Avengers: Infinity War (spoilers ahead)

Copy-pasting from the other board I post on:

- I was surprised at how compelling and interesting they made Thanos. The bar is pretty low for "good villain in a Marvel movie," but still. He had clear reasons for what he was doing, and while he's still clearly a bad guy, you understand why he's doing what he's doing.

- Of course, I wonder where they go from here. They did a good job of making the stakes seem real in this one, and most of the deaths seem like they mean something. But, it's hard to believe they're going to continue doing a bunch of movies with half the heroes dead, especially ones from popular, recent movies like Black Panther. The comic books had a House of M storyline, where half the world's mutants get depowered, and only eventually regain their powers. It wouldn't surprise me if something similar happens here, where they use the time stone to go back and "fix" things, but in the process you change history in a bunch of different little ways. (And, that'll give them an "out" to recast roles.)

My other fantasy booking for this: It wouldn't surprise me if whatever they do in Infinity Wars 2 reverts the snap, but the other ones - Gamora, Vision, Heimdall, etc. - are still dead. Another past Marvel storytelling device would be to have, say, the resolution of IW2 being the elimination of Thanos from the timeline, but as a result you get more of a Chaotic Evil vs. the Lawful Evil that Thanos kind of is.

- The post-credits scene, I heard it was a big deal, and I was slightly disappointed it was "just" a signal for Captain Marvel, who were already know exists because she's been cast. Given the recent Fox-Disney deal, I thought maayyybeeee we would have gotten a Patrick Stewart or X-Men cameo, and everyone would have lost their fucking shit.

- Worst part of the movie was probably all of the Vision-Scarlet Witch stuff. I mean, it was perfectly average for a superhero movie, but it seemed weird to me that they were such prominent characters in this one. Also, Peter Quill was kind of a bitch in this one, and it makes me wonder if he goes heel in some future movie.

 

Saw it today. I find these movies unbelievably tedious, but my kid loved it.

 

My friend also has a theory that Ant Man plays into it, because he was mentioned at one point too.

I was hella pissed at the end because, as a person who is nerdy about some things but not about comic books / superheroes / Marvel, I thought this was the final Avengers movie. No more Avengers. So when it snapped and the credits rolled, I yelled audibly "what the f---" in the theater, because THAT WAS NOT AN ENDING. (Then my friend, who had the extra ticket and was the reason I was going in the first place, informed me that part 2 was coming next year.) But since I have zero stake in any of this (I hadn't even seen the Captain America movies until last week), I was probably the only one who had zero visceral reaction to the movie. It was an interesting movie watching experience, especially once you got to the snap, because in my theater, it was like "welp, there's the Spider-Man stans. There's the Bucky stans. There's the Black Panther stans." There were all of these clusters of people who were super into specific heroes who just lost it when they disintegrated. People were flipping the screen off when "Thanos will return" came before the credits.

(Also, it has to be said that Spider-Man's last words "I don't want to go" were the same as when David Tennant's Doctor regenerated.)

My friend is quite a bit younger than me and was wailing about having to wait A WHOLE YEAR but as a fan of Sherlock and Harry Potter, where three-year-plus wait times are standard operating procedure, I'm like, eh, a year.

 

I’m wondering how damaged the Gauntlet was from The Snap and what that will mean. Will the Stones themselves be damaged? I’m imagining they are. Maybe the heroes will retire eve it and won’t be able to reverse time, but they will be able to send a team back in time to keep it from happening. I’m betting Ant-Man and Hawkeye get involved because members of their families were among the people who got snap-killed.

 

I’m curious if this plays into Agents of SHIELD at all.

 

Am I wrong to assume that Rudd and Renner just didn’t want to do this movie? I just figured they were giving us a two-second explanation that would fit the story.

 

They’re both contracted for more movies. I know Renner was seen on the set of the next one in a new Hawkeye outfit so he’s making some kind of an appearance in the next one. I think Rudd was on the set of that one too but not positive.

 

Loved it!
I would put it as my second favorite movie, behind the 1st Avengers and just ahead of Black Panther.

I thought Bruce Banner was the most annoying part of the movie?
Why would the Hulk NOT appear? WTF?

They did a tremendous job weaving all the characters into the plot. Strange/Stark and Quill/Thor was great! I thought Quill was great. His inferiority complex among real heroes was awesome.
My jaw dropped when the Red Skull was revealed. He was always one of my favorite villains. Gamora ... I think is dead ... She was sacrificed to achieve the Soulstone. If there's a way around it, it's cheap.


I don't think anymore who disappeared during the "Snappening" is dead.
1: I think Dr. Strange knows what's up. That's why he surrendered the stone, plus his last words.
2: Thanos rewound time to seize Vision's stone. .. So, yeah, I don't think anyone who "disappeared" is dead. ... Great job by Brolin, too

Loki ... Don't know. He's been dead before. Won't be surprised either way.
I'm with @Wenders .. It drives me up a fucking wall when they just cut a movie in half to make a second, and I have to wait a year to see it.

 

I heard someone speculate that the resin why Hulk wouldn't appear was because he got his ass so thoroughly kicked by Thanos he was afraid to come out.

 

I'll add:
Avengers did a great job with Thanos and the build up.
Go back to 1st one when Loki was the main villain and he was so bad ass. Now, he's almost a gag and Thanos, a Titan, is the end-all, be-all of Marvel Villains. Little surprised at how easily he dispatched Hulk though.
This is the high-water mark for the Marvel villainy. There's nowhere else to go.
They'll have to go back to individual movies: Spiderman, Black Panther, Ant-Man, GofG, etc after this because they went to the top of the villain food chain.

Full Comic Nerd alert:
In the MU there are only a handful of characters capable of defeating Thanos.
One of which is the Hulk.
"Thanos repeatably mentions in the comics that the Hulk is one of the few characters he actively avoids conflicts with.
Hulk’s survivability is nearly unmatched. He is impervious to nuclear threats, energy blasts, and extreme temperatures exceeding one million degrees Fahrenheit! The Hulk’s potential to beat Thanos lies in his unbelievable strength. Hulk’s strength is beyond measure and can scale infinitely with his rage.
According to the Marvel Wikia, Hulk has a higher level of durability than Thanos. Thanos could certainly beat the Hulk when he isn’t very angry. If the Hulk was able to be enraged enough early on, or become agitated and survive Thanos’ first round of attacks, his immense power could compete and destroy or incapacitate Thanos."

 

He took tougher beatings from Thor over the 5-minute ass-whipping from Thanos.
Granted, Thonos, thoroughly mopped the floor with the green guy.
Hulk being afraid of Thanos is kind of lame. Probably true, but lame.

Next movie: Thanos will probably kill Black Widow to drive Hulk into enough fury to beat him.

 

Movie Hulk isn’t nearly as powerful as Comic Hulk. I don’t believe the infinite power potential scaling up with his anger is a thing in the movies.