinct and/or pursuit of happiness are strong motivators and would definitely prevail at least for a lot of people or at least for enough people so that these ones start inspiring the others. And yeah I think 5 years is enough time to see the "benefits" of this massive shared drama.
So if Endgame had been honest with this context and had put its characters in a new prosperous world, we could have seen some heroes being even more conflicted. The avengers would have had a harder time moving on than anybody else because they lost. It was their role, their responsibility to protect mankind and they failed. But by seeing that the world is a happier place, that the other people moved on with their lives and that a lot of problems like climate change and such have recessed, it would be harder for them to act when they hear the eventuality of a solution to fix what happened. Like we see with Tony Stark, who has his family, his daughter and a happy quiet life.
I believe it was a missed opportunity to not use this extremely logic yet clever conflict between being human and being a hero and use it more throughout the story.
And also not completely demonizing Thanos who was a more layered and complex character in Infinity war.
But yeah especially for Iron man/Tony Stark, if we had seen him struggling more, being more in conflict of doing the hard choice, hesitating being a hero or being a dad, and if the consequences of Thanos's snap wasn't shown just as gloomy and dark but if there was actually a bit of silver lining to it, that maybe he wasn't completely wrong about the balancing of the universe, I think it would have been even more interesting.
I believe that the more human a hero is, the harder it is to act heroically for him, the more his heroic action will transcend.
For me Endgame succeeded at 60% to achieve the climax I was hoping which is why I had this bittersweet feeling at the end.
Still is a great movie. So I'm sure I will appreciate it more and more as I leave my expectations behind.
PS: There were some great performances from the cast especially when they were playing with non-big professional actors, like the girl playing Morgan or the kids asking for a selfie at the diner, or with the director Joe Russo at the meeting. It felt casual and natural in a very good way. That was brilliant.