Great Movie messed up a bit by the writers

Rating: 7/10 (1 May 2018)

My favourite MCU movies are The Winter Soldier, Ironman and even the first Avengers movie. I was hoping this one reaches or surpasses those, but I don't think this has. This is more like a bigger version of Ultron, much much bigger in scale. Might have enjoyed this much more as a teenager (I guess its mainly the teens who are the ones leaving 10/10 reviews), but now I need a superhero movie to deliver more than just the basic elements (great CGI, big scale, humour and good fight scenes - these things MCU usually gets right, and here they have outdone themselves yet again).
For me Superhero movies (like epic fantasy movies) need to explain the power of each individual - specially the limitations of power, the character flaws, and consistent application of these rules. Those are the things that make it interesting. Limitless power is boring. Which is why I am not a big fan of Superman or Captain Marvel, but I like Spiderman, Ironman and even Batman. In the current MCU universe, the powers and specially the limitations of some characters are not well defined - like Dr Strange, Scarlet Witch, Vision, and Antman. Some of the things they can do almost makes them all-powerful and you wonder why don't they use those powers to get out of every situation.
This is where this movie lets us down - that consistency and power definition is lacking.
Warning: Spoilers ahead
Firstly, the good stuff:
1. Opening scene & Hulk: Loved the opening scene, and the fact that the hulk is beatable too. Even better was the psychological impact of this beating as Banner is not able to summon the Hulk at will. This adds so much depth to the character.
2. Darker tone: Set up so well in the opening scene, it is good to see MCU taking a bit darker tone - superhero's can also die. That makes this universe more unpredictable and so much more interesting. Also the layers in characters - they really developed Thanos character well in this movie - showing his emotional side helped.
3. Captain America: Never one of my favourite superheros, I like how his personality is changing and growing with every movie. The treatment of his gradual change is so consistent, you can see a "perfect person" is slowing changing into a more real person. Maybe they should have given him a bigger role, but perhaps that will happen in the next movie.
4. MCU set up: I guess this is the best part for all MCU fans, how all 18 previous movies have logically been leading up to the storyline of this one. The consistency and scale of this set up (while not perfect) is quite mind blowing - 18 standalone stories covering into one.
The Bad:
1. The time stone: I hate that stone. Any power which can go back in time to change history usually ruins the story for me because most writers don't know how to handle it. Its usually a cop out for bad writers to escape from writing a good story. Lets just kill everyone to shock the audience, then just rewind it to solve the problem. Terrible ending, this rewinding time bit was the worst part of the movie.
2. Supernova: Thor can survive a blast from a freaking supernova, really? That whole scene was so ridiculous, treating the audience like 5 year olds. Maybe if he had died there to create the weapon for someone else, that may have redeemed that scene a bit.
3. Thanos and the power of stones: The power of the stones and their limitations are not very well defined. We don't see Thanos growing in power with the addition of every stone, infact he looks stronger in the first scene with just one stone than in most of the movie with 2-3 stones. Rewinding time apart, now with 6 stones he can kill 50% of the universe with a click of his fingers, but cannot stop Thor from burying his axe into his chest? Doesn't make sense. Might have made a better movie if they had let Scarlet witch destroy 1 stone, so that no one is all powerful.
4. Consistency of powers: Vision and Scarlet Witch should not need help from the likes of Black Widow and Falcon, just like a tank does not need help from an ant. I guess this is a problem because the limitations of powers of Vision and Scarlet Witch haven't been defined properly before. Maybe if they had previously shown that Vision cannot function well when he is injured or that Scarlet Witch isn't every effective when she is emotional, that scene could have made sense.
Overall a good movie for watching once. But the time rewind thing is easily the main problem with this movie. With the post credit scene, I guess they have set it up very nicely for the Captain Marvel movie, which will lead nicely into the 2nd part of this movie - MCU does that so well. Buy I am not looking forward to see an all powerful Captain Marvel taking on an all powerful Thanos, rewinding time to bring back the superheros as per the writers whims and fancies. Yawn.