This was my second watch and, now the hype dust has settled, I think we can say this is an fairly average entry in the MCU.
There is no arguement that this movie contains some of the greatest moments in comic book movie history. Obviously, if you score it purely on “those moments” alone it’s a five star masterpiece. And to pull together such an enormous cast into one movie, without it being a total disaster is, again, worthy of so much praise.
But… the plot (hilariously) is straight out of an Ant-Man movie and makes next to no sense. And, like all Ant-Man movies, establishes “rules” and then just breaks them. The extent to which it tries to wring emotion out of the audience, during the first two acts, is tedious and becomes wearing. This is especially true considering how easily accessed this emotion is during key moments. No wonder my 9 year old was so bored.
However, you just can’t overlook “those moments”, and some of the character arcs, especially Thor and Stark, are very satisfying. There’s still plenty to like about this.
★★★½