Infinity War thoughts
- I was impressed with how tightly scripted it was -- the fights didn't lag too much, the character interactions were really true to the respective characters, and they managed to get tonally very different characters/franchises to interact in a way that felt real.
- They really followed through on the themes about the cost of one life vs. all of humanity, ties that bind, etc.
----- I loved that the "you must kill a loved one" choice is made 3 times in 3 different ways with 3 different pairings, with different results. (And that the conversation around that isn't "if you love me you will kill me," but rather, "you're the only one I trust will respect my choice to sacrifice myself, and I'm sorry that it has to be you who bears this burden." Well, except in the case of Thanos it's "I believe that my dedication to my cause is greater than my love for my child" -- which is then proven wrong in the end.)
----- I loved also all the ways that it showed the loss of loved ones in other ways -- Loki when Thanos starts to make good on his threat to kill Thor. Pepper's voice fading out as Tony left for outer space. Gamora when she thinks she's killed Thanos. Thor's moment with Rocket where he shows exactly how badly he's coping with Ragnorak and losing his family. Gamora's pain for Nebula.
----- Overall I was just glad that, for a movie that was 70% fighting, there were still all these quiet emotional moments that allowed the actors to actually *act*. And all of these earlier moments really helped sell the mass-disappearance at the end -- lending it a sombre tone even while making it pretty obvious that those people didn't DIE die.
----- I also loved that people were making meaningful choices in the movie: who do you save -- your loved one, your team, your country, your planet, or the universe? And there's often not an easy answer. Loki choosing to give up the tesseract in order to save Thor. Tony choosing to take the fight to Titan in order to protect Earth, while facing the fact that he might not ever see Pepper again. T'Challa et al choosing to open the barrier and put Wakanda (and themselves) in the forefront of the battle in order to give Vision a chance to disconnect from the Mind Stone. Wanda leaves Vision's side to save her teammates, and thus leaving Vision (and the Mind Stone) vulnerable to attack. Dr. Strange choosing to give up the Time Stone in order to play out the "endgame" with a chance at future victory. Thanos choosing to sacrifice everything and everyone dear to him in order to "save the universe." As Thanos said, these are all choices that take a great deal of willpower, and the movie really shows that.
(Peter Quill's punching of Thanos was not a conscious choice.)
As a result, I came out of the movie feeling both the pain of these losses, but also the resolve that these characters will have the strength to survive.
In lighter fare:
- Thor + Guardians had so many great comedic moments
- I love that Rocket's like "time to be the captain" and then goes and has a heart-to-heart talk with Thor. That's just so great.
- Poor Sebastian Stan. Once again he only had, like 7 lines in the entire movie. But how he made them count!
- Ugh I really wish Steve and Bucky had one more scene together, instead of a hug and an implication that Steve's been on the run with Sam and Nat and Vision for the last 2 years, after leaving Bucky in cryo and like ... not checking back on him????? in 2 years?????
- Steve you're extra hot with the hair and the grizzled look, please keep it.
- Steve your new shield sucks, you can't do any long-distance stuff and so you're stuck with these dumb punches. please to bring back your old one
- Bucky, more knives please
- (seriously tho, the melee against the beasties was the most boring fight of the movie. why didn't the wakandans use their cool cloak shields? they had battle formations and then they fucking gave it up)
- God, Peter Quill and Tony is just such a disaster waiting to happen, thank you for putting them together
- They really followed through on the themes about the cost of one life vs. all of humanity, ties that bind, etc.
----- I loved that the "you must kill a loved one" choice is made 3 times in 3 different ways with 3 different pairings, with different results. (And that the conversation around that isn't "if you love me you will kill me," but rather, "you're the only one I trust will respect my choice to sacrifice myself, and I'm sorry that it has to be you who bears this burden." Well, except in the case of Thanos it's "I believe that my dedication to my cause is greater than my love for my child" -- which is then proven wrong in the end.)
----- I loved also all the ways that it showed the loss of loved ones in other ways -- Loki when Thanos starts to make good on his threat to kill Thor. Pepper's voice fading out as Tony left for outer space. Gamora when she thinks she's killed Thanos. Thor's moment with Rocket where he shows exactly how badly he's coping with Ragnorak and losing his family. Gamora's pain for Nebula.
----- Overall I was just glad that, for a movie that was 70% fighting, there were still all these quiet emotional moments that allowed the actors to actually *act*. And all of these earlier moments really helped sell the mass-disappearance at the end -- lending it a sombre tone even while making it pretty obvious that those people didn't DIE die.
----- I also loved that people were making meaningful choices in the movie: who do you save -- your loved one, your team, your country, your planet, or the universe? And there's often not an easy answer. Loki choosing to give up the tesseract in order to save Thor. Tony choosing to take the fight to Titan in order to protect Earth, while facing the fact that he might not ever see Pepper again. T'Challa et al choosing to open the barrier and put Wakanda (and themselves) in the forefront of the battle in order to give Vision a chance to disconnect from the Mind Stone. Wanda leaves Vision's side to save her teammates, and thus leaving Vision (and the Mind Stone) vulnerable to attack. Dr. Strange choosing to give up the Time Stone in order to play out the "endgame" with a chance at future victory. Thanos choosing to sacrifice everything and everyone dear to him in order to "save the universe." As Thanos said, these are all choices that take a great deal of willpower, and the movie really shows that.
(Peter Quill's punching of Thanos was not a conscious choice.)
As a result, I came out of the movie feeling both the pain of these losses, but also the resolve that these characters will have the strength to survive.
In lighter fare:
- Thor + Guardians had so many great comedic moments
- I love that Rocket's like "time to be the captain" and then goes and has a heart-to-heart talk with Thor. That's just so great.
- Poor Sebastian Stan. Once again he only had, like 7 lines in the entire movie. But how he made them count!
- Ugh I really wish Steve and Bucky had one more scene together, instead of a hug and an implication that Steve's been on the run with Sam and Nat and Vision for the last 2 years, after leaving Bucky in cryo and like ... not checking back on him????? in 2 years?????
- Steve you're extra hot with the hair and the grizzled look, please keep it.
- Steve your new shield sucks, you can't do any long-distance stuff and so you're stuck with these dumb punches. please to bring back your old one
- Bucky, more knives please
- (seriously tho, the melee against the beasties was the most boring fight of the movie. why didn't the wakandans use their cool cloak shields? they had battle formations and then they fucking gave it up)
- God, Peter Quill and Tony is just such a disaster waiting to happen, thank you for putting them together