Avengers: Infinity
War is a very epic film yet limited by its own scope. I was expecting much
more from this film and so while it flashed by in a very entertaining package I
found it difficult to come to terms with the lack of transcendence. The scale does mask the lack of originality
present in some areas of the film which is not a big issue for the most part
but it can give a sense of grandiosity which is incomprehensible. At least for
some parts if you can say that this has been done before and Infinity War is applying it to a grand
comic book epic about the universe then
it’s not so bad. The film is also incoherent in parts because it is so grand
yet so limited. I say this because if it was to address every issue then it
would have to be at least 180 minutes and incorporate some more places and more
characters to give this film a truly universal feel. It’s clear from watching Infinity War that a lot is missing. This
is clearly why it’s one of a two part film but the film could have stood more
effectively on its own if it wasn’t deliberately one of 2. This film is the set
up for a more eventful and climactic battle in Avengers 4….I hope.
With that said this
is still the best Avengers film ever released up until this point even though
only a few things really stick with you (Are the Guardians of the Galaxy Avengers?
Why couldn’t they just call it Infinity
War to avoid the confusion between the Guardians and the Avengers?) The
creative team had to be selective in terms of the focus placed on particular
characters and I can see why Thanos and Thor are the two heavy hitters here: Thanos
for the destructive or evil side and Thor for the Avengers. Iron Man/ Tony
Stark is still about with his fancy tech but in terms of power hitting he is
second to Thor. Thor is the standout power hitter here on the side of good, not
the Hulk.
This film is basically about the Avengers and the Guardians
of the Galaxy trying to stop Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his Black Order (Black
Order? Really? In 2018) or Children of Thanos from acquiring all 6 infinity
stones to place in his infinity gauntlet which would give him unimaginable
power and the ability to inflict his destructive will on the universe.
Positives
The primary positive is the epic scope of the film which
brings together several characters from the Marvel cinematic universe which we
have come to know since Iron Man was
released in 2008. New characters are also introduced. Obviously non-comic book
fans will have trouble keeping up with all the characters and will be justified
in scoffing at some of the looney toon like characters. The presence of all these characters
obviously means that not everyone gets the same sort of focus or attention; which is why they have solo movies I suppose. There are not many individual
character arcs despite the proliferation of characters and this is why we’re
confronted with the Thanos story arc which is the most affecting individual
based story in the film. Next up would obviously be Thor.
Other major characters such as Iron Man and Dr. Strange are
just reacting to events as they unfold but in terms of affecting the story in a
profound way and giving it meaning then Thor and Thanos are the standouts. More
so Thanos who dominates the screen time and spends a lot of time justifying his
desire to balance the universe and demonstrating that only he is capable of
carrying out the task (with a heavy heart of course). It is clear that not many
people will be able to identify with the mad titan Thanos but they will be
impressed, like I was, with his physical presence which provides a suitable
challenge to the Avengers and the Guardians. He is the physically dominant foe
that the Avengers have been lacking. Loki and Ultron were not very effective in
imposing their presence on the Avengers which Is why those films were not as
effective. Thanos does have some serious power and he demonstrates that pretty
early with his beat down of the Hulk and Thor, the two most powerful
Avengers. He has the serious presence
that I like to see from a villain and Bane from The Dark Knight Rises had a similar dominant physical presence.
Obviously Thanos is even more formidable when he starts
collecting the stones which is why the many heroes have to band together to
tackle him and only on Titan are they close to defeating him. The battle
against Thanos on Titan is the most impressive action sequence in terms of
super powered battles and visual spectacle. The battle in Wakanda is also
fairly well done. When I see them as battles within the grander contest of an
infinity war I can make better sense of the film. There is also some emotional resonance
involving Thanos and Gamora, a member of the Guardians (or the Avengers?) which
was impressive although I didn’t really react emotionally because Marvel has
not done well enough in establishing an emotional connection with many of its
heroes. It was a good attempt to humanize the character of Thanos but it did
not resonate enough for me.( Gained the whole world at the cost of your soul? I
just hope they were not trying to be so corny) It’s interesting that marvel
wants us to sympathize with a man determined to extinguish half of humanity and I’m sure that his philosophy
of balance would resonate with many in favour of racial cleansing or those who
wish to purify the line. Although Thanos doesn’t preach hate ironically but I
guess those in favour of racial cleansing were not in tune with the higher
order (or black order) of the faith. The only way Thanos can make sense as a
character is that he must embody something or he has some essential features
which make him embody a certain concept. We hear a lot in the comics about
Thanos and his love for mistress death so maybe he too is the embodiment of
death and destruction. A malevolent force given form as a particular purple
giant. He would also make sense if he was one of a kind. It’s not clear if he’s
the only member of his race still existing but one gets the sense that he took
centuries to become the major force that he is. With that said the creative
team at marvel studios delivered in presenting the Marvel heroes with a very
tough opponent.
As for the heroes there are a lot of standouts such as Iron
Man and Dr. Strange but Thor takes the cake for me. Carrying on from Ragnarok Infinity War seems to continue
Thor’s story and push it forward. By the
end Thor emerges as the one individual capable of defeating Thanos in a
physical brawl. While Thanos has his infinity gauntlet Thor does create a new
weapon known as STORMBREAKER, a massive hammer and axe in one. It’s a powerful
weapon and makes Thor look like the superman of Marvel. Yes I’m spoiling it (a
bit) but Thor’s journey in Infinity War
does give him a certain heroic quality that’s not seen with the other heroes.
There’s one particular scene where Thor recounts briefly the development of his
life. It’s very reflective and unlike the humorous approach taken in Ragnarok. In that moment Thor came
across as a legendary figure or cut from the Norse legends. In that reflective
moment Thor assumes the stature of a godlike figure. I never knew he was so old
lol. It’s only fitting that he is the one most capable of challenging Thanos
physically.
The action was pretty good and so were the visuals but it’s
nothing out of the ordinary. This is all expected but the palette was not very
distinctive especially since this is some cosmic adventure. I was expecting
more in terms of presentation of new worlds. The journey of Thanos, the
Guardians and some of these Avengers throughout the universe is pretty
impressive in its epic scope and I am a big fan of epics. Although you’re
vested in some stories as opposed to others it does give the sense that some
thing big is taking place only if you look at it from a cosmic point of view.
Earth is a mere footnote in the story here and one understands Marvel making
its world more cosmic as opposed to being based in the realm of Earth.
The ending was pretty affecting and again it just goes to
show that Thanos is a powerful individual when wielding the infinity gauntlet
with all the 6 infinity stones. But knowing that Infinity War is part 1 of 2
makes the ending less impactful unless things remain as is by the end of
Avengers 4.
Some fans of Black
Panther will be very disappointed in Infinity
War although the final battle does take place in Wakanda. The Black Panther
story doesn’t really move forward here and is more of a reaction to what’s
going on in the outside world. I have a feeling that Marvel didn’t expect Black Panther to be such a monster hit
or it would have included more about Wakanada. The ending is only impactful for
me because Black Panther is my
favourite marvel property. As usual
marvel wants its white heroes to save the day, including a very unimpressive
Steve Rogers (former noble idiot, Captain America).
Negatives
Some of the main downsides of this film are the same that
most critics out there have with Infinity
War. The many characters in this film makes it difficult to care about all
of their fates, even those you thought you would care more for. It goes to show
that despite all this world building a significant amount of the marvel
universe is very superficial and is more based on various characterizations
from the comic books coming to life on the big screen as opposed to these
characterizations having real meaning. So while it’s commendable that the
Marvel cinematic universe has been going strong for ten years Infinity War, as the culmination of all
that world building, does expose all its shortcomings as a franchise. The film
flies by but doesn’t leave much of an impact in many areas despite the many
instances of characters coming together for the first time. Characters coming
together has been one of Marvel’s strong points however. Obviously Marvel is
known very much for its humour which is overdone in this film although not as
much as in Ragnarok. Marvel is also
known for having a threadbare story in many areas although with Infinity War as the culmination of
everything it does make sense in the long run although one wonders what it was
all about. It is yet another demonstration of character vs. character or
characters coming to life. Character clashes don’t register without the
characters serving core functions.
If Infinity War seems so threadbare in
terms of plot then what does it say about the entire franchise as it went from
episode to episode. Did we really have to wait 10 years for Thanos to arrive?
When he does make his grand entrance it does seem a bit anti-climactic when
considering that only now does he decide to assemble all the Infinity Stones
(How convenient that he decides to assemble the stones as Marvel prepares
to celebrate 10 years). In previous
installments when Thanos was featured all he did was sit on a chair; now all of
a sudden he wants to go after the infinity stones. What was he doing for all of
these centuries in that chair? Was he tallying the entire population in the
universe or waiting for life forms to proliferate before he decided to balance
it? Is he some high judge or god of the universe? What is his actual role as an
individual? How did he come to these conclusions concerning his philosophy of
balancing the universe? His philosophy would only make sense if he was a force
of nature. As a living being his actions come across as maniacal or burdened by
madness. His hypocrisy becomes even more startling when you realize that he
isn’t prepared to take his own life if needs be. This is why Thor is a good counterpoint to the
Thanos character. Humanizing Thanos actually backfires to some extent if one
considers all these points. His character needed much more exposition and
backstory to go beyond the odd emotional moment. The plan of Thanos reminded me a lot of the
functions of the League of Shadows led by Ra’s Al Ghul in Batman Begins and so I came away thinking about the lack of
originality in this used up villainous philosophy. Every comic book fan knows
about Darkseid’s search for the
anti-life equation. The creation of the Thanos comic book character was
influenced by Darkseid which obviously preceded him. So how profound is Thanos really in terms of
reasoning?
The philosophy of balancing the universe is also skewed and
is not effectively challenged. In practical terms it manifests as wiping out a half of the universal population
however that is actually bad for business. If life does not continue to grow
then the possibilities for development and expansion are limited. So his
philosophy needed some more quantification, apart from the usual
pronouncements, to be more effective. Wiping out the entire universe doesn’t necessarily
make sense if one doesn’t know the numbers. If Thanos is all knowing then he
should be some genius. So he must have crunched the numbers to come to these
conclusions about the universe filling up beyond capacity. With no numbers
behind his philosophy of balance then the rhetoric of Thanos is empty and
inconsequential and is just a vehicle to make him into a high powered villain. I got no numbers
from him and humanizing a character
whose philosophy promotes genocide is strange. Infinity War must be an adaptation of Hitler’s Mein Kampf (Hmmm).
Last main criticism of the film is the apparent limited
scope of the film. I thought the film would be bigger as presented here. There
were big moments but not the scope I was expecting. I was
expecting more of a cosmic presence than was actually presented in the film.
For instance I was hoping for more indications that life on other planets
throughout the universe were being affected by Thanos’ quest especially when one considers what
happens at the end. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 a t least tried to show the
consequences of Ego’s plan for many planets throughout the universe. This concern with the life on planets throughout
the universe is not sufficiently formulated in this film. We see the effects on
Earth but not enough universally which would continue to emphasize the greater
impact of Thanos’ quest. This is why I
was hoping to see what happened to Xandar which would have made infinity War
more of a war than just a series of battle involving the Avengers and the
Guardians. So in one sense the film could have been more effective by focusing
on a universal war with Earth included as opposed to a series of battles
for the gems. The battle in Wakanda is
the closest we get to an on the ground battle that can have massive consequences.
The battle for the gems is important but it should have been connected to a wider
issue of universal war against the forces of Thanos. It just did not a feel
like a genuine universal war and the infinity war was just a series of
superpowered battles against Thanos and his Black order. . Hopefully this will
be addressed in Avengers 4 which would emphasize the role of beings from other
planets taking part in the fight against the forces of Thanos. We could even do
with more from the earth. While Wakanda
is on the verge of destruction where were its allies? Was the world oblivious?
Why did it not take up the dimensions of a global struggle? Where were the news
reports? And not just the one in the post credit scene? Was this just another
example of Wakanda’s isolation from the world? So I ask all these questions
just to demonstrate that there are a lot of disconnected parts. So the heroes
jump from place to place but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are connected.
A lot still seems to happen in isolation despite the supposed scope of the
film. Hopefully Captain marvel will provide the necessary cosmic dimension that
will link the story to the wider universal struggle.
It was still a good film but apart from the dominant
physical presence of Thanos he does come across as superficial in a lot of
areas. In the realm of physicality in this film at least there is STORMBREAKER.
What a weapon that is
