Avengers: Infinity War

(spoilers!)

This is what happens when you don't call Hawkeye.

A huge cinematic accomplishment, that's for sure. 18 movies came prior to it, which makes that movie a spectacle and a 'finale' moment. However....it's not really a grand finale at all. It's just something that needed to happen...for finale to occur. Next year.

Once again since 1. I already wrote shorter version of this review on letterboxd 2. I am lazy 3. it is becoming a tradition on the Corner that CBMs more often than not get list-style review, here is my list-review for Avengers: Infinity War.

THE GOOD:
- That voice in the beginning? That's Kenneth Branagh who directed first Thor. Very nice touch.
- They Alien3-ed Ragnarok which was very cool and that opening was shockingly bold. Not only was it shocking to see MCU film begin with villains walking around next to piles of dead bodies, but it was seriously brutal.
- Poor Idris Elba. First Dark Tower happens, now he lost that MCU money. He got a proper send-off, though, doing something important.
- Hiddleston was brilliant and he will be missed in those films. His death scene - if it sticks and hopefully it will - was the most daring moment in the film. While I had a feeling Thor's "you really are the worst brother!" was played for laughs - it got HUGE laughs in my cinema - nonetheless, this is the last thing Thor says to Loki. And Loki doesn't even get the last good dig at the villain, he tells Thanos he will never be God but that means nothing, since this was never Thanos' intention or desire. I was handling that shit pretty well but holy fuck, think of the children.
  - Every single joke in the movie landed, which was delightful because I always feel so embarrassed when something was meant to make the audience laugh and didn't. Huge, huge laughs from the crowd. In fact during Thor/Guardians scenes I had to read subtitles because people laughed so hard the dialogue was impossible to hear. This is easily the funniest movie in 2018 and I doubt it will lose that title by the end of the year. I laughed so much.
- Personally my favorites were Thor referring to Rocket as 'rabbit' and Cap's pure and adorable "I am Steve Rogers". And most of Stark's lines. "Dude, you're embarrassing me in front of the wizards". Also Tony's exasperated silence at Mantis' "kick names, take ass!" was hysterical. RDJ is truly a treasure and his acting makes everything that is supposed to be funny so much funnier.
- The funny/dark tones mixing didn't feel jarring at all.
- Fantastic interactions between the characters and lovely chemistry, especially Thor and Rocket and Tony and Strange. It was so much fun watching all these characters interact. So many moments which will make this movie so rewatchable - Strange appearing and Tony asking if he is there to sell tickets, Drax's "invisible" scene, Bucky and Rocket during the battle...it was so entertaining.
- The film was very well paced. I was a bit bored at times but not "150 mins long movie" bored. I didn't feel that run time.
- It's impressive that they managed to bring back Red Skull and managed to fit in Pepper.
- Okoye FTW. She is now my favorite female character in MCU. There's nothing better than her utter disgust at men acting stupid and/or incompetent. God, I love her.
- While we are on the subject of Wakanda, the single most epic moment of the whole movie is the chant followed by T'Challa screaming "WAKANDA FOREVER!" and beginning to run. Chills.
- Chills also because bless Disney for not blurring out that gigantic bulge in T'Challa's costume. My eyes were locked on Cap but then T'Challa started moving, THAT was there and I went:

- The short - way too short - scene of Cap and T'Challa charging ahead and fighting was glorious.
- Speaking of glorious, so far, in 2018, Chris Evans with that beard, rolling in Wakandan mud is the most beautiful thing I've seen this year. Holy God. It really is a waste we didn't see Drax's reaction to him. If Thor is pirate/angel hybrid and a God-man, then what the hell even is Cap? There are no words.
- Oh yeah, Drax's reaction to Thor and everyone dragging Star-Lord was wonderful.
- There is this shot when Thanos arrives in Wakanda and Cap runs and slides on the mud and I thought I was going to explode right then and there. So many were about to die but My God I WAS LIVING.
- That trailer shot of Cap managing to hold Thanos' hand. Turns out there was no magic involved. No trickery. It was just his courage. Just how noble he is. This is enough to make him so strong. Please don't take him away from us. We need our noble Disney prince alive.
- "We don't trade lives, Captain".
- Silvestri's score is fabulous but the best part is when we go to Wakanda and Black Panther's theme plays.
- Doctor Strange was about 1000x cooler here than in his own movie. I loved every single one of his scenes.
- Every single actor - with the exception of Johansson who NEEDS TO GO - is wonderful here. The standout is definitely Tom Holland but Robert Downey Jr. comes pretty damn close perfectly balancing out funny moments and excruciating ones.
- Chris Hemsworth really gets to shine, particularly in the film's brutal opening.
- It was great for MCU to finally give more to do for Wanda, it's too little and too late, but it's something.
- It was a nice touch to allow Paul Bettany to show up without make up - it made it easier to think of Vision as someone who has human emotions etc. and it made me care about him more.
- Zoe Saldana was brilliant. I do hope Gamora stays dead because otherwise it cheapens this whole movie and Thanos' quest.
- Josh Brolin is great and Thanos is the best MCU villain yet but of course there is little competition. Still, with all the motivation they give him he is still a bit underwritten to me and he still comes off as a mad villain and not some complex character. Of all the beings in this universe what makes him so special that he is the only one who has the will to do this?
- I did not cry but that Spiderman/IronMan scene near the end came very close
- Rocket having to watch Groot die - AGAIN - was fucking brutal. Oh my God.
  - Speaking of Groot, I loved him giving a part of himself for Stormbreaker to be made. I love that cutie pie so much.
- Chris Evans' delivery of "Oh God" near the end. That was heartbreaking.
- Dinklage showing up is always awesome.
- The film really did feel very grand and there were few very brave scenes - the whole opening was honestly shocking. The scene with Thanos and young Gamora near the end was very profound and the very last scene was a brave choice. The villain gets the final scene. That's very unusual.
- My favorite action scene was the attack near Sanctum with Ebony Mew (very cool villain) and Tony and Strange fighting him, you really felt the dread. I loved the way it began, with the camera following Tony.
- The end credits, all white on black and the title disappearing were awesome.
- The post credits scene was fantastic and definitely gets me hyped for what is to come but as someone who only watches these films and doesn't follow the comics had I not read about this scene before watching the movie I'd have no idea who they are referring to.
- Bless MCU for almost allowing Samuel L. Jackson to say "motherfucker!"

THE BAD:
- The special effects of people turning into dust were horrendous. When Bucky started disappearing I was hoping it will get better but nope. It looked so cheap. This right here looks 1000x better:
  - Also the way the scene was handled....it was too fast, I didn't think the gravity of it was felt. It was felt more in the post credits scene. If we actually saw a montage of people all over the planet disappearing it would better.  It was just terribly executed. I cry during everything and here I was just so puzzled about how BAD it looked that it kept me from being emotional. It was probably because of horribly ugly backdrop on Titan and that bland forest in Wakanda, because the effects looked much better in post credits scene.
- And Sam crawling through the bushes pathetically, lol I was dying.
- What is shocking to me is how shocked people are about that ending. This isn't the last movie. Also some of those who died in the awful dust CGI have sequels announced. Why are people shocked? The next one where some if not all of original Avengers inevitably die a noble death to reverse what happened is gonna be shocking and emotional, not this. Honestly if all it takes is 5 minutes of googling to find out that Spiderman, Black Panther and Strange have sequels in the works and there is another team-up movie next May, then this isn't much of shocking ending, ain't it?
- This film is getting praise for being bleak. I'd give you that if not post credits. We are clearly given to understand that Fury uses the last resort. Someone so powerful he didn't call that person during the previous horrible events in MCU but he is calling that person now.. If that's not hope, I don't know what is. Brie Larson is gonna swoop down from Heavens and kill that fucking bitch.
- We are told Wanda and Vision love each other and that Thanos loves Gamora but it's not earned. It's "tell don't show".
- There are comparisons to Fury Road being made online and I just...no. Doctor Strange does cool stuff and it's fun watching characters fight side by side but on visual level/action movie scale there was nothing particularly memorable here. That Wakanda scene where some alien creatures are charging at them? Oh, give me a break. That battle was such a non-event.
  - Think about that - Winter Soldier has that elevator fight and the highway fight. Civil War has airport fight with tons of cool stuff. Avengers has stuff like Natasha jumping off Cap's shield. Not one single breathtaking action set piece here.
- Thor's scenes are massively overhyped. Bridge scene in Ragnarok was better. So he flies in on the middle of a field and drops a one liner. Big freaking deal.
- Wanda, where's your accent at?
- The running joke of Bruce not being able to hulk out was the worst thing here. I repeat - the worst thing here. I felt bad for Mark Ruffalo and Hulk fans. Utterly humiliating. I was dreading we are gonna get Viagra joke.


THE INFURIATING:
- Cap's team has so little to do. Widow is almost laughably underused and what she has officially made her into insufferably boring and annoying character. She doesn't do or say much BUT of course they have her in a cat fight with Promixa Midnight for some reason. That only made Widow look dumb as fuck. By all means, taunt the powerful enemy as your friends' lives are in danger. Johansson looks bored playing the part and Widow isn't even an interesting character to begin with. The fact she is getting a solo now that is unnecessary (we just had Atomic Blonde and of course Jennifer Lawrence's Whore School and Widow's past was shown in reprehensibly sexist, awful and terribly handled flashback's in Age of Ultron), overdue (they are at 20+ movie and NOW they are gracious enough to give her a movie?) and frankly a waste (give Okoye her solo instead).
- This is what she did when Thor landed. Woman, what the hell are you acting to?!
- Here she is biting her nails as aliens arrive. I can't even.

- Missing trailer shots which for the love of God, were better than what was in the movie. The most epic shot of Wakanda battle (heroes running) was not in the movie. Thor rising his hand - obviously with edited out Stormbreaker - with Rocket and Groot watching in awe was not in the movie. Cap's "let's go" not in the movie. I appreciate all the stuff they did to surprise people but when the trailer is more epic than the actual film.....that ain't good. Also they even took out RDJ saying 'wow!' in Star-Lord scene which crippled the joke and took me out of the movie because I was so puzzled as to why they took it out. It's not my fault for watching the trailer, it's their fault for putting it in the trailer and taking it out of the movie.

THE HORRIFYING:
- I'm not sure the situation where people say Strange is stupid because he gave up the stone to save Tony is what writers intended for people to think, because good lord they do. It's very clear to me that he is giving it up because in one outcome he saw them win Tony was alive but that's not really signaled well, whereas the possibility to make another gauntlet (the form in the forge) is telegraphed. The worst offender of laborious writing to make people care more because something is gonna happen is having Petter and Tony discuss having a kid. Good God.
- It's such a contrivance that ALL the original Avengers are sill alive. You just know we are losing some of them in the next movie. MCU God help you if you kill off Cap so that Star-Lord can live. God help you.
 

75/100