Extremely sweet...but a bitter aftertaste

Rating: 1/10 (29 April 2019)

Wow! What a conclusion!
All these years of getting to know these characters, their struggles, the extreme conflicts, failures, and successes -- all concluded with a syrupy, tear-jerking, emotional roller coaster final episode. In this case, I immediately felt that sense of emotional satisfaction that many of the 10/10ers have given this movie. I would have probably have given it an 8/10 if someone was exit-polling the viewers. A day or two of reflection, however, have left a bitter aftertaste, and I realize that this entire Endgame story just doesn't work. Maybe the next movie, MCU will start that movie with a "just kidding..."
In afterthought, the storytelling in this movie feels like when I was in creative writing in school and got tired of writing, so created my conclusion really quickly just to be done and make my teacher and fellow students "feel good".
1. MCU took the last several years and hours of our lives investing in all these characters, their lives, and their pathos and washed it all down the drain with a simple, illogical, complete suspension of belief time travel "do-over" that didn't even stay consistent with its own rules. By doing this, they in effect wiped out all the events of all the movies that led up to this one, while still arguing that the present timeline was intact. In essence, IW never happened...also - Ant-man came back because of a rat running across a touch screen and accidentally hitting all the right buttons (why not use some intentionality with Ghost here or something more believable)? The most powerful being in the universe has better things to do with her time (Cap'n Marvel). Nick Fury has one appearance, when he was so integral to the Avengers coming together. Where was the complete repeal of the Sokovia Accords that created the dissension within the Avengers and the entire remnants of the earth asking the avengers for vengeance, instead of just walking around monuments to the missing? Where was the coming back of Hulk that was setup so brilliantly in IW?
2. Hulk - what happened? He was a complete non-entity when IW set up his "coming out" for this movie to be one of high expectation from IW as well as him being sent back to earth for that very reason.
3. Thor, while I could accept his depression and obesity, I expected him to regain his "godlike" qualities at some point, but instead he became just a pathetic human character at-best. And all the time spent in Ragnarok showing him to be the leader and king of the Asgardians and earning that right, to just give it up so easily? Really? What a waste watching Ragnarok was in hindsight, if that was the case.
4. Cap'n Marvel - defeating the one being in all the universe that has created trillions of sudden deaths is less important than helping those planets recover, even though the one responsible for the deaths is still alive; yet you have enough omnipresence that you happen to come in just at the right time to only do a minor work that keeps the action going and not having all the Avengers get killed? You can destroy a ship by flying through it, withstand, the entire power of Thanos without flinching or moving, and yet, you can't stay around and destroy him?
5. Scarlet Witch - Thanos, you're going to know who I am, yet all you do is throw a few rocks at him? You're way more powerful than that.
6. Hawkeye - whoever saw him as a main character whose pathos would be preeminent over Black Widow or anyone else? Have I even cared about Hawkeye as a main character at all to this point?
7. Cap'n America - so, you get your happy ending, but in essence, you change the timeline for all the movies that have been created up to Endgame, yet everything is still supposed to be legitimate in the present?
8. Nebula - you kill your earlier self, yet you stay alive in the present? Somehow your earlier self has all the memories of your later self (I'm still confused on how that was possible or even could happen), and that alters the timeline for Thanos, yet it doesn't affect the present, somehow?
I could go on and on, but I think I would have given this an 8 or even a 10 when leaving the theater, because Cap'n America and Stark's conclusions hit my emotions so strongly, as well as finally seeing the satisfying defeat of such a formidable dark force as Thanos and the impassive destruction he caused in IW. However, I hesitate to drop a 5 on it now, based on the incredulity of feeling like my entire intelligence was completely insulted. It's like MCU created this final episode and is comically laughing all the way to the bank with all the money and time we fans have spent investing in the franchise, as if to say..."you suckers..."