You've been warned. There is (hopefully) no stone left unturned in this discussion of Marvel's 10-year culminating epic. You are further being warned that this is the most reference-filled, geek out I have ever written. If there are things you don't understand, whether because you haven't seen the movie (why ARE YOU READING THIS... actually keep reading if you want) or because you don't get that reference, then I'm sorry. This is full stream of consciousness nerdom written onto page. So typos be damned. Please enjoy, comment and join the discussion. Thanks
Poor Idris Elba. That man has BY FAR been given the shortest straw every time in the MCU. In Thor he was massively underutilized in his 20 or so minutes on screen. In The Dark World, he was made to seem like he was incompetent at his one Godly job. In Ragnarok, you may not have even noticed he was a God if you don’t know who Heimdall is. And now in Infinity War, the man is killed within 3 minutes of the movie! 3 minutes! But hey, the Russos did say that the first scene in this Avengers film will show you just how scary Thanos is. Boy, were they not messing around. 10 years of build-up did not disappoint. This movie is equal parts entertaining, grueling, enthralling, beautiful, funny, heart-pounding, emotional, and downright traumatic. If you don’t leave this movie absolutely shook to your core, contemplating what in the hell just happened, sobbing because you have to wait a whole year to find out, then you either were not invested in Marvel to begin with or… you take pleasure in visiting Vormir (later y’all, later). As we patiently wait for the reveal of Avengers 4’s subtitle, we gotta go over the amazing balancing act that Thanos and the Russo’s conducted over 2 hours and 40 minutes. Similar to the MCU as a whole, this third entry seamlessly ping-ponged from one group of heroes to another as they all followed their own missions which culminated in one epic ass ending (you should have gone for THE HEAD!!!!). For this review, we are going to discuss each of those groups setting by setting (some intertwining) and hope that this doesn’t reach over three pages of discussion (*update from future me: 7… 7 damn pages). But before we do that:
WHAT DIDN’T WORK IN INFINITY WAR:
-CGI sometime made Cap look like pre-serum Steve Rogers
-CGI made Rhodey, Falcon, and Bruce look like Beetlejuice at the end of Beetlejuice
-and-
STORYLINE 1: “FIRST 20 MINUTES” CENTRAL PARK (Tony & Pepper) AND SCOTLAND (Wanda & Vision)
In my first viewing, the two relationships that were showcased in Central Park and Scotland seemed to have something a bit off. The emotion and dialogue between the lovers seemed real, but also seemed like they were reading off of a script instead of genuinely talking to each other. This gave me a little anxiety about how forced the humor (*coughguardianstwocough*) and romance (*ahhhhthorchoooo*) would be. But after seeing the movie in its entirety, the second viewing made these scenes more weighty and authentic. So, basically I am saying you need to see this movie more than once because there is little to almost nothing that failed. So much so that the second time through I had to stop and ask why my heart was pounding even though I already knew exactly what was gonna happen.
STORYLINE 2: ASGARD REFUGEE SHIP TO NIDAVELLIR (Thor, Rocket, and Groot)
That opening scene is one of the most intense in any film I have ever seen (comment below if you can think of something better). We all knew that ship was done at the end of Ragnarok and due to the trailers, but I don’t think we knew the extent to which Thanos’ true introduction was going to break people. That man gave Hulk the one-two combo like Chris Childs did to Kobe. Like it was a scene in The Raid. Like we was watching Goku and Vegeta go at it “next time” on… Dragonball Z. He scared the Hulk into hiding for the rest of the damn movie (that is a really intriguing storyline that I am highly interested in being explored further). What I wanna know is where in the hell are Valkyrie and Korg. They weren’t amongst the bodies, and there were rumors that Thompson filmed for the back-to-back shoots. What I did know, however, was that Loki was gonna be outta here in the first 10 minutes (no resurrections this time). There was no way his Avengers failure was going to go unpunished. The interaction between him and Thanos brought out some of Hiddlestons’ best work and showed that Brolin was bringing much more than just brute force to his role. For every slickly-weaved tale Loki tried to spin Thanos had an equally polished reply which Loki deftly volleyed back. Until desperation and love for his brother ultimately led to a death that was coming to him for a couple movies now (even though we did not want it).
Then Thor gets blown into the Milano and we get a pairing that we didn’t even know we wanted until Thor asked “who the hell are you guys” back in November. Waititi and Gunn’s humor played gorgeously off of each other, especially between Thor, Star-Lord, and Rocket. The only (other) disappointment I had was with the continued misuse of Dave Bautista and his pigeonholing into only being comic relief. Mantis gets a pass because she plays well off of Drax, and we only have seen her in this comedic capacity. But Volume 1 Drax had a balance to him. Ever since Volume 2, his tragic story has been pushed into the background for truthfully hilarious, yet over saturated jokes. The balance that is missing from Drax was astonishingly utilized between Thor and Rocket, rivalling the relationship between the “rabbit” and Yondu in Volume 2. One of the few misfires of Ragnarok was the mishandling of the tragedy of Thor’s arc in the film, and the Russo’s completely retconned this with one conversation. That tear Hemsworth shed was a so sorrow-filled that it shed any guilt I felt for my continued biased forgiveness of Thor 3’s flaw. Luckily, that was nimbly followed by Rocket’s pitch perfect quip and brought me back from completely crumbling in my seat. This type of back-and-forth between them continued into the home of gigantic Tyrion Lannister.
There was a lot of speculation going into the movie about Peter Dinklage’s role in the movie, and the role of Eitri the Dwarf reminded us of the types of roles he shined in pre-GOT. It had been a long time since I had heard the deep voice, slightly limited (yet still witty) diction, and brute-like portrayals of his past. It was fun to be surprised by his arrival and added to the dynamic of the trio. This is also where Groot got his time to shine, showing that even though the original Groot is officially dead (thanks Gunn), the heroism that was inherent in the predecessor is definitely within the moody teenage twig. The creation of Stormbreaker may be the weakest of this storyline, but the payoff that comes at the end of our next storyline is glorious.
-End of Part 1-