Self-parody, but not funny nor original

Rating: 2/10 (3 July 2019)

The modern Marvel cinematic universe's excuse for "comedy" is a bunch of one-liner wisecracks that take on one of two forms: 1) camaraderie in the form of friendly jabs between characters, whether extant or to build up new friendships, or 2) to actually make fun of the movie itself. Functionally, the wisecracks are tacked on to make the movies take on a "lighter" feel to contrast the darker themes they sometimes tackle. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with this approach, except that executionally the lines just aren't that funny, too frequent, tryhard, and awkward, sometimes even going as far as to ruin a potentially epic moment by cheapening it beforehand or afterwards. Not to mention that this formula for "comedy" is carbon copied across almost all modern Marvel movies, so it gets tiresome quickly. Just because the filmmakers themselves point out how bad or cheesy a scene is does not somehow make it better. A self-parody without the humor therefore becomes a farce of a film.
Another problem modern Marvel movies face is that they rely on the viewer to have seen each and every movie that has ever come out in the entire franchise, else risk great confusion. This makes each movie not stand alone on its own merits, but only in relation to the other 40 or 50 behind them. Television would perhaps be an objectively better format for these kinds of long-winded many-charactered chapters, but the ticket sales keep coming in, so why fix what ain't broken? It is a challenge to even critique this film as it stands on its own, without also critiquing "modern Marvel movies" as a whole. Indeed nothing felt different or unique about this particular installment in the series, more of the same formula.
The biggest problem in this movie was simply its sheer number of characters, and once again most other modern Marvel movies share this problem too. The scope was so large that nothing seemed to have progressed whatsoever until the last 30 minutes of runtime. The first 2 hours took on too broad a scope as it slogged forward into a big confusing jumbled mess constantly hopping from character to character, almost rendering it pointless to even bother. Certainly it must have been challenging to incorporate every single character the franchise has ever seen, but was there really a pressing need to do so in the first place?
Robert Downey, Jr. had a surprisingly down-trodden role this time around, rather than his typical comic relief sharp-witted self. He can act in any capacity so there was nothing bad about the acting, but it also didn't leave much of an impression, nor stand out in any way. He was just kind of there. In fact, every character in the entire movie besides Thanos felt like they were "just there". No character really had a chance to shine or be themselves, instead melding into "one united Avengers" character. Perhaps this was intentional, as all needed to unite against Thanos to stop him, but it just went too far: every character's individuality was severely compromised, and the only truly indelible impression left on the viewer's psyche after watching this movie was Thanos, Thanos, Thanos.
The ending at least picked up a little bit and finally had a focus, even a bit of a shock. But it doesn't feel fully believable, as we all know deep down it's not permanent. After all, this is a fantastical universe with many excuses to undo it.
Lack of individuality permeated throughout: as a movie, in the action & choreography, in the directing style, the composition, cinematography, even the characters.