I only saw it twice in the theater, I have to admit, the second time seeing the most impactful moments they resonate even stronger. As some critics have noted, there is a lot going on, and that can take attention away from what is happening with a specific character. Throw in the element of time travel (messy for all sorts of reasons) and that’s a lot to chew on when developing a screenplay.
Let’s look at the bottom line for a moment: the goal of this movie for Disney and its shareholders was to make a profit. At the time I write this, it sets at $2.793B, currently number one worldwide all time (not adjusted for inflation). While critical reviews were not as high as some previous releases, by many key metrics Avengers: Endgame was an outstanding success. It closed out some plotlines developed over the course of ten years and 20+ movies, and sets the stage for the continued growth of the MCU (as long as the movies remain profitable).
Since the home video release is hitting in a couple of days, and so many people have already seen it anyway, I won’t dwell too much on the plot. Here is a prediction I made back in March 2019: the Avengers would track down Thanos, kill him but the Infinity Stones would be lost or destroyed, they would have to go back in time, they kill Thanos again, come back to present day and the movie ends with them wondering what to do with the stones to keep Earth from getting attacked again.
So I had a little bit going in the right direction there. Past Thanos dying puts a neat cap on the threat of him trying his scheme again in his future. Captain America, Black Widow, and Iron Man get satisfying farewells (Natasha does get short-shrifted compared to the other two). But it does leave the viewer with one burning question: what is up with Howard the Duck?
The last time we saw Howard he seemed to be hanging with the Ravagers in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. The implication is he came to Earth with them for the final Endgame battle — his very brief appearance seems to be to justify getting him to Earth for his upcoming animated series.
