The Marvel Soap Opera Love Boat Reunion

Rating: 5/10 (5 September 2019)

The Marvel franchise has deteriorated into a soap opera for boys. Since boys prefer sports soap operas no one expects this disaster train to keep chugging along much longer; unless, of course, they can switch the fan base to girls. Girls love soap operas. As a soap opera, it seems below average in acting and emotional involvement. The Sci-Fi in Marvel has always been weak, and what passes for science in the Avengers is just plain silly. It's really Fantasy.
The old players are dropping out as fast as they can and the new players are generic also-rans. One surprise was Thor, who was able to make the transition from unlikable to lovable. The rest are just showing up, like on a Loveboat Reunion episode. Antman is a decent actor but he's hopelessly unlikable. Hulk looks shockingly cartoon-like: badly scaled, textured and warped; it couldn't be more obvious that he was layered into the scenes. With today's technology, it's a real insult to people who actually paid to see this convoluted yawn to have to watch such shoddy CGI.
Audience suspension of disbelief is not necessary because the plot is so turgid and dull. My wife slept through it twice. She thought she might be able to make it through the second time, but alas she failed. It's just too boring. Even the paradoxes are uninspiring. I say this because everyone seemed to be saying that Endgame was a good movie. Doesn't anyone know what a good movie is anymore? Has the bar been lowered that much? You want recent Sci-Fi that grabs your mind and your heart? Watch Edge of Tomorrow (2014). That movie was everything this one wasn't. In Time (2011), Children of Men (2006), Fifth Element (1997), Chappie (2015), Bright (2017), Surrogates (2009), even the original Guardians of the Galaxy was better than this mess.
Kids are going to watch what kids like, but sometimes I'm not sure I believe them. There's too many shills out there, too many "grassroots" marketing posts. There's simply not enough to like in Avengers Endgame for it to be as popular as it apparently is. We don't need to be this desperate! As recent as 2017, Will Smith made a Fantasy drama that is great by anyone's standard. There's more to come; we are just in a low spot. Once this Marvel Comic-Con fashion fades things will brighten up again.