MARVEL Cinematic Universe

Well duh. This is like watching Return of the Jedi as your first Star Wars movie...or TLJ for that matter. Just to be clear I was just giving people a gauge that's all. Anyway, I just got out of Infinity War and all I have to say is this:

 

After 19 of these movies, it is not like your missing anything anyway, right? And Game of Thrones is a coherent narrative cut into episodes whereas MCU is a transmedia subsidiary narrative. A different animal.

--- Double Post Merged, Apr 28, 2018, Original Post Date: Apr 28, 2018 ---

Psst.....you can't critique a Marvel movie on a Star Wars forum. It is forbidden. I'm going to read the next issue of Marvel's Star Wars Docter Aphra now.....

 

I still can't believe that all this started in a cave...

 

Yeah, you definitely can't critique Infinity War on how well it stands alone. I mean, you can, but it's pointless. If nothing else, this is the third Avengers film proper. So to say "you can't just jump right in!" would be like complaining that Return of the King makes no sense unless you watch the Fellowship and Towers. It's designed to be a sequel so it makes zero sense to complain that it's a sequel.

But more importantly, this IS a movie that has been built up for ten years. This is an entirely new thing. It's an experiment, really. You can't just it as you would a normal standalone movie. You can't really even judge it as the third movie in a trilogy. Because it's not really any of those things. They're trying for something entirely new. 10 years ago they created the concept of a shared cinematic universe, and they're the first people to actually do it and build it to a crafted finale. This is the first of its kind, for better or worse, and I say for better.

You won't get as many in-depth character moments simply because it's such a huge movie with so many characters. But we've spent ten years exploring the interiority of these people, and this is the finale. I don't need them to start from a blank slate after ten years of narrative work. I would rather see those ten years actually build to something new and significant. Which is what happens.

And it's actually an incredibly intelligent film. For starters, it takes an incredibly intelligent script to simply tie all these pieces into a coherent, inevitable-seeming whole, which it does. Even moreso, we actually do get powerful emotional moments from unexpected characters, and we get some fascinating theme exploration of sacrifice and "trolley problem" logic.

 

My thoughts too. That is a cinematic culmination on an unprecedented scale. MCU is a big screen TV show in my eyes.


Young Fury on set of Captain Marvel.

 

Avengers: Infinity War was spectacular and amazing in many ways. I'm giving it a 9.5/10!

As Avengers 4 is coming out next year to reboot the franchise and expand it for another 10 years, I am truly excited for what they have to offer for years to come.

Lucasfilm has to keep up its game and be very innovative, and be consistent with the movies they release as the 2020s and possibly 2030s will be packed with both Star Wars movies and Marvel movies. It's be interesting to see how the world will thrive with both very successful franchises, and I really, really hope Lucasfilm are working as hard or even harder than Kevin Feige and Co. to stay relevant in a world of really good superhero films.

p.s. Wakanda Forever! And Thor, truly amazing. Ahh!!

 

Saw Infinity War yesterday. I really liked it, had a great time watching. Could be the best MCU film, but I haven't given it enough thought yet. It's impressive how they linked all the storylines, it didn't feel jarring and that's a huge accomplishment. However, it did feel like it wasn't focused, none of the characters got enough spotlight, I didn't feel like there was a main plotline, all of them seemed to be equal sideplots. But given the premise of this movie, it's hard to consider it a huge problem. That's what it is. I don't think they could do much better with so many characters. IMO the overall story feels more ambitious, some stuff that happens is more dramatic than usual. I like how it feels the most "fantasy" out of the bunch. I like the designs and colours of various planets, various heroes unleashing their crazy powers in one fight etc. Thanos' henchmen (the Black Order, is that what they're called?) were pretty cool.

Spoiler talk:

Spoiler

I didn't believe for a second that any of the disappearing heroes died. If I was meant to feel like it, I guess they didn't achieve their goal. I was actually surprised to see so many people getting emotional over this, because we all know they're bringing them back. Spider-Man, for example: we know that the Homecoming sequel is in the works and he's meant to be a key member of the post-Avengers 4 team. So yeah, not exactly a big deal... During that moment, I was mainly thinking about the mystery of it, what the hell is happening. Avangers 4 is obviously going to be about them trying to undo this.

I predicted that there will be a major death (like Cap or Iron Man) but there was none and that's fine. It looks like they're setting up Avengers 4 to be a send-off for the original Avengers, who happened to not disappear.

A random minor gripe comes to my mind - I didn't like the place where the climax took place (I mean the place where Thanos appears on Earth). It looked like some kind of animal enclosure at a zoo. Totally un-epic.

The post-credits scene was great. Didn't get what the star means, but when red and blue appeared it became clear. I don't even know anything about Captain Marvel but it got me pretty hyped.

When the credits rolled I thought about how do they even want to make an Avengers 4 trailer and not ruin the mystery. I even thought about a possibility of not having a trailer, but I guess they can come up with something that won't reveal much. Still, it sounds crazy, but I think no trailers could potentially work. I mean, everybody saw Infinity War and this is probably the best teaser of what's to come and the sequel is just a year away. That'd be something unprecedented, which a release of this scale could pull off IMO.

Oh, and all of this comes from a pretty casual Marvel viewer, btw. I was more of a superhero fan as a kid. Not so much nowadays, but I'm still quite interested in what's going on in those comic book franchises.

 

The most important character got the most screen time. It was Thanos' movie and he was in it the most. It was all about him and everything happened around him. All the "stars" were supporting characters this time. You were never meant to spend that much time with any of them unless it directly relates to Thanos. It's his story.

 

It kind of is his story, I recognise that, but at the same time he's a classic villain here and it's hard to make a villain's arc the natural main plotline of a film. In IW it's still told from the fragmented perspective of the heroes for the most part. At least that's how I see it. Again, not a problem given the premise of the film, but it may feel a little bit off.

@LadyMusashi Spoiler?

 

Okay, I can't get the spoiler tag to work for whatever reason...




I like that it wasn't the Avengers will return, it was Thanos will return.

 

Just saw it last night....amazing....powerful.....heart-wrenching.....soaring highs and crashing lows. My favorite MCU characters shined...all of them.

Now on the spoilage:

Spoiler

Thor's arrival at the battlefield at Wakanda was the most majestic, powerful, arrival ever by any MCU super hero. Really showed his true power. My sons and I gasped in awe then did major fist pumps and hoopin and hollering. How did your theater react to the ending? Ours was in awed shock, very silent....but no way do I think they are all dead. Gotta be a way to undo this....what do you think of the Captain Marvel angle? My oldest son thinks that everyone that crumbled into dust had their souls taken away to some alternate universe.....ALSO.....WHAT ABOUT ANT-MAN? Will his tech be key to Thanos' undoing?????

--- Double Post Merged, Apr 30, 2018, Original Post Date: Apr 30, 2018 ---

@Andrew Waples Spoiler tag is [.....] first box with SPOILER in it.....followed by the verbiage.....closed out with another box [....] with /SPOILER in it

 

Check out the Ant Man poster.

 

I also saw a tweet by an actress saying a trailer will be up tomorrow.

 

They were in Avengers you just couldn't see them...

 

Spoiler

Valkyrie is here:

Some context - there's a Twitter account called "Tessa as goats" that posts pictures of goats that kind of resemble the role that Tessa Thompson is playing on the photo, thus the goat.