Not another Transformers movie!!!

Rating: 7/10 (25 April 2019)

I will approach the movie from a systemic approach: break it down to its very components, analyze it, and then put it back together and analyze it again; so that we can both see tree and the forest.
To begin with, I must start this review with a line from Infinity War which summarizes pretty much what happened on this movie: "Where is Gamora, [...] Who is Gamora?, [...] Why is Gamora?" which literally translates into: "Where are the Russo Bros.?, [...] Who are the Russo Bros.?, [...] Why are the Russo Bros.?" From then on, we can all see what happens here. But let me state some fundamental facts before I go even deeper and analyze this movie. Fact is: The Russo Bros. did not watch Inception, they did not watch Interstellar, they did not watch Back to the Future, a single X-Men movie, and for Christ's sake they did not even watch any of the Avengers, Thor, or the Ant-man... but oh boy, did they watch a lot of Transformers movies, this one feels like the Dark Side of the Moon.
I do not know if most people agree, but the movie was going to be already too long to have another army clash and now this time with all the heroes and now Thanos with all his big army! So, why this time not skip all that and just have a softer, not so loaded final battle where so much happens we movie viewers cannot appreciate a single moment? This is just an example not of "this is not broken, why fix it? But this is a rather: "They tried so hard this time, they failed catastrophically at it." Too much of the same... AGAIN? Come on... this is the Endgame, not a ---- WAR... P2 (Strike one).
The theoretical background. Pretty much in cinema, there are two accepted theories when it comes to time travel - let us set aside Interstellar for a moment because no student, master or doctor in physics no matter how smart or how experienced would ever figure that one out! The two say pretty much that either "You cannot alter the past because whatever alterations were done, they have already occurred" or the other "If you go back in time, be careful not to alter it much or else you can create an alternate reality; but by just traveling you just changed the events thereof." I pretty much expected the second option because it simply follows the logic of the X-men movies. Thus, I expected the same from this one and wow, it does try the first alternative knowing that it pretty much causes the second to occur! (Strike two).
Now, let us recap what happens on this movie relating to time travel. First mistake: Ant-man travelling back in time with Dr. Hulk's time machine. Dr. Hulk brings the Ant-man when he is an elderly, but as a child and as a teenager? I beg your pardon! How is that even possible? When did Dr. Hulk suit up the young Ant-man? Sorry, I did not catch that one! Second mistake: On the Ant-man and the Wasp, the old Wasp (Michelle Pfeiffer) stays in the quantum realm who looks like she stayed like 30 years or something and lived off from... eating a few electrons? That one aside, how come her time was so different than Ant-man's on this movie? Now, five years are five hours? I beg your pardon. Third mistake: Can anyone explain to me how Pim's particle works? Coz either Thanos synthetized like a billion tons of that thing in a few minutes, a few hours, or a few days and no one told us about, or he moved a gigantic machine that burns Gigawatts just to be turned on through time and space with just a tiny flask containing 10 ml of that thing!
Now, let us recap what happens on this movie relating to alternate realities. First mistake: Capt. America vs. Capt. America. How come Captain America does not remember fighting against himself? The Capt. America from the past thinks he is battling Loki. But the Capt. America from the future does not seem a bit surprised to realize that he indeed fought against himself. Second mistake: Now, we have a Loki, a few minutes after being defeated on Avengers one taking control once again of the Tesseract, flying away to God knows where in front of many security guards. Since the Tesseract is the space stone, how did the Avengers recapture him again and bring him back to Earth a few hours, probably minutes later after he escaped with the Tesseract? How? Did Dr. Strange bring him back nice and softly and fixed that time line with nobody noticing it?- This one clearly alters the past in a HUGE WAY, but apparently with no side-effects. Third mistake: Thanos from the past is now defeated in the future. Am I sorry, what? If the Thanos from the past is defeated in the future, so which Thanos from the past actually triggers the Infinity Stones?; and in the subconscious mind of a few and in the conscious mind of the very few like myself, this is where the plot completely falls apart (SPOILER ON Interstellar: I mean, we could justify for a moment from Interstellar that a few photons escaped the event horizon of Gargantua, which in theory DOES NOT EVER HAPPEN, and that the probe actually manages to send the data on the edge of the event horizon back to the ship and the ship back to Earth. So, how is the probe retrieved again? How doesn't Cooper get sucked into the black hole too?). So Fourth mistake: Capt. America now travels back in time to return the stones, he does, and successfully to our understanding; and also now manages to live with the love of his life happily ever after? Yet, the past was not changed... the past where he mourns her loss, where he hits on the Black Widow, the past where he is all alone, and at some point makes out with his beloved's niece should therefore be now all gone. Fifth mistake: Now Thor from the future has deprived now and forever the Thor from the past of the Mjölnir. Wow... that blew my mind away beyond the fact that Capt. America held it and Thanos did too!! I mean, the sacred hammer can be held by anyone who deserves it, those were the words of Odin. Capt. America may use it, OK, maybe he deserves it... but Thanos? The Mjölnir should have at least refused to act on his will. Now, is Thor Ragnarok a fantasy of Thor since he does not have the Mjölnir anymore? When did Odin order make a new hammer in time for the battle against Malekith? Why didn't Captain America return the Mjölnir back to the Thor in the past?
Now, let us recap what happens on this movie relating to the favorable outcome to the Avengers. The time line Dr. Strange predicts the Avengers' victory now does not make much sense, in particular remembering that he witnessed 14,000,605 possible outcomes and that he HAD THE TIME STONE in his possession. On Titan, the Avengers were about to defeat and indeed remove the gauntlet from Thanos' left arm, and why not, Dr. Strange or Ironman use it to vanish Thanos if either was going to die anyways, according to Dr. Strange. Yet, we see Star Lord loses it, Thanos breaks free, defeats them, and takes control of the time stone. Why did not Dr. Strange then warn Star Lord about Gamora's death? Why did he let that intentionally happen just to save an Iron man who was going to die anyways? (Strike three). Did he ever talk to Nick Fury about these events? Why are the time stone and the space vortex created by the sling rings so alike? Now, why does the time stone have that particular halo that no other stone has? Did he not curse the time stone as many people have assumed as the time stone possesses the halos of the sling rings? It now seems that even though Dr. Strange predicted that it was the only the way, to me it seemed the easy way, beyond the aforementioned inconsistencies.
The movie as a hole suffers from inconsistencies, and plot holes way too noticeable. First, how did Thanos destroy the infinity stones? How did the Avengers defeat him now so easily? Well, he did not have the infinity stones. But later on that movie see Thanos even much more powerful WITHOUT the infinity stones. I would have predicted a sure defeat of Thanos on the hands of Iron Man, Captain America and Thor, no need for the cavalry or Captain Marvel for that matter. Yet, not even a drop of blood, getting blows from the Iron Man who spilled his blood with a single kick, now facing Thor with an axe and Captain America with a hammer... Thanos should have been the one who needed rescue. Why was not Captain Marvel able to defeat him single handedly? She could have. Thanos was about to do the snap again, yet the infinity stones suddenly disappear from Iron man's gauntlet into another gauntlet, he uses them and dies! (Strike four, OUT). Why did not Dr. Strange take the time stone and save Iron Man at that moment? Why did he not take the gauntlet and activate it away from Iron Man?... Oh yeah, I GOT IT, OK?... IT WAS THE ONLY WAY!
A couple of questions we will never know the answer to. How did the Skull reach Vormir? How did he become the guardian of the soul stone? And why does the soul stone claim a soul in exchange?
Many reviews have talked about the slow pace of the movie. Yes, at the beginning it is very slow-paced, you get the feeling too much time is wasted in pointless. We then see the knot untie pretty fast. Then once the lost ones are brought back, it rushes into one final huge battle worthy of a transformers movie where you cannot see much less appreciate what is happening.
This is just poor plot writing because we see a very long introduction, which is not needed because we already know most of the characters. The knot of the movie feels very short. And since time is running short, we rush into a huge battle with 100,000 men on one side and probably the same on the other! There are plenty of movie reviews that cover this poor time management.

Where are the Russo Bros.? They are here to make the Avengers movies! Hurrah!
Who are the Russo Bros.? The ones who made Infinity War a blockbuster hit! Hurrah!
Why are the Russo Bros... the ones who ruined the Avengers franchise? Because in their effort to make Endgame the best, they flipped it and failed blatantly at it!