Monday, December 24, 2018

Re:tro Review - Avengers: Infinity War!

Avengers: Infinity War is the culmination of ten years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that have been building to this one film so it worth the hype?  First, if you like the MCU, Infinity War is a movie you should see.  I would sum up the film this way, it is a journey.  There are some dark moments mixed with laughs and ultimately gets into the darker costs of war.  The complexity of so many characters, well handled by the filmmakers, has mentions in the movie, but I would just boil down the must-see MCU films as Captain America: Civil War (2016), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), and Black Panther (2017).  

This is really the merging of the cosmic universe of the Guardians of the Galaxy with the Avengers and protectors of the Earth.  The filmmaking team of this movie, directors Joe and Anthony Russo, and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, have worked on the MCU since Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014).  I was wondering if this movie tends towards the narrative brilliance of Winter Soldier or the dialogue clunky Captain America: Civil War (2016).  The answer is Infinity War is between them.  It is a fairly long movie at 2 hours, 29 minutes, but there is no real slow points since it is a dense, but not cluttered film.  Last note before we get to the battlefield, the audience was cheering at every character’s appearance, this may not be with every audience, but note the hype has put the flame to MCU fandom!


From the trailer, we saw that Thanos has taken the Statesman, the ship carrying the refugees from Asgard seen in Thor: Ragnarok.  We find there Loki (Tom Hiddleston) being confronted by Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his henchmen, the Black Order (introduced in the Infinity comic book).  He already possesses the purple Power Stone called the Orb that was in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).  Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is confined by the one of the Black Order, Ebony Maw (Tom Vaughn-Lawlor) who can manipulate objects.  Thanos is searching for the Tesseract, the blue Space Stone, which was on Asgard.  

This shifts to Earth with the Sanctum Sanctorum of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his fellow sorcerer Wong (Benedict Wong).  This scene was the beginning of the Infinity Gauntlet comic book.  They get an unexpected guest, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) who warns them of Thanos.  I think Ruffalo is a standout with what he goes through in the movie.  This moves to Central Park where Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is talking with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow).  Stark goes to the Sanctum Sanctorum and the reunion of Avengers is a bit awkward since Banner wasn’t around for the Civil War.  He doesn’t know why Stark is hesitant to call in the rest of the Avengers or that the team fell apart.  Banner knows the stakes are greater with Thanos behind the Invasion of New York that was in the first Avengers (2012). 


The mad Titan is searching for the two Infinity Stones on Earth; Strange’s green Time Stone contained in the Eye of Agamotto and the yellow Mind Stone powering the Vision who has gone missing.  There is no time to get help with the arrival of the Black Order’s circular ship in New York.  Peter Parker (Tom Holland) on a school bus trip senses the danger so has the help of his friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) so he can slip away as Spider-Man!  Stark and the others reach the streets to face Ebony Maw and the brute Cull Obsidian (Terry Notary) after the Time Stone.  Iron Man has to go on a rescue mission with some help.  

Out in space, the Guardians of the Galaxy; leader Star Lord (Chris Pratt), assassin raised by Thanos, Gamora (Zoe Saldana), mischievous Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), teen tree obsessed with his handheld video game, Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), deadly and goofy Drax (Dave Bautista), and empathic Mantis (Pom Klementieff, her character was introduced in 2017's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2) are responding to a distress call.  Gamora is of course important as daughter of Thanos and she has to face her father.  They are able to recover Thor who has the team split up to try to stop Thanos with a new weapon for Thor and the others heading to Knowhere to find the Collector (Benicio Del Toro).  The relationship between Thor and Rocket is fun.  Back on Earth we have the Vision (Paul Bettany) and the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) spending private time in Scotland.


They are found by Proxima Midnight (played by Monique Ganderton and voiced by Carrie Coon) and Corvus Glaive (Michael Shaw).  We have the couple later taken by Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Falcon (Anthony Mackie).  They travel to the Avengers Compound to meet with James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) who is dealing with Secretary of State Ross (William Hurt).  Later, Rogers has a place to help the Vision, Wakanda.  They are given sanctuary by Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), his general, Okoye (Danai Gurai), T-Challa's genius sister Shuri (Letitia Wright), and on the battlefield, M’Baku (Winston Duke).  

I absolutely loved the return to Wakanda, the audience was excited with the sound of the drums from Ludwig Goransson’s Black Panther music.  I'll also add that it is great to have the return of Alan Silvestri's music which gives the film an epic sweep and his Avengers theme.  We later have the addition of Nebula (Karen Gillan) who becomes important in this film.  Thanos’ motivation is to eliminate half of the universe’s people to stop the draining of resources by over population.  A few things that I may have missed with this viewing, Ant-man and Hawkeye are missing, I think it’s because of the number of characters.  There is an end credit scene, but not two which had the audience trying to shush everyone like The Quiet Place.  Last note, the film has an ending which you may need to read the Infinity Gauntlet comics by Jim Starlin to understand.

Four Infinity Stones out of Five!

#AvengerInfinityWar, #JoeandAnthonyRusso, #RobertDowneyJr, #ChrisEvans 

No comments:

Post a Comment