It’s here. After ten years and eighteen films, it’s here. Avengers: Infinity War, is here. That means the Black Order is here. That means a fully equipped Infinity Gauntlet is here. That means Thanos is here. Thanos, the cosmic being that wants to court the literal embodiment of death, is here. If you have Facebook, then I’m sure you’ve seen the memes and the reactions. The hurt. The joy. The satisfaction. Now that it is here, the question that I have is, was it worth it?
Needless to say, there are some spoilers.
The Good
The Plan: Avengers: Infinity War is near the end of PHASE 3 and Marvel Studios has stuck to their plan. If you agree with it or not, is irrelevant. Since Iron Man was released about a decade ago, there’s been an average of two films released per year, and this is the second film released this year with a third on the way in Ant-Man and the Wasp. The formula works and you know around every late April, early May, Marvel Studios’ tentpole film for the year is coming out. That builds anticipation, and that anticipation becomes palpable. That anticipation leads to droves of moviegoers shelling out cash, and it happened with Infinity War as expected.
Thanos: Do not go into this film thinking that this is Iron Man’s story, or T’Challa’s story, or even Thor’s. This is Thanos’ story. This is his movie. Thanos is who we’ve been waiting for and boy does he deliver. From the very beginning of the movie when we meet Thanos, he casts a giant shadow over everyone. He punks Thor. He makes mincemeat of the Hulk. He rules the day. Sometimes it can be hard to create an engaging villain, and we all of know of Marvel’s track record with villains, but they absolutely nail it with Thanos.
Wakanda: If you couldn’t figure it out, Black Panther was the breakout film out of all the Marvel films. It became a cultural phenomenon. It makes sense that the climatic battle would take place there. There’s no other place out of all of the movies where the finale should’ve or could’ve taken place.
The Ending: SPOILER ALERT!!! Thanos wins. If this isn’t shocking or news to you, then I don’t know where you’ve been the last decade. Sometimes it’s good to see the bad guy win. Heroes need to fall so they can get back up and be better. I, for one, am all for it.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe: All of your favorites are here. Well, not ALL of your favorites. Nearly everyone is here. It’s just good to see these characters finally come together. Fighting side by side. Their stories finally converging. The first two Avengers’ films were teasers, but this one takes the cake.
The Bad
It’s Long: It’s not long in the sense that you know the movie’s long and it doesn’t bother you, but you look at your watch and still can’t believe that the movie is still going on. Yes, you’re trying to cramp ten years of story into one film, but you feel like you there are just certain unnecessary scenes that can be completely removed. Things could be a lot more compact and tightened.
The Black Order: Thanos’ personal fighting squad is highly underutilized. Yes, they go blow to blow with most of the Avengers, but then they’re easily disposed of. It didn’t help that we really didn’t get a sense of who they were other than they’re Thanos’ lackeys. I think the better route would have been to introduce them in different movies over the years and set them out on trying to get the stones.
Character Decisions: There are some dumb character decisions in this film. There are two that really stick out and it makes you question everything else. You leave feeling angry and dumbfounded. The worse part is the everything that occurs can be explained away with one line of dialogue.
The Verdict: So, was it worth it? Was the ten year buildup worth it? Yes. It was worth because something like this has never been done before. Not only did Marvel Studios and Disney pull this off, they made it satisfying as well. It was worth it because we’ve seen characters grow and fall within this isolated universe. We’ve seen a truly terrifying villain put the some of the most powerful heroes in their place. Ultimately, despite all of the flaws of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we know that there’s more to come, and I, for one, am looking forward to it.
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