This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Maxwell Linge’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
It's a long one..
Although Christopher Marcus and Stephen McFeely wrote themselves into a corner by having Thanos accomplish his objective in Infinity War, this, itself, is what makes the film's conclusion shocking and distressing. Considering what's been established in the prior films and Thanos' invulnerability with the possession of all of the stones time travel might have been the only option the screenwriters had when scripting Endgame. Thankfully, Endgame gets time travel right, for most part at least. As mentioned in the film I have come to realize the illogical nature of traveling back in time in one's own timeline as depicted in popular Hollywood movies and I'm glad to see that Endgame takes a more rational approach.
The stone-heist missions arguably forms the backbone of the story and these are largely functional. Humour is utilized effectively, the depth given to some characters are well done - Tony's meeting with his father, particularly - and the subplot involving Thanos discovery of team's plan is plausible. However, this part of the story is not without issues. The fight involving the two Caps is poorly captured due to frequent quick-cuts and thus preventing the sequences to breathe. Seeing that the fight comes at a point in the story that didn't have any action at all prior to it the short and poorly-filmed brawl is a disappointment and a missed opportunity. Natasha's sacrifice doesn't feel impactful relative to Gamora's death due to the character lacking a well-developed background and recycling the subplot from Infinity War. Furthermore, considering that Nebula most likely knew how Thanos obtained the Soul Stone on Vormir, her being silent about the the stone from the other members seems odd. It's possible that Nebula might have withheld the information on purpose but a plot surrounding this would have taken the story on an interesting direction. However, this would have thoroughly darkened the mood of the entire film and requires crucial elements to have been established prior to function. Nevertheless, Johansson and Renner are both great in this scene. Despite three different missions lack of set pieces and/or memorable drama in the second act causes its flow to drag, to some degree. Finally, although theories about Thanos replicating the Pym Particle in order to transport himself to the future have been proposed this plot development still feels like a plot-hole.
Similarly, the third act's army battle has moments of awe, elation, and poignancy and, unfortunately, frustrations as well. Cap wielding Mjolnir and the eye-popping fight that follows stands out. Despite the Russo brothers' largely mediocre live-action fight scenes in their films (except for the ones in Winter Soldier), they have managed to create some engaging and creative fight scenes borne out of CGI. Although this one is not quite as visceral and coherent as Cap and Winter Soldier vs Iron Man beatdown in Civil War. Secondly, Tony's relieved face upon seeing Peter and the subsequent embrace is touching. Although there aren't many scenes with these two characters sharing a scene in Civil War or Homecoming Peter's melancholic goodbye as he vanishes in the arms of Tony in Infinity War, Tony's motivation to undertake in the stone-heist mission being to bring back his protege, and this moment all help to paint a believable father-son relationship between the two. Lastly, the assembling of the Avengers and their allies is a delight. Sam's call-back of "On your left" to signal their arrival to Cap followed shortly by him looping to reveal the opening of several portals where through one of them Dr.Strange emerges with a poise and the camera slowly pans to the right as the Guardians step-up and Spider-Man swings onto the field and stands within a low-angle shot all to the backdrop Alan Silvestri's orchestral piece that slowly blends into the iconic Avengers theme is all excellently done. That being said, Thor and Co.'s iconic entry scene on the Wakandan battlefield in IW still stands above; Thor's well developed character arc might be the reason why. As for the flaws of this act, the entire mass battle and the conclusion in here are inferior to that in IW. Although both are similar in structure IW smartly executes and links the subplots within the larger battle in order to facilitate comprehension and appreciation of the sequences. In Endgame, while an objective of playing rugby with the gauntlet is there the smaller goals that comprise this larger mission are missing a sense of interconnectedness and a narrative flow. The spatial relations between various characters are very difficult to perceive as well. The Russo brothers should have sat down and analyzed Brad Bird's and Christopher McQuarrie's Mission Impossible films to get a sense of how to a produce an action spectacle. Furthermore, the decent direction that's present in the Cap-Thanos fight scene altogether disappears in the action segments that follow where lack of continuity and wide-shots, and rapid cuts, sadly, take over.
Finally, Tony's death is sincerely captured. If I had to nitpick, Banner's concerned look just prior to his snap and visible gamma-ray radiation damage would have quickly translated what just happened and thus effectively expressed the serious consequence of the snap by a human. Although Tony's motivation to defeat Thanos is well established Cap's and Thor's motivations have been just as thoroughly explored as well. Therefore, a final battle where the three take on Thanos while the other heroes deal with his army with the battle concluding in the snap and deaths of Thanos along with Cap, Iron Man, and Thor, I argue, might have been a better finale. This would have easily avoided the screenplay's absurd method of retiring Captain America and forcedness of Thor going on in an adventure with the Guardians.
Anyways, it's definitely been a fun ride and praise has to be given to Marvel Studios for successfully launching numerous films while keeping their eye on the larger narrative and planning accordingly so that crucial segments of these movies can be integrated in a logical manner to culminate in a two-parter. It's a monumental achievement.