entertaining and at times exhausting

Rating: 8/10 (17 August 2019)

This story-arc wrap-up starts with half the Avengers and world in general dead and no way to fix it. Only of course they figure out a way, because that was telegraphed in the last movie, and some of that goes right and some horribly wrong leading to, yet again, a massive battle.
The movie is generally speaking as entertaining as the last one, although it's attempt to use it's time-travel conceit to include every single character from every cinematic marvel universe movie ever made can be wearying, with characters I don't quite remember, characters appearing too briefly to make an impact, and a tremendous number of non-speaking cameos that serve no purpose except to let the audience say, "oh yeah, them."
The first half is pretty zippy, with lots of banter and some flat-out slapstick. But the movie also wants to delve into the self-sacrifice theme, so the movie drifts into increasing levels of sorrow.
The movie ends, obviously, with a vast battle, and while it's quite good, with some serious "wow" moments, it is the smaller, character-driven moments that truly stand out, like two superheroes battling each other to be the one to self-sacrifice. And while the post-battle weep-fest seems a bit long, the film does end with a particularly satisfying resolution to one superhero's arc.
Endgame gives you the solid, expected Avengers experience. Comedic, dramatic, special-effects driven, and overlong. It's well worth seeing even though ultimately it's nothing you haven't seen before.