Time Travel? Not another time travel gimmick.

Rating: 5/10 (6 May 2019)

Whenever a movie plot has to rely on time travel as a way to fix things, it usually means that the writers "painted themselves into a corner" and don't know how to get out of it. When done well such as in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (1986), the time travel gimmick can work wonders. In the original "Back to the Future" (1985) the time travel gimmick worked very well, but in subsequent versions of the "Back to the Future" franchise the time travel gimmick got old and hokey. In the latest, the fourth and final installment in the Avengers franchise "Endgame", we all saw it coming, time travel had to be the way to make things right in the universe again at least in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Like a couple of the other user reviews here, the more I thought about "Avengers: Endgame" Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, the more disappointed in the film I became. Last year's "Avengers: Infinity War" was the best. This film did not even come close. I am sorry. I really wanted to enjoy this movie enough to happily recommended it. It was the most highly anticipated film of the year. The first hour of the movie dragged so much that I felt it was unnecessary and added nothing to the film but made it an hour longer.
I have a question, why was Captain Marvel even in the film? If Tony Stark is to die at the end of the film, then he should have died in space at the beginning of the film. Just saying. There were many other directions the time travel plot could have gone that would have made this movie work better. There were many bothersome points in this film. Aside from Rocket who initially survived Thanos's finger snap the other Guardians of the Galaxy were irrelevant especially if Gamora at the end of the film was not the Gamora that had to give her life for the soul stone in "Infinity War". I guess we will see how this all turns out in the next Guardians of the Galaxy. I wonder if Yondu Udonta who died in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" will show up somewhere unless of course, he died before the finger snap in "Infinity War". I also wonder what happened to Dead Pool and the rest of the X-Men. Oh, I guess they are way on the other side of the MCU.
We all know, time travel or not, that the infinity stone that Dr. Strange had in his possession was the key to how the universe is saved. That stone, however, had to be retrieved to restore the universe back to the way it was. That is one of the many plot holes that the whole time travel gimmick left for us.
Now for the things I disagreed and agreed with. It was nice to get most of the Avengers back. However, I was not pleased with the loss of the Black Widow. Especially after investing a whole hour with her doing her best to hold things together. It seems to me that she would have made it back after Iron-man's finger snap that erased Thanos and his army from the universe. I don't even want to go into Steve Rogers going back in time to be with his beloved. I like the Tony and Pepper Potts had a child. It showed a softer side of Tony Stark. A beautiful daughter to carry on his legacy. And speaking of legacy it was nice to see Stan Lee's cameo once again.
If you have three hours to spare then go watch the whole movie. If you only have an hour and a half and if you time it right, you can watch the best that "Avengers: Endgame" has to offer. If you really want to see a good time travel movie, then watch H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" (1960) starring Rod Taylor, Alan Young, and Yvette Mimieux directed by George Pal. "The Time Machine" won an Oscar for photography.