When I first heard about the ending, I indeed thought it was pretty ballsy, but then I thought about it for a bit, and then I thought, "This is bullshit." Sure, the movie thinks it is doing something cool by massacring half its cast, but to no end, since many of the casualties are slated to star in their own movies down the line, which necessitates their survival. The only way that the series can fulfill its extra-universe contractual obligations is through resurrecting at least some of the characters, which in and of itself is bullshit. All of these deaths (except maybe Vision's, but who cares) will be easily reversed come the sequel, which, at least for me, begs the question of why I should fucking bother with the movies if I know things are gonna turn out at least somewhat fine.
I always thought the Marvel movies had the recurring problem of long-term stakes (because you know they won't kill off the big names), but this is the final part of the whole Avengers saga - the whole point is that you can do whatever with these guys! That said, I know a bunch of the stars (Chris Evans among them) are gonna be done after Part 2, so I'm sure that at least some of them will be thrown under buses for dramatic effect, but Infinity War's ending felt very facile and safe to me, which is the farthest emotion from what it should make me feel.
As a side note, it's only too funny to see the people who overemphasized Black Panther's importance (for political reasons) have their sacred cow offhandedly killed here.
