Tom_Spangler said:
This is the payoff from 10 years and 18 movies of buildup.
Agreed, which is a pretty brave move in a short-attention-span world.
Overall I dug it a lot. I think the Russo brothers did a fine job of pivoting from features to a true ensemble film, which was a tough move given the fact that we're talking about super-folk here who naturally dominate their environments and the screen whenever they're on it. It was also particularly tricky given that it follows Black Panther so closely, which did a lot to really create the newest marvel superstar.
But I've got a major gripe. And it's not so much a major gripe with this movie in particular as it is with the general concept of these tentpole franchises and what they've done to the narrative. I mean, at the end of this movie, half the damn Avengers were erased from existence. But because this franchise is so heavily invested in continuing—hell, we know the release dates for a dozen more movies in the cycle already—those deaths carry little narrative weight because we know they're only temporary. Really the only deaths that carry major weight in this film were Loki's and Gamora's, although I don't see her staying dead for too many more pictures.
Ultimately this is one of the reason's that time travel films are so hard to pull off properly, and characters like Superman never really resonated with me: If you have a giant cosmic reset button you can deploy to erase huge, world-changing events, nothing really matters. With Superman, we constantly see that self-doubt is really his only enemy since he can basically punch his way out of any problem. At some point you just want to say "come on, Clark, get your crap together and help out already."
Look, I'll still be in a seat on opening night of IW2, but I know by the end of that movie that Peter(s), Bucky, Groot, Steven, T'Challa and the rest of the evapo-friends will be back in action after someone hits "reset." My guess is that Tony and Cap will not survive the next film, and that Tony's statement of "we don't trade a life for a life" will turn out to be somewhat flexible when an opportunity to sacrifice himself for his friends arrives.
Also, if beard Steve Rogers and Jason Momoa's Aquaman were ever in the same room together I think I would become man-pregnant. It's just not fair what those two get to look like when the rest of us are just languishing in our Crocs with BBQ sauce stains on our shirts. I'm pretty sure is BBQ sauce, anyway. It tastes like BBQ sauce.