Stay tuned, because this is going to be a serious rant about Avengers: Infinity War. IW was one of those movies that set off my fatigue-o-meter, everything I saw spoke of a bloated mess which wouldn't have time to tell a decent story. From the trailers, I assumed it would be an effects-heavy hammer with no depth and no character.
I have to admit, in a lot of respects I was wrong.
So let's start with the good: Thor and Gamora have great character arcs and story moments within this story, and it's great to see Thanos finally in action with the Infinity Gauntlet, tearing down the Avengers. And I feel like you don't need a handle on all the characters to understand what's going on, since a lot of the Infinity Stones stuff is Cliff's Notes'd early on, and introduces Dr Strange and Spiderman in the process.
...Alright, that's all the good stuff. Now for the bad. From here on out, major spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War. You have been warned.
It feels like Markus and McFeely have, in writing the story, forgotten the powers of many of the characters. Thor rarely uses his lightning, Loki does not use his illusions, Heimdall is apparently caught unawares... the entire opening feels lazy and badly written, and gets rid of any pathos and interest in Thor's future. Thanos, even with the strength of the Power Stone, does not feel like he contains the strength of a literal Asgardian god, and is saved purely by the script needing some sort of plot, so Thor is not allowed to use his powers for [x] amount of time. Most every time Thanos could be in some sort of bind, he is saved by someone forgetting how they can use their powers. Another example: in an early scene, Dr Strange and Spiderman are fighting one of the Children of Thanos (the big one - I'll get to them too). The battle ends with Strange teleporting him somewhere cold, and cutting off his arm as he attempts to return through the portal. However, when attempting to separate Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet before he can retrieve the Time Stone, he doesn't... just cut off Thanos's arm? It has been established, in-universe, in this movie, in the first ten minutes, that Dr Strange can do this. But... he doesn't. Because we need to set up another Avengers movie, and the easiest way to shock-value that up is to have Thanos win.
Let's talk about Thanos. In fact, let's talk about his children: Marvel and their hardcore fans have been crying foul of the less involved moviegoers who ask "but how will I know who's who?". I've seen retweets and memes, You Want Your Context? It's Here, In These Eighteen Previous Films! Eeeexcept...
Except our main villains for the first half of the film, these mysterious Children of Thanos, have no build-up. No identity. They are generic villains attempting to break out into the realm of dragons, but they cannot get anywhere because they have no history, no weight within this universe. Marvel have been so preoccupied with building up their universe (and for what? No, no, save that for later...) that they have forgotten to build up their villains - Thanos gets, what, half a movie with Guardians of the Galaxy? And his Children (with the exception of Nova and Gamora) get nothing, except a bunch of articles on Here's All You Gotta Know About The Children of Thanos and some references to the comics of old. They get taken out systematically: the smart powerful one goes first. The others take their time, hanging around long after they have out-stayed their welcome just so they can lead the charge of the faceless mooks against Wakanda.
The mooks are a misstep too, a big battle for the sake of a big battle. It really highlights the awful excess of Infinity War, thousands of shapeless masses swarming into the field to fight hordes of movie extras because the writers think this is what movies must be now: "Big Massive Battle Goes In HERE". This was story by marketing, make it big because it's always big, turn it into spectacle because spectacle is what the people remember!
See, I think my problem with Infinity War is: I don't have a horse in this race. The big battle - when I watched it, I only saw the excesses.
Let's talk Tony. Tony Stark - in Iron Man he was a villain, when he launched a missile which levelled every cave in a mountain range, before promising a champagne crate for every million units the military buys. Nowadays, those missiles - those ones that made Tony Stark the bad guy, before his fall - they're the ones Warmachine uses to blow up half the army. Faceless mooks, firebombed with a weapon of the same intensity that once demonstrated pure, unadulterated evil.
This is what gets me. On both sides I see a capitalistic greed which boils over into cartoonish villainy - the "good guys" are stomping an army of aliens in an African nation which has only just made itself known to the world, meanwhile the "bad guys" are planning to kill half of the universe's population to stabilise consumption. These are the two sides - recklessly consume, until everything is gone, or kill half of everything so people can continue to recklessly consume. It's no wonder the movie gets praise for painting Thanos is a good light; either case is a capitalist's wet dream!
I look at Thanos, and I look at the Avengers, and I see no difference. And unless that's what it's leading up to - that perhaps with the exception of T'Challa and Thor, the Avengers are all irredeemable, and it's time to wipe the slate clean - I don't think I can be satisfied with the inevitable universal reset button that a sequel next year is going to produce.
Avengers: Infinity War is a spectacle made by marketers to sell to the public as a huge event, but what little depth is there is little more than shock value and surprise twists before the inevitable come-down of a sequel which just returns everything to normal.
In a lot of respects, I was wrong. Turns out Marvel did this movie way worse than I would ever have thought.
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