Avengers: Endgame First Reviews - 5 Key Reactions You Need To See
4. The Amount Of Fan-Service Is Through The Roof
"Things pay off that you don't even realise that they've been setting up... callbacks... things like that... if you are a huge MCU fan, I think this movie's gonna just wreck you." - Fandom Entertainment
"If you've invested years of your life [in]to the MCU like I have, this movie will feel like a fan letter to you. Kevin Feige and his team deserve so much praise for being able to pull off something of this magnitude. If you thought Infinity War was a game changer, just wait until you [see] Endgame." - Geeks Of Color
"The action is fun and energizing, particularly a climactic sequence that leans so heavily into fan service you have no choice but to throw up your hands and go along with it." - Slash Film
Looking back, Infinity War is quite light on fan-service. The movie's story is streamlined and propulsive as we follow Thanos through each Infinity Stone set-piece, with absolutely no screen time to spare. Red Skull cameo aside, there really weren't many notable "hey, look, it's that character you haven't seen in a while!" or "hey, remember this line of dialogue from a past movie?" kind of moments.
Endgame, on the other hand, is set to be a slower, more reflective experience - even just looking at the trailers, it looks like the characters will spend a lot of time contemplating their mistakes, regrets, and their superhero careers as a whole - so it's not really a surprise to hear that it has fan-service coming out of its ears.
Reviewers have mentioned this across the board, and it sounds like the third act is where a lot of this fan-service is contained. You definitely don't want to go for a pee break past the two-hour mark!