Avengers: Infinity War (spoilers ahead)

There are Avengers set photos of Jeremy Renner, though it looks like he is wearing the Ronin costume, not Hawkeye.

 

Amadeus Cho is still a Hulk in the comics. It's an interesting take because the creature is fueled by rage and Amadeus is a relatively calm, light-hearted person. He doesn't have the internal rage that has always defined Bruce Banner, who was abused as a child.

I did like the Jane Foster version of Thor, but I don't see them going that route in the movies. I had the same problem with Falcon as Captain America. He's a fine character, but he's not Cap. The Bucky version worked much better.

Miles Morales pretty much had to be a great character to work. I just read Brian Michael Bendis's final issue on the character, which includes a two-page farewell column. They created him simply to have a minority character in the costume because there was no reason Spider-Man had to be white. They killed off the Ultimate version of Peter Parker so he could serve an Uncle Ben type role for Miles. I guess they could do that in the movies, too, but it seems like they have only scratched the surface on Tom Holland's version of Peter. At the very least, we should see the fallout from Aunt May finding out he is Spider-Man.

 

Went out to see it (for less than $7 no less) because I was worried about the spoilers. Thought the herd could have used some thinning in any case, but I wasn't expecting that. Still the line that stuck with me was Strange's "This is the only way" to Stark, so I figure there is a plan. I get a big tired of the WWE-ness of the Marvel fight scenes and usually tune out when they're happening. As it is, I'm hoping next year's sequel will provide some closure, or at least a jump off point for those who have been MCU fans since Iron Man. I don't know how you raise the stakes higher than eliminating half the universe. I've always preferred the humans who became heroes over the aliens - makes them more relatible.
Nice to see Dinklage stand tall. Surprised it was Brolin as Thanos. I kept figuring it was Jerry from ER.

 

That's the theory. Strange saw the one way that they beat Thanos and it involved him handing over the Time Stone, knowing that half of them were going to get snapped.

 

I saw the film today with the youngest, who really wanted to see it. The only Marvel films I saw previously were the two Guardians films and Black Panther, so I don't really know all the characters, back stories and plot lines.

My issue with the ending, and, to me, the difference between this film and Empire Strikes Back was that there was no scene afterward to make the viewers go home feeling reassured.

In Empire Strikes Back, they have Luke getting his hand back, and talking to Lando and Chewie about how they're going to get Han back. In Infinity War, it's half the population disappearing , and Thanos looking out at the sunset.

There's nothing from the remaining characters vowing that the fight isn't over.

My son and I found the ending pretty depressing.

 

This could be because I hate myself, but that is why I liked the ending.

It didn't follow the standard superhero trope. Thanos won. He's on his farm watching the sunset. The Avengers are destroyed. It caught me off guard. It was awesome.

 

I think that's the more common take on it. A buddy of mine posted two pictures on Facebook when he and his wife saw it over the weekend. The first shot is both of them smiling before the movie. The second is his wife, a look of utter shock on her face. She seemed close to tears. Yet the both say they loved the movie.

Yes, it's dark. The falling action is there, just as it was in The Empire Strikes Back, but in this case it is when we see Thanos alone looking at the sunset. That is the moment with the protagonist reflecting on his victory, including what it cost him. It's not a happy end, but it's still about as satisfying as it could be given that this is only the beginning of a two-part story.

 

I saw this a couple of weeks ago and people were literally weeping in the theater.

The whole time I'm thinking, "You know there's a time stone, right? He was literally just using it to manipulate time."

Plus there's the cynical yet obvious reality that they aren't going to kill off all their cash cows ... er, characters ... in one fell swoop.

I wanted to be affected by that ending, but this was a big, fat eyeroll for me.

Still waiting for other comic book movies to follow the Logan approach and achieve something beyond watching a glorified video game.

 

There is no way they are going to go full-on Logan in an Avengers movie.

You're assuming none of the deaths will stick. I don't think that is the case.

The smart thing would be to allow all of the deaths before the snap to be permanent. Not that anybody cares about Heimdall or believes Loki will stay gone, but Gamora is a significant death.

I'm assuming there will be characters killed off that stay dead in Avengers 4, but it's possible they will disappoint us in that regard.

The trick they pulled is the deaths from the snap did not occur as Thanos said they would. He said those people would simply cease to exist. Instead, we saw them fade slowly enough to know what was happening. Then there was Spider-Man, whose passing seemed to slow down more just to give Tom Holland more time to do his thing.

 

Yes, awesome. These movies don’t really disappoint. But it may just be the end of the first act.
Shuri was finishing or finished programming the mind stone just as the bad guys stormed the lab, combine that with what Dr. Strange may have done to the time stone and you get to Act II & III. Act II is Avengers Assemble. Captain Marvel gets Tony off Titan with Nebula. And they rejoin the rest of the gang with AntMan and Wasp. Thanos may relize the mind stone and time stone were used to create an alternate reality within Thanos’ subconscious. Act IIIis resurrection, fight and redemption.

 

The method of the deaths was just further playing with the emotions of the audience. This was just Glenn "falling" into the crowd of zombies in The Walking Dead.

No reason at this point to assume any of the deaths will last. Whoever controls the time stone can go back to whatever point they want and bring everyone back. I suppose there could be some contrivance where Star Lord or someone else has to make the decision whether to go back before Gamora dies, balanced against some sort of downside. But really, with the implied powers available to whoever holds the gauntlet, what can't they do?

Gamora's is the only potential death that "sticks" that has any impact. Saldana's was also the best performance in this film IMO. (Holy shit Doctor Strange is awful. Why can't he crumble into dust?)

I was more lamenting the lack of more Logans in the comic book movie rotation, rather than actually believing it will happen.

 

I think you are right, that the "deaths" are easily reversible, even Gamora's. But this was always going to be Act 1 of 2. If everyone makes it out of Act 2 alive, I'll be surprised. I think all those who vanished will come back, but it will be at the cost of the life or lives of the original Avengers.

That could give you the "Logan" moment or feeling.

Also, Doctor Strange did crumble into dust.