IMDb plot summary: The Avengers and their allies must be willing to sacrifice all in an attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos before his blitz of devastation and ruin puts an end to the universe.
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Josh Brolin, Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo.
(SO many spoilers ahead.)
All right. I have lots of thoughts on this that would take way longer to put into words than I feel like committing. So here are the highlights.
1: I really enjoy the opening 45 minutes. Seeing the different character combos interact with each other is surprisingly entertaining.
2: Thanos is the most emotionally complex and narratively compelling character in the whole MCU.
3: I HATE Captain America after this movie. The ENTIRE last movie he was in was all about him taking a super principled moral stand about how he's a soldier and a few lives are going to be a necessary sacrifice when you're saving the world but it's okay because world saving is a greater good. BUT. When Vision wants to sacrifice himself to avoid giving Thanos the stone, all of a sudden Captain America won't let that happen and fights to let that not happen and, in fact, destroys the world because he fought for that not to happen. Looks like Cap's got some pretty darn wibbly wobbly moral values there, and I really wish the movies would stop pretending he's anything like the moral center of the group. Thor and Banner and even Black Widow are all 10,000 times more principled than Cap, whose code of ethics apparently varies based on whether it might make him feel sad.
4: The ending is alllllmost a bold choice. Almost. Except for the fact that the endless franchise-ish nature of this series means that all that doesn't matter. They tried to make it this dramatic final thing, but we know it isn't because the series continues. These characters' individual stories continue. If there was any actual sense of ACTUAL finality, if there was any sense that any of the people we just saw fall were ACTUALLY going to stay dead? Well, that would suck because they killed off all the characters I liked and kept around the boring ones, but on the other hand it'd be an actually bold choice that might make me feel something. The entire second half of the movie is trying to manipulate me into believing there are actual stakes here, when, no, there aren't. At least three, probably more, of our supposedly dead characters have ALREADY fake died and come back to life in other movies. So, no, you can't convince me to feel anything about that. It's more just a "Huh, I wonder how they'll resurrect them this time" puzzle.
5: Seriously, though, Thanos is fantastic. Thanos is especially fun because his moral stance is basically the same as Cap's blase "well, we're soldiers, sometimes some folks gotta die to save the planet" stance in the last movie... except Thanos actually sticks to his principles and doesn't sacrifice them when it gets tough. I super want him to convince Cap in Avengers 4 and have the two of them run around wreaking havoc until somebody is like, "Hey! Empathy is good!" and Thanos learns that empathy is good and becomes a good guy, but Captain America doesn't because Captain America doesn't know how to learn and grow as a person.
2.5 stars.
How it entered my Flickchart:
Avengers: Infinity War < Pulp Fiction
Avengers: Infinity War > Shrek 2
Avengers: Infinity War > Shadows and Fog
Avengers: Infinity War > How to Deal
Avengers: Infinity War > Life of Pi
Avengers: Infinity War > Walk the Line
Avengers: Infinity War > Hoosiers
Avengers: Infinity War < The Lion in Winter (2003)
Avengers: Infinity War < Ran
Avengers: Infinity War > Primal Fear
Avengers: Infinity War > Lovelace
Avengers: Infinity War > Blue's Big Musical Movie
Final spot: #1402 out of 2772.
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