Originally posted on Twitter:

The first time I saw this, I thought it was pretentious nonsense. The 2nd time, I recognized the ambition and skill on display, but didn’t feel anything emotionally. Last night, it felt like the masterpiece everyone always claims it is.

Two things struck me about the film. First, while all the grand, ambitious, and epic moments are what it’s famous for (rightly so), the picture is remarkably good at the small, ordinary details too.

The suspense…

It’s tempting to accuse Avengers: Endgame of giving fans what they want. However, ignoring that it’s rare for viewers to wish for the same thing, it seems unlikely that Marvel supporters yearned for a picture that spent so much time on loss, had minimal action, and featured the exits of big stars. No, Endgame’s problem isn’t that it acquiesces to audiences, but that it walls itself off from scorn. This film frets about inspiring disappointment, dissatisfaction, and alienation, so it…

The more I think about it, the more it grows on me.

The entire film can be boiled down to one moment: when the old man wails so the monsters take him. He feels so hopeless and lost at the death of his loved one, that he shouts out his anguish, thus guaranteeing his demise. However, that's the entire point of the work. It's an examination of why we chose to form relationships and bring people into a cruel and…