Matthew Dawson

The MCU should have ended with Endgame. Instead, corporate big wigs with more money than senses, and a drawer full of green tinted shades decided to continue milking the MCU well beyond what should have been its expiration date. The MCU was always junk food, but it was higher quality junk food that didn't make you fat. Now, it's the kind of junk food that comes with a weird smell you know you should stay away from, but morbid curiosity keeps bringing you back for one more taste knowing full well the heartburn you're used to is still going to make you feel nauseous no matter how many times you've had it. Ryan Reynolds tries so hard to be hilarious, with one-liners, quips, banter, and an aura that people seem to just love. But he never asks if he IS funny. He just assumes since everyone laughs. I'd laugh too, but it's because I'm a polite person, and I'd rather have another feel good about themselves than tear down their whole world by saying "tone it down, bub." There are stakes in the plot, but they're drowned out with constant jokes; the vast majority of them being low quality toilet humor that not even 13 year old me would find entertaining. There are well shot action sequences, but they're full of characters no one cares about any longer; they had their time in the sun, and just like the MCU post Endgame, the milking machine needs to keep on sucking away. Like clockwork, there's a scene where the writers feel the need to show off the extra hard gym work that Hugh Jackman clearly dedicated himself to in order to look like that, so hats off to him. You know, perhaps the multiverse makes sense now. Perhaps Endgame was the end of the MCU and the multiverse is another timeline where nothing means anything, the entire franchise is played for laughs, Ryan uses every chance he has to fill a 2 hour movie with as many jokes as possible, and the once carefully plotted continuation of the MCU that began with Iron Man is now just an example of a bygone era where it's only about printing money. If the people keep buying tickets to each new low with the MCU name on it, then why would they ever try to course correct? At this point, I honestly don't think they can. There's a scene near the end where I was thinking maybe, just maybe they'll stick the landing and have the implications of what was about to happen actually mean something, but nope. The film ends with a nice little bow wrapped around it, showcasing that the MCU is terrified of having real lasting impact. It's junk food, and just like this bag of chips I'm eating, I know it's junk food but I keep coming back out of pure morbid curiosity. The days of Winter Soldier and The Avengers are done. I've accepted that, but I keep hoping eventually we'll get back there. I suppose that's just wishful thinking.