Road to Endgame: Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Avengers: Infinity War could have easily flown off a cliff. It has to balance what seems like dozens of characters, many with their own plotlines and arcs, and establish a villain from scratch, who they've teased and built anticipation for for over half a decade. Like Captain America: Civil War, it's surprising that the film not only just works, it works pretty well. This is my third time watching Infinity War, and I feel pretty much the same about it as I did on my last watch, the first time that that's happened in this watchthrough.

Where do I even begin? The prime reason that this doesn't crumble under its own weight is because the screenwriters are smart enough to know that, for a movie with so many characters, the only way to make it work is make it unbalanced. Whereas Age of Ultron tried to give each of its characters an arc, Infinity War prioritises characters effectively. Obviously, as a 'stone-keeper', Doctor Strange is more important than, say, Black Panther to the narrative, and the screenplay embraces this hierarchy. It doesn't try to hand out equal screentime to each character, and that's why it works. By focusing on a select few (Iron Man, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Strange, Gamora and, of course, Thanos), the film inherits a structure and a pacing that drives it throughout. This is a movie with a lot of exposition, brave since that is historically not Marvel's strongest suit. While some of it definitely feels heavy-handed, it doesn't slow down the narrative too much.

Infinity War's standout moment.

It's hard to tell which character to start with, but I definitely noticed a common thread on this viewing. Throughout the film, characters act on impulsive emotion rather than logic. Spider-Man (thanks to the solo film in the interim, Tom Holland feels much more at home here than he did in Civil War) tags along into space, Drax gives up the element of surprise on Knowhere, we learn that Loki stole the Tesseract and Nebula tried to kill Thanos, Thor goes for the chest to hurt rather than kill, and, most infamously, Star-Lord gives up their advantage on Titan. There are only two notable times where a character ignores their emotion to fulfil a goal. First, when Thanos kills Gamora on Vormir (in a beautifully scored, emotional scene, albeit one with some very poor dialogue), and then when Wanda kills Vision (the most emotionally impactful scene of the movie for me, and probably my favourite overall). I don't know if this thread was intentional, but it certainly recurs enough times for it to be.

Thanos: a mixed bag, but definitely
the film's strongest character.

The strongest character in the film is probably Josh Brolin's Thanos. He was the only character the film needed to establish from scratch and he works surprisingly well. I do think his motivations are pretty much ignored. I understand how he wants to wipe out half of the universe, and I understand how he justifies it, but I don't understand why. It's never explained why he himself is willing to sacrifice so much for this goal. However, I think everything we do see on screen from him is great, from his introduction as a towering silhouette on the Asgardian ship to the half-smile at the end as he 'watches the sun rise on a grateful universe'. The scene on Vormir, on Gamora's home planet and on his ship really help to flesh out his character. It's a shame that the film never really explains why he zeroed in on this small girl in the midst of all the chaos, but it's one of the film's strongest relationships. Thanos is really well-acted by Brolin and it's amazing how you feel sorry for him after he kills Gamora, and how much raw emotion can be shown on a purple CGI face. His actions in this film do open up a myriad of plot holes from previous films, though. Why did Thanos wait so long to start collecting the Stones? Why did he entrust one of them to Loki? If the Infinity Gauntlet was created specifically for him, and is more-or-less one-of-a-kind, why does Asgard has a replica on display, with all the Stones present, even though that hadn't been achieved yet? I could go on.

You'd think a servant of
Thanos would be able to
pronounce his name
correctly.

While we're on the subject of the Mad Titan, allow me to indulge in a nitpick. Does it bother anyone else that 'Thanos' is pronounced in several different ways throughout the film? Zoe Saldana, Mark Ruffalo, Bradley Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch and more all pronounce it in what I think is the correct way: 'Than - ose'. Meanwhile, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Vaughn-Lawlor and others pronounce it 'Than - oss'. In perhaps the weirdest one, the guy Marvel got in to replace Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull pronounces it 'Thay - noss'. If this shows anything, I think it's probably an indication of a lot of the creative team being present in the later stages of production to lock stupid stuff like this down. Infinity War and Endgame were shot back-to-back and I can imagine that the Russo Brothers and others probably weren't around in the post-production process.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Wanda and Vision, though it kind of comes out of nowhere and is established hamfistedly, feels very genuine and the moral dilemma on Wanda's part forms half of the emotional crux of the film, the other half being Gamora, in what is probably Saldana's best performance as the character. She's given some bad dialogue but she definitely elevates the material, particularly when matched with the sad Thanos. I really liked the scene on Knowhere, where Gamora, having seemingly killed her adoptive father, breaks down in tears, only for it to turn out to be just a cruel trick.

Thor has lost everything.

Another strong performance is Hemsworth as Thor. With the murders of Loki and Idris Elba's (who was always wasted in these movies) Heimdall, the escape of Hulk and Valkyrie and Korg being nowhere to be seen, he has lost all of his allies and is, for the first time in the series, truly alone. The screenplay acknowledges how much the MCU has put the character through the wringer, and finally allows him a moment to dwell on his losses, on Rocket's ship. In a manner true to the character, he feigns aloofness, but his sadness is palpable. I enjoyed seeing him find a new family in the form of Rocket and Groot, and the three have great chemistry with each other. Maybe Thor should join the team in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, perhaps in Gamora's place. His ultimate failure to kill Thanos will certainly shape his journey in Endgame.

Tony Stark's development is complete.

Tony's journey is continued from the previous films. Over the course of the MCU, Iron Man is perhaps the only character to have a consistent character arc that runs from his first appearance to his latest, other than Captain America. The two lines from The Avengers, when, first, Captain America asks Tony whether he'd lay down his life, and then, when he asks him if he's ever lost a soldier before, both come back here. In his one-on-one battle with Thanos, Tony demonstrates a willingness to sacrifice himself that the Iron Man of the start of the MCU didn't have. While he knew there was probably a way out of the wormhole in The Avengers, the fight against Thanos was almost certainly a suicide mission. To add to this, he finally loses a soldier when Spider-Man, his protege,  is killed.

Welcome to the new age of
Steve Rogers.

Meanwhile, Steve completes his arc when he becomes Nomad, symbolically stripping his uniform of the stars and stripes, and the red, white and blue. He also grows his hair longer and darker, removing any last impression of the blonde, idealistic perfect American of The First Avenger. This is a man who has completely lost faith in government and authority. Even his iconic shield his replaced with wide, sharp forearm shields that also double as blades; practical rather than stylish.

Like all of the films I've watched for this series of posts, apart from Thor: Ragnarok, this film has some serious first act issues. Like the others, it makes building momentum feel like an uphill battle. It is easier to attribute the cause of this one; the volumes of characters can't all show up in one scene, so they have to be integrated into the narrative in small groups. This results in the film's narrative stopping and starting as new characters are established, interrupting the film's pacing. Just like Civil War, I don't think the movie really picks up until Spidey comes in.

I don't have much negative to say about this, honestly. While it's not as remarkable as some of the other films I've reviewed over the past few days, it's certainly entertaining, the character interactions are satisfying, and a few of the protagonists are fleshed out in such a detailed way that could only be done over twenty films. Pretty good.

Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐