(Spoiler) Review of Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War Review (Spoiler Review)

The Weeping Hero Movie

            I could have started this off by deciding not to spoil any of the movie, but then I figured those of you who want to see it will see it no matter what kind of review you happen to read, and most of you won’t even bother with reviews.   That’s fair enough, reviews should only be an educated suggestion on the quality of a movie.  The artistic critic should never walk into a popcorn flick at the start of the summer season and bemoan that the quality of what their seeing is not on par with a Citizen Kane.  Even if popular entertainment is given its credit – I’m looking at you Inception – I feel there is still a general resistance for crowning it as art.   I digress though, I suppose that’s a discussion for another day.

            The Avengers was a pipe dream, an eventual nirvana for the comic/blockbuster crowd who had wet dreams that there favorite heroes might one day join forces in a circling dolly shot back to back and waiting until their cinematic flourish was through before jumping out there and saving New York City.   When the first Iron Man came out I was as impressed as anybody, but that same year we got The Dark Knight (arguably a better film, but that doesn’t mean the other is bad, at all.)  In it we got a second-hand hero who spends most of his time as a glib and dickish playboy and only truly dawning his “real” suit in the last half hour of the film.   I honest think Iron Man must look rather tame and slow compared to the action littered sequels it sprouted – and not just the Iron Man films.   I say that with love.  I am not a detractor of the superhero genre, nor do I (as this film kind of proves with its record-breaking grosses) believe in “Superhero fatigue.”  Although, I do believe eventually there will be fizzling out of the run, and more subpar films before it’s just another trend of movies, I for one am loving this ride while it lasts.

            As Infinity War opens we are left with utter devastation.   It wastes not one second and the Russo brothers have been given high-praise – justifiable – for getting right into the nitty gritty of our chief protagonist, the villain, Thanos.    I loved that throughout the interviews the Russo brothers made clear that this was going to Thanos’ film, it is his goal we are watching, his backstory that we are getting the most of, and whether we like it or not we want that finger snap to happen.   Sure, in those last agonizing minutes you think well, maybe he won’t make it, maybe the Vision will survive and his darling Wanda will save the day (a character given her due this time around) and if you’re like me you were ready to be tricked back into that wrapped up world-saved ending.  Then that turn of the wrist, and if you’re like me, you smile big because holy crap, they went there.

            Our protagonist wins.  Of course, for only one movie, but what a movie it is.   That first devastating moment of witnessing the survivors off Asgard butchered after a rip-roaring good time in Thor: Ragnarok (a movie I fear probably isn’t as funny after this movie).   My favorite moment happens here: Hulk attacking Thanos occurs and in one of the most brutally filmed fights in the MCU, it has weight, and it has consequence and you can just feel it – sadly the rest of the action doesn’t carry that same brutal weight, but in a way, I’m glad they don’t, I don’t think I could stand it (though it does reach that moment with the stabbing of Stark near the end).  That isn’t to say the rest of the action doesn’t have any narrative weight, I was all in for every scene, and it was filmed so that we could for the most part, at least 85% of the time, know what was happening at any given time, but that first scene was grounded.  And Thanos was immediately terrifying.

            But then what does this movie do.  It goes and makes us sympathize with him.  It turns a maniac into a level-headed psychopath (if that is possible).  He’s got an agenda, it makes sense, its brutal, but it makes sense in his warped mind.   Who else gets a ton of sympathy from us, Thor, for once.   He’s definitely had a story we could follow, and understand, and feel for but he’s never been the emotional glue of the MCU.  I must give credit to Chris Hemsworth who was phenomenal in this film, his speech with the verbal-sparring of Chris Pratt’s Star Lord where they compare tragedies was epically written, as most of this film, both comedic and tragic.  It is probably one of the best pieces of writing (that entire scene with Star Lord and Thor) in the entire MCU.

            My first gripe comes in.  The re-introduction with Tony Stark and Pepper Pots was sloppy by comparison with the rest.  Is that a nit-picking gripe, you bet it is, but if all I can do with a film is nit-pick you know it’s damned good.   The only other nit-pick is that there were just so many storylines.  Before I get the usual response to that, no I wasn’t lost, and yes, I still felt the emotional satisfaction in each, but like it or not this film is bloated.   It doesn’t take away from anything gargantuan it’s just the nature of the beast, and my personal preference for smaller scale (which is probably why Winter Soldier is still the best film in the MCU).  For what it does, with how much it has going on, is a miracle, and testament to the knowledge of the writers, and directors of the entire MCU that they can make such full characters that can translate so well.

            Speaking of translations, the Guardians move into the Avengers fold was one of the most satisfyingly perfect moves I’ve ever seen.  James Gunn’s version of these character was not lost in one story beat, these are his Guardians with even the satisfying awkward moment for Drax to truly bring it home.   That was my favorite part of this film, and the biggest surprise for me.   Which makes the death of Gamora that much more brutal.

            Other highlights for me are the planet Titan fight where our gang of mismatched heroes creatively and amusingly pretty much take down Thanos.   Mantis’ fall on the top of his head through a Strange portal was the icing on the cake.  It was that nice payoff that everyone got a chance to be useful in some important way.   The reaction of Quill to the news of Gamora’s death seemed a little false to me to be honest, not that he wouldn’t react, and its function was fine, and I knew where the scene was going but it seemed a little to “the plot needs this to happen” for me.  Again, a nit-pick, I loved it, I just think it could have been done a little better.

            One of the most disappointing things for me, and the writers have already said that Captain America will have a bigger part in Avengers 4.  I am looking forward to seeing the soul of MCU have his hero moment because as this phase of the MCU wraps up I feel our original avenger’s members, namely Steve Rogers and Tony Stark (the soul and heart of this universe) are ready for their dramatic end.  (I was banking on Stark biting the big one, but he must see Cap again first.)   I hope the promise of the next film as even bigger and better than this one is true, because I am ready for the MCU’s Dark Knight, because they are inching closer and closer to the iconic elevation.

A Statement About the Movies or how I rant about why movies are doing just fine in todays "superhero" world.

It has been a common thread all of my life, beginning since I can remember in the mid-90's, "movies keep getting worse," "there's no good movies anymore," "it's all Hollywood tentpole pictures," "
it's all superheroes and explosions."  All of my life this refrain that we somehow keep moving away from quality films and that somehow the past, oh that sparkly past with never a shade of gruff was always so bright.  That is not the case.  We are over-saturated, but hasn't that been a common trend as technology has advanced.  It isn't new to the twenty-first century.  It became easier for people to make movies as time went on, and thus we had an increase in the quantity of movies.  So, isn't it just a ratio thing, "adjusted for inflation," of our ease of access?

I've always hated that argument, that there just isn't anything good anymore.  I guess it just got accentuated sitting in a film class while a slew of would be filmmakers bemoaned a studio, or a streaming service for putting out a ton of crap.  As though filmmakers didn't make crap since the dawn of time.  This isn't even to mention the overall subjectivity of art in general, or film as art, or if that is its only purpose.

I suppose I should qualify my own measurement for what makes a good film.  I have one word for that, and its dirty and filthy and not exactly a concrete and concise word, in fact its probably a word that my fellow film student bemoan as the fall of the motion picture - and that is hardly to account for the odd draw of filmmaking if people think its hopelessly going to be shit.  That word is: Entertainment.

My own priority one of any film is, is it entertaining?  But that is a broad word to apply to anything.   I can be entertained just as easily by a well choreographed action sequence, as I am by a silent and stunningly meditative piece of acting.  Entertainment is broad.   That is my first goal of watching anything, its a surface appreciation of the film I am watching, and for many that is where the qualification ends.   I am also entertained by: fiery dialogue, beautiful and silent/epic/subtle/broad cinematography and/ or set design and/or special effect, etc. etc.   What I find as I watch a film is that upon second or third or fourth viewing, I gather more and more why that acting, or action was so entertaining, and I find that my initial draw for something was there because someone just put together a damn enjoyable movie.

You must confine a film in its genre.  You have to look at horror for its qualification as good amongst other horror films, such as you have to judge adventure alongside other adventure, and so on and so forth, not to mention the dangerous task of labeling films that fall through kaleidiscoped eye of mixed and mashed genres. 

Maybe I am digressing too much.  The superhero movie has been extremely prominent since the dawn of the twenty first century, particular with the onset of Sam Raimi's idealized Spider-man movies, and the hit and misses of a string of X-Men, and a Daredevil, and so on and so forth.  (yeah I know X-Men technically came first before Spider-man, but let's be honest the train didn't truly leave the station until Raimi hit us with that vibrantly colored red suit.)   Then we got Iron Man, and an interconnected universe and what started out as one Marvel movie a year, ballooned into two, and then to three, and so on and so on.  Its not like that was it, or that there was no innovation in the superhero genre.

One of the most influential movies of the twenty-first century was a superhero film: The Dark Knight.   We got a Batman movie, again, after Tim Burton gave us one amazingly dark piece in 1989, and then a twistedly dark piece a couple years later, and then lost the trust of the people, and tossed Batman into a gutter of misguided nonsense.   Christopher Nolan gave us a superhero/big budget extravaganza with an Oscar caliber performance and breathtaking visuals that seemingly appeared practical.   And, as if to spoil us he made another big budget money-making extravaganza just a couple years later, Inception, and I don't understand how anyone can say that you can't make a great film and still appeal to the  masses. 

I believe James Gunn mentioned it on a tweet aimed at Jodie Foster who cried fowl because she didn't want to have to make a superhero movie, and Gunn pondered, and I'm paraphrasing here:  why don't we transform this money-making beast and explore it, and make it better, and be artists and tamper with the formula, because it appeared for the most part Marvel Studios was letting its directors do that, save for a falling out with  say Joss Whedon and Edgar Wright.  This may be a digression but I studied Jaws in film class because its a classic, and it wasn't just because it was a monster shark movie that thrilled the hell out of people, its because Spielberg and company figured out a way to make a damn effective film, and explored their medium, and delivered something spectacularly beautiful.  It had blood, it had chills, but it had amazing cinematography and an iconic score and great performances.

There have always been shit movies.   We just remember the greats because they lasted the test of time.  They did something new, or had great performances or great dialogue, or spoke to a generation.   That still happens today.  "But there's no originality anymore," people will say, and I'm like (even if in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter,) "A movie just won best picture that features a woman having sex with a fish-man." 

I for one embrace all films.  The ones that are made well in their particular modes.   Superhero films can push technology, they can push what is possible to be seen on screen, and they can also recycle the same old crap over and over again.  But most of the time, they are just plain fun, why is that a crime, even if you are a movie snob, like I probably consider myself, I can still watch movies with child like wonder, I wish more people could still do that.

Innovation and chance taking is not dead to the "Hollywood system," filmmakers still take chances, the best film of 2017, to me, was Blade Runner 2049, and it was a big bloated sci-fi masterstroke, that cost two arms and two legs, and didn't regain enough of its box-office back.  It failed in a way but it was still a chance in the system, even if it was a "sequel."  There was an example of a film that could have cashed in on audience nostalgia but that was made by filmmakers who loved the original and who wanted to truly expand upon it, it was a gamble.    Then, we move to that tried and true, and the starter of the blockbuster wildfire, Star Wars.   Disney (love it or hate it) let Rian Johnson (love him or hate him) take a billion dollar franchise and screw with the audience by giving us a challenge to our expectation of a sequel, and in my opinion that paid off, we got a deeper story, plot holes and all, but something different within the system, and I don't know, that gives me hope for the future.

Fret not you haters of box-office returns, there are plenty of films to love since the dawn of film until now that never got the recognition they deserved, and that didn't have mass appeal.  They still get made, so shut up, and watch them, and stop worrying about what the general audiences are watching because as far as I'm concerned with the exceptions here and there a lot of the big movies are moving to taking chances and I think that's cool.