AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR
(Film/2018)
You know, it's crazy to think that these MCU movies only started ten years ago.
Ten years ago, I had just graduated high school and moved to another state. My first job was at a movie theater (a cheap seats theater) where Iron Man had just started playing. It feels like such a short time ago but there have been so many movies since then.
Nineteen.
Nineteen movies.
All of which have been leading us to this movie.
So has all of this paid off?
Bitch, it might have!
Infinity War is quite a ride. Its nearly 3 hours long, and I never once felt bored. The Russo Brothers (Winter Soldier, Civil War) have returned to direct this monster of a movie.
And For a movie that's juggling this many characters and plotlines, the pacing and editing should be nothing to scoff at. The Russo Bros did a fantastic job of weaving this all together, and not making it feel bogged down or slow. It could not have been an easy thing to do, and I commend them for it. Especially when you have movies like Justice League which is a such a clusterfuck and only focuses on a handful of characters and a simplistic plot.
The biggest boon Infinity War has going for it, is that they've had these past 19 films of carefully building and fleshing out these characters. So the movie doesnt need to waste time trying to cram in everyones motivations or backstories. If you're coming to see this film, youve likely been keeping up already.
Which means there's more time to build up its big bad, the Mad Titan Thanos. Who, up until this point, we've only seen in short snippets and what a few characters have said of him. The most being from the Guardians movies.
And holy wow, did I love Thanos.
This is hands down THE best villain the MCU has crafted.
They do such a good job building him up and making him a compelling antagonist. Right off the bat, they set up with how absurdly powerful he is just on his own right. And then compounding that with him receiving more and more infinity stones, you know exactly what's at stake.
His motivations are frightening in that he is devoutly of the belief that the universe has finite resources. And to save them all for the greater good, he wants all the stones so he can have the power to instantly wipe out half of all life everywhere. And the best part, is that he's fully aware of how terrible a price it is and what it will cost him, but hes willing to do it all because he believes its the right thing to do.
Josh Brolin does a fantastic job of portraying him. Hes compelling and even slightly sympathetic. He feels like a real person, and not just Big Bad Boss Bloke #342. It was refreshing.
The plot revolves around everyone trying to stop Thanos from acquiring the rest of the Infinity Stones. Rocks of immense power that will make anyone who gets then all the most powerful being in existance. With each stone representing Time, Space, Power, Mind, Reality, and Soul.
And Thanos starts off with two in hand and everyones in a mad race to prevent him from obtaining the rest.
Everyone returning puts on their usual great performances. I liked that the seperate teams are a little mix-matched so characters who might not usually hang out together get to play off of that. i.e. lots of clashing man egoes. (Looking at you, Stark, Strange, and Quill)
Altho, I feel a little conflicted about Thor's storyline.
It kinda felt like they ALIEN 3'd everything that happened in Ragnarok. But I did really like how emotionally affected he was afterwards, coming back with a bit of a grittier revenge edge after getting his arse kicked by Thanos in the beginning. It just kinda makes me feel weird about Ragnarok now I guess?
Also noteable is how hilarious Drax continues to be. The entire encounter with the Guardians and Thor was perfect.
I wanna say, For a movie based on a Galactic, or even universal, scale.. It feels suprisingly grounded.
Theres no giant floating cities. Or New York getting blasted while civvies run everywhere.
For the most part it focuses on just our heroes in their seperate locations. And their tasks at hand.
It doesn't feel so.. Obtuse. Ya know?
Everything looks great, too. All the locations and CGi look seemless the most part. Looking at the end credits, the animation department read like a dictionary. And I can see why. They went all out for this one.
If I have some faults.. Id say Thanos's henchmen the earthbased teams are dealing with are kind of bland.
They sort of look like a bunch of World of Warcraft characters.. And Thanos' herald looks like Darth Plageus the Wise. I'm not even kidding. But its okay if you dont know who that is. Its not a story the Jedi would tell. ;)
But theyre kind of just there to give the others something to fight while the other half are dealing with space stuff.
And then there's this sort of hammy bit where Dr Stranger's wizard mate is just sort of like.. "Alright. Good luck with the whole saving the universe thingy. Have fun storming the castle!" And peaces out of there. Like.. Homie, what the hell?
And theres something to be said for wiping out half the life of the universe when you could also use your stones to like.. I dunno. Create infinite resources?? Just saying. And as well as it does do with not feeling bogged down by all these characters, naturally some more than others won't get as much screen time as you might like. For instance, Bucky Barnes and his hot bad boy..everything.. Kinda just shows up for the big battle at the end.
But, It was so much fun seeing 10 years worth of superhero movies coming together for nearly 3 hours of spectacle.
Its got the Great action and humor youve come to expect from the MCU, and its also by far, the darkest movie yet.
That ending tho.
If you've been following these movies all this time, I think youll really enjoy it. :) I'm pretty excited to see where they go from this in part 2.
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR gets a,
"Super Pals and the McGuffin stones" / 10
#Avengers #InfinityWar #Review #Marvel #Disney #procrasticat
((P.S. : living for hot bearded Steve Rogers))