I know, I know. Maybe they’re pushing it too far and by now it kind of feels like a grand tv series, with the Avengers movie being the double episode. This doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying what they did to the franchise, so I went to see the last Avengers movie as well and I have to say it was good… up until the final battle. And not for the reasons you think. Spoilers ahead, of course, if you haven’t seen it by now.
One of the astonishing things in the first movie was the storytelling and how they were able to balance all characters in the right way.
The balancing of characters was something to be feared, giving that this movie assembles everybody. Ironman, Thor and Loki, Hulk, Captain America and the Winter Soldier, the Black Widow, War Machine and Falcon, Dr. Strange and Wong, baby Spiderman, T’Challa, Starlord, Gamora and Nebula, Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Mantis, Drax and Groot, the Rocket Raccoon, and I know I left out lots and lots of people. For good measure, they bring back the Red Skull, even if Hugo Weaving wasn’t available and apparently is done paying the lease. So how to write something that makes sense? Well, it’s a difficult challenge and the movie came out not without flaws, but still the plot dances quite gracefully through every story-line, trying to tie them together.
Infinity War picks up right after the ending of Thor Ragnarock and does a sensible thing because, if you have Loki in the movie, you won’t have room for anybody else. So off we go with him. Also, it completely makes sense to team up Thor with the Guardians of the Galaxy, or at least part of them, giving the pop flavor we tasted in his last movie. It’s quite a different character from the one we saw the first time, but I really like him. Equally obvious is that the Guardians will take a much darker tone: Gamora is facing her father and her whole relationship with Thanos isn’t bad at all.
On the other hand, Ironman continues to develop his relationship with the baby Spiderman and though I’ve always been a hater of Peter’s character the relationship is quite well developed.
The weakest ring is Captain America and all those Civil War references. I’ve seen the movie only once and, although I’m a superhero fan, it was really difficult for me to remember what was going on. I can’t help but feeling that they’re pushing this too far and people will start being annoyed by this just as much as they were annoyed by the comics at a certain point.
On the other hand, I’m glad to see they gave dr Strange the space both he and the actor deserved. Among the recent movies, it was probably my favorite.
Thanos, on the other hand, has stupid motives and there’s no way you can forget that. He’s seeking omnipotence in order to balance the universe and still, when he gains that power, all he can use it for is a shortcut to his old ways. We’ve had stupid spacelords before (my poor poor Ronan, what did they do to you…) but he’s the champion of them all.
Still, the movie holds up well and is enjoyable enough, up until they mess everything up in the final battle.
I’ve seen massive killings of superheroes before (House of M, anybody?) and with great power come great responsibilities, as they say. One responsibility is making sure you use death wisely. Don’t kill off characters if you already announced their sequel might be a good rule, for example. Or give characters the grand ending they deserve, so that we will take you seriously. I mean, we can all believe Loki and Gamora are dead, right? At least for a minute, we can. But we can’t believe you killed Spiderman and T’Challa. You can’t think we’re that stupid. Unless you know we won’t believe you and this means you didn’t need this ending. You could end it right when Thanos snaps his fingers and we would all be here, excited, to wait for the next movie. Right now I don’t feel that excitement. I just feel boredom. Unless…
Well, as it often happens, it’s Nick Fury who has to save everybody’s asses and by that I mean he actually saves the ending with his last tweet. I proudly was one of the few people to catch the reference in the post-ending scene and Carol Danvers has always been one of my favorite characters, so ok, bring it on.
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