The titles of Marvel movies are often misleading. For example, Civil War was promoted as Captain America: Civil War, when it could just as easily been promoted as an Iron Man sequel or an Avengers movie, since Iron Man was just as central to the story as Captain America, and it was his actions that ultimately led to the destruction of the Avengers team. And now that Thanos is making his long-awaited move, bringing in the Guardians of the Galaxy, Asgardians, Wakandans, Dr. Strange, Spider-Man and all of the (former) Avengers, what we are calling Avengers: Infinity War would be just as well called “Thanos Vs. The Marvel Cinematic Universe.”
Guess who wins.
As fans know, the unifying arc of the Marvel movies since at least The Avengers is that Thanos is a demi-god level threat who has been collecting various “Infinity Stones”, some of which are possesssed by Marvel heroes. When all the stones are together, their owner has absolute control of space and time. Thanos seeks this power in order to restore balance by killing half the population of the universe. Apparently nobody told him about condoms.
Other good titles for this movie would be:
“The Search For A Thanos CGI That Doesn’t Suck”
“The Scriptwriters Don’t Seem To Like Star-Lord For Some Reason”
and “They Can’t Kill That Guy, He’s Still Under Contract”.
I waited until my friends were available to see the movie with me, so by now, most people are either aware of the ending or have been spoiled somewhat. The ultimate doom of the piece is greatly undermined because, A, we already know there is going to be a sequel, and B, anyone who knows about the original source material knows that a device that can control the universe and time can also reverse any changes made with it, which is how the comicbook story was resolved. But the major difference between a comicbook universe and its movie adaptation is that comic companies can use fictional characters and resurrect them without regard to age or death, whereas movie producers have to deal with real-world factors. For instance, Marvel Comics has had Steve Rogers quit being Captain America on several occasions (sometimes replaced by Bucky or Sam) but he usually comes back to the role. But even if Chris Evans wanted to play Captain America forever, Captain America is supposed to be at the peak of human athletic ability, and no one can be that buff past their early 30s. Whereas Robert Downey Jr. could conceivably play Iron Man (a normal human whose powers come from technology) well past the age of 50, but his star power has already made renewing his contract too expensive. This is going to reset the universe, but not in the way that would happen in the comics.
So as both a comic reader and MCU fan, my approach to all this is a bit “meta.” Avengers: Infinity War was directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, who did my two favorite Marvel movies, Civil War and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. (The best MCU movie verges between those two, Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, depending on my mood.) There’s a lot of great dialogue and good acting (especially from Chris Hemsworth, remarkably enough). But I can’t say it’s the greatest Marvel movie. Others have pointed out that (despite a strong performance by Josh Brolin) Thanos has a severe problem as a villain, which I will address when I have more time to think about it. The major problem with this movie is that it’s the least stand-alone of all Marvel movies, and necessarily incomplete. It’s basically 95 percent awesomeness, and 5 percent …….