"Infinity War" is here. Where do I begin? Well, for those who haven't seen any Marvel before, I'd start in 2008 with "Iron Man." 10 years ago, Marvel started this little journey. And, boy, it is a doozie. There's never been anything like it before. Sure, we caught a glimpse when Marvel created "Iron Man," "Iron Man 2," "Captain America: The First Avenger," "Thor" and "The Incredible Hulk" before having all those movies culminate in "Marvel's The Avengers." To this day, it's the second highest grossing Marvel film behind the record-smashing "Black Panther.
It was something to behold. Four separate series interwoven into a blockbuster hit? Unprecedented. Now, fast-forward six more years. It isn't just four series anymore. It's five series and five other standalone films coming together. The result? A frenzied, emotional all-out war over two and a half hours.
'Infinity War': the good stuff
There's a whole lot of good stuff in "Infinity War." It's a superhero movie, after all. What kind of superhero movie doesn't have good stuff? Even "Deadpool," despite its best efforts, has good stuff. Heroes band together to save the world from an unparalleled danger. I'm sure you've seen that before.
This one is different, though. It's not just unparalleled danger.
In the first Avengers movie, the danger was bad, but they had a team put together for these things, and they did it. That was nothing compared to Thanos, the titan bent on procuring all six Infinity Stones in order to balance the universe. And by balance the universe, he means to wipe out half of the population. "Too many mouths to feed" and "Not enough resources" he claims as his reasons for doing it.
Sure, if you ignore his murderous methods, the end goal for him is sorta understandable. From his point of view, he sees himself as the only one who understands that the universe has limits and that life will soon outgrow those limits. Of course, it's really quite difficult to ignore his murderous methods. That makes it really easy to hate Thanos and root hard for the Avengers ( & friends).
The point is that Thanos is more powerful than anything anyone has seen before. But that doesn't stop each and every hero from stepping up and fighting the good fight. It really begs the question: in a seemingly no-win scenario, is it worth it to fight?
The little bit of bad
There's quite less bad to go around than there is good, but is that really a problem? Yeah, the movie is crowded. There are 29 heroes that have starred in previous films, most of them being the feature character(s) in that film. How do you tie all those in without making the movie exceedingly long? Well, that is the conundrum. There are so many characters and storylines to tie together that it's very difficult to make it all work.
They deserve credit, however, because they do a pretty solid job. The problem is just the quantity, but its Marvel's grave that they dug for themselves. They knew what they were doing when "Iron Man" released 10 years ago. The movie's first 45 minutes to an hour are filled with tying up the storylines and getting the characters together. I'm sure you were wondering how the Guardians of the Galaxy were gonna end up meeting Earth's mightiest heroes, and they do a good job of making it work.
Here's the part that really gets me. There were plenty of rumors about who might die. I won't say who just yet, but I will say that it's one of the "bad" parts of the movie for me. You've spent multiple years, up to 10, getting to know some of these characters and relating to them.
It's like a TV show that kills off some characters after multiple seasons. It hurts. That's all I'll disclose on that for now, though.
'Infinity War' major spoilers
Let's get down to it, shall we? If you're reading this and you haven't seen it yet, please turn back. It's not too late. You can save yourself, but go watch it and then come back and finish reading.
Some parts of the movie really shocked me. For starters, Loki actually did something good, and there were no ulterior motives. In fact, he stuck to the good side. The sad part is, he died for it. Since Loki was introduced to fans, he's been back and forth between good and evil. Finally, he chose the good side, and now he's gone. Spoiler alert, Thanos is evil.
Heartlessly killing Loki and Heimdall in the movies first sequence cements that.
Additionally, since there were rumors that "Infinity War" was going to be split into two films, it seemed unlikely that Thanos would acquire all six Infinity Stones in this part. And even when he found three, it seemed unlikely he'd find four because two were safe on Earth, and the other, the Soul Stone had never been seen before and no one knew where it was. Unfortunately, Thanos found it, and gruesomely sacrificed the only thing he loved for it.
Wait, the evil Titan who is bent on destroying half the universe loves something? Weird. Why did they have Thanos have to sacrifice Gamora for the Stone? CGI tears for the big bad villain?
Why couldn't they just let us think he was entirely heartless and loved nothing and felt nothing?
Regardless, he got the fourth stone and the last two were with Dr. Strange and Vision, respectively. Dr. Strange, Spider-Man, Iron Man and a few Guardians were waiting for Thanos on his home planet and Vision was undergoing surgery to try and remove the stone and have it destroyed. Safe to assume he's not going to get both right?
Because of the rumors that multiple characters were going to die, I anxiously watched from the back row and waited for someone I love to die. I felt the tears coming as I watched what I assumed would be Tony Stark's last breath. "I hope they remember you," Thanos remarked.
Even though I thought I'd prepared for it, I wasn't ready. Then Dr. Strange traded his Infinity Stone to Thanos for Tony's life. Seems like a bad idea, right?
Back on Earth, there's a literal war (get it?) raging in Wakanda. Once Thanos has the other five stones he heads toward Earth. In order to stop him, they destroy the last stone and kill Vision. Only problem is, Dr. Strange just gave up the Time Stone. A quick snap of the fingers and we jump back in time and Thanos removes the last stone for himself. What followed could not have been predicted.
With the snap of his fingers, Thanos wipes out half the population, including some of the Avengers. [Major Spoiler Alert] Bucky Barnes, Falcon, Black Panther, Groot, Scarlet Witch, Star-Lord, Mantis, Drax, Dr.
Strange, Spider-Man, and even the original founder Nick Fury. What?!
If you've kept up, you know War Machine got paralyzed by Falcon in "Captain America: Civil War," but their friendship was rekindled. War Machine flew around trying to find him after he was vaporized in Thanos wake. Dr. Strange is the only reason that Tony is still alive, and he's gone, too. Star-Lord, better known as Peter Quill, gone too and he's part of the reason Thanos even won.
The most tragic one of all, however, was Spider-Man. Having no father or father figure, Tony was the closest thing he had. He falls into Tony as he starts disintegrating and pleads with Tony to help him. Alas, he cannot. The teenager who was never supposed to be there in the first place is gone.
None of this makes sense. Spider-Man was just getting started. Black Panther, too. The Guardians probably had more to do as well. Maybe this means that somehow they'll be back. It's this hope that keeps me from resenting Marvel too much. It leaves me feeling dead inside, with almost (key word is almost) no hope. We'll have to wait until next year to get our answers.
Conclusion
If you've watched all the other Marvel films, as I have, then you've been very anxious for this movie. We've been waiting 10 years for this, and we didn't even know it. Marvel knew it, though, and they utilize that. Sure, a good portion of the audience will be what we nerds call "casuals". That doesn't really work that well with this, though.
The buildup does a good job of bringing them together, but if you didn't know where those characters were and why they were there, you might be a little lost.
Marvel doesn't seem to care much about that, but that's ok. If you've never seen a Marvel movie and you end up in the theaters for it, you'll most likely leave wanting to figure it all out. Good news for you is that there are 18 movies out and ready for you to watch. You can use this as a springboard into all things Marvel, although I wouldn't recommend starting here.
As much as I tried to prepare myself for it, I couldn't. 10 years worth of movies climaxing in a huge movie; nothing can prepare you for that. As much negative I did find with the movie, the good outweighs it heavily, but I still face a conundrum.
I don't know whether to tell you to go see it because it's awesome or to warn people that they'll be left in shambles. It's a great movie and its premise is completely unprecedented. It could change the way we make and watch movies forever.
But for Marvel fans who've been immersed for years, it's a tough watch. In 15 years, when all is said and done, when our children are watching, they won't have to wait a year wondering how in the world they're going to fix this one. For now, we have to wait, and that's probably exactly what Marvel Studios wants.
