Avengers Infinity War Part 1 (2018)

[baumer]

AND HERE WE GO!

 

This is to review the movie only.  Keep the idle chit chat in the other threads, please.  

[That One Girl]

 

Good job team

[CaptainJackSparrow]

As always, I’m late to the party.

[Dan9]

If you don't like Civil War, oh boy 

 

There is a lot of everything in this movie. And then some more everything. It starts off at a thousand miles an hour and carries on. You will leave a set of characters doing something and then literally not see them for like an hour. Considering how much was going on and how many plot strands have to interconnect, they've done a pretty damn good job with it. Some of the character interactions are simple yet brilliantly satisfying... "I am Groot!" "I am Steve Rogers." 

 

I do like Iike how much they've tried to make Thanos a real, three-dimensional character. I don't think he quite had enough fleshed out backstory to completely shake that 'yeah but he's clearly fucking insane' attitude a lot will have, but I enjoyed it and found him a more interesting screen presence for it. Scarlet Witch also deserves a shout out for being a genuine scene-stealer. 

 

Also I wasn't expecting Tyrion Lannister to show up so that's always a plus. Oh and some of the character entrances are marvellous. That Scotland train station scene (eh?!) was next level. 

Edited April 25, 2018 by Dan9

[CJohn]

Vision is useless. Just got to point out how they make him OP as fuck on Ultron and he stays lying down in a bed for 99% of this movie.

 

Hawkeye and Ant-Man MIA.

 

Overall tho, the movie does an incredible job of balancing every element from setpiece to setpiece. There has never been a bigger movie scale wise than this one. The deaths of the major characters (Gamora and Loki) were well handled. Vision's double death was fine both times. I really don't care about him, neither seemed most of the crowd. From the cliffhanger deaths, the Spider-Man one is definitely the one that will stay with the audience more as is the only one played with any sort of emotion. The movie is very Thanos centric. Makes sense since we had 10 years to attach and like the other characters while Thanos has mostly been on the shadows until now. The response of the audience seemed to be mixed. It is a part 1 movie. Massive cliffhanger. No closure of any way. I liked it quite a bit but there is a lot to digest and I need to think a bit more about it. For now, a B.

 

The Captain Marvel tease got a loud reaction. The "Thanos will return" line was lmao.

[aabattery]

There was a moment in the third act that filled me with a strong feeling of dread that didn't go away till the credits rolled and the lights went on. I was legit worried for a large portion of it. No matter what the heroes did on screen, I still felt that constant worry in the back of my head. I'm not a god-faring man but if I was I think I would have been praying that nothing was broken for good. That feeling started when my phone slid out of my pocket onto the floor. I reached down and couldn't find the damn thing in the dark. Heard a THUMP and a crash when it was on it's way through the back of the seat. Luckily it was fine. Had a smudge on the screen but nothing broken.

 

I liked the movie. Thought it juggled the weight of itself about as well as it could and they sold some of the more comicbook bullshitty stuff pretty effectively. Few people have pointed this out on Twitter and stuff but it really feels like a Jim Starlin book ripped from the pages and put on a filmreel. 

[BK007]

I'm a self-proclaimed anti-superhero, anti-Disney, anti-Marvel etc. poster on these boards, but damn hats off to Marvel.

 

Yes, it's only the first part and they could still marvelously fuck up the second one just like pretty much every single Hollywood tentpole finale ever, but damn this was epic.

 

I thought they handled the transitions really well, fit everyone in, yeah Hawkeye & Ant Man were missing, but in some ways they didn't really need to be here- for now at least. I may not like many of the movies Marvel's made, nor the overcommercialization, the fanboy mentality, Disney etc. but I would say that this movie was well worth the wait- what is 10 years in the making now? (feelings of age)

I hope they can pull off whatever they have in store for the second part. Also, perhaps I feel like this because I already knew there was a sequel to this. Can't say how others might feel if they thought this was the end though.

 

A

[rukaio101]

Man, you know you have a real hold-your-breath movie when the credits appear and you can hear 90% of the audience audibly exhale. 

 

Anyway, yeah, I enjoyed it big time. Little surprise there. It's a Marvel event film that feels like a genuine comic book event film, for better or for worse (mainly better). It doesn't hold back for a moment, delivers on levels you didn't even know you wanted, feels grandiose in a way that a movie with 10 years of build-up should feel. And yeah, maybe it's a bit crowded and bloated and not every character gets full justice done to them, but in some ways that's also just the nature of a comic-book event.

 

Honestly, the approach the Russo's took for the story was honestly pretty interesting, in that it's not really a team-up movie in the traditional sense. Well, okay, there's a lot of teaming up going on, but unlike the first Avengers (and to a lesser extent AOU) the movie itself isn't about the team(s). No, the movie is all about Thanos, the movie's central character is Thanos and fuck me if they didn't goddamn blow it out of the water with him.

 

Seriously, I was among the many many people who was underwhelmed by his brief portrayals in GOTG and the end credits of AOU and was also a little skeptical about him in this film, but he was soooo good in this. He started off as fairly fun, if a bit slight, with some cool action moments and some interesting emotional development with Gamora. But when we got to the scene with him and Gamora and the Soul Stone, he went from upper tier Marvel villain, to upper tier movie villain in general. Seriously, how many movies can you name where it's the antagonist who goes through the heartbreaking big character development/emotional beats? Hell, how many movies can you name where the protagonist goes through something as affecting as what Thanos does? (And definite kudos to Brolin and Saldana for fucking selling that scene.)

 

Honestly, there's probably not enough time to go through every single moment and character I liked, but I'll just say that either Stark/Strange or Thor/Guardians had the best back-and-forth banter, Drax had the best lines, Mantis was the most adorable (especially her body language in the background of a lot of scenes) and Cap's side got kinda jipped in comparison. Honestly, Cap's side in general got the short end of the stick. Probably the least interesting plotwise, probably had the least happen, had the most underused characters (I'm pretty sure Wong got more to do than Bucky, Falcon and War Machine combined) and honestly, my favourite bit of the whole sequence (aside from maybe some of the Wakanda cast having fun) was Thanos just fucking walking through them to reach Vision.

 

And I suppose that's ultimately part of the big flaw of the movie. There's so much happening, so many characters, so much in motion, that it inevitably does feel a bit overstuffed and, to be honest, kind of exhausting. I mean, it's a nice kind of exhausting where you appreciate and acknowledge all the excellent elements on screen, but it's exhausting nonetheless. And while I certainly enjoy the scale and ambition of it... a small part of me does appreciate that Avengers 4 looks to be, let's say, a bit smaller in scale.

 

To sum up, honestly, in large part, I have a bit of similar reaction to this compared to Avengers 1 that I do to GOTG vs GOTG 2. That is to say, while I consider Avengers 1 to have superior pacing, structure, narrative flow and is ultimately a better movie in my eyes, when Avengers: Infinity War winds up to really punch you, it hits hard. Harder than anything in the first Avengers. That comment at the beginning about the audience exhaling once it was all over was completely accurate because, regardless of how you feel about that ending, even if you know it almost certainly won't stick, it will still make you feel something. And that's certainly meaningful in its own way.

 

 

P.S. Was honestly expecting Nebula to have a bigger role. Ah well, maybe in the next movie.

 

P.P.S. Was also expecting BP, Spider-Man and Wakanda to have a bigger role. Ah well, maybe in the... oh wait.

 

P.P.P.S. Seriously, was there any fucking point in bringing back Bucky other than to make that Rocket arm joke? I mean, I appreciated the joke, but still.

 

P.P.P.P.S. I am going to laaaaaugh if War Machine ends up having the most vital role in Avengers 4. I mean, come on, he had to have been kept alive for something, right?

 

P.P.P.P.P.S. Also, between the New York Deli joke and the Ben & Jerry's joke, I now have it my headcanon that Strange and Wong spend all their time between crises sitting on the couch, binging junk food and watching Netflix. And I also now want a sitcom about that.

 

 

Also, speculating on my personal Avengers 4 theories...

Spoiler

 

I think part of Vision's mind is still in the Mind Stone and that will be (part of) Thanos' big undoing. Bruce (or somebody) did mention a lot of overlap between all the personalities in Vision and I reckon that might still be true within the Mind Stone itself.

 

Would also explain why Strange so willingly gave the Time Stone away. Not to save Tony's life, but because Thanos would need the Time Stone to save the Mind Stone from destruction. And if Strange foresaw that something in the Mind Stone could subvert Thanos then, well, you can put together the rest. Just a theory, mind, but one I'm feeling pretty confident in.

 

 

[Avatree]

thought it was quite dull. most of the characters were wasted, it felt very overstuffed. Captain America, Black Panther, Hulk, Black Widow, these guys feel like they're barely in it. 

Any sense of threat and stakes that it had built up was undermined by the ending because now we know death literally means nothing. 

 

Thanos wants to destroy half the population of the universe, well maybe that would have been a good idea for this movie.

[CoolioD1]

Kinda messy the whole movie pretty much feels like a second act and there was definitely a moment where they were cutting between all the things fight on wakanda, fight on titan, big tyrion building the axe where I just felt overwhelmed. 

 

But idk it's a lot of fun. And cool. And pretty relentlessly exciting. And I know people make this pronouncement for all of the MCU movies these days but Thanos really is the best villain.

 

Felt like Thor, The Guardians, Strange, Iron Man and Spider-Man were really the only goodies to get a satisfying amount of stuff to do but I've always preferred the cosmic/fantasy characters in this franchise anyway so I wasn't disappointed but I know there's a lot of Cap fans here that probably will be. And I bet marvel wishes they could go back and give black panther more shit to do.

[The Dark Alfred]

Epic failure. Great concept, poorly executed. Poorly edited, taking away from moments that were actually working. This was meant to be the film that previous MCU movies lead up to, meant to be different, yet we got the same old recycled product with no heavy punch.

 

I could tolerate Marvel’s one-liner jokes in some the previous films when you know that all the characters are safe and nobody’s gonna die, so you think it’s funny to have banter during the apocalypse but this film was meant to have a dramatic punch, but they kept on the silly banter. Is it to difficult for Marvel to be serious for once?  Clearly that was the aim, but the tool set haven’t changed. Characters acted out of character and the ending is the ultimate cop out, the snap was executed sooooo badly.

 

It is frustrating knowing the potential this movie had. It is an advertisement and brand management rather than a big finale therefore it is a failure even though it’s not as bad as Ultron was. 

 

Ragnarok and Black Panther had style and proper direction, they worked beautifully, here they went back to the safe, styless approach.

 

Thanos is the best thing about the film portrayed nicely by Brolin, but even his motives are written badly and his moves are illogical. But give credit where credit is due, he is a terrifying villain.

 

I can’t underline how disappointing the ending is, this film meant to have an emotional punch, meant to be ballsy, but instead what we get is uninspiring and plain obvious.

 

Imagine eating ten tapas. You’re stuffed and exhausted and disappointed that only two of them were great the rest was not cooked well. That’s Infinity War for you.

 

C-

Edited April 26, 2018 by The Dark Alfred

[Plain Old Tele]

@That Ambitious Guy @Critically Acclaimed Panda

gaming the votes can be considered trolling and the staff is discussing your punishment. 

[That One Girl]

12 minutes ago, Trolltastic Tele said:

@That Ambitious Guy @Critically Acclaimed Panda

gaming the votes can be considered trolling and the staff is discussing your punishment. 

 

You should've talked to aa, a mod, when he had his vote as an F

[Plain Old Tele]

4 minutes ago, That Ambitious Guy said:

 

You should've talked to aa, a mod, when he had his vote as an F

 

I don’t care about AA, I’m looking at things now. 

[That One Girl]

5 minutes ago, Trolltastic Tele said:

 

I don’t care about AA, I’m looking at things now. 

 

I mean, obviously my vote is gonna change to what my actual opinion is when I see the film.  But it seems odd to call me and Panda out specifically when like 5-6 other people were doing it before about half  of them shifted their votes after seeing it; if you saw it in this thread about a day or two earlier, then we wouldn't be the only ones getting called out for  it.  I did it for Last Jedi too before changing it after seeing the film.   It's just a joke

Edited April 26, 2018 by That Ambitious Guy

[Plain Old Tele]

“Other people did it too” isn’t a great excuse. 

[CJohn]

Tele is right. Change your votes or face the ban hammer @That Ambitious Guy @Critically Acclaimed Panda

[That One Girl]

6 minutes ago, CJohn said:

Tele is right. Change your votes or face the ban hammer @That Ambitious Guy @Critically Acclaimed Panda

 

I changed it to a B since it's not on the extreme end of either spectrum (and it's also more than likely what I'll end up giving the film)

[Plain Old Tele]

11 minutes ago, That Ambitious Guy said:

 

I changed it to a B since it's not on the extreme end of either spectrum (and it's also more than likely what I'll end up giving the film)

 

Just remove it until you see it. How hard is that to do?

[That One Girl]

3 minutes ago, Trolltastic Tele said:

 

Just remove it until you see it. How hard is that to do?

 

You...can't?