an AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR musing
(Check out my predictions from before I saw the movie HERE! Not gonna say if any of them came true or not…)
- This was the big one. The is the movie that 18 movies in 10 years within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) have been leading up to, and AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR did not disappoint. Every character that appears in A:IW gets at least a little moment, an acknowledgement of their contributions to the MCU as a whole. But it all culminates in an extremely dense, thrilling and ballsy movie with not every nut and bolt tightened, but the massive machine works great anyways.
- There has been a wave of recent blockbuster movies that take lots of risks, going down a path you think it would never go down (see: STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI). INFINITY WAR continues that trend, and that’s all I’ll say about that.
- If you haven’t seen most of the solo movies before, they do a good job of doing a short recap of what’s happened to most of the characters. Since mostly everyone is meeting each other for the first time, more or less, they all get to learn about everyone else just as we do. There are a few leaps that some people, both familiar and unfamiliar with the movies, will have to do mental gymnastics with, and those emotional beats that they result in might not work as well.
- It’s not paced efficiently, since the whole movie felt like a freight train chugging at full speed. The few moments of quiet did feel nice, and were, thankfully, not undercut by jokes.
- Speaking of the jokes, they all felt pretty natural. In the face of death or at least dire circumstances, I notice I make jokes (in the latter part) to lighten the mood. I understand why there is a lot of humor in these movies. It’s just that THOR: RAGNAROK had joke after joke and didn’t let moments breathe.
- Thor and (most of) the Guardians are the MVPs. They get a lot to play around with.
- This movie has the potential to be EXTREMELY divisive. Like, LAST JEDI levels of divisive. There’s a lot of choices I can’t explain nor wrap my head around the first time seeing it, but I hope to catch more the next time I watch. (In two days!) Where this movie eventually leads will make people extremely angry, and I can’t help appreciate their willingness to take the universe in that direction.
It’s amazing to see that a studio that upended the Hollywood system (okay, maybe not completely changed it, but created a trend) begin with a relatively grounded IRON MAN in 2008 has taken their storytelling to these heights. AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR hinges on your personal affection for most of the heroes, and it can go a long way, in either the direction of hate or love.
FIRST REACTION RATING (4/24): PURCHASING FOR MY COLLECTION
(Being pretty cautious about this. It’s way too dense to fully comprehend, but something felt a bit off to me. I’m seeing it twice more on the 26th and 27th, then one last time on May 4, so check back to see how I feel after that…)
(Refer to my rating system HERE!)
