Avengers: Infinity War (2D)

Okay.  We didn’t see the movie until Sunday afternoon, so when I started hearing that Infinity War had major spoilers, I immediately began trying to guess the big secret.

Painstakingly careful not to learn any actual information, I came up with a scenario that seemed the most shocking to me (a genuine risk for the studio, an emotional moment for the audience, a fitting final event for this chapter of the MCU).

And for a minute there, I thought I might be right.

But I was wrong.

From a certain point of view, the movie actually did the opposite of what I’d conjectured which is (way) less gutsy but far more likely to result in a focused, enjoyable sequel. So I suppose I’m glad to be wrong (though maybe my guess will be right, after all, once we’ve seen the next installment). I personally hope I continue to be wrong, but there are so many Marvel movies out there by now. I’m bound to be right eventually.

Meanwhile, the actual surprise ending of Infinity War did genuinely surprise me. Of course, within the context of the story, this outcome is probably the most likely. It also feels very much like the middle of a larger story rather than the ending, which should guarantee that turnout for part two next year will be massive.

Another surprise is that the movie manages to be both coherent and enjoyable despite having what must be the largest cast of main characters ever assembled.  (In scope, it’s a lot like The Ten Commandments if all the extras were main characters.)  Weirdly, even a character from Arrested Development is in it.  (That so puzzled me when I read it in the credits, but I’ve since learned online where he may be spotted in the background.  I probably didn’t notice him because of his skill at camouflage.)

The Good:
The writers have really done something brilliant here, and without spoilers, I can’t say what it is.

Obviously coming into this film, like most fans I was wondering, “Can the Russo brothers really pull this off? How can they juggle so many stars?” It does help that they’ve already developed each character with painstaking care in a gazillion movies over the past ten years. So they don’t need to worry about backstory, but that doesn’t solve the issue of how to give everyone adequate screentime and a big enough role in the story to satisfy fans. Lots of blockbusters feature teaming casts of extras or dozens of cameos. But this is something different.  There’s never been another project like it in cinematic history.

And the filmmakers have come up with such an unbelievably clever and elegant solution, a nice way of guaranteeing that all characters can eventually get enough screentime without making the two films overbloated with characters that scatter the plot in every direction.

In some ways, the Russo brothers (and all the screenwriters) are Thanos. His solution is their solution. There’s some nice meta complexity going on there that I’d love to explore further once I’ve seen the next Avengers movie, too.

As for Thanos…

All this time I’ve been seeing Thanos in little snippets of the other films and finding him extremely lacking as a villain. But I misjudged him. He’s actually the best Avengers villain so far, though the bar has been set pretty low.

Once upon a time in comic book movies, the villains had the best parts–showiest scenes, meatiest backstories, wittiest lines, coolest costumes. I mean, Batman Forever is so crammed full of colorful villains that Val Kilmer barely gets to say more than two words together. He’s like the Calvin Coolidge of Batmans.

But recently there’s been a decline in villain quality. Except for the villains that are actually the protagonists (like Harley Quinn) recent DC screen villains are laughably one note and dull. No offence to Ciarán Hinds, but a Steppenwolf concert would probably more memorable (and possibly even scarier) than the box checking villain of Justice League.

Marvel, admittedly, has been doing a bit better. Michael Keaton was amazing as the Vulture, truly menacing yet simultaneously sympathetic. Cate Blanchett was perfect as Hela, confident, bloodthirsty, dryly witty, impeccably attired, everything we could want from a villain. And as Killmonger, Michael B. Jordan was multidimensional and maybe a little bit too not wrong for our comfort. These villains are excellent. But each of these villains has squared off against a single hero.

As a group, the Avengers have faced quite a few forgettable, vaguely unsatisfying antagonists. The team always seems to be fighting each other or their own worst selves or Ultron (who just never excited me) or secret agencies whose undetected rise always seemed more than a little improbable. To this point, the Avengers’ most charismatic antagonist has been Loki who falls into that problematic Harley Quinn area of villainy. (Surely, as played by Tom Hiddleston, he has a bigger fan following than some of the lesser heroes.)

Of course, looming in the growing shadow, there’s always been Thanos. But seen from the distant shadows, Thanos is far too vague and bland to instill fear or admiration. For years, I’ve considered him poorly drawn. Turns out, I just wasn’t close enough to get a good look at the real Thanos.

Avengers: Infinity War presents a very different (and much more compelling) Thanos than we’ve ever seen before. Finally we have a villain (played by Josh Brolin) who seems worthy of The Avengers. First of all, he is powerful enough to present a genuine threat to all of the heroes with their various amazing powers, even when they unite against him. Secondly, he has a complex personality and agenda. He really is the nemesis the team deserves. Finally I’m beginning to see the reason that the Avengers have spent so long struggling with internal conflicts (trouble within the team and within each hero). The greatest threat they have ever faced, Thanos is also a mess of internal struggle and contradictions. 

There’s so much I don’t understand about Thanos, which is largely what makes him the perfect villain here. Before Infinity War, most of our information about Thanos comes from his two daughters, Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillan). Both of them talk at length about his exacting demands, his favoritism, his cruelty, his injustice. We come away with the strong impression that Thanos is pure evil. But this is not really what we see when actually meet Thanos and spend some time with him.

In person, he seems surprisingly measured, calm, and oddly respectful of and non-vindictive toward those trying to murder him. The ideals he espouses aren’t exactly evil so much as misguided (or perhaps simply unpalatable from our point of view). He seems like one of those guys who has read a little too much philosophy for his own good and is better with abstract concepts than with people. Maybe he needs to lay off the Malthus and get a dog, rake some leaves, go to a dance.

In person, Thanos doesn’t seem as evil as we might expect and clearly believes that what he is doing is for the greater good (perhaps the four most chilling words in the English language) (only if read together, though).

Now what’s so incongruous about this persona of his is that all of his “children” have either a) turned against him because they despise him so much or b) become intensely evil, hideous monsters.

If Thanos doesn’t believe he is evil and doesn’t behave as if he is evil, then why do his rebellious children hate him so much? Why do his obedient children look and act so thoroughly and obviously and frighteningly evil?

This incongruity is in large part what makes Thanos such a great villain. It’s just unsettling. I expected him to behave like your typical scary, evil entity. And at first, he seems a lot like that, but then as the film goes on, we see more and more that all of his bluster about mercy and peace isn’t just empty rhetoric.

He’s a leader rather like Hitler. In middle school, I actually learned the word “affable” by reading about the leader of the Third Reich. That word would come up over and over again in biographies and history books describing how Hitler behaved in person when with non-threatening friends and acquaintances. Meanwhile, further down the ladder, his henchmen were not so “affable.”

When we initially hear that Thanos plans to wipe out half of life in the universe, we assume it’s because he’s evil, potentially some power hungry sociopath. But then we learn that his motivations aren’t quite what we assumed. And then we learn that he’s capable of genuinely feeling emotions like love, anguish, regret. So that’s problematic.

Those Avengers are always fighting among themselves and wrestling with their own demons, and I think Thanos is leaning in that direction, too.  And that infinity gauntlet complicates things further.

“I’m pretty sure that the one to stop Thanos has to be Thanos,” I said to my husband.  “He seems like the kind of guy who stops himself.”

Eagerly, he told me, “In the comics, Thanos does stop himself.”

“Yeah, well, he’s going to have to stop himself in the movie, too,” I replied.  Who else could possibly do it?  (Clearly, there’s another character who is somehow integral, or else…I’m wrong.)

It’s kind of funny. It’s like all this time we’ve been growing attached to all these characters, and then who turns out to be the star of Infinity War? Thanos!

Maybe the story has always been about Thanos, and the rest of them have just been the supporting cast that we needed to meet in order for the plot to make sense.

Another thing I find extremely thought provoking is the way one very early scene pairs with another very late one. Two dreams (had by Tony and Thanos, respectively) seem to bookend the movie. I’m positive these two dreams are related. Until I see the second part of the story, I can’t be sure if they’re related on the narrative level. Possibly they’re just thematically linked, fodder for all sorts of insightful essays and blog posts. We’ll see. But there is one particular theme highlighted in these dreams that gets punched again and again throughout the story.

Infinity War definitely drives home the mythological nature of comic books at their finest. Despite a generous sprinkling of jokes (most of which work), the film evokes the mystery, grandeur, and ritual of mythology, legend, religion. There’s a nobility to the proceedings and very much a sense that many of the heroes (and also the villain) are on a quest. Thus not only what they achieve, but how they achieve it becomes important.

Our family liked the Thor storyline best, the two Sherlocks storyline second best, and probably the Thanos storyline third best. For once, Thor seems to have an insightful take on the situation and a greater understanding of the kind of game he is playing than some of the others. His view that he will always win while fate is on his side and will lose when fate so chooses is a sensible reading of the conflict he faces. But, honestly, this movie is surprisingly philosophical. Every character seems to be defining the conflict differently and working toward a different goal based on his or her understanding of how life works and what is happening. Everyone is on his or her own unique quest.

Best Scene Visually:
“What was your favorite part of the movie?” I asked my daughter later that night.

“Look, don’t judge me,” she hedged. “Sometimes I like scenes that don’t make me feel happy.”

“Hey,” I told her, “my favorite part of Bambi is when his mother gets shot, so no judgment here.”

Finally she told me that she liked the scene in which Thanos gets the soul stone best.

“I actually really liked that part, too,” I said. The whole set up–including the way it looks–creates an Arthurian legend vibe to me. It also shows that Thanos must be governed by some rules. No matter how powerful he becomes, there are greater powers. That’s sort of evocative of Greek myth, too, this idea that Fate governs even the gods.  Certain rules must be obeyed, promises can’t be broken.

This scene also tells us something about Thanos that problematizes our previous impressions of him.

It also told me that I could stop worrying so much about what happens because clearly nothing’s really set in stone in this storyline.

Best Action Sequence:
Before seeing the movie, my husband and I have conjectured many times that the whole thing might be one, long action sequence since all the character development is done in previous films. But that’s not actually the case.

This movie gives us abundant scenes of negotiation, interaction, planning, journeying, musing…

There’s actually relatively little action.

The big showdown in Wakanda is a great way to bring a huge number of characters together, but I personally like the battle aboard the spaceship.

For one thing, that alien-looking son of Thanos (the one who comes after Dr. Strange) is the most frightening and menacing of all his children and the best traditional villain in the movie. (For whatever reason, I don’t find the other children of Thanos scary at all, and Thanos himself is more than a villain, but the squid-faced guy is the devil incarnate.)

Also, I love the way they dispose of him. It’s clever, funny, effective, and thematically significant. And then, of course, we get another violent struggle as two groups of characters encounter each other for the first time.

This gives us a great moment of humor that for me also hints at something more.  I genuinely believe that in this story, each hero is asking a slightly different question and is on a slightly different quest. I mean, what one character says (seriously) is just a joke (and a good joke), but in some ways the seemingly nonsensical question is the most apt and essential of them all.

Best Scene:
I think Thor and his new companion pair really well. Their humor meshes perfectly, and yet, together they share one of the most emotional moments ever for Thor. I also like the forge scene way more than I should. (It’s a triumph of casting but also gets bonus points for reminding me most of actual mythology).

I also like the pairing of Tony Stark and Dr. Strange. Their final interaction is one of the coolest and most enticing aspects of the movie.

And Tom Hiddleston has a pretty fantastic moment near the beginning, too.

I’m sure there’s a best scene somewhere in that mix.

Best Joke:

The tagline at the end of the movie literally made me laugh out loud.  It’s so funny.  (But also so true!)  It killed me.  It’s like the joke they’ve been setting up for ten years.  (The last line in the post credits scene cracked up the entire audience, too.)

The Negatives:
The stakes are not that high now. I have trouble mustering enough concern or giving in to a true sense of peril for two reasons.

1) As we leave part one of the story, there is no pressing need to do anything. Everything that was in danger of happening has already happened. Is there a reason that life can’t now just continue as normal? I mean, obviously a lot of people are bound to be deeply upset by these developments. But what happened would have happened anyway, eventually. Where is the danger now? The worst has already occurred. (Also, it’s pretty hard to view this as a serious cliffhanger when we think about the popularity and relative newness of some of the Marvel franchises.)

2) In the scene when Thanos reunites with Gamora for the first time, I began to realize that anything done can be undone. If anything done can be undone, then I see no reason I should be on the edge of my seat with anxiety. Harry Potter is a lot more nerve-wracking.

(In fairness, as far as point one goes, I will allow that they’ve pointedly set up one particular character to feel anguish, guilt, and the responsibility to right things, and that this character’s charisma will probably make the audience of the next movie deeply invested in that mission.  And as for point two, if this were not the case, how could the heroes ever come back and win?)

The movie also asks that we just accept Thanos and his bizarre plot. But after seeing the film, our son asked a lot of pointed questions that made Thanos’s whole scheme seem dumb, misguided, and hard to swallow. Maybe that’s where the urgency comes from, the idea that this person who thinks he’s smart and helpful is actually dumb and crazy and now extremely powerful. But I don’t know.

For me, the biggest drawback is lack of stakes, (which seems kind of ridiculous from a certain point of view, but that’s not the point of view I’m taking).

I also had a lot of nitpicky issues as I watched. Most of them aren’t fair, i.e. I hate Captain America’s beard and performance in this film. I’ve been a big fan of Chris Evans since way before his Marvel work. I think he’s a great actor, and he’s quite handsome most of the time. But in this, he looks like he should be renamed Captain Appalachia. (Which, to be clear, is not an insult in and of itself. Appalachia is a beautiful region with mind-blowing nature and rich cultural traditions.) But I just think Steve Rogers should not look like his secret power is shape shifting into a grizzly bear. I realize, though, that this weird new look and manner has its origins in the comics. I just found it disorienting and off-putting.  And he really doesn’t get anything interesting to do.  (More than Bucky, though!)  (Okay, actually, in fairness, what he does is important.  It’s just that watching him do it is kind of boring.)

I also thought Black Panther should have been given more to do, particularly because in his own story, we see far more of his diplomatic side than his agility as a warrior in his super hero costume. An enormous section of the story takes place in Wakanda, so it’s not like the popular Black Panther cast isn’t getting screentime. I just wish we had seen more from T’Challa himself.

Other things are less the movie’s problem than mine. For whatever reason, I’ve never been able to get too deeply invested in Vision or Scarlet Witch, so, of course, I’m not too invested in them here. I have no idea why I don’t find these characters interesting. On paper they’re compelling, and I like both Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen as actors.

On the other hand, I have become quite invested in Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow over the years, and I wish they’d given her a bit more to do or at least a bit more interesting stuff to do, though I do love her in that last big girl fight in Wakanda.

Overall:
If you have seen even half of the Marvel movies since the release of Iron Man in 2008 and you don’t see Avengers: Infinity War, you’ll regret it. You know you will. So buy a ticket, check it out, and then we can discuss the movie together in more detail. 

Avengers: Infinity War isn’t the perfect movie, but it pulls off more than many thought possible, wins a place in cinematic history, and provides two and a half hours of genuine entertainment in the spring. There is absolutely nothing better out right now, so be like everyone else and go see Avengers: Infinity War.  And if you’ve already seen it, see it again.  And if you’ve already seen it twice…

Then maybe give the movies a rest and spend some time out in nature.  It’s already May, and this could be your last chance to see wildflowers.  You’ll be seeing Marvel heroes on screen for the rest of your life.  Trust me, the success of this movie guarantees that the Avengers won’t disassemble any time soon.