Note: Given that the movie hasn’t been out for very long yet, I’ll keep the post spoiler free as much as possible.

So Avengers: Endgame has been out now for some weeks and it has certainly been a smash hit at the box office and has mostly positive ratings all around. Does it warrant the reception? In my opinion… yes and no. After all these years of MCU movies and buildup of the story, there was no way this movie was NOT going to be the success that it has become financially and (to many fans) emotionally.

But for me, this was not the end to this story arc / phase (whatever one wants to call it) that I would have wished for. Some of the characters are treated REALLY well, others aren’t so lucky and either get mostly shoved to the side in terms of what has been started in Infinity War, get played for laughs or generally get the short end of the stick in some form. The story was enjoyable while sitting in the cinema, but when the movie was over and the longer I thought about it all… the more problems popped up left and right (though the first “hang on” moment came pretty much near the end of the movie, during a certain scene). A certain character, that some people feared would get too much attention, thankfully hardly had any screen time (a few minutes over the whole 3 hour movie). But even what little was in there, I wasn’t a fan of. I knew the introduction of the character wouldn’t work too well for this late in the story-line…

In terms of the story, I didn’t put much thought into speculating what would happen after Infinity War… though to be fair, most of it I wouldn’t have predicted anyway. Certainly not that they’d use a random rat as an important plot device. Some things could have likely been removed to make place for things that were neglected (some of those “funny” scenes seemed really out of place), or maybe to shorten the runtime. But besides that, the MCU is left rather… broken by the events of this movie, I really wonder how they’ll continue on from this point forward. Don’t get me wrong, I got quite a bit of enjoyment out of it, but boy are there problems.

My desire to continue watching these movies has taken a noticeable dive, that’s for sure. I might watch some of the single-character focused movies (if another one for Dr. Strange is made for example) or the next Guardians of the Galaxy one… but I am not looking forward to other group-based movies. In any case, I can call this movie the end of the MCU for me and treat the movies I watch from here on out part of an alternate timeline and be happy with that. In retrospect, the MCU has given me a lot of entertainment, even with the lesser movies. Lots of great characters and well chosen actors for them, funny cameos (Excelsior, Stan Lee!) and so much more… it was a fun ride while it lasted!