Avengers: Infinity War (Joe & Anthony Russo, April 27, 2018) Movie • Page 99

How fucking amazing would it have been if instead of snapping, Thanos went *clapclapclapclap*

 

How was the name Civil War misleading?

The only misleading thing about the name that I can think of is that, unlike the comic, the movie actually tells a good story.

 

Long post incoming...

It's definitely too early to tell, but I don't see the hype around this movie dying out. In fact, I can see the opposite happening with a lot of people who were "meh" to Infinity War looking back on it as a uniquely bold and dark entry in the MCU. I'm just so impressed with how they handled this story. In fact, I didn't even find it busy or overstuffed. There's a ton of characters, but the movie makes it easy to follow because every character is moving along the same plot line. Right off the bat, all the different plots funnel right into the unified mission of saving the universe from Thanos instead of trying to further the progression of one specific character's story, which would have resulted in a mess of plot threads. The only exception is Gamora and her story is pivotal to the overarching plot. It shouldn't have even kind of worked, but it worked amazingly well.

The only potential caveat (and it's a complaint I've seen a lot) is you have to know the characters going into this movie. But I mean, what series is that not true for?

Also, I was on board before the ending, but that ending is really something. It felt like I was watching a moment that's going to be talked about in cinema for years. It gave me those nostalgic Lost season finale vibes but on an even grander scale. I also got hardcore Dark Knight vibes from this movie that I haven't gotten with another superhero movie since. It had that Shakespearean tragedy thing going on where everything goes wrong and the entire atmosphere of the film felt dismal and foreboding, even with all the color.

I'm with Jason that it's hard to know for sure until the next film comes out. But as a casual fan of MCU, this movie kicked my level of excitement up for the series as a whole. It actually enhanced everything that came before it and makes me want to go back and watch all the previous films again.

 

isnt that from the old Captain America movie where JD Salingers son is Cap? i just remember him pretending to be sick and stealing cars like 3 times in that movie lol

 

heres a movie reviewer ive been a fan of since his time at The Escapist, giving his ranking/mini reviews on all 28 MCU projects. dont necessarily agree with them all but i like his content and i enjoy his reasoning

 

I've also been a very casual fan, and I agree. This has actually made me want to go back and revisit all of the movies that I've missed along the way and really get the full story.

 

There... isn’t really much of a “full story”.

 

Okay I want to play:

1. Civil War

2. Winter Soldier

3. Ragnarok

4. Infinity War

5. Black Panther

6. Age of Ultron

7. Avengers

8. The Dark World

9. Spiderman: Homecoming

10. Thor

11. Captain America: The First Avenger (legitimately one of the most boring movies I’ve ever seen)

I haven’t yet seen Doctor Stranger, Ant-Man, or any of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. It’s been so long since I’ve watched the Iron Man movies that I can’t remember anything that happens in them so I can’t rank them.

 

You're right about the ending being affecting, despite the knowledge that this is all going to be undone in under a year undercutting it (and I had a blast watching this). Makes you wish the rest of the MCU movies actually had stakes. Perhaps they should write out the whole next decade of the MCU as one larger story so the can have more casualties involved Game of Thrones style.

Lol about comparing it to TDK though, which has a thematic undercurrent that this movie's script only feints at... a false dark ending doesn't make it Shakespearean in my book.

 

I've been thinking, the knowledge that the people who were snapped away are coming back doesn't mean there are no stakes here. That's really kind of an unfair argument. Like, there are still stakes, especially considering the likelihood that anybody not erased that way going to stay dead for good. The snap had to happen for the purposes of the story but they're still really going for it and permanently killing off not-insignificant franchise characters. And more will permanently die in the next one too (Captain America, maybe Stark and/or Thor).

 

Lol. This is true. It's more like a lot of small stories that never seem to end. I think that's why I enjoyed this movie so much since it combined so many stories into one and raised the stakes.

TDK is one of my favorite movies. I'm not saying it's comparable to it in terms of the script or depth. But whether or not everything is undone in Avengers 4 doesn't change the fact that everything up to this point (as we know it) was futile and it reminded me of TDK in that sense.

 

Well yea maybe "experience" is the better word. There's still a lot of background and context to the characters I don't understand, and just in general I'm more interested in the MCU now than I was before is all I mean.

 

Unless it's a smoke screen (very well could be), the Writers and the Russo brothers are sticking firm on everyone not coming back after the ending. And AMATW and Captain Marvel playing big roles going into A4. Gonna be a long year.

 

But there aren’t any real stakes because i have no faith that the MCU will follow through on the necessary emotional, thematic arcs, because they literally almost never do. Tony Stark continues to act recklessly and put people in danger despite learning the same lesson movie after movie. Ant Man joins the fight with people he’s never met before in Civil War after a whole movie about how he has to not be so reckless and remain consistently there for his family. Peter Parker decides he needs to focus on smaller challenges before going to space to fight a titan. Tony and Steve have an emotional, moral, and political divide that ends with them nearly killing each other, but Cap leaves him a flip phone and a note letting him know everything is still all good. Don Cheadle is a casualty in that conflict who loses the use of his legs, except magic technology lets him walk around and still be a superhero. Thor loses his weapon and an eye for his misguided ambition and traditions, then gets both back two months later. There literally are no stakes in these movies because they hit a reset button every next movie so they can get to the next spectacle.

 

My guess is everyone comes back from the snap, but some of them still die in whatever comes next. Specifically, there is no way they kill off Spiderman and Black Panther.

 

Conflating death with stakes, and the related conflating of being powerful and not having stakes, are both really popular but really awful narrative takes.

Death is classic lazy writing, unless there's a greater point than cheap emotionalism. Like, that's what caused the original death of Gwen Stacy. They just didn't know what to do, shrugged, and killed off the main character's girlfriend.

 

What if I told you.. this is exactly how the comics treat the characters?

 

When you think of who was left after the snap, it's kind of startling. For the continuation of the franchise, it would make perfect sense for those who were left to be the ones who permanently die in Avengers 4. Kind of crazy if that happens because the deaths at the snap were already affecting (even if they're temporary).

 

I mean I was just specifically responding to the statement that "the snap deaths are obviously going to be reversed so therefore there are no stakes." Like that's just demonstrably not true. Whatever else anyone wants to argue instead is a different conversation entirely and not the point of what I was saying.

 

I’d tell you I know that and it’s less than ideal storytelling and I’m disappointed the movies are following that template because it isn’t satisfying, especially since the movies almost necessitate full, resonant, complete stories since these actors can’t play these characters forever, while comics are a monthly serial that largely exist to go on forever.

 

I agree with this and it's why I don't like comics and get frustrated with comic book movies. But we'll have to see. Surely, they have to follow through on some of what happens in Infinity War (or supplement it with new losses in Avengers 4) or it would ruin the film for a lot of people. I'm impressed enough with this movie and the stakes it's raised that I'm believing for now that not everything will be undone in the next film.

 

At this point, I think if you're expecting some sort of groundbreaking screenplay/story, you're watching the wrong movies. I get wanting to see a movie with depth/great character development/finality/dialogue, but in my honest opinion, these aren't meant to be those movies. Sure, that doesn't excuse Marvel for not at least trying, but I think there are a lot of moments in the last 10 years where they've done a really good job with those elements. But with different writers/directors for every movie, there will be issues with continuity, stakes, character development. I just think it's the nature of the multi-billion dollar beast. For me, I go to these movies to disconnect and see otherworldly shit that I grew up dreaming about. I want to see these characters that I would create stories with in my head with action figures actually doing that on screen.

 

I would argue that the fact that this movie flows logically and is coherent and not a complete disaster is a pretty groundbreaking achievement from a screenwriting/editing perspective. Like, people thought that it was a crazy achievement for the first Avengers movie to pull it off and this has four times the characters as that movie and still makes sense. It's obviously not as tight as that movie but it still works.

 

It's also the first time for me that a 2.5 hour long movie didn't feel nearly that long. Kept me engaged the entire time.