If you’re idea of an enjoyable movie experience is watching the good guys get their butts kicked for 2 1/2 hours while the bad guy can literally do no wrong and is the center of the film, then you’ll love “The Avengers: Infinity War”. This extremely disappointing sequel in the Avengers film trilogy is a real head scratcher. I feel a rant coming on….First off, one of the more likable “good guys”, although not technically an Avenger, gets brutally killed in the first 10 minutes of the movie. Talk about setting the tone! And in the following two hours, two others (and possibly more) join him. During that time, one of the more popular Avengers, the Hulk, develops psychological issues during the first 10 minutes of the movie and is unable to become the Hulk for the rest of the show. For 2/3rds of the movie Thor does not have his trademark hammer, nor does Captain America have his shield. Sure, towards the end, Thor does manage to round up an ax and Cap a miniature toy shield, but come on! That’s like Superman without his cape or Abe Lincoln without his top hat, Head scratcher #1. Plus the days of superheroes wearing masks to hide their identity are evidently over. Spiderman, Ironman and the Cap were without masks for the majority of the movie. Ok, ok, that’s a little bit ticky-tack, I’ll admit it.
As I mentioned in previous reviews, I’m a traditionalist when it comes to something I grew up with and that entertained me every Saturday morning as a kid. I’ve actually talked to a couple of other people my age recently who felt the same way after watching the movie. Anyhow, if you’re going to use the name of an entity like the Avengers, Captain America, Batman, Superman, etc. then you owe it to their creators and fans to at least show some resemblance to the original characters. For whatever reason, this movie did a terrible job in doing that. And if you’re not going to do that, just create your own movie and develop your own characters!
Alright, enough of that. Back to the movie. There are a boat load of superheroes in this movie. I counted 19, from the original Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Ironman, Hulk) to newer ones like Scarlet Witch, Vision, Spiderman, Falcon, Black Panther, and Dr. Strange, to the Guardians of the Galaxy crew. The movie basically divided up these characters into different groups spread out on earth and in space. The best part of the movie by far was watching the interactions between all of them, particularly the ones involving the Guardians of the Galaxy bunch. Watching Star-Lord and Ironman exchange wisecracks, and Thor and Groot team up was fun.
The big bad villain in this Avenger’s rendition is Thanos, a CGI-generated character, voiced by Josh Brolin, who appeared in the old comics and made brief appearances at the end of the second Avengers movie as well as both Guardians of the Galaxy films (Thanos, not Brolin). Although the origin of Thanos is not made very clear, he’s a bad boy. His quest is to find the six “infinity stones” that would make him master of the universe and allow him to complete his plan of solving the galaxies population problem by randomly eliminating half of the inhabitants in it. Including those on earth. His problem? Three of the gems are in the possession of three of our heroes. And so the stage is set.
As he gathers gem by gem, it is evident that nothing can stop him. Literally. There was nothing any of the 19 superheroes in the film could do to make much of a dent in him. And they all tried! And often several of them at once. The two times they did manage to inflict some damage, Thanos had the ability to turn back time and heal himself. Talk about not fighting fair! As ludicrous as it may sound, 19 Avengers and heroes could not take down this one dude. Funny thing is, he really doesn’t need any of these gems as he was kicking Avenger butt before he had any of them. Anyhow, this, evidently, is what the writers and director of the film have decided what moviegoers want to see. Head scratcher #2.
I read an interview with director Anthony Russo where he stated that in “Infinity War” he wanted to address the emotional side of the Avengers in order to remind everyone that they are indeed human and do have emotions. As a result, Russo decided to introduce several untimely emotional outbursts that completely sidetracked several of our heroes, in mid-battle nonetheless, on what they were there to do. Very un-superhero like, and very frustrating to watch. Head scratcher #3. Odd time to decide to explore your soft side, Mr. Russo! If you want to delve into character emotions, you might want to consider remaking “Love Story”!
Ok, as you can probably tell by now, I spent most of the movie pulling out whatever hair I had left on my head. Yes, I know. It’s only a movie and I’m taking it far too seriously. But in addition to growing up with these characters, I was cursed with the Mr. Spock “if it’s not logical then it makes no sense” syndrome, which I also mentioned in previous reviews. And when something makes no sense, or is completely out of character, then you get frustrated a bit.
I should say at this point that “Infinity Wars” was filmed as a two-part movie, with part two airing in May, 2019. So that does explain some on why part 1 was presented the way it was. It’s obvious that the Avengers will re-group, somehow, and eliminate Thanos from his high horse. But from what we see in part 1, I can’t imagine how. The universe, and specifically earth, are literally left with no hope at the movie’s end. Accept for one thing. But to find out what that was, you would have had to stuck around for the post-credit teaser clip….which revealed the summoning of superhero number 20.
Yes, in the final act of the movie, Avengers head honcho Nick Fury makes a final, desperate call for help to one hero who has never appeared or even been mentioned in any of the past Marvel Studio movies: Captain Marvel. We only know this because Captain Marvel’s logo appeared on Flury’s phone before the screen goes black. Unfortunately, only those familiar with the Captain Marvel logo will have any idea that’s who he was calling! I didn’t, and had to look it up on good ole Google Images. So that scenario should be interesting. Evidently Captain Marvel will be able to do something the other 19 superheros haven’t, although I have a hunch that Dr. Strange and Thor will play key roles as well, based on earlier incidents. And in a clever marketing ploy by Marvel Studios, a “Captain Marvel” movie will be released in March 2019 that will supplement “Infinity Wars” part 2 two months later.
So there you go. I’m obviously in the minority in my view of this movie, seeing that it’s breaking box office records left in right in America and Europe. But I’m still going to stick to my guns! We’ll see if “Infinity Wars 2” will redeem the frustration of part 1. Have a feeling it will to a point. As much as I didn’t like part 1, I’m sure I’ll see part 2, as it almost certainly will be the final appearance of Ironman, Captain America and Thor in a Marvel film (contracts expire for the actors playing them). I just hope they don’t get the dumb notion to kill one or more of them off! But nothing would surprise me with this head scratching bunch of film makers.
