Avengers: Infinity War
Apr. 28th, 2018 11:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kate_nepveugeneral shape-of-movie reactions
I had low expectations and yeah, that was about right. I guess you could look at it one of two ways: either there too much happening at the expense of character, sense in plotting, pacing, which is to say, so many fight scenes; or there was a coherent story and I hated it. Also, I think this was the most comic-book of the MCU I've seen to date, and I don't mean that in a good way.
SPOILERS, all the spoilers
They're not going to leave Black Panther 2 on the table — though I did think for half a sec that this would explain why it hasn't been announced yet, not the explanation that they were waiting on Coogler; and there's a Time Stone, so there's no way this isn't getting rewound. When the only question is how far, well, it's hard to take it seriously. (I also had a brief moment of delight when I contemplated Peter Parker staying dead and the next Spider-Man movie (which is coming out two months after Avengers 4) actually being about Miles Morales. I can't imagine that actually being the case, though.)
And the spectacle was mostly fine, but I would gladly have taken a reduction in spectacle of 50% and gotten some character development. So, so little Steve! *mourns* I couldn't help it, I wiggled with delight when he appeared, but argh. And we didn't even get Tony making the call!
Speaking of Tony, I am so tired of the same dynamic with Pepper and the being reminded that the greater MCU decided they couldn't abide the end of Iron Man 3, because I love that movie and that ending and I hate being brought up against the limits of the genre like that. Maybe his MCU end will be a return to that, not death? Oh, yeah, I decided to be a mechanic once before, that was a good idea, I should've done that.
(Pepper, such a fucking waste. GIVE ME RESCUE!PEPPER.)
Though, because there was so little character time, it wasn't hard to follow considering that I've not seen a lot of the recent MCU; general pop culture osmosis and the bits of backstory they had seeded in worked fine.
Maybe there will be more room for character development in Avengers 4 since the cast has been so thoroughly (temporarily) cut, and I would like that. But I doubt it. *mourns for Russos of Winter Soldier*
So the coherent story that I hated: am I supposed to feel BAD for Thanos? Really? I am extremely alarmed that I can't be sure. Because fuck your manpain, you are not allowed to feel bad about MURDERING YOUR DAUGHTER. Also: Peter Quill, you wrecked a perfectly good plan — well, okay, not really, but more on that in a moment — just because you couldn't control your manpain. And if you'd shot her when she was first captured, like you promised, then this wouldn't have happened! (Once you delayed, Thanos was never going to let you; but you had a fraction of a second's chance.) So many, many people failing to make the right choice when faced with the question "one person or half the universe?", but this one was particularly egregious because she was already dead.
(Steve makes his reason for giving the wrong answer seem almost plausible, because he can sell that; Bruce's answer is more sensible.)
I'm presuming, by the way, that Strange giving up the Time Stone is part of his future vision, because otherwise it makes absolutely zero sense.
Anyway: idiot plotting. Cut off Thanos's arm, none of this slapstick pulling the gauntlet off! Go for the head, Thor (hah, I just realized he made the same mistake as Peter, needing to rub it gave Thanos the chance). Chad pointed out that Strange doesn't need to turn the ship around, he does that portal thingie! Anybody, anybody giving the right answer to the question "one person or half the universe"!
So we were in the second-to-highest row in our theater and the dialogue was mixed for the center, so I had trouble hearing a lot of things; what did Steve say last? I thought there was an outside chance that he said "Hawkeye," because I knew the Russos had said there was some kind of long game going on with him, and I thought they'd hinted that it was a secret mission, but I think that was speculation now, because I can't find a quote.
Minor thoughts:
CAPTAIN MARVEL! I still don't understand why her movie is set in the 1990s — where has she been during the entire MCU? But: CAPTAIN MARVEL!
There was some real good Thor in this movie, I have been meaning to watch Ragnarok and will bump it up the priority list.
Hah, Peter Dinklage as a giant Dwarf.
I saw this in the credits: the Red Skull was not Hugo Weaving.
Anyway: this is half a movie. It could look better post-Avengers 4 if they stomped hard on the manpain, but I can't make myself believe that they won't actually rewind time, and that's the other big flaw in it; so I don't think this can really be redeemed by Avengers 4, I can just hope that Avengers 4 is better.
(I dipped quick into Twitter and I liked these two: spoilers with no context and post a pic of your favorite Avenger.)
quick morning edit: elsewhere I am given to understand that the Guardians movies, which I have not seen, give Thanos + Gamora backstory which make his belief that he loved her much more delusionally horrifying and therefore reduce the likelihood that his manpain is supposed to be sympathetic. But lacking that context, it was shot in such a classic manpain that I just couldn't trust it.
I had low expectations and yeah, that was about right. I guess you could look at it one of two ways: either there too much happening at the expense of character, sense in plotting, pacing, which is to say, so many fight scenes; or there was a coherent story and I hated it. Also, I think this was the most comic-book of the MCU I've seen to date, and I don't mean that in a good way.
SPOILERS, all the spoilers
They're not going to leave Black Panther 2 on the table — though I did think for half a sec that this would explain why it hasn't been announced yet, not the explanation that they were waiting on Coogler; and there's a Time Stone, so there's no way this isn't getting rewound. When the only question is how far, well, it's hard to take it seriously. (I also had a brief moment of delight when I contemplated Peter Parker staying dead and the next Spider-Man movie (which is coming out two months after Avengers 4) actually being about Miles Morales. I can't imagine that actually being the case, though.)
And the spectacle was mostly fine, but I would gladly have taken a reduction in spectacle of 50% and gotten some character development. So, so little Steve! *mourns* I couldn't help it, I wiggled with delight when he appeared, but argh. And we didn't even get Tony making the call!
Speaking of Tony, I am so tired of the same dynamic with Pepper and the being reminded that the greater MCU decided they couldn't abide the end of Iron Man 3, because I love that movie and that ending and I hate being brought up against the limits of the genre like that. Maybe his MCU end will be a return to that, not death? Oh, yeah, I decided to be a mechanic once before, that was a good idea, I should've done that.
(Pepper, such a fucking waste. GIVE ME RESCUE!PEPPER.)
Though, because there was so little character time, it wasn't hard to follow considering that I've not seen a lot of the recent MCU; general pop culture osmosis and the bits of backstory they had seeded in worked fine.
Maybe there will be more room for character development in Avengers 4 since the cast has been so thoroughly (temporarily) cut, and I would like that. But I doubt it. *mourns for Russos of Winter Soldier*
So the coherent story that I hated: am I supposed to feel BAD for Thanos? Really? I am extremely alarmed that I can't be sure. Because fuck your manpain, you are not allowed to feel bad about MURDERING YOUR DAUGHTER. Also: Peter Quill, you wrecked a perfectly good plan — well, okay, not really, but more on that in a moment — just because you couldn't control your manpain. And if you'd shot her when she was first captured, like you promised, then this wouldn't have happened! (Once you delayed, Thanos was never going to let you; but you had a fraction of a second's chance.) So many, many people failing to make the right choice when faced with the question "one person or half the universe?", but this one was particularly egregious because she was already dead.
(Steve makes his reason for giving the wrong answer seem almost plausible, because he can sell that; Bruce's answer is more sensible.)
I'm presuming, by the way, that Strange giving up the Time Stone is part of his future vision, because otherwise it makes absolutely zero sense.
Anyway: idiot plotting. Cut off Thanos's arm, none of this slapstick pulling the gauntlet off! Go for the head, Thor (hah, I just realized he made the same mistake as Peter, needing to rub it gave Thanos the chance). Chad pointed out that Strange doesn't need to turn the ship around, he does that portal thingie! Anybody, anybody giving the right answer to the question "one person or half the universe"!
So we were in the second-to-highest row in our theater and the dialogue was mixed for the center, so I had trouble hearing a lot of things; what did Steve say last? I thought there was an outside chance that he said "Hawkeye," because I knew the Russos had said there was some kind of long game going on with him, and I thought they'd hinted that it was a secret mission, but I think that was speculation now, because I can't find a quote.
Minor thoughts:
CAPTAIN MARVEL! I still don't understand why her movie is set in the 1990s — where has she been during the entire MCU? But: CAPTAIN MARVEL!
There was some real good Thor in this movie, I have been meaning to watch Ragnarok and will bump it up the priority list.
Hah, Peter Dinklage as a giant Dwarf.
I saw this in the credits: the Red Skull was not Hugo Weaving.
Anyway: this is half a movie. It could look better post-Avengers 4 if they stomped hard on the manpain, but I can't make myself believe that they won't actually rewind time, and that's the other big flaw in it; so I don't think this can really be redeemed by Avengers 4, I can just hope that Avengers 4 is better.
(I dipped quick into Twitter and I liked these two: spoilers with no context and post a pic of your favorite Avenger.)
quick morning edit: elsewhere I am given to understand that the Guardians movies, which I have not seen, give Thanos + Gamora backstory which make his belief that he loved her much more delusionally horrifying and therefore reduce the likelihood that his manpain is supposed to be sympathetic. But lacking that context, it was shot in such a classic manpain that I just couldn't trust it.
