A couple of things:
1. Cap's strategy was simply to stall Thanos' forces long enough for Shuri to get the Mind Stone out of Vision and Scarlet Witch to destroy it.
2. Not sure how you can call Wakanda a "forced set piece". They needed to be there to A. get Shuri's help and B. Have an army at their back to help protect Vision.
3. I would have liked to see BP taking on Black Dwarf, but there's only so much time in a movie before it becomes over stuffed.
1. Stalling isn't the strategy I'm referring to. I'm talking out on the battlefield. The only thing decided was when to let down the forcefield. Considering all the heroes out there on the battlefield I expected a lot more coordination and definitive plan of attack instead of basically a street fight. Even if the stone had been destroyed they still needed to repel the invaders.
2. While what you say is true - again what it's lacking is a tangible reason for BP risking the nation of Wakanda like that to begin with. Due to time constraints that element is paid lip service. That whole sequence needed more room to breath, but the focus was to press forward with a big action sequence.
While, in our definition, what Thanos felt toward Gamora wouldn't be called love in the conventional sense, it's probably the closest he has to the feeling which is clearly enough for the Soul Stone. Also, there were REPEATED references in the first GotG that she was Thanos favorite daughter.
But the audience generally speaking is conventional. I'm not sure people can relate to making the children they supposedly "love" battle to near death. The favorite daughter line happened once in GOTG and again it's lip service.
The point of the Accords was to separate the Avengers. There's always the possibility that if the Avengers had been united they could have been formulated a plan to defeat Thanos (for example, Vision and Wanda wouldn't need to sneak around and as such, Vision isn't ambushed and is able to be the powerhouse we all know he is in battle). Also, Cap doesn't have the full force of the US government behind him to repeal Thanos' invasion as well. Civil War weakened Earth's foremost protectors allowing for Thanos' eventual success.
The point of the Accords wasn't to split the Avengers. It was to put their power in check, it just so happened to indirectly splinter the team due to philosophical differences.
Again, we get one passing mentioned of it when Cap and squad return to the Avengers base. That's it. It had virtually no effect on the film. Ross quickly stood down when Steve confronted him. Before Tony and Steve could even speak, New York got invaded.
I agree on a surface level, but, like I said above, you only have so much time in a movie and this one was already jam packed. Plus, I think Thor's search for his people was set up on purpose for his fourth movie.
I haven't touched on the search for his people. There are most definitely areas of the film they could have trimmed to lengthen the Asgardian ship sequence.
From a "self contained" perspective it works fine. From the perspective having seen all the prior Thor films and then obviously Ragnarok, it feels cheap. We last saw him watching Thanos approaching then next suddenly others are slaughtered and one of the main Avengers on the doorstep of death. That's a major plot event in the MCU that's glossed over. I can't recall where in the MCU something like that would happen with such a major player.
I think that's called symmetry.
I think maybe you're referring to parallels, but again it gets diluted a bit after three different instances of it. Reminds of the Oprah meme "You get a .... she gets a .... everyone gets a ...!!!!"
The writers already discussed the Black Orders' power levels. They clearly made them "weaker" than the books because the heroes wouldn't stand a chance at their comics power levels. That said, they are all still powerful enough that it takes 2-3 Avengers to defeat them each. That's pretty darn powerful.
In a literal sense yes they took on multiple Avengers. The problem for me was watching them spar with Vision - who is head and shoulders above Cap/BW/Falcon and yet those three were able to stand up to them in 1-on-1 attacks. The Russos should have gone to greater lengths showing A: More teamwork and B: The Black Order getting weakened from scuffling with Vision/SW.
Appreciate it.
Again from an isolated perspective the film works, which is an amazing accomplishment given how many characters it had to tie together. I just felt because of its size, I was also forced to accept quite a bit of surface level exposition and I wasn't allowed to slow down to settle into the film.
