Infinity War discussion
May. 23rd, 2018 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brushwolfShort form; wow, that wasn't a very good superhero movie.
Initially I wasn't sure how much I was honestly dissatisfied with the movie. I mean nearly everyone died, and even though that pretty much had they come back in the sequel!!! all over it, it's still kinda a downer after a gigantically long movie. But now that it's been a few days and some thinking, yeah, it was honestly disappointing.
So it turns out when you put all of Earth's Mightiest Heroes in the same movie, some of them wind up being less mighty. It felt like the writers really loved Thor and Iron Man; liked but didn't really know what to do with Doctor Strange, Cap, War Machine and Spidey; and felt obligated to have Black Widow, Black Panther, Hulk, Winter Soldier and the Guardians of the Galaxy because they were Supposed to be In the Movie.
Infinity War starts with Thanos beating up Hulk, killing Heimdall and Loki, and killing pretty much all the civvies you were so glad made it out of Asgard during Ragnarok. I assume this is supposed to set Thanos up as the ultimate badass and someone you really hate, but honestly it kinda starts the whole "well why am I supposed to care anymore?" feelings that go for the rest of the movie.
Vision pretty much winds up being little more than a walking plot point. Like it's supposed to be so tragic that Vision's existence somehow hinges on this Infinity Stone and just as he's trying to figure out being sentient, being sapient, the biggest evil in the galaxy decides it wants to pry the stone out of his skull. Theoretically this is big, but it doesn't feel important to the story, and by the time Vision gets this big tragic moment of sacrificing himself to keep the stone away from Thanos, there's been so much other big tragic stuff going on that it's nearly impossible to care.
Which gets into the not one but three big climactic fights. It's like Peter Jackson's third Hobbit movie, Stuff You're Supposed to Care About and Can't Really. Our heroes make a long drawn out stand in Wakanda, holding off an evil army to buy time to save Vision while destroying his stone... which would be an awesome movie by itself but instead gets downplayed because Thanos is off on Titan fighting Doctor Strange, Spidey, Iron Man and most of the Guardians.
By the way, this is where they totally freakin' short Black Panther and the Wakandans. You'd figure they'd be super badass - they'd have some sort of badass techno-African stuff, like immense nkisi mechs, or actual razor women, or iziHlangu made of pure energy extending from the hand-hold, or gemsbok cavalry with armored IR vision masks, but instead they have a few pretty standard impi stand in front of the open shield wall. They don't form buffalo horns, they don't get to sing while facing down charging evil army, nothing.
'Cause who cares about the desperate last stand to hold off an evil army plot, let's see what's shakin' on Titan instead!
Where our four heroes fighting Thanos to buy time so Thor, Groot and Rocket can go to Nidavellir and forge a god-killer would be compelling, except it isn't. Thanos beats them up in a long drawn out fight and blips back to Earth, where both the plot of trying to save Vision and the plot of finally getting a weapon that can destroy Thanos are very promptly negated. Neither our heroes nor the evil army matter at all.
Did I mention how this is at the end of a hugely long movie with so many desperate fights to stave off Thanos going on so that any drama has been blunted?
The coolest part of the movie is Thor practically killing himself off in his quest to forge a godkiller, a weapon capable of destroying Thanos. It's pure awesome and I can't praise it enough. But that's Thor, and even though I really like Thor (by comparison to Iron Man, who's at best ehhh for me) there's a batch of other characters and I really would've liked to see them kick ass more in this movie.
Initially I wasn't sure how much I was honestly dissatisfied with the movie. I mean nearly everyone died, and even though that pretty much had they come back in the sequel!!! all over it, it's still kinda a downer after a gigantically long movie. But now that it's been a few days and some thinking, yeah, it was honestly disappointing.
So it turns out when you put all of Earth's Mightiest Heroes in the same movie, some of them wind up being less mighty. It felt like the writers really loved Thor and Iron Man; liked but didn't really know what to do with Doctor Strange, Cap, War Machine and Spidey; and felt obligated to have Black Widow, Black Panther, Hulk, Winter Soldier and the Guardians of the Galaxy because they were Supposed to be In the Movie.
Infinity War starts with Thanos beating up Hulk, killing Heimdall and Loki, and killing pretty much all the civvies you were so glad made it out of Asgard during Ragnarok. I assume this is supposed to set Thanos up as the ultimate badass and someone you really hate, but honestly it kinda starts the whole "well why am I supposed to care anymore?" feelings that go for the rest of the movie.
Vision pretty much winds up being little more than a walking plot point. Like it's supposed to be so tragic that Vision's existence somehow hinges on this Infinity Stone and just as he's trying to figure out being sentient, being sapient, the biggest evil in the galaxy decides it wants to pry the stone out of his skull. Theoretically this is big, but it doesn't feel important to the story, and by the time Vision gets this big tragic moment of sacrificing himself to keep the stone away from Thanos, there's been so much other big tragic stuff going on that it's nearly impossible to care.
Which gets into the not one but three big climactic fights. It's like Peter Jackson's third Hobbit movie, Stuff You're Supposed to Care About and Can't Really. Our heroes make a long drawn out stand in Wakanda, holding off an evil army to buy time to save Vision while destroying his stone... which would be an awesome movie by itself but instead gets downplayed because Thanos is off on Titan fighting Doctor Strange, Spidey, Iron Man and most of the Guardians.
By the way, this is where they totally freakin' short Black Panther and the Wakandans. You'd figure they'd be super badass - they'd have some sort of badass techno-African stuff, like immense nkisi mechs, or actual razor women, or iziHlangu made of pure energy extending from the hand-hold, or gemsbok cavalry with armored IR vision masks, but instead they have a few pretty standard impi stand in front of the open shield wall. They don't form buffalo horns, they don't get to sing while facing down charging evil army, nothing.
'Cause who cares about the desperate last stand to hold off an evil army plot, let's see what's shakin' on Titan instead!
Where our four heroes fighting Thanos to buy time so Thor, Groot and Rocket can go to Nidavellir and forge a god-killer would be compelling, except it isn't. Thanos beats them up in a long drawn out fight and blips back to Earth, where both the plot of trying to save Vision and the plot of finally getting a weapon that can destroy Thanos are very promptly negated. Neither our heroes nor the evil army matter at all.
Did I mention how this is at the end of a hugely long movie with so many desperate fights to stave off Thanos going on so that any drama has been blunted?
The coolest part of the movie is Thor practically killing himself off in his quest to forge a godkiller, a weapon capable of destroying Thanos. It's pure awesome and I can't praise it enough. But that's Thor, and even though I really like Thor (by comparison to Iron Man, who's at best ehhh for me) there's a batch of other characters and I really would've liked to see them kick ass more in this movie.