5 Best And 5 Worst Things In Avengers: Endgame

The blockbuster to beat all blockbusters is finally here. Avengers: Endgame is Marvel's love letter to its own Cinematic Universe, tying together all 21 films that came before it. So how did it do? From its early stumbles to its stirring finish, here are the five worst and five best things about Marvel's latest genre juggernaut. Warning: Massive spoilers ahead!

Infinity War is a tough act to follow, with all the Spider-Man-dissolving and whatnot. Half the life in the MCU was just snuffed out! So it's no surprise that Endgame starts on a hopeless note. But Infinity War's infamously brutal finish, unfortunately, makes the first 20 minutes or so of Endgame a bit of a slog. It's a glaring weak spot, especially for a film with such an epic runtime.

There's a gap between the Hawkeye-centered cold open and the title card, in particular, that feels stagnant, especially considering the thrill ride to come. Part of the reason for that is trailer fatigue; Marvel did a great job limiting promotional footage mainly to these early moments, but the downside to that is that the start of the film felt like watching the trailers and TV spots all over again, without enough fresh material mixed in to make it feel like the film had properly started.

There are a surprising number of moving moments in Endgame, especially considering it's arguably the biggest Hollywood blockbuster action spectacle ever conceived, with an epic battle scene centerpiece that felt like it was choreographed by a pack of bright 11-year-olds on a sugar binge.

There's Happy Hogan's tear-jerking hamburger funeral talk to Tony's daughter Morgan, for example, which also works on a meta level, since Happy actor Jon Favreau directed 2008's Iron Man, which kickstarted the MCU. The chat also hearkens back to all the hamburger talk in Iron Man.

But Happy's brief tender moment is just one tiny beat in Endgame that likely had moviegoers stifling sobs. There's the "sacrifice off" for the Soul Stone between Hawkeye and Black Widow, Tony's ultimate sacrifice, Peter Parker and "Mr. Stark" reuniting, Tony connecting with his father in 1970 — the list goes on and on.

While Endgame certainly feels better-paced overall than the occasionally sluggish Infinity War, the numbers don't lie. At just more than three hours long, you'll need to prepare accordingly, going easy on the soda and maybe even prepping your posterior with some Doctor Strange-style yoga.

As satisfying as it was to spend this long with our favorite MCU heroes, some of these gags could have been saved for the Blu-ray, or just left on the cutting room floor. There is certainly fat to be trimmed in the trip to New Asgard (in more ways than one!), or in the uneven journey to New Jersey back in 1970. The Howard and Tony scenes in this timey-wimey jaunt were effective, but this leg of the "Time Heist" overall was arguably the weakest.

Balancing the many moods of the MCU in one three hour thesis statement is no mean feat. But the Russo brothers managed to do just that in Endgame, skillfully blending the cool, the cosmic, the bombastic, and the slapsticky sides of this vast and daunting universe. It's also way funnier than you'd expect, considering the circumstances these heroes are in and how high the stakes are.

But there's also a healthy dose of refreshing silliness, most of it aimed at Thor, who's sporting a beer belly and getting compared to The Dude in The Big Lebowski by Tony Stark. Nevermind the Last Action Hero-style switcheroo that would be necessary here, since Lebowski star Jeff Bridges also played Iron Man villain Obadiah Stane.

It's a great gag at first to see the God of Thunder humbled in this way, compelled to shirk his highfalutin' Asgardian duties for more mortal endeavors, even if it overstays its welcome a bit. Speaking of which …

There are some tonally erratic moments in Endgame, with some emotional ping-ponging between post-apocalyptic hopelessness and cartoonishness. In other words: It's a comic book movie! But one moment that flat-out just doesn't work is when a tipsy Thor helps his buddy Korg navigate a session of Fortnite. A player named "noobmaster69" is giving Korg trouble, you see, since … Wait — what movie is this again?

Look: There's nothing wrong with Fortnite per se or including IRL pop culture in an MCU flick — and it'll age better than, say, the Bill Maher cameo in Iron Man 3 — but these are two great tastes that simply don't taste great together … at least not on film. The limited time Avengers/Fortnite crossover is a blast, but the product placement in the film was just too much.

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Worst: A slow start | 0:22
Best: It's surprisingly moving | 1:09
Worst: That runtime | 1:57
Best: MCU genre-blending done right | 2:37
Worst: Fortnite | 3:33
Best: Time-traveling down memory lane | 4:18
Worst: Fat Thor | 4:57
Best: The epic final battle | 5:49
Worst: It's over | 6:37
Best: Closure | 7:15