Avengers: Infinity War

[Missy]

 

[James D.]

Captain America fending off Thanos' grasp gives me an unnecessary level of hope that we get the goddamned amazing dialogue between them from the original Infinity Gauntlet story. 

[Missy]

Same here.

[Pan-dub]

#makeblackwidowgingeragain

[Donomark]

Mainly action with more touches of comedy. Still sold. Looks great

[S-T]

I noticed the trailer spoils the return of the crippled War Machine. I guess he got better.

Why would you put a huge spoiler in the trailer?

[Missy]

He has leg braces on, at least, he does in one of the publicity shots.

[dc20willsave]

Plus Cheadle's name was all over casting and on the poster so War Machine was a pretty likely assumption. It's not like the trailer is telling us The Soul Stone was his sled.

[JackFetch]

Cheadle talks about it here and it's a minor spoiler about how he has changed after the accident.

Spoiler

I like that he blames Vision and doesn't trust him anymore. 

 

[JackFetch]

Such a good movie. Thanos is a great villain that actually comes off believable instead of cheesy. I don't know if it's my favorite, but it's up there. I do have a couple of questions though, but I'll wait until more people have seen it to bring them up. 

[Missy]

As an experiment, I've created a spoiler thread for this movie. If you want to discuss it in full detail, please use that thread. Warning: Spoiler tags will not be used in that thread. Enter at your own peril.

This thread will remain for news and spoiler-free reactions.

[slothian]

It should be noted that if, like me, you use unread posts to scour the forums, the posts of the Avengers Spoilers thread WILL show up there.

[Missy]

Oh shit I am so sorry if I ruined anything for anyone! The thread has been deleted to reduce the damage.

[Molly]

Holy shit. More coherent thoughts later, but holy shit. 

[Donomark]

My thoughts have gradually been gathering, but I wanna say that at this point the criticisms from those who're generally "meh" about the movie really befuddle me. I'm hearing stuff about "There's no heart or gravitas" or "the characters never interact" or "the stakes weren't earned" and I'm like...what movie did you all watch?

I mean in terms of cons:

Spoiler

I don't like Spider-Man in these movies. I think I understand how the weight of his character IP overshadows everyone else (including Iron Man), so downplaying him as the kid sidekick implies a grander future as an adult, but for now let's bitch him out and essentially treat him like dirt...but that's not fun to watch. I like Tom Holland, but it's been three films now and I'm just not on board with this take on the character.

Similarly, I don't like how after Thor Ragnarok, Bruce Banner is a big joke. Mark Ruffalo really portrayed Banner's sense of pathos in the first two Avengers movies, but he's literally reduced to comedy relief all throughout this thing. And it's comedy relief that feels desperate and doesn't fit him, it's not organic to the character like the Guardians.

Finally, the Guardians. Generally they're funny and I like them, but it's almost as though they can't get through a scene without Gamora explaining the plot and carrying them through it. Because aside from her, every member of the team is a joke character. It's fine in doses, but I was so thankful as the film went on that the situation with Thanos forced Quill to be serious.

But those are all personal quibbles. I'm not sure what people are expecting from a part one for a finale, especially one with the magnitude that this one's trying to pull off that no other film series has in the same way. The first half of the film is generally set-up and exposition, but there are enough character bits in between that it stays a film about people we're familiar with. Like it or not, you can't say that the film doesn't have that. 

[Delete]

My  favorite thing in this movie, that's not a spoiler, is Dr Strange's cape's reaction to Spider-Man calling Aliens an old movie.

[Molly]

[Aaron Robinson]

That's pretty great.

[dc20willsave]

Spoiler

 

Meh.

It is, in essence, the Marvel comic book crossover event. It's Big, bombastic, you can even see, "In Thor #573 Infinity War Prelude..." Seriously, every set of scenes is set up like an issue of a comic as part of the big crossover and, up to a point, it works because it allows your cast of millions to have their own moments to shine.

Also, like any Marvel Crossover Event, it'll all be retconned by the next big event... err... movie. Seriously, the second they killed off Gamora, the movie fell apart for me because, literally, "Okay, so nothing from this point has any gravity" because anyone who died is going to be retconned at this point.

Then you got Thanos. I have made no secret of my dislike of the character. He is still a terrible villain. This ties into the Gamora death scene. I don't buy it. In a film where literally every character moment depends on what came before, we have little to tie into "Oh, Thanos loves her." I would have believed more, "Thanos sacrifices his chair" more.

So, yeah, Meh. Parts were good. Parts were bad. It's just... average.

 

 

[dc20willsave]

Spoiler

Also, now that I'm drunk, I am totally now more feeling this movie. It's all Dr. Strange's Plan and he can tell Tony, "Told you so!"

Also, Steve and Bucky are gonna make out when the gauntlet gets reconned out.

 

[Davedevil]

Spoiler

With Don on this Spider-Man. When he's great, he's possibly the best. But the foundation of his character in the MCU is flawed to me. I don't care for him being played as The Kid.

Visuals and action were very well-done, with some really menacing bits. Found the humor to be very distracting in this. Characters had some good stuff, but a lot of them also felt mechanical to me. I can't recall anybody in Cap's Avengers team having too many worthwhile moments, much as I liked that lineup. I feel they've lost the characterization that made the Guardians enjoyable in the first movie. Team Tony was snark overload. Thor, Rocket, and Groot's part was the most entertaining to me, personally. Thanos was pretty well-realized. Overall, mostly enjoyed it, but I doubt I'd want to watch it again soon.

 

[Dread]

Thanos sitting and bitterly enjoying his victory is one of the absolute finest final shots I've ever seen in a superhero film and is just so fucking nihilistic that I couldn't believe it. Both my kids were like "WHAT?" when the screen went black after that and I was cackling maniacally.

This film is entered in my list of Marvel movies that are good.

[CaptainAmerica2011]

I'm sure you have posted it, but care to share your list? I disagree with thinking most of them are bad, but strongly respect your opinion so I am curious.

[Dan]

Loved it, can't wait to see it again and drag Wendee to it.

One big question I had:

Where the hell is the Valkyrie (and, to some extent, Korg)? If she dies on the Asgardian ship, that sucks, but to not even mention her?

[James D.]

What an accomplishment. Not just a great movie--an accomplishment. I'll post more thoughts later, but I could see the blood, sweat, tears and heart that went into this culmination ten years of films. Just terrific.