So I've seen it 3 times, after seeing every other movie in compressed time. Needed to settle my emotions down after the first few watches. With some perspective, I can know clearly state why it doesn't crack my top five (Avengers, TWS, CW, BP, IW). And it's NOT even the time travel, which I can let ride. And you can't put EVERYTHING in 1 (or 2) movies, but....Hulk, Nat, and Bucky got raw deals.

1) Treatment of Hulk - Thanos made that nigga quit fighting and take up poetry. The conflict between Banner and Hulk in IW was worth a build up because we just KNEW he would get his comeuppance. What we got...was not that. How do you know the most epic battle scene without Hulk smashing? It was a discredit to everything he stood for. He had easily 2 of the best 5 lines/moments in the Avengers: 1) I'm always angry 2) Puny God.

He had more than enough motivation to lose his shit, and the gamma radiation that went through the gauntlet could have triggered psychotic world breaker rage. And at the end of the movie, when he sent Steve into the quantum realm, once it cut to old Steve, he was literally done from the movie, no ending, no finality, just thrown off like an extra.

2) Treatment of Natasha - I can understand why she died, but to make it seem like she HAD to was some bullshit. So because she couldn't bear children and had no traditional family unit, she had nothing to hold onto? FOH. Hawkeye could have easily and probably should have been the one to die. It would have been poetic if his family only knew him as he was, not what he became. They snap out, HE snapped, then he dies, and they're snapped back. Once they became Avengers, they all seemed to adhere to a code of not killing unless necessary in a fight. He broke that code. His death would have been "cleansing."
That notwithstanding, hers was the final selfless act in a series of them where she put the team and the goal ahead of herself: 1) turning Bruce into Hulk in Ultron 2)flying to London for Peggy's funeral, 3) signing the accords 4) helping Steve and Bucky. Didn't she deserve more than just a quick chat at the lake? Tony's memorial, with every major character from all the movies, gave her ZERO acknowledgement. Her character had earned a fuckload more than that, considering none of that happens without her sacrifice.

3) Treatment of Bucky - Son got a VIBRANIUM ARM and that shit stayed parked on the shelf. The most attention it got was when Rocket was eyeing it for a prize. How in two movies does dude do nothing but fucking shoot a gun?? It was literally a bright, shiny, object.



There were many high points in the film, and much that I enjoyed, but I could tell after my first viewing that this one left me feeling somewhat incomplete. These three points weren't exactly minor miscues. They were pretty glaring missteps with three major characters that other shit should have taken a back seat to. Truthfully, giving Hulk some retribution would have been the only real time devoted to storytelling.