Avengers Infinity War (2018)Movies

[yas]

Spoiler

I'm also bothered that the Gauntlet seemed to be damaged when Thanos did his 50% thing.

From my gaming experience I'd expect such a powerful spell has a big cooldown.

 

[Famine]

From my gaming experience I'd expect such a powerful spell has a big cooldown.

Actually, I looked into this after I posted it and it looks like the directors said exactly that - the energy required in operation caused that.

Which might mean using it again is not that easy...

 

[SlipZtrEm]

One thing about the convenient power usage that I really did pick up on the second watch:

Spoiler

If Thanos can and does use the Space stone to portal all over the place... why does he place himself and Gamora way off in the distant desert when arriving on Vormir?! At least move to the base of the mountain or something.

I mean, can anyone answer why:

Spoiler

Scarlet Witch, granted her powers by Zemo's experimentation with the Space Stone, can hold back Thanos bearing five of the six stones including the Space Stone, when the Thanos with two stones was already described as the most powerful being in the universe? He should be exponentially more powerful with five, but tiny, griefy Russian girl has no problem keeping him at bay. Or throwing those giant spinny things off the Wakandan battlefield.

Spoiler

In Wanda's defence, that description of Thanos comes from Banner. He's only briefly met her, and has no idea how she's grown in the three years since. Though yeah, her being able to simultaneously hold back Thanos *and* destroy the stone was the issue I had with that scene. I recognize it's a moment of extreme stress and she has no known upper limit, but the scaling up of power seemed a little drastic, even by MCU standards.

But in just about all cases of power-level discussion, I feel like it can usually be hand-waved away with Thanos' inherent self-doubt. Loki even points it out to him ("you will never be a god"). I'm fine with that, though that's a comic book aspect that isn't overtly referenced in the movie. The Russos would do well to touch on it more in the next one.

Actually, I looked into this after I posted it and it looks like the directors said exactly that - the energy required in operation caused that.

Which might mean using it again is not that easy...

Spoiler

Good thing Eitri's still alive, then!

 

[Famine]

Spoiler

If Thanos can and does use the Space stone to portal all over the place... why does he place himself and Gamora way off in the distant desert when arriving on Vormir?! At least move to the base of the mountain or something.

You know, I thought that too, but we're just gilding the lily at that point

I was intrigued by his magical return there, and how he seemed a bit disoriented by it but there was no introspection as he'd got what he wanted/was grieving still.

 

[Joey D]

So my wife had me watch this. I've never seen any of the other Avengers movies and typically think every Marvel movie is downright awful (especially Thor and it's half-assed attempt at Norse mythology).

Spoiler

So now that virtually everyone is dead, how are they going to turn out a million more movies for the sake of making an obscene amount of money? Time machine? Alternate reality? Prequels? Just ignore everything?

I don't know much about the Marvel universe so I'm not really sure how it all works. I'm just looking at it from a business side of things because the movie made it seem like Disney hate money and wants to nuke the franchise.

 

[Mr P]

I agree with most of the comments that there were lots of inconsistencies when it came to Thanos's size v Hulk v Thor v anyone basically... I just simply turn a blind eye and forgive all those errors based on the way the movie was actually delivered to us and the natural gritiness of Josh Brolin's portrayal of this super baddie that worked so well

For me It was great cinema even with the small mistakes and I haven't enjoyed a comic movie so much since the Dark Knight blew my mind 10 years ago (the baddie stole the show in that too ) and that's arguably as high as the bar gets bringing comics to life, can't wait for Avengers 4

 

[Spurgy 777]

So my wife had me watch this. I've never seen any of the other Avengers movies and typically think every Marvel movie is downright awful (especially Thor and it's half-assed attempt at Norse mythology).

Spoiler

So now that virtually everyone is dead, how are they going to turn out a million more movies for the sake of making an obscene amount of money? Time machine? Alternate reality? Prequels? Just ignore everything?

I don't know much about the Marvel universe so I'm not really sure how it all works. I'm just looking at it from a business side of things because the movie made it seem like Disney hate money and wants to nuke the franchise.

Spoiler

You'll have to wait for next year because there's loads of ways they could go about it. Chances are they will bring back the dead half of the universe in the next movie, no real way they can keep them dead, but my guess is that not all the people currently dead will be brought back (maybe just the ones who died in the finger click) and that some of the characters still alive will have to die in the process of getting them back. Generally in the comics characters are never permanently dead and can usually be brought back one way or another, either through reviving the same character or having another character take their role, so it's safe to assume that the same things will happen in the MCU to keep the characters going one way or another.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

No idea what you're responding to, but if it's me, you might want to reread what I said about conveniently (or selectively) using their powers.

However, on the fodder front, I've seen all of the MCU films, all of the DCEU films (which suck a LOT harder), all of the previous non-MCU Marvel films (including all three Fantastic Four films; the second one isn't as bad as everyone says), Spawn and Howard the Duck. Generally speaking, the only collateral damage is to property, or credited roles, and everyone else miraculously survives - or the superheros save them. Or Christopher Reeve gets upset and reverses time.

Avengers Assemble is, I think, the first one I saw which folded the disaster movie narrative into the superhero one, where lots and lots of regular folk die but the heroes save as many as they can. I'm not sure they explicitly stated it in the film itself, but in several of the attached TV series and films there are mentions of people who died in The Incident.

However, the other Avengers films are not like that at all. They're so much not like that I'm actually struggling to remember a single bystander (non henchman, lead villain, lead superhero, member of villain/superhero family) that is killed in MCU at all, outside of AA/AOU and Civil War. In fact Civil War directly deals with what happens when one character accidentally wipes out a few innocent people when she's using her powers to protect the other Avengers.

Not everything is about you.

I recall quite a lot of people dying in the Dark Knight Trilogy, X-men films, Man of Steel, and all this before or at the same time of Avengers. In fact it was pretty obvious why MCU film makers did this more than other non Marvel superhero movies, it was for a purpose. In all the other movies it was just collateral damage, but not MCU. The MCU made a narrative out of it, which set the tone more so during Ultron and from then on. Though as you hint at, it is interesting that Spider Man Homecoming does a good job of avoiding what you take issue with, so that must of been an epic movie.

Iron Man and Hulk did have plenty of people die collaterally. Can't recall if IM2 did, IM3 had bystander deaths. Winter Solider as well, it was even used as a talking point in Civil War. Thor didn't necessarily have people dying but it did have plenty of collateral damage, and that set the tone for Avengers.

 

[Jawehawk]

Saw it last night, and my fears held true. Too many characters resulted in a mess of a movie.

Spoiler

Thanos's changing size aside, his character itself was very inconsistent and shallow. On the one hand, they want to depict him as not being evil, but rather as a misunderstood savior, driven by a (moronic) idea that killing one half will save the other. Except those cases where he is outright evil, like when he for no reason in particular murders all but one of the dwarves at the weapon making star facility. his love for his half daughter was contrived as hell. The writers and actors need to convince the audience that it's real. Simply saying that it is, is not enough. Of course that is difficult when you can't possible dedicate the necessary screen time to anyone because your movies features entirely too many characters...

Then there's the problem of characters like Thanos, although this goes for Scarlett Witch, Doctor Strange and Vision too, being far too overpowered. When they struggle, it's always a result of them being stupid, and not using certain abilities that we, the audience, know they have. Why doesn't Doctor Strange use his most powerful magic, the ability to manipulate time? Why does he keep the others and the audience in the dark about that one outcome where the good guys apparently win? Why does Thanos even allow people to hit him, when he can just distort reality and make all their attacks futile? Also, if Doctor Strange and the gang wanted to get back to earth from the spaceship, why not just open a damn portal and go back!

On a sidenote, it sure was convenient that this alien ship, and the planet they arrived at, has an atmosphere that allow for humans to breath and function without any kind of life support gear. What are the odds...

The entire Thor subplot feels unnecessary. It really adds nothing to the movie (except admittedly some of the funniest dialogue)

Then you have the ending where a bunch of people die. Frankly, I can't even remember who died and who survived. I've seen all of the Marvel movies except Guardians 2, and I like a lot of the characters, yet I didn't give a damn about them in this movie. There was so absurdly little time devoted to them and to their interaction with one another, that they didn't even really seem like the characters from earlier movies. The movie relies too much on the older movies for context, to the extend that it completely fails to do anything to make the viewers care for and engage with the characters.

And holy crap am I tired of watching large scale boring CGI fights. There's no soul to it. No interesting chorography, no stakes, no interesting antagonists. I enjoyed the earlier Avengers movies largely because of the character interactions, with some of the action scenes being pretty good. But whenever the final act comes about, excluding Civil War, it just becomes a boring CGI fest of watching the heroes easily dispatch thousands of emotionless no name CGI enemies. I've come to a point where CGI very rarely impresses me because it always looks more or less the same.


So what did I like? I actually liked that the heroes lost. I liked that there were actual consequences, although it's unlikely to last. It's too bad then, that I didn't give a rats ass about their deaths when it happened, because the movie itself was just a mindless boring CGI fest with zero genuine emotion and near zero character and story development. Given how much I've disliked the last three Marvelverse movies that I've seen (Thor Ragnerok, Black Panther and Infinity War), I think it might be time for me to shelve the franchise.

 

[05XR8]

Even though Feige(Fiege?) and the Russo's changed bits from the comics, Comics always kill off characters and bring them back. This isn't like G. I. Joe(the TV series) where noone gets killed.

They've told a story from Hulk till now. And it's still going. Well see how it all plays out.

As for Wanda, she and Quicksilver are Magnneto's children. How they've dealt with it was fine. Her powers in the comics, allowed her to alter reality(in Age of Ultron, that was baby stuff to what she can do). That's how powerful she is. So, her doing what she did in the movie, is on the level of her Marvel Comic abilities.

I don't mind anyone's bad or good or indifferent feelings about the movie. It entertained me. Just as have some of these posts.
.

 

[sems4arsenal]

I'm annoyed no one mentioned the lack of GOTG theme. C'mon Russos

 

[UKMikey]

I'm annoyed no one mentioned the lack of GOTG theme. C'mon Russos

I'm struggling to think of a good place they could have slotted it in given that it only tends to play in their movies during triumphant scenes in which they're winning or making a difference.

 

[05XR8]

Each time I watch the movie, I feel they could have used Nathan Jones as Thanos

 

[PocketZeven]

Each time I watch the movie, I feel they could have used Nathan Jones as Thanos

I believe the casting was perfect. The voice acting was more important in this role and Nathan jones isnt known for his acting talent. But here is one I would think is perfect for Colossus:

He makes the current world strongest man "the Mountain" from GOT look like a regular sized guy. As reference nathan jones is 211 cm. The dutch giant is 218 cm.

 

[05XR8]

I believe the casting was perfect. The voice acting was more important in this role and Nathan jones isnt known for his acting talent. But here is one I would think is perfect for Colossus:

He makes the current world strongest man "the Mountain" from GOT look like a regular sized guy. As reference nathan jones is 211 cm. The dutch giant is 218 cm.

I tell you, either one, would have been a better Apocalypse.

 

[PocketZeven]

I tell you, either one, would have been a better Apocalypse.

That really ruined the movie for me! Also that psylock costume didnt do olivia munn justice. It was perhaps a little too much like the comic. Did they use a different costume designer for first class (great costumes and especially Magneto helmet!) and apocalypse?

 

[TheNorfolkDad]

Don’t get me started on Xmen: Apocalypse, Just when I thought the new xmen movies were in a good place they released that shower of ****, hopefully the new Disney deal finally gets a decent trilogy out of them

 

[Danoff]

I'm late to the party here (since this thread is over a year from the last post). I feel like it's stupid to even put this in spoilers, but I will anyway. Here is my biggest takeaway from the movie:

Spoiler

Thanos makes no sense. Zero. None.

We're repeatedly shown scenes where amazing super-futuristic technology is used to bend physics and traverse the cosmos and we're supposed to believe that feeding people is a problem? Feeding people? That's unbelievably easy. Especially when you have magic stones that can break reality. And we're supposed to think that reducing the population of the universe by half... the universe... which is... universe sized... with universe amounts of mass.... reducing it's population by half is somehow going to solve the feeding people problem? What the hell?

News flash, the population of the universe is going to double again in less than 50 years. What then?

The scenes where Thanos is immobilized and they're trying to remove the glove was painful. I'm supposed to believe that these people cannot do anything to kill him? We're led to believe that he can be stabbed in the neck and die, but iron man, star lord, dr. strange... and all the rest of them cannot harm him when he's immobilized. That makes approximately zero sense, and if it's true needed way more motivation. Dr. Strange just needs to open a portal, stick thanos's hand in it, and chop off his arm. Done.

But the notion that they could imobilize someone who had that degree of control over reality itself is preposterous. As has been pointed out in this thread already, Thanos barely used his powers. It's as though Thanos was really just interested in making sure that the movie was entertaining, so that you could see your heroes struggle and fight in cool ways and blow things up, even though they had no chance. Because if he'd really used his glove, it's over before it starts and there's nothing anyone can do about it. There's no fight, there are no plans, he just wins. That's how powerful they made him.

Also, Groot dying makes zero sense. I'm pretty sure he doesn't even eat. Thanos must have had some kind of anti-humanoid bent, because I doubt half the trees (not shown), and half the bacteria were also eliminated. But Groot? Groot is a friggin tree. He's not an extra "mouth to feed". Nonsense for him/it to die. Also he had the best line in the movie.

Overall, I found the movie to be only slightly entertaining, but mostly annoying. Props to the GotG crew for making me laugh, and for working game of thrones (complete with the ringed star!) into the movie. That's one ambitious crossover!

I have not watched End Game yet.

 

[DesertPenguin]

Comic books man... comic books...

 

[Danoff]

Comic books man... comic books...

Giant blockbuster movies with 300 million dollar budgets. They can afford writers.

 

[DesertPenguin]

What I'm getting at is that it's a comic book story that they're using. They're not gonna change the core parts that much. It's also a comic book that came out in 1992. It's not gonna hold up that well under the scrutiny of a big budget movie version. It's gonna be silly. Because it's just comic books. I agree, the writing leaves a lot to be desired, but most comic book movies do and I can't be too critical of that anymore. When I was I wasn't enjoying myself. These movies are meant to be seen with your head in the clouds just enjoying the action.

 

[Danoff]

What I'm getting at is that it's a comic book story that they're using. They're not gonna change the core parts that much. It's also a comic book that came out in 1992. It's not gonna hold up that well under the scrutiny of a big budget movie version. It's gonna be silly. Because it's just comic books. I agree, the writing leaves a lot to be desired, but most comic book movies do and I can't be too critical of that anymore. When I was I wasn't enjoying myself. These movies are meant to be seen with your head in the clouds just enjoying the action.

They diverge from the comic books when they feel like it. Thanos could be better motivated. Don't get me wrong, I like that he has motivation (as opposed to the usual badguy nonsense), but it's not strong.

Interestingly, apparently that (diverging from the comics) is exactly what they did in IW with Thanos's motivation. They felt that the comic book motivation was too far flung, and changed it to what's in Infinity War. In otherwords, this isn't something they were saddled with, or that comes from 1992. This is their update.

It's junk.

 

[DesertPenguin]

They did change it a bit but the core idea of Thanos removing half of the universe was always there, if I recall correctly. If I'm wrong then my bad. You might as well watch Endgame just to see the finish but you know exactly where it's gonna go.

 

[Danoff]

They did change it a bit but the core idea of Thanos removing half of the universe was always there, if I recall correctly. If I'm wrong then my bad. You might as well watch Endgame just to see the finish but you know exactly where it's gonna go.

Yea I intend to watch End Game. I knew that was a foregone conclusion before I started IW. Thanos removing half the universe is not really the part I have a problem with, it's why. The comic book explanation (that somehow dead people need to be balanced with alive people) makes more sense (waaaaaay more sense, and is actually way cooler).

 

[DesertPenguin]

Well the comic book version has the whole entire premise of Thanos being in love with Death and all of this death is to get her to love him back, yadda yadda yadda. That's why there's the end-credits line in one of the movies of him saying something like "it would be like courting Death". They never followed through with that.

 

[Danoff]

Well the comic book version has the whole entire premise of Thanos being in love with Death and all of this death is to get her to love him back, yadda yadda yadda. That's why there's the end-credits line in one of the movies of him saying something like "it would be like courting Death". They never followed through with that.

The idea that the dead need to balance to the living is powerful though. You don't have to have the rest of it to get traction on that, and it's so much less open to debate than finding food. I'm now disappointed all over again because the screenwriters were handed a better script and threw it away in favor of the nonsense they came up with.

 

[DesertPenguin]

Maybe with it being owned by Disney now they didn't want the villain to be directly motivated by death. Seems a bit sociopathic and not good for kids to see.

 

[Danoff]

Maybe with it being owned by Disney now they didn't want the villain to be directly motivated by death. Seems a bit sociopathic and not good for kids to see.

Given the rest of the marvel movies, and the implementation of the current one, I don't buy that explanation. Being motivated to

Spoiler

toss your daughter off a cliff

seems worse.

 

[DesertPenguin]

True. I don't agree with it, and also think it's shallow now, but really don't know why.