#38: Avengers Infinity War

This is what happens when you're swept up in hype. You see movies you had no interest in until you watched an hour of a cam rip and was like "....Hm?"

Despite my enthusiasm for Black Panther, I'm not the world's biggest MCU fan.

I don't like about 80% of the cast.

Before last year, I hadn't seen one of these movies in theaters since the original Guardians in 2014.


A quick recap; Every movie I saw in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before Infinity War.

• Original Iron Man - loved it. Due for a rewatch, really.
• Second I don't remember.
• Third I really enjoy!
• Original Avengers I didn't like at all. Never saw Ultron.
• Winter Soldier - I saw it but I ... forgot I saw it.
• I don't remember Ant Man.
• Guardians of the Galaxy is my second favorite MCU film.
• While the sequel is my least favorite. Way to mess up a good thing with even more trite storytelling.
• Homecoming made my top ten of last year.
• Ragnarok ... let's just say, I was far more tired after watching that one hour and maybe fifty minute movie than I was watching this that clocked in at almost three hours.
• Black Panther is my favorite.

And Infinity War? It's what the fans want. And I acknowledge that I'm not really one of them - but I didn't find this movie totally unapproachable. 

Spoilers Follow 

As a standalone movie...this really isn't one. This is the culmination of 17 movies of spacey nonsense (I say 17 because did anything in Ant Man really impact this movie?)

It looked beautiful, Vortir (?) was a lovely planet, it really did feel like watching a comic book at points (except with some of the extreme shaky cam during fights but oh well).

This was my first exposure to....a lot of characters in this franchise. So some storylines (Scarlet Witch and Vision) had no impact on me. Falcon and Winter Soldier - some guys with guns - were just tagalongs to Captain America.

Doctor Strange was actually hilarious. 

My opinion of the few movies I have seen of this franchise - the best actor in these to me - is Karen Gillan as Nebula. She was, far and away, the best part of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. 

But here, she's second. Or third? Because the two people who take the A-Game here are Zoe Saldana as Gamora and Chris Hemsworth as Thor, both of whom have been serviceable in the, for lack of a better word for the former, solo movies.

Ragnarok was an improvement for the latter, though. I was about to say "I hope they team up in Avengers 4." until I remembered. 

After a brief meeting in the first...30 minutes, I suppose, their storylines only cross via Thanos. It's not really two different sides of the same coin though. I don't want to say anything more.

Something kind of confused me - only a few people, Scarlet Witch and Thor, give or take Strange, could actually do anything against Thanos head-on. Everyone else was just shooting a titan with guns...that was not going to work. 

"Did you want them to stand by and do nothing?"

No but c'mon. It all felt fruitless.

Speaking of Thanos; Great villain. Short-sighted methods at helping the universe, but great villain, and I'm assuming he got more setup in the after-credit scenes in those movies I didn't watch, otherwise it's very sad that it takes 2+ hours for this franchise to finally get a decent villain (outside of Killmonger and Vulture). I liked how fatherly he was, and his last scene with Gamora was probably my favorite.

I don't have a firm rating on this because I don't expect anything but mediocrity from the MCU, and the fact that this was not as bad as it could have been puts it at a solid, hey, fairly enjoyable for someone who doesn't really watch these things. Probably why I didn't feel anything when 90% of the cast turned to leaves. Besides the fact that most of them will return next year.

Though...I wonder why some people didn't? Is there an explanation for that? 

I'm not crying for the future of cinema like some over dramatic people out there (Hi, Salon)...mainly because there's plenty of room for a variety of movies - and these movies are part of moviegoing culture now, nothing you can do about it.

Look at my thoughts here - it interested a less-than-casual MCU fan enough to talk about it.