Avengers: Infinity War first reaction
Apr. 28th, 2018 12:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessAvengers: Infinity War
I’m past the poleaxed into gibberish state (where I was at for the first hour after seeing the film) and I’ve had a night’s sleep, so here’s my reaction. The answer to the question of how Marvel and the Russos would keep all the plates spinning in a film where they brought ‘everyone’ together is: in a very accomplished way. I thought they handled the Infinity Stones – where they were, what their powers were – very well, because I’d been worried that I didn’t know my comics lore or remember enoughh about them from the last however many films going in. But they were tied into character – who Loki, Stephen, Gamora, Vision and, of course, Thanos were. On occasion, you did wonder why we hadn’t gone back to one of the other lot yet, but most of the decisions were story-based. Bringing (nearly) everyone together in new combinations and building on established relationships led to pay off that goes beyond Deathly Hallows part 2, possibly even, and the ending…the ending…
My very favourite moment was when Thanos’s daughter was attacking Wanda, and Nat said she wasn’t alone, and she was backed up by Okoye. <3 Second was Groot, who up until then was comic teen!Groot, all caught up in his oldfashioned console game, sacrificing a part of himself to give the axe its handle and save Thor. This is partly because of the callback to his sacrifice in GotG1. But I loved all of the Guardians’ interactions with other people: Quill feeling threatened by half pirate-half angel Thor; the tragic family story exchange; Thor calling Rocket ‘Rabbit’ throughout, Rocket’s obsession with prosthetic body parts… I felt the ‘galactic’ stuff was a little more successful because, well, they were facing Thanos and had a better grip on what he was up to, but the emotional hits at home – Wanda/Vision, which let’s face it Nat at least knew about; when everyone fell behind Cap to try to save Vision; Wanda, who has lost so much having to do the unthinkable; Wakanda becoming the battleground; Shuri outsmarting Bruce!; Peter kind of being Tony’s son/responsibility; Stephen standing up to Tony and vice-versa (I was slow about the Sherlock vs. Sherlock there).
And I’d been so worried that Gamora and Nebulla’s backstory with Thanos would be sacrificed for the usual boys (well, mainly boys) to front up to him, but it wasn’t. Gulp. GAMORA!!!!! Should have seen it coming with the ‘I love you’s, did see it coming before Gamora.
The familial stuff (starting with Loki being killed) was extremely powerful, because in his own screwed up way, Thanos did take on and adopt Gamora, trying to shape her as his own. Whilst I’m totally on her side on his wrongness and hypocrisy, but the sense that ‘the little one’ with her fight was his favourite child came through.
I was worried about Josh Brolin as Thanos, because Brolin has (oh hai Hail, Caesar and Gangster Squad) underwhelmed me over the years, but the CGI worked for the performance to come through, and the sense of scale, in terms of interacting with wee Gamora worked for me. And his Maluthusian-genocide motivation made sense. I mean, the whole ‘destroying everyone in my way’ intro doesn’t quite fit in to the philosophy, and he should have killed Drax and Mantis, at least, as well as The Collector on Knowhere. Not that I wanted them dead, and they were both entertaining and useful for the rest of the film (plus Spidey interacting with Mantis was delightful), but their disappearance for the second time was less powerful and it just seemed odd that he’d leave survivors. But Thanos is like most things MCU, a dozen times better than the DCU’s Steppenwolf.
But back to the family theme, I thought Nebulla was deployed in powerful small doses – breaking Gamora emotionally as per her physical state. Her being the one to get that Gamora was dead first (GULP.) was epic. And although I am verklempt about her death (while I was both pleased and cynical that Loki had been offed so quickly, sad for Heimdall, and then we’ll get to the end) it was more than the love interest being killed because of her relationship to Thanos, and while Quill’s grief was showier and had more effect on the plot, Nebulla’s grief was up there. (Rocket and Groot didn’t know!) Thor also had a massive downer, given Ragnarok, as losing most of the rest of his people (er, where was Valkyrie? Is Sif still out and about in the universe?), lead to a suicidal mission so he could carry out a suicidal mission (or fail, as it turned out). I also read Nat and Steve as Wanda’s older sibling figures as much as team leaders, and by the point that they turned up I was so needing successful back up, seeing as Hulk had failed the Asgardians.
Before I get to the random other bits I have opinions on: the ending. Bravura. The packed cinema mostly stayed for all the credits – it was a useful time to process, that was quite a loud reaction to the last ten or five minutes of the film as it all unravelled. I think we were all hoping for someone to pull a rabbit from the hat, turn back time and give us the kind of ending we’re used to. I contributed to the noise, muttering ‘oh no, not Maria’ at the post-credits scene (sorry, Fury, Maria Hill, whoever she’s working for, means more to me).
I note that it’s mostly the original Avengers who survived the half the universe quell – Tony and Thor aside, the others were not major players here, and Natasha and Bruce’s reunion had only the one bit of dialogue.
Films just don’t go there normally, do you? This feels bigger than The Empire Strikes Back and Spock dying or add your own franchise entry downer. This was T’Chaila, Wanda mid emotional reaction, everyone disappearing on Tony…It is a different ball-game. When the io in Marvel Studios flashed 10, we were reminded how long this game has been running, how Marvel has the confidence to put out a film with, as the posters remind us, almost thirty named characters we’re invested in, most of them Earth and the galaxy’s defenders. And then to end with them losing, Vision getting killed twice, half of them disappearing and the rest in shock, mourning and disbelief…
That description could go for the audience.
My theories, without having gone online to do research are: that star symbol to represent whoever Fury was contacting – that has to be Captain Marvel, right? Clint and Scott (give or take supporting characters like love interests that didn’t have to be around) were sitting it out ‘for their families’. The latter means that Ant-Man and the Wasp can come out independently of all this (it’d be nice if Hawkeye turned up in that and Jeremy Renner got a break in a franchise). Is there anyone I’ve missed? I love me some Darcy Lewis, but her taser isn’t going to cut it.
I also trust Doctor Strange and his ‘one way we win’, so I’m assuming it was crucial that he made Thanos promise to save Tony (which means that the cull wasn’t entirely random, which could be interesting re Nebulla’s survival. We didn’t see what happened with Shuri, so I’m pretending she’s queen of Wakanda, and also thinking Marvel might not have killed T’Chaila – which hurt to see – if they’d known about BP’s mega box office.)
But I don’t think the cull will stick (too many sequels are involved). I think Tony is crucial to undoing it and beating Thanos, and I’d roll my eyes, but Iron Man did start this whole ball rolling, so fair enough. (Gamora, Heimdall and probably Vision, I think, will remain dead. And I need to see the film again because I’m hazy on some details.)
I also don’t know if Loki’s line about the sun coming out to Thor was significant - I said I was cynical about his death. One likely interpretation is restarting that sun/forge. Oh, and can I say I loved Peter Dinklage as the giant Dwarf? But could Loki be referring to more?
Oddments: I found the opening scene VERY confusing, and Thanos’s servant annoying, although his later use of telekinetic powers would be cool.
I myself would have brought Pepper along, STEPHEN, because she would have been great at strategizing. Tony wants to have a baby, Pepper wants him to stop endangering himself to save the world, yeah, good luck with that, and their sundering wasn’t even the saddest thing to happen to a couple in the film.
I kind of agreed with Tony about getting Stephen and the time stone AWAY from Earth and Thanos.
Peter’s friend’s cameo was ace, and his film geekery as a millennial kid paid off for me in the meeting with the other Peter, who’s film love is that of a boy in the eighties. Although PP’s dissolving on Tony caused some in our audience to titter, possibly because of how it played or that we’d seen so many goners.
Wanda/Vision had a romantic set up for their doomed love. I liked that we got to see Paul Bettany as a kind of disguise for Vision (though it made more sense outdoors than in the bedroom). I always thought he was endangered because of an infinity stone being in his head. I also worried about Steve and Tony because of rumours and talk of contracts ending. I avoided spoilers – in fact, I managed not to see the trailer, but I did fall for Infinity War being one film and not two, when it is obvious ‘Thanos will return’ i.e. there’ll be a part 2 or ‘a next Avengers film’ and I don’t care who will pulverise Thanos anymore. Just someone do it. (Of course, certain people are probably in danger for the next Avengers get-together.)
I thought the Russos did a great job with the Guardians – ‘SPACE’ and there the oddball family were, driving along, listening to music, trying to parent Groot. Also, humour and snark was deftly deployed throughout. ‘I am Groot’ ‘I’m Steve Rogers’.
Speaking of Steve, he still gets to my ovaries. Ahem.
But the fact that the Guardians didn’t know who the Avengers were and vice-versa, and Thor was the link in many a case, while Bruce had missed out on a lot worked as running gags and a hook for people who hadn’t seen all the movies. (If mundanes ask me about the film, I’ll be recommending it but I’ll be quizzing them on which Marvel movies they’ve seen.)
Bruce’s running battle with the Hulk was funny and giving him a robot suit was one way of getting him in on the action. I suppose given all that was going on it would have been too much to ask for a conversation with Natasha, but…they really need to have a conversation.
Natasha, Steve and Bucky’s hair did not bother me as much as I expected it to (nice snark, Thor).
I liked the hint of the friendship that could have been between Rhodey and Sam (as they were on opposing sides of the civil war) and I’d have loved to have more time for those two particularly to have had a reaction to Wakanda, but I don’t think Marvel were quite in the same place as the audience was re the critical, cultural and popular success Black Panther would be. Thanos wanting to see the dawn on his new universe plays off Erik getting to see a Wakandan sun (oh, was it -set or -rise?).
I was not the only one in the audience who hissed ‘Skeletor’ when we first saw the guardian of the Soul Stone. It then occurred to me that that wasn’t why I was finding him familiar – I think the credits were for Red Skull.
I didn’t spot a Community cameo, so that’s another thing to check.
I’ve probably forgotten someone or something because there was so much going on. I was emotional about losing Gamora (although it was merely gulping and lifting my hand on my chest, not crying); I was invested in Wanda, although she played a less central role in this than Natasha my greatest investment in Avengers did, but I think this is closer to Avengers levels of good than Ultron and Civil War. I loved the bringing in of the Guardians particularly, although I wonder if some will be disappointed at the lack of core Avengers action – but l think the next Avengers film will cover that. I don’t know the truth of what went on on set, but you felt that actorly ego was reined back in service of the bigger story – think how much airtime Thanos got for character development. I felt the lack of having rewatched Civil War recently. I planned on going to see it again, and I absolutely will after regaining some emotional composure.
I’m past the poleaxed into gibberish state (where I was at for the first hour after seeing the film) and I’ve had a night’s sleep, so here’s my reaction. The answer to the question of how Marvel and the Russos would keep all the plates spinning in a film where they brought ‘everyone’ together is: in a very accomplished way. I thought they handled the Infinity Stones – where they were, what their powers were – very well, because I’d been worried that I didn’t know my comics lore or remember enoughh about them from the last however many films going in. But they were tied into character – who Loki, Stephen, Gamora, Vision and, of course, Thanos were. On occasion, you did wonder why we hadn’t gone back to one of the other lot yet, but most of the decisions were story-based. Bringing (nearly) everyone together in new combinations and building on established relationships led to pay off that goes beyond Deathly Hallows part 2, possibly even, and the ending…the ending…
My very favourite moment was when Thanos’s daughter was attacking Wanda, and Nat said she wasn’t alone, and she was backed up by Okoye. <3 Second was Groot, who up until then was comic teen!Groot, all caught up in his oldfashioned console game, sacrificing a part of himself to give the axe its handle and save Thor. This is partly because of the callback to his sacrifice in GotG1. But I loved all of the Guardians’ interactions with other people: Quill feeling threatened by half pirate-half angel Thor; the tragic family story exchange; Thor calling Rocket ‘Rabbit’ throughout, Rocket’s obsession with prosthetic body parts… I felt the ‘galactic’ stuff was a little more successful because, well, they were facing Thanos and had a better grip on what he was up to, but the emotional hits at home – Wanda/Vision, which let’s face it Nat at least knew about; when everyone fell behind Cap to try to save Vision; Wanda, who has lost so much having to do the unthinkable; Wakanda becoming the battleground; Shuri outsmarting Bruce!; Peter kind of being Tony’s son/responsibility; Stephen standing up to Tony and vice-versa (I was slow about the Sherlock vs. Sherlock there).
And I’d been so worried that Gamora and Nebulla’s backstory with Thanos would be sacrificed for the usual boys (well, mainly boys) to front up to him, but it wasn’t. Gulp. GAMORA!!!!! Should have seen it coming with the ‘I love you’s, did see it coming before Gamora.
The familial stuff (starting with Loki being killed) was extremely powerful, because in his own screwed up way, Thanos did take on and adopt Gamora, trying to shape her as his own. Whilst I’m totally on her side on his wrongness and hypocrisy, but the sense that ‘the little one’ with her fight was his favourite child came through.
I was worried about Josh Brolin as Thanos, because Brolin has (oh hai Hail, Caesar and Gangster Squad) underwhelmed me over the years, but the CGI worked for the performance to come through, and the sense of scale, in terms of interacting with wee Gamora worked for me. And his Maluthusian-genocide motivation made sense. I mean, the whole ‘destroying everyone in my way’ intro doesn’t quite fit in to the philosophy, and he should have killed Drax and Mantis, at least, as well as The Collector on Knowhere. Not that I wanted them dead, and they were both entertaining and useful for the rest of the film (plus Spidey interacting with Mantis was delightful), but their disappearance for the second time was less powerful and it just seemed odd that he’d leave survivors. But Thanos is like most things MCU, a dozen times better than the DCU’s Steppenwolf.
But back to the family theme, I thought Nebulla was deployed in powerful small doses – breaking Gamora emotionally as per her physical state. Her being the one to get that Gamora was dead first (GULP.) was epic. And although I am verklempt about her death (while I was both pleased and cynical that Loki had been offed so quickly, sad for Heimdall, and then we’ll get to the end) it was more than the love interest being killed because of her relationship to Thanos, and while Quill’s grief was showier and had more effect on the plot, Nebulla’s grief was up there. (Rocket and Groot didn’t know!) Thor also had a massive downer, given Ragnarok, as losing most of the rest of his people (er, where was Valkyrie? Is Sif still out and about in the universe?), lead to a suicidal mission so he could carry out a suicidal mission (or fail, as it turned out). I also read Nat and Steve as Wanda’s older sibling figures as much as team leaders, and by the point that they turned up I was so needing successful back up, seeing as Hulk had failed the Asgardians.
Before I get to the random other bits I have opinions on: the ending. Bravura. The packed cinema mostly stayed for all the credits – it was a useful time to process, that was quite a loud reaction to the last ten or five minutes of the film as it all unravelled. I think we were all hoping for someone to pull a rabbit from the hat, turn back time and give us the kind of ending we’re used to. I contributed to the noise, muttering ‘oh no, not Maria’ at the post-credits scene (sorry, Fury, Maria Hill, whoever she’s working for, means more to me).
I note that it’s mostly the original Avengers who survived the half the universe quell – Tony and Thor aside, the others were not major players here, and Natasha and Bruce’s reunion had only the one bit of dialogue.
Films just don’t go there normally, do you? This feels bigger than The Empire Strikes Back and Spock dying or add your own franchise entry downer. This was T’Chaila, Wanda mid emotional reaction, everyone disappearing on Tony…It is a different ball-game. When the io in Marvel Studios flashed 10, we were reminded how long this game has been running, how Marvel has the confidence to put out a film with, as the posters remind us, almost thirty named characters we’re invested in, most of them Earth and the galaxy’s defenders. And then to end with them losing, Vision getting killed twice, half of them disappearing and the rest in shock, mourning and disbelief…
That description could go for the audience.
My theories, without having gone online to do research are: that star symbol to represent whoever Fury was contacting – that has to be Captain Marvel, right? Clint and Scott (give or take supporting characters like love interests that didn’t have to be around) were sitting it out ‘for their families’. The latter means that Ant-Man and the Wasp can come out independently of all this (it’d be nice if Hawkeye turned up in that and Jeremy Renner got a break in a franchise). Is there anyone I’ve missed? I love me some Darcy Lewis, but her taser isn’t going to cut it.
I also trust Doctor Strange and his ‘one way we win’, so I’m assuming it was crucial that he made Thanos promise to save Tony (which means that the cull wasn’t entirely random, which could be interesting re Nebulla’s survival. We didn’t see what happened with Shuri, so I’m pretending she’s queen of Wakanda, and also thinking Marvel might not have killed T’Chaila – which hurt to see – if they’d known about BP’s mega box office.)
But I don’t think the cull will stick (too many sequels are involved). I think Tony is crucial to undoing it and beating Thanos, and I’d roll my eyes, but Iron Man did start this whole ball rolling, so fair enough. (Gamora, Heimdall and probably Vision, I think, will remain dead. And I need to see the film again because I’m hazy on some details.)
I also don’t know if Loki’s line about the sun coming out to Thor was significant - I said I was cynical about his death. One likely interpretation is restarting that sun/forge. Oh, and can I say I loved Peter Dinklage as the giant Dwarf? But could Loki be referring to more?
Oddments: I found the opening scene VERY confusing, and Thanos’s servant annoying, although his later use of telekinetic powers would be cool.
I myself would have brought Pepper along, STEPHEN, because she would have been great at strategizing. Tony wants to have a baby, Pepper wants him to stop endangering himself to save the world, yeah, good luck with that, and their sundering wasn’t even the saddest thing to happen to a couple in the film.
I kind of agreed with Tony about getting Stephen and the time stone AWAY from Earth and Thanos.
Peter’s friend’s cameo was ace, and his film geekery as a millennial kid paid off for me in the meeting with the other Peter, who’s film love is that of a boy in the eighties. Although PP’s dissolving on Tony caused some in our audience to titter, possibly because of how it played or that we’d seen so many goners.
Wanda/Vision had a romantic set up for their doomed love. I liked that we got to see Paul Bettany as a kind of disguise for Vision (though it made more sense outdoors than in the bedroom). I always thought he was endangered because of an infinity stone being in his head. I also worried about Steve and Tony because of rumours and talk of contracts ending. I avoided spoilers – in fact, I managed not to see the trailer, but I did fall for Infinity War being one film and not two, when it is obvious ‘Thanos will return’ i.e. there’ll be a part 2 or ‘a next Avengers film’ and I don’t care who will pulverise Thanos anymore. Just someone do it. (Of course, certain people are probably in danger for the next Avengers get-together.)
I thought the Russos did a great job with the Guardians – ‘SPACE’ and there the oddball family were, driving along, listening to music, trying to parent Groot. Also, humour and snark was deftly deployed throughout. ‘I am Groot’ ‘I’m Steve Rogers’.
Speaking of Steve, he still gets to my ovaries. Ahem.
But the fact that the Guardians didn’t know who the Avengers were and vice-versa, and Thor was the link in many a case, while Bruce had missed out on a lot worked as running gags and a hook for people who hadn’t seen all the movies. (If mundanes ask me about the film, I’ll be recommending it but I’ll be quizzing them on which Marvel movies they’ve seen.)
Bruce’s running battle with the Hulk was funny and giving him a robot suit was one way of getting him in on the action. I suppose given all that was going on it would have been too much to ask for a conversation with Natasha, but…they really need to have a conversation.
Natasha, Steve and Bucky’s hair did not bother me as much as I expected it to (nice snark, Thor).
I liked the hint of the friendship that could have been between Rhodey and Sam (as they were on opposing sides of the civil war) and I’d have loved to have more time for those two particularly to have had a reaction to Wakanda, but I don’t think Marvel were quite in the same place as the audience was re the critical, cultural and popular success Black Panther would be. Thanos wanting to see the dawn on his new universe plays off Erik getting to see a Wakandan sun (oh, was it -set or -rise?).
I was not the only one in the audience who hissed ‘Skeletor’ when we first saw the guardian of the Soul Stone. It then occurred to me that that wasn’t why I was finding him familiar – I think the credits were for Red Skull.
I didn’t spot a Community cameo, so that’s another thing to check.
I’ve probably forgotten someone or something because there was so much going on. I was emotional about losing Gamora (although it was merely gulping and lifting my hand on my chest, not crying); I was invested in Wanda, although she played a less central role in this than Natasha my greatest investment in Avengers did, but I think this is closer to Avengers levels of good than Ultron and Civil War. I loved the bringing in of the Guardians particularly, although I wonder if some will be disappointed at the lack of core Avengers action – but l think the next Avengers film will cover that. I don’t know the truth of what went on on set, but you felt that actorly ego was reined back in service of the bigger story – think how much airtime Thanos got for character development. I felt the lack of having rewatched Civil War recently. I planned on going to see it again, and I absolutely will after regaining some emotional composure.
