What are your thoughts on Infinity War? (Patreon)
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I have a lot of topics that I wish I could talk about, but they don't really fit on my channel. I'm not the biggest Marvel fan. I mean, I enjoy the movies, but I've read very few comics or the like - so calling myself a Marvel fan, I feel, would be relatively shallow.
BUT guess what I can do here? Discussion topics. How did you feel about Infinity War? And this will be a SPOILERS thread.
My basic thoughts:
Firstly, the fact they made it to Infinity War without stumbling for the last decade is impressive. This has been long in the making, and that's commendable.
The opening scene was by far the strongest scene in the film, in my mind. It established immediately that we were dealing with a threat unlike any we had faced before when he beat the Hulk. It immediately established a new, darker tone when Loki was killed (permanently, I should think). And it lay out the direction for the movie: acquiring the infinity stones. That was one of the 'clench my girlfriend's hands' moments.
Of the four storylines (Ironman's, Guardians, Thor, Captain America's - broadly), I felt Ironman's was the strongest. It had a good central relationship between Spidey and Ironman, a fun interplay (if a little contrived) between him and Doctor Strange, and great fight scenes. I was impressed with the balance they achieved between the characters overall.
The ending fight was fun, and it was great seeing all the characters come together. Now, as for the ending, well... it's hard to make an ending like that land unless you know they're not coming back. Which they will. We know they will. So the emotional weight was stunted, but not totally lost.
The only points that really irritated me were (1) Starlord getting angry - this is because when a villain wins not because they outsmart the heroes, but because the hero was stupid, then it comes across as having a weak character and weak writing, and (2) the reveal of the Soul Stone. I get that they wanted to use to humanise Thanos, which worked to an extent, but it sort of just seemed... random. The grand mystery of the final stone and it's in a place we've never heard/seen/thought of/with a challenge we've never had to confront. Odd. Oh, and Thanos' motivations were strange, because wanting the universe to be 'balanced' is not the same as wanting to wipe out half of all life. What if one planet is underpopulated? Wiping out half a species can lead to its extinction.
The other, 'clench my girlfriend's hand' moment was Thor's entrance to the battlefield. I'm so happy they didn't nerf him after Ragnarok. He was incredibly likable, fun to watch, and just as badass as he deserved. Which was amazing.
But those are just my thoughts. What do you think?