An ending... or a beginning?

Rating: 9/10 (30 April 2018)

Let's, for the sake of simplicity, divide it into theme-based and character-based points:
1- The movie starts out strong. Very strong, in fact, for a movie with a very important mission statement: To tie up all the previous Marvel Cinematic Universe movies (excluding F4 and X-Men) and deliver a fitting conclusion (or semi-conclusion?).
2- For a movie that has such a great number of heroes and heroines, the movie does a fairly good job of distributing screen time between each of them. Of course, some characters get a bigger share of screen time, but this is to be expected, of course, since those characters are the ones who have their own individual movies.
3- There are some great jokes in the movie which made me chuckle despite my best efforts not to do so, and also some misplaced ones which made me question if such a character would make such a joke in such a dire circumstance.
4- Despite the fact that the last half hour of the movie (if not more) is pure action, the dramatic elements in the movie are particularly strong and this somewhat means a deviation from the formula of Marvel's most recent movies.
5- The antagonist of the movie seems to have been crafted masterfully. The inner-workings of the character makes the villain almost "not-a-villain", who, in other similar movies, would only pursue a goal of domination only for the sake of it. The way Thanos's mind works is, to the best of my knowledge, in line with the comics, which makes the story even more relate-able, and the character believable.
6- The ending does deliver a huge blow to the audience (in so many aspects, if I may add so), and makes us wonder what may or will follow up after this particular block-buster. (Deadpool 2 doesn't count. Sorry.)
7- The post-credits scene is utterly meaningless, especially after such a huge ending, and does not leave us wanting.
8- Last, but not least, the music, the cgi, the multiple environments in the movie are all masterfully done, and it makes you wonder, what next?
All in all, this is a movie which would deservedly get a 9/10, not just from me, but from a whole lot of people out there. Still, in my humble opinion, Winter Soldier -as a story well told- is and will always be one level above this one. However, the themes and the stories of these two tend to occupy two different places in the space-time continuum, if I were to be completely honest.