MarvelBlog Retro Review — Avengers: Infinity War

When you only read the first half of a story, you miss much of the context and even some of the subtext.

To wit, the review I made of Avengers: Infinity War at the time strikes me as laughably wrong now.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I loved the film and gave it a glowing review.

My criticisms involved the ending, which struck me as cliché and predictable. Oops.

Yes, I’m the person who didn’t much care for The Snap and thought Marvel risked too much for too little potential reward.

Time has proven me WILDLY wrong. So, I’m especially looking forward to this week’s retro review of Avengers: Infinity War, a film that seems much different now.

Burying the Leads

Marvel faced two problems at the start of Infinity War. One involved the conscious choice to split the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War.

Had the Avengers stood at full strength when Thanos invaded, well, the story would have played out much differently.

So, part of this movie involves reunions. The other part consists of a demonstration of Thanos’ abilities, something we hadn’t really seen yet.

So, the introductory scene plays out as a bloodbath. Thanos has discovered the remnants of Asgard on the post-Ragnarok spaceship.

Thanos and his crew arrive and kill MANY people. First, Thanos eviscerates The Hulk in a fight. Then, he kills Heimdall and Loki.

Before accepting his fate, Heimdall teleports the Hulk to Earth. Then, Thanos becomes the first person ever to wield two Infinity Stones, at least according to his loyal disciple, Ebony Maw.

Thanos and his crew don’t kill Thor. Instead, they port out before the ship explodes.

Thor is in a bad way, but what’s interesting here is that Thanos doesn’t follow his own advice from later in the film.

Thanos doesn’t go for the head, instead leaving Thor to fend for himself. Thor later kills him for this mistake, albeit after a LOT happens.

Then, the story somehow gets crueler than Loki and Heimdall’s death. First, we cut to New York, where Bruce Banner has crash-landed at Dr. Strange’s home.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark is relaying a dream he had to his fiancée, Pepper Potts. He tells her about their dream child, a “son” named Morgan.

Someday, Iron Man will love that kid 3000. But, seriously, this part is just plain mean.

Getting the Band Back Together

Soon afterward, Dr. Strange teleports in front of them, swearing that the universe’s fate is at stake. This leads us to awkward reunion number one.

Bruce Banner stands beside Strange and then lunges at Stark for a hug. They…weren’t hugging when last we saw them.

Speaking of which, Banner missed the schism between Captain America and Iron Man. So he’s surprised to learn that they’re on a break.

Stark agrees that the end of days seems like a good time to kiss and make up. Unfortunately, before the two scientists can contact Steve Rogers, invaders arrive.

Members of the Black Order attack Strange and Stark while Hulk refuses to come out and play. We’re not lacking for heroes, though.

Spider-Man is conveniently riding the school bus and notices the giant spacecraft in the sky.

Suddenly, we’ve got a good ole fashioned superhero team-up! The fight ends after the Avengers take over the starship.

Then, we cut to superhero team-up number two! The Guardians of the Galaxy encounter Thor and the remnants of his ship in outer space.

What are the odds of such a thing happening? Oh, about one in infinity. Theoretically, there’s a distress signal, but these aren’t the rescuing kind…or even the scavenging kind.

Everyone but Quill falls in love with Thor, making the Star-Lord even more insecure than usual.

More importantly, we get a reminder that Thor hates Thanos for killing Loki while Gamora despises him for being a poor male role model.

They’re off to Knowhere! For reasons!

The unstated one is that Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy make for a phenomenal superhero team-up.

We’re only missing one team of former Avengers…

Big Black Order Fight #2

I genuinely love Infinity War, and two of my favorite scenes happen around this time.

Wanda and Vision are asking for more time, which brilliantly sets up WandaVision.

Before they can have that romantic getaway, other members of the Black Order attack. They need the Infinity Stone in Vision’s head.

This fight goes poorly until the cavalry appears. Yes, it’s Steve Rogers…and he has a beard! No, I’m not referring to Black Widow. Although…

Anyway, this fight also ends in a draw because all these characters will be needed in the climactic battle in this movie…and also the next one.

We do get some cool stuff with Falcon, though. Also, in an underrated twist, the unpowered Avenger, Black Widow, draws first blood by killing Proxima Midnight’s dude.

After that happens, we focus more on Gamora a disproportionate amount, which is rarely a good thing in a film like this.

Gamora makes Star-Lord promise he’ll kill her if needed to stop Thanos. He agrees. Sure enough, this turn of events unfolds, and Quill eventually keeps his word.

By this point, the Reality Stone has worked its wonders and turned Quill’s gun into a bubble maker.

The best parts of this movie come from those little subplots, though. Quill loves Gamora enough to stop Thanos, leading the Mad Titan to state that he likes her fella.

That’s definitely one of the weirdest ways I’ve ever seen a couple earn a parent’s approval for the relationship.

Anyway, something diametrically opposed is happening at War Machine’s location. The Civil War Avengers have appeared, even though they’re war criminals.

Since Banner is here, we get an awkward reunion with Natasha Romanoff. Will this couple finally get a chance? Of course, you’ve seen Endgame, so you know the answer.

Wakanda Forever!

Much of what happens in this film comes across as filler now. It’s excellent filler, but the Nebula torture scenes don’t add much.

Similarly, Thor’s quest for Stormbreaker takes an agonizingly long time.

Marvel had too much for one movie, but I’m dubious that there’s enough for two full stories.

Much of Infinity War focuses on unlikely pairings. For fans of character development, it’s a dream scenario. In terms of story, Thanos acquires four more gems.

All the random team-ups lead to a split fight in two unlikely locations. One is Titan, Thanos’ now-ruined homeworld. The other is Wakanda, where the White Wolf lives now.

Before these battles, Thanos sacrifices Gamora to attain the Soul Stone, which the story uses well later when an enraged Quill unintentionally ruins the plan.

Still, we’ve got chiefly feel-good moments instead of plot advancement. Everything’s leading up to those two fights.

The more interesting one occurs in Wakanda, a case of Marvel demonstrating exceptional timing. Black Panther had just exploded into pop culture.

So, we get twin battles that last nearly 45 minutes. The highlight in Wakanda is Thor’s spectacular Stormbreaker debut.

On Titan, it’s some of the most powerful Avengers losing a fair fight to Thanos at a time when he lacks all the stones.

The purpose of this second battle is to show how hopeless the fight would become if he fully assembled the Infinity Gauntlet.

Dr. Strange inexplicably gives up the Time Stone to save Tony Stark despite this knowledge.

This scene proves fascinating today, as we now know what Strange had seen at the time.

To the Avengers in battle that day, his actions betrayed humanity. I quite like that Rashomon vibe.

The Snap

Here’s where I made a mistake. I dismissed the comic book ending of this film as a potential problem. Hot takes don’t come any worse than that one.

You see, before Thanos won a fair fight, he lost it. The Avengers had him and were removing the glove when Star-Lord learned of Gamora’s death.

Everything devolved from there, and it wasn’t the only devastating heartbreak to come. Not by a longshot.

Marvel had plans in place to burn it all down by having the villain win. What could raise the stakes higher for a sequel than that?

So, when Wanda Maximoff killed her lover, we all wondered what would happen next. Finally, the answer came in the form of the Time Stone.

That was a wrecker of a cinematic moment. A woman sacrifices her heart to save the universe, only to watch her actions reversed and undone.

When people talk about the greatest moments in the history of the MCU, this one doesn’t come up much…but it should.

Of course, the heartbreak is just getting started. Moments later, after Thor fails to go for the head, Thanos snaps his fingers and eliminates half the universe.

We’re still feeling the ramifications of this in the MCU to this day.

Poor Hawkeye just wants to spend the holidays with his family after five torturous years without them.

Meanwhile, Marvel fans mourned for the body of the year after watching half their beloved Avengers turn to dust.

For me, the hardest was Spider-Man since he was just a kid. Now, it’s T’Challa because that moment feels too real today.

Ultimately, The Snap did for the MCU what a parental reveal accomplished for Star Wars in the early 1980s. It redefined the complexities of storytelling villainy.

This film’s overly long…but still sublime.

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