ratcreature | Avengers: Endgame

I enjoyed a lot of it, but the ending they gave Steve didn't work for me, and didn't make much sense either (but then it's a story with time travel).

I liked the circumspect approach that they had to collect the gems from the past because Thanos had destroyed the infinity stones to prevent a straight forward undo button, that they tried first, and I could follow in so far that they had to put them back or timeline branches would happen once they went missing. But then I'm supposed to buy that after doing that, instead of going back to the present, Steve Rogers stays in the past for a quiet life with Peggy and manages not to change anything, so that as Old!Steve he can show up again in the main timeline we have been following along??

So he shows up for Peggy, who is involved in the (Proto-)SHIELD, and stands by while Hydra is infiltrating agencies and Bucky is tortured and used as the Winter Soldier, all while he enjoys a quiet retirement as the Thanos setup unfolds correctly? And somehow they managed to have some sort of life together while keeping the fact secret that Captain America has survived and returned? And completely changing Peggy's personal life won't significantly change the life of say Howard Stark or anyone else important?

Or are we to assume that the people who find Old!Steve now have different backstories, like say, that Bucky is suddenly not a Bucky who stayed the Winter Soldier for as long and assassinated Howard Stark?

Anyway, up to that point I could go with the plot, though I was a bit bummed about Natasha being the sacrifice for the soul stone (otoh, at Gamora now came back from that via time travel if not via the infinity stones), but that ending for Steve just made my head hurt.

I also did not quite follow how Tony got hold of the stones and they got switched from the gauntlet Thanos managed to grab back to Tony's hand. Could anyone explain to me, how that final bit of the battle worked?

However, aside from that final twist I enjoyed the movie quite a lot, and thought there were fun scenes for the characters, considering how many there were, and the way it referenced the previous movies worked for me. Like I enjoyed Steve encountering himself, and that elevator scene with Rumlow & Co. for example, or Thor with his mom.

I was a bit disappointed that they just put Carol out of the way for most of it, but then that wasn't surprising considering that she is quite overpowered, and I'm a bit sad over Tony's death, but thought that was quite a good ending for him, and at least he had five unerased years with his family before his heroic death.