[Movies] Avengers: Infinity War, Parts I & II [SPOILERS!!!]

[dbt1949]

I had to go and look up all the spoilers for this. I do that all the time for new movies. Doesn't hurt my enthusiasm for them tho. I never see movies until they're out on DVD.

[xenocide]

Serious question here.

We haven't seen Black Panther. Is that going to affect our watching of Avengers? Like, is Black Panther a must see before Avengers can make sense?

From what I've read, it helps if you have some idea of the overall MCU metastory (Big Bad collecting superpowered Macguffins to do big bad stuff with them) but other than that, you don't need to have seen all of the previous films. As long as you know Wakanda is a super high-tech place in Africa, basically hidden from the world until recently, I think you're OK.

I wait for 99% of movies to come out on DVD (last two I saw in a theater were Rogue One and The Last Jedi ). I might go to this in the theater but will wait until I see Black Panter on DVD. With BP DVD coming May 15, so soon from now, seems they should have moved that up or moved Avengers until after. Hopefully Avengers is still in my small town theater by the time I see BP, not a huge deal if not though, I can wait for the DVD if needed.

[hepcat]

Here's the story...

[Punisher]

Sitting in IMAX theater right now.
Movie starts in 15 minutes.
Someone just walked in dressed as The Winter Soldier...

[hepcat]

Sitting in IMAX theater right now.
Movie starts in 15 minutes.
Someone just walked in dressed as The Winter Soldier...

Did he acknowledge your "Edgar Winter Soldier" costume at least?

[Punisher]

and... that was a complete bust...
we are in Atlantic City on a mini vacation and went to the Tropicana's IMAX..
Something was wrong right from the get go.. The 3D Solo trailer was blurry, but we all figured it was just the trailer.. nope. The movie starts and it is blurry as well..to the point of giving me a headache. A few people went to complain and an employee comes back, looks at the screen and sees nothing wrong.. A few minutes later, other people go complain including someone near us.. He comes back and says he was told the projectionist went on break and they were going to try tracking him down. Nothing changes. At times it's better with the glasses off, but not by much..
About 45 minutes in, I give up and go down to get a refund. Some guy comes up and asks if everything is OK. He looks like a customer so I ask him if he works here.. He says yes, so I tell him whats going on and the last we heard, the projectionist was on a break, but that was a while ago. Turns out HE was the projectionist! He says he called IMAX and they had him bypass something or other and ONE projector is now fixed.. I say that's fine, but since it is in 3D, BOTH projectors need to be in focus. He just shrugged and says "well, I guess the next step would be to turn off 3D completely." At this point, I'm done.. You KNOW their is a problem and you are hanging out by the concession stand? Nope. I'm out. So he calls the manager on his cell and tells them I want a refund, then has me go to the ticket counter. The lady their, then proceeds to take my tickets and hand me coupons for a free IMAX movie there.. Nope. not gonna have that . I have to explain multiple times that I dont live near there.(I'm over 2 hours away) Her response.. "Oh. These are good for 6 months" I tell her I come down MAYBE once a year. I need a full refund. She then has to call the manger back and they go back and forth, but eventually I get my money back.
Very frustrated and disappointed. If they had turned off 3D from the beginning, I would have been fine, but 40 minutes into the movie and not only no fix, but the guy who is supposed to fix it is hanging out by the concession stand? Ugh..

[Zaxxon]

That's terrible service. Sorry, dude.

Suddenly I'm glad I'm seeing it in 2D.

[Hamlet3145]

Just got back. 7 out of 8 tentacles.

My one word spoiler:

Spoiler:

Snap.

Edit: Other random thoughts:

Spoiler:

Okay, I knew that Thanos killed half the universe in the comics, but I was still surprised they did it in a mainstream Disney movie. Darkest ending in any marvel movie by far. Some pacing issues in the middle, but whatever. I was engrossed. Loved Thor getting an axe. Worried about how enormous Peter Dinklage could wipe his butt with iron hands. Spidey's death was probably the saddest. Got incredibly mad at Stephen Strange for a bit until I remembered what he said about there "being only one way." Where the hell was Hawkeye? Steve Rogers didn't have much to do, so I assume he is big in the next part And, I loved Nick Fury sending out the Bat Signal for Captain Marvel at the end before turning into mother$&#@ing dust.

[hepcat]

Just got back. It’s 2018 and I still can’t get a damn Paste Pot Pete cameo, for cryin’ out loud? Although I was pleased with the Tobias Funke cameo.

Anyway, other than that, the movie really sets a high bar for summer tent pole movies. That was a truly epic experience.

Also, I'm a huge Benedict Cumberbatch fan. I think his Sherlock Holmes was amazing. However, and this is my own shortcoming most likely, he just feels awkward as Stephen Strange. I can't quite put my finger on it, but he just seems to be going through the motions most of the time. I don't get a sense that he's really enjoying the role. But like I said, it's probably just me.

[malchior]

It's the accent. It doesn't work.

[hepcat]

That’s definitely one thing I believe. Which is odd. He’s such a damn good actor otherwise. And I was thrilled when I learned he got the role.

[AWS260]

I enjoyed this very much. No spoilers from me for now, but I definitely recommend it if you've enjoyed previous Marvel movies.

[Zaxxon]

My wife is far behind in the MCU. After I raved about Infinity War, she had us watch Strange and Ragnarok last night. Tonight's goal: GotG Vol 2 and Homecoming. Then she just needs BP and she'll be ready.

[msteelers]

Saw it this morning. It’s by far the darkest and heaviest Marvel movie. People shuffled out of the theater in silence. One kid looked shell shocked. I’m going to need some time to digest this movie. I will say, i thought they balanced the huge cast and epic scale extremely well.

More thoughts later.

[msteelers]

It's the accent. It doesn't work.

I’ve heard this complaint from others, including die hard Marvel fans. I don’t see/hear it. I really enjoy Cumberbatch as Strange.

[Exodor]

Just got back and...

Spoiler:

I haven't felt this gut-punched at the end of a movie since Rogue One

Somehow I missed that this was only part one of a two part movie - I didn't learn that until I got home. That makes me feel a lot better - instead of the Rogue One ending it's more like the Empire Strikes Back

[hepcat]

Marvel really does a great job of adding depth to the majority of their villains.

Spoiler:

Thanos’ goals weren’t two dimensional moustache twirling crap. He genuinely thought he was doing something altruistic. He even sacrificed for it. They departed from the comic book in that regard, but I honestly thought it was an improvement. Simply doing all that to impress death would have been too far out there.

[YellowKing]

Just got back.

Holy crap. What an epic movie. In terms of memorable experiences in a theater, I put it right up there with a Star Wars film in terms of big "WHAAAA????" moments.

PROS:
- Great balance of characters - one would think the big jumps between characters might be disorienting or distracting, but I never felt lost. Obviously it helps that we've known these characters for many films now, but it was still quite an accomplishment.

- CGI has come a long way in terms of realistic characters. Thanos looked terrific, and that's saying something since he's such a huge part of the movie. Obviously no digital creation is completely perfect, but between motion-capture and other advancements they're slowly starting to come out of the uncanny valley

- Dark tone, but left room for some typical Marvel humor. Plenty of laugh out loud moments.

- There's always the risk when you have a movie of wall to wall action sequences that you become numb to it all (see: any Transformers movie). I never felt that way at all in this film. Perhaps it was my attachment to the characters that helped, but every fight I was on the edge of my seat.

CONS:
- The theater was so packed I didn't feel comfortable using my cup holder and risking dudebro beside me accidentally taking a sip.

[Combustible Lemur]

Saw it yesterday morning.

Grand, Epic, heartfelt, rich and complex, well balanced, breakneck paced. Thanos is a magnificent villain. I was sad that they killed Superman and the Flash, but Gandalf racing in on the white horse was awesome.

Spoiler:

I loved the ending of the plot but was sorely disappointed in the execution. They should have given us corpses. Bodies over which to mourn. Peter Parker's child face staring into Tony's failure. T'challa in his peoples arms. Steve surrounded by the bodies of the people who have grounded him in this timeline. By dissolving, the deaths became abstract and the opposite of individualized. I realize Disney didn't want it to graphic, but we ALL know the next one is going to resurrect anyone dissolved. we know the gauntlet can just bring them all back. With bodies, do we bury them, preserve them, cremate them. They're corpses they start rotting, they decay, you can't freeze half the universe. I feel the flashback with Gomorrah was almost more poignant; we see what's going to happen and it provides thoughts of holocaust and real genocide and connects it to Thanos's motives, and the fears of a little girl.
It's something Harry Potter did much better. It was still hopeful, and yet damn near half of the named characters are dead by the end with 0 resurrection. Kid wizards were darker and more real than our adult soldier heroes.

Still, fun and exciting

[Moliere]

Villain Pub - The Dead Pool (Infinity War)
Who will Thanos kill?

[Hamlet3145]

Spoiler:

Another thing we really didn't get (and I realize the movie was already long) was shots of civilians fading to dust. I'm interested to see how they portray a half-populated Earth in the next film. I strongly suspect that Hawkeye is going to be our window into how this affected people on a very personal level.

[msteelers]

NON-SPOILERY STUFF

Avengers: Infinity War is not a perfect movie, but it might be the perfect beginning of the end for the MCU as we know it. It has a massive cast, and the Russo brothers juggle everything masterfully. I don't think anyone was cheated out of screen time. The 2 hours and 40 minute runtime went by quickly. Well, not that quickly for me actually. I had to pee for most of the film. I even made sure to go before the movie, but by the final fight I was sweating it out. And I'm in the middle of a very long, and very narrow row. There was no way I was making it out of there without pissing off (pun intended) a large number of people. By the time the credits rolled my bladder felt like it went 12 rounds with Muhammad Ali.

This movie is NOT for newcomers to the MCU. Just like with Civil War, the Russo Brothers expect their audiences to have seen all of the previous films. I would say at a minimum you should see Avengers 1 and 2, Guardians 1 and 2, Civil War, and Thor: Ragnarok before seeing Infinity War. It's interesting the different approaches to this between directors. I remember hearing that Joss Whedon felt like the Avengers franchise was largely it's own thing, and people shouldn't have to watch the independent movies to know what is going on. Neither approach is right, but Infinity War does prove that you can cater to the hardcore fan and still succeed.

It's a heavy movie. We drove home largely in silence, and I've been thinking about the film almost non-stop since seeing it. It reminds me of Inception, in that it's a movie that sticks with you and there's a lot to think about. It's also a funny movie though. Some of the best jokes in the MCU are in this film. I laughed a lot during the first 2/3rds of the movie.

We saw it in IMAX 3D, and it added nothing. There were some scenes where it was cool, but it's just an added expense and annoyance at this point. My wife loves seeing movies in 3D though, so we keep doing it.

Spoiler:

The movie picks up right where Ragnarok left off. Loki had a good sendoff. You don't quite trust him, but his character arc from chaotic evil to chaotic good (maybe? I've never understood the alignment system.) was satisfying.

The choice to forego music during the Marvel Opening Fanfare was awesome. It perfectly set the stage for the opening of the film.

Are all the Asgardians now dead besides Thor? Thanos only kills half of the people he fights to bring balance to the universe, but there are very clearly no survivors after the ship blows up and Thor is saved by the Guardians. Valkyrie is notably absent from the film, and you don't see her lying dead on the floor. My guess is that Valkyrie took the survivors and is with them.

Thanos is an excellent villain. Marvel used to be known for having terrible villains. They were all bad seemingly just to be bad. But Phase 3 really changed that. Just like Killmonger, I think Thanos is sort of right. There's a finite amount of resources, and if life goes unchecked eventually those resources run out. He thinks he is saving life by destroying it. He wiped out half of Gamora's planet, but now the children born there "have full bellies" and live in a paradise. He firmly believes he's the hero of this movie, that he's the only one with the will to do what is necessary. Adding "Thanos will return." at the end was a nice touch, reinforcing the idea that this was his movie.

A big complaint I have is that the deaths lacked meaning to me. Loki's death didn't hit me hard at all. Maybe that's because it was predictable, but also because we've seen him die on screen plenty of times. While I do believe this was his final death, and that Loki in the MCU is done, it just lacked that emotional depth.

Gamora's death also didn't resonate with me. There's no part of me that believes she stays dead. So when Thanos tossed her over the cliff, all I thought was that she would be resurrected at some point. Same thing with all of the heroes that turned to dust at the end. We know that every single one of them will be brought back. So their "deaths" lacked all meaning.

The one death that stuck with me was Vision. Scarlet Witch being forced to kill her lover was bad enough. But then Thanos just turns back time and rips the stone out of Visions forehead. When he went completely grey and still? Rough.

So where do we go from here? It will be interesting to see if Ant Man and the Wasp deals with the aftermath of a world where the population was just cut in half. I don't see how they can. We know the movie takes place after Civil War. I wouldn't be surprised if it takes place before Infinity War, and ends with some of the major characters turning to dust.

The really interesting thing will be Agents of Shield. They made one off-handed reference to the movie when a character says "did you see what is going on in New York?" and the other character says something like "I don't have time to watch the news." But there's no way the show can go on without addressing half the population turning to dust, just like it couldn't go on without acknowledging the events of The Winter Soldier. Back then, the big twist helped turn Agents of Shield from one of the worst shows on TV into one of the best. Now? We'll have to see. Either half the cast turns to dust, or they finally give up the ghost that the movies and TV shows take place in the same universe.

Misc. thoughts

LOVED the interactions between the Guardians and Thor, and how jealous Star Lord got. Also the foreshadowing. Thor says "what else do I have to lose" and Rocket mutters "I have a lot to lose". Poor rabbit lost everything.

Stark and Strange were amazing together.

Red Skull!

I totally missed the Arrested Development easter egg, and only heard about it because I saw a mention of it during the credits.

I think they missed a moment when Thor shows up on Earth with Rocket and Groot. Thor is flying around, using lightning to kill the enemy. I wanted some Led Zeppelin there!

Audible gasps in the audience when Thanos stabs Stark through the gut.

Thanos punching holes in Iron Man's suit, and the nanobots moving from one part of Stark to another to absorb the next blow looked awesome.

The MCU timeline is officially FUBAR. First the movies were all supposed to be in relative real time based on when they were released. Then Spider-Man: Homecoming says that the events of The Avengers takes place 8 years earlier blew up that first timeline. If The Avengers took place in 2012, then that would mean Homecoming was in 2020. But in Infinity War Stark says "I've been thinking about nothing but this day for 6 years, since the attack on New York." That means Infinity War is 2018...

I don't understand why Marvel announced Infinity War part 1 and 2, then said Infinity War would just be one movie and that they are withholding the name of the 4th Avengers movie for awhile. It's painfully obvious at this point that Avengers 4 is essentially Infinity War part 2, regardless of what they call it. What could the title possibly be that would be a spoiler for what happened in Infinity War?

[msteelers]

Spoiler:

Another thing we really didn't get (and I realize the movie was already long) was shots of civilians fading to dust. I'm interested to see how they portray a half-populated Earth in the next film. I strongly suspect that Hawkeye is going to be our window into how this affected people on a very personal level.

Spoiler:

In theory, that would be exactly what Agents of Shield and the Netflix Defender shows are for. I have my doubts that will happen though.

[msteelers]

Grading my earlier predictions.

Spoiler:

Ultimately, I think Iron Man and War Machine go down in a blaze of glory together. Vision gets turned evil and is killed by the Scarlet Witch. Loki tries to trick Thanos, but meets his match and is killed. And Black Widow gets rid of the red in her ledger by sacrificing herself for someone.

Iron Man and War Machine spend most of the movie on different planets, so that's a big fat nope. And Black Widow never even was in a position where she could have sacrificed herself. Another nope.

I did correctly predict Loki would die while trying to trick Thanos. That one was kind of predictable.

I also predicted that Scarlet Witch would kill Vision. I did NOT predict that Thanos would resurrect him, only to kill him again. And Vision never once turned evil, so at best I get half credit for that.

Final Grade: D

If you grade on a curve, maybe I get a C.

Maybe more of my predictions will come true after the next Avengers movie.

[DD*]

Just got back, still in full-on fanboi mode. 10 of 8 tentacles! I'm sure I will have criticisms later, but this gave me the same feeling of "holy shit!" I had when I walked out of the first Avengers movie way back when. The feeling of "they finally did it!"

The movie went to 11 on the opening - as of now, my favorite opening scene of any Marvel movie.

Spoiler:

Thanos beating the shit out of Hulk was something to see - no one is stronger than Hulk! Hulk is strongest one there is! I have a feeling that is going to be a central reason why Hulk doesn't show up the rest of the way - he is scared of Thanos, and that is a completely new feeling for him.

Also, Thor coming in and basically cleaning house was fantastic. I think the Thor and to some extent the Avengers movies have played down just how powerful Thor really is - call it the Superman syndrome. Hard to have any tension if one guy is basically unbeatable. But I've been a Thor fan for years and I love to see him really cutting loose. Loved the Peter Dinklage spot - that was great and unexpected (I've stayed far away from spoilers).

I missed a Red Skull appearance?? Can someone point me to it - I'm planning to hit this in theaters at least one more time.

My personal feeling - Dr Strange is the key. Thanos is not used to dealing with magic, and there were enough dropped hints and clues that Strange is playing the long game that I'm confident in making that prediction. Plus, his solution to the Dormammu threat in his own movie showed he can think around corners. I'm still wondering if we're going to see an Adam Warlock appearance in part 2... obviously Captain Marvel will be on board.

I believe all of the people that were dusted are now inside the soul stone. There were some clues to that effect, and it would somewhat consist with the comics. How many get out (or choose to stay...) will be interesting.

As has been noted, this is a heavy movie - the reference to "Empire Strikes Back" above is pretty accurate though I don't think it is even that hopeful. Bad things happen. Can't wait for part 2.

[Hamlet3145]

For DD:

Spoiler:

Red Skull was the guy in the black robes (with, ah, a red skull) that Thanos was talking to just before he threw Gamora off the cliff.

[DD*]

For DD:

Spoiler:

Red Skull was the guy in the black robes (with, ah, a red skull) that Thanos was talking to just before he threw Gamora off the cliff.

I was wondering who that was and had a mental note to look it up when I got home. Completely missed the connection though in hindsight is a obvious (and pretty cool too). Thanks!

[gameoverman]

My spoiler free review: Good but hampered by necessary plot mechanics. Specifically, there are a few more main characters in this movie than movies usually have, so there is a lot of 'let's go see what this group is doing' then 'okay now let's go see what this other group is doing' and that goes on for quite a while. It's like being at a rock concert and standing there while the guitarist, drummer, bassist, and singer are all testing their gear before they start the show. It's necessary because of the way this movie was set up by the other movies, so there was no way around that problem.

Once things kick into gear though, damn it's everything I hoped it would be. It really is. If you've ever wondered something like "Wouldn't it be cool if Thor met..." as I have, this movie delivers on a ton of that stuff. It's good enough that when it was over I immediately wanted MOAR!

Lastly, I want to say that Thanos was excellent. He looks, and has looked, as cheesy as cheese gets all this time, yet I completely bought into the character in this movie. He's 'real', as real as the human characters, which is a hell of an accomplishment for both the filmmakers and actor.

[DD*]

My spoiler free review: Good but hampered by necessary plot mechanics. Specifically, there are a few more main characters in this movie than movies usually have, so there is a lot of 'let's go see what this group is doing' then 'okay now let's go see what this other group is doing' and that goes on for quite a while. It's like being at a rock concert and standing there while the guitarist, drummer, bassist, and singer are all testing their gear before they start the show. It's necessary because of the way this movie was set up by the other movies, so there was no way around that problem.

Once things kick into gear though, damn it's everything I hoped it would be. It really is. If you've ever wondered something like "Wouldn't it be cool if Thor met..." as I have, this movie delivers on a ton of that stuff. It's good enough that when it was over I immediately wanted MOAR!

Lastly, I want to say that Thanos was excellent. He looks, and has looked, as cheesy as cheese gets all this time, yet I completely bought into the character in this movie. He's 'real', as real as the human characters, which is a hell of an accomplishment for both the filmmakers and actor.

Agreed, especially about Thanos. Great in appearance and characterization. Lives up to be *the* bad guy of essentially most of the MCU movies.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Zaxxon]

$630M opening weekend, topping TFA for best all-time...

[msteelers]

$630M opening weekend, topping TFA for best all-time...

Top domestic too. $250 million, barely squeezing past TFA.

[DD*]

Quick additional thought on the CGI - Thanos really did look "real." Oddly enough, I caught part of the Ang Lee Hulk movie recently with its horrific CGI Hulk. Amazing how far things have come.

[JCC]

$630M opening weekend, topping TFA for best all-time...

Amazingly, (and maybe this is not atypical for opening weekends) without being shown in the 2nd biggest Movie market (China). It doesn't show up there until May 11th.

I am hoping to finally see this tomorrow.

[DD*]

$630M opening weekend, topping TFA for best all-time...

Top domestic too. $250 million, barely squeezing past TFA.

We had a full theater at 9:00 this morning, and we were not the first showing. I think they are running it on half the screens in the place.

[Sectoid]

You all left out something very important or I missed it TL;DR.

Spoiler:

Arrested Development is part of the MCU.
In the credits, there is a section that says Arrested Development is property of...blah blah blah. Both my friend and I were like "why is that there?" Here is the reason: Tobias Fünke in one of the Collector’s glass pods, seemingly passed out and wearing his full Blue Man makeup.

[Kelric]

You all left out something very important or I missed it TL;DR.

Spoiler:

Arrested Development is part of the MCU.
In the credits, there is a section that says Arrested Development is property of...blah blah blah. Both my friend and I were like "why is that there?" Here is the reason: Tobias Fünke in one of the Collector’s glass pods, seemingly passed out and wearing his full Blue Man makeup.

Spoiler:

Maybe next time Arrested Development ends, they just all turn to dust.... (except Tobias) ..... wouldn't happen, but that'd be amazing.

[hepcat]

You all left out something very important or I missed it TL;DR.

Spoiler:

Arrested Development is part of the MCU.
In the credits, there is a section that says Arrested Development is property of...blah blah blah. Both my friend and I were like "why is that there?" Here is the reason: Tobias Fünke in one of the Collector’s glass pods, seemingly passed out and wearing his full Blue Man makeup.

Just got back. It’s 2018 and I still can’t get a damn Paste Pot Pete cameo, for cryin’ out loud? Although I was pleased with the Tobias Funke cameo.

[msteelers]

You all left out something very important or I missed it TL;DR.

Spoiler:

Arrested Development is part of the MCU.
In the credits, there is a section that says Arrested Development is property of...blah blah blah. Both my friend and I were like "why is that there?" Here is the reason: Tobias Fünke in one of the Collector’s glass pods, seemingly passed out and wearing his full Blue Man makeup.

They’ve announced the title and synopsis of Avengers 4.

Spoiler:

Avengers: Bob Loblaw

After assembling all six Infinity Stones and fulfilling his lifelong dream to bring balance to the universe, Thanos has retired to a quiet life as a farmer on a distant planet. But he will soon face his toughest opponent yet. Earth’s Mightiest Hero: lawyer Bob Loblaw. Skyrocketing to fame by writing for Bob Loblaw’s Law Blog, the surviving humans send Loblaw on a journey to convince Thanos to undo his actions

[hepcat]

why should you go to jail for a genocide someone else noticed?

[YellowKing]

Quick observation about a one-liner joke:

Spoiler:

I laughed out loud when StarLord called Thanos "Grimace." Nobody else did. Then I realized I was in a theater full of millennials who had no clue who Grimace is. Damn I'm old.