8/10
My third watch.
Historically my favorite film in the MCU. Unfortunately, I found it less fun this time around than I expected to (probably because I was anticipating this rewatch too much). And yet, by the end, it still hit me, leaving me sobbing, as the memories flooded back. Sitting in a theater, eyes wide with the astonishment of finding a blockbuster that felt like it was mine. Leaving with my friends to find a good place to have some sushi. (We did the same thing the next week - Guardians Vol. 2 followed by sushi.) Sitting around a campfire on a summer night, listening to the soundtrack, laughing and talking as we throw all those tedious freshman year assignments and packets into the flame. Now I'm a senior, and I don't talk to those friends very much anymore. I'll probably never see a few of them again. I don't think I'm quite ready for that (or, for that matter, any of the implications of graduation). This isn't to say that I can't or haven't talked to those friends, or that I don't love the friends I have now, but it was a very specific time and place, with people who impacted me in ways I'll never be able to thank them for. That's just the way time goes I guess. Friends drift apart, people change, things seem different, movies aren't quite what you remember them being. Even if that's true, though, it's refreshing to find your way back to those moments, to realize you can still feel those feelings, to watch a big, stupid action movie and find that it somehow makes you cry. It might not be perfect (it's over-the-top, clichéd, and stupid, plus the jokes don't always land) but, just like those memories and those friends, just like that sushi and that campfire, just like the tears, it's yours.