Went last night. Great movie. Pacing suffered at certain points and I thought Infinity War was the better movie of the two, but Endgame was still a hell of a lot fun and well worth the price of admission. Don't think anyone will be disappointed.
Agreed. Not disappointed at all. I think they skillfully blended a buhzillion characters into the plot, but it did leave me hoping that there's a LOTR-esque extended edition coming that adds back about an hour. For example, the final climactic battle seemed to be missing a lot of action - something that will be starkly highlighted (get it?) when watch back-to-back with Infinity War, where the final battle going on simultaneously in Wakanda and on Titan was rich, intense and completely invested in all the protagonists. Endgame seemed more like, oh now we should show Spider-Man doing something because it's his turn. Also, Captain Marvel was massively under-used and seemed to just show up when needed, Deus ex Machina-style. I truly hope there's a whole bunch of good character stuff - and ball-stomping stuff - ready to be added back to an extended version.
[SPOILERS]
I thought the end of the arcs for Stark and Rogers were great. Stark goes out the hero and Rogers gets to have the life that was stolen from him. Of course, having made a very big deal out of how time travel movies completely fuck up the time paradox, Rogers goes and does exactly that. We already know that Peggy Carter went on to have a life - and a family - without Rogers, so him going back and inserting himself (if you know what I mean) into Carter's life, he completely pollutes that timeline; it ends the existence of Carter's daughter, who was pivotal in Winter Soldier which now, of course, can't happen. Oh, and they killed Thanos away from his previous timeline too, because he traveled forward from GotG 1 to the very end, where he gets dusted, so he cannot now go back and set all these things in motion. I get it, but don't shit all over the genre for screwing up the principles, and then mega-fuck the principles yourself.
I get that Stark and Rogers may have run their course, at least contractually, but they leave to very large character holes to fill. One character seemingly being groomed for that during Endgame was Black Widow, who then Gamora'd herself on Vormir and is gone forever. Even Professor Hulk couldn't bring her back with all six stones. It was very disappointing (not that I wanted to see Barton eat it either), but it also didn't make much sense because you could argue that Barton had already lost everything he loved, so Romanov might not rise to the level required by the Soul Stone; ditto Barton given Romanov's romance with Banner. It seemed more a contrived thing to act as a shock - i.e. everyone's in true peril because look who just died - and it's very weird considering that there's a Black Widow movie on the cards. Perhaps the worst part was how she was glossed over rather quickly and not given anywhere near the send off that Stark got. She's been in the MCU since the third movie (by release date, 4th chronologically), is a major character and, of course, an OG Avenger.
