I’ve had a lot of thinky thoughts after seeing Avengers: Infinity War twice and discussing it at length with @abjectcheddar, finally gotten around to compiling and clarifying those thoughts.
Obviously, I enjoyed it. Very much. It was well-paced, fun, funny, tragic, and it’s frankly astounding that they pulled off juggling so many characters in two and a half hours without making it feel like anyone was sidelined. It also managed to do what a really good, long fantasy book does for me when it switches between different character story lines. I’ll get into the chapter, the characters and situation, and then be resentful when the next chapter comes along and switches to a different set of characters and plot points. After a few pages, I get sucked in, and get resentful a switching back to the set of the previous chapter that I was resentful about leaving. Infinity War did this for me, and with the mixup of characters there was at no point a chapter that didn’t suck me in or make me think I’d be skipping it when I watch again on Blu-Ray.
Anyhow, the rest of my thoughts contain spoilers. So if you haven’t seen the film yet and have miraculously avoided spoilers (I salute you), then you may want to come back late when you’ve stuffed it into your eyeballs.
The deaths don’t matter (probably)
It was pretty stunning to see all those main characters turning to dust in the moment. It was good cinema. However, taking a step back, this is halfway through the story, and the return of these characters will be the primary motivation for the next film. And, let’s face it, most of these characters have upcoming movies anyway, so can’t stay dead, brave though that may be. As @hollye83 said, it’s the deaths in the next film that are going to matter. Whoever dies at the end of that one may well not be coming back.
Are the Infinity War deaths even deaths? As Nebula said about the Soul Stone, ‘a soul for a soul’. Are they dead, or in another dimension? In the Soul Stone? Is there some kind of Babylon 5: The River of Souls deal going on?
The main thing I’m pondering is how they undo the deaths. If they’re trapped in another dimension or the stone, then it’s probably going to be a case of returning them, without a major impact on the universe (beyond the chaos of doubling the population again). If they’re actually dead, then it complicates things, because we’re probably looking at having to involve the Time Stone to get it done, as Thanos did with Vision to get the Mind Stone. So it raises questions.
- What’s the time gaps between films? Is it going to be a year between the events, or will they jump right back into the action?
- How far back can the Time Stone change things?
- If there’s a gap of a year, do we end up with a ‘year that never was’ scenario?
- Ant-Man and the Wasp is due for release before Avengers 4. So where does this fit in the timeline? It suggests there’s no straight back into the action as you can’t squeeze it in that way. If it was before Infinity War then it would have been released before, if it was post-Avengers 4 it would have been released after. There’s nowhere else it can logically be set, except in the year between Avengers films.
At this point, I honestly don’t know. I’d been assuming that Wanda was going to be their solution and they were going with her bringing everyone back – she’s got form for doing this and making mass changes to reality in the comics. Killing Wanda off neatly nips that one in the bud.
Also, the 50% of deaths isn’t entirely clear. Does this include the planets Thanos has already halved the population of, or the Asgardians, who have been devastated and don’t even have a home anymore? Cold, hard 50% randomness would suggest it does. But I hope that Thanos’ subconscious has a play in this and so anyone Thanos has already been after is spared. It would suck for those people to experience it again, and possibly spell doom for some civilisations.
Schrödinger’s Loki
It looks like a final death, yes. Marvel may even intend for it to be final – if so, he goes out having redeemed himself in a pleasing manner in my book, still a tricksy, slippery bastard, but doing the Right Thing. But this is Loki, so there’s so much wiggle room that we can never, ever, be certain. He’s done this before. There’s plenty of evidence to say ‘look, he didn’t really die’ if they plan, want or need to bring him back.
- Never take your eyes off Loki: Between the business with the Hulk and Loki pulling his stunt, we lost track of him. Losing track of Loki means he has time to pull all kinds of stunts.
- He’s tougher than a little neck snap: He’s a god. He’s suffered worse. He’s survived falling through the bifrost. He’s survived being hurled around like a ragdoll by the Hulk. If his neck didn’t break with that beatdown, a minor crushing by Thanos isn’t going to be a big deal.
- He knew he wouldn’t be able to take down Thanos, that what he was doing would be a suicide run. He’s worked for the guy, he’s afraid of him. A pointless last ditch attempt with a dagger for no reason? That’s not Loki, even a mildly redeemed Loki. Odds are he’d have just been left alone at that point and escaped fine if he’d kept quiet. That little stunt did nothing except make everyone assume he was dead.
- An assumed-dead Loki is free to run around to either do whatever he wants as a wiley Trickster God, or do research and find a way to kill Thanos or (at this point) find a way to reverse than 50% of deaths in the universe. As @abjectcheddar pointed out, with Dr Strange gone, we don’t have anyone else with a handle on the magic aspect of this stuff.
In a nutshell, even if Marvel think they’ve killed Loki off, they can’t. Loki has a life of his own that leaks out into the real world. He can never truly die because we can’t trust Loki about anything, except saving his own skin.
Stark & Strange
I wasn’t a fan of the Doctor Strange movie. It left me feeling lukewarm, and Bendypants Cucumberpatch with an American accent is confusing and wrong, and they should have let him use his British accent. However, I immediately forgave the entire film, just for having Strange snark at Tony and not take any of his shit. The world’s two biggest egos – magic vs science – finally clash, and it’s childish and hilarious. Strange was also better because he knew who he was and what he was capable of, no annoying origin story. In fact, I’d have preferred it if they’d skipped the origin story entirely in Doctor Strange and just given him a juicy story to introduce him with his knowledge already in play.
Anyhow, the fact that Strange gave up the Time Stone and made Thanos spare Tony indicates that he knew that this was how it had to play out for that one scenario in which they win. Tony is clearly integral to this sequence of events. Whether or not this means Tony will survive Avengers 4 is another matter. It’ll be interesting to see how far Thanos sparing Tony’s life goes. Strange wasn’t specific about this being a one-time deal, Thanos is actually pretty honourable in his was, and he himself told Loki at the beginning of the film to Loki that you have to be careful with how you phrase things. Could just be a throwaway line, but the MCU does get clever with the little things.
Thor and Rabbit
The first thing to note is that Thor is the trolliest troll who ever trolled. He is not as dumb and clueless as he makes himself out to be. He plays it to his advantage to get what he needs because people think he’s charming, or they’re just doing it for the sake of their own sanity in the face of his ‘ineptness’. But when he’s dealing with the Guardians, we know damn well it’s an act, because he’s been around for 1500 years on a technologically advanced world, has exposure to many cultures, and been on Earth long enough he can go native in Ragnarok and fit in well enough. Plus, the guy has been exposed to Darcy for way too long – no way has she not educated him on many number of things. He’s pulling the olde worlde clueless con.
I will, however, give him ‘Rabbit’ as a genuine mistake. He recognises Rocket as an earth creature, he probably hasn’t had much exposure to raccoons, he knows it begins with an ‘r’ and ‘rabbit’ is better-known to him than ‘raccoon’. Thing is, Rocket isn’t even pissed at this. Anyone else, and he’d have ripped them a new one. He lets Thor get away with it. It’s not even that offensive, rabbits are cute, so Thor thinks he’s cute. It’s a pet name. Conclusion, Rocket is enamoured and charmed by Thor. Further proof: he genuinely tries to give him a pet talk. Conclusive proof: he gave Thor a prosthetic eye for free without hesitation.
Seriously, though. who can blame him? Thor has that effect on people.
Oh, thank god, Clint didn’t die
Anyone new to me on Twitter may not realise I am a huge Clint Barton fan. I love Hawkeye, and I will defend him to the death. I should probably find the old post I wrote defending him in the original Avengers and transfer it over here, but I digress. You can imagine I was really miffed when there was no Hawkeye promotion for Infinity War, but I’m now fine with it given the reasoning. My main hope at this point is that he’s back in the fight for the next film because 50% of the population being gone means the house arrest is hard to enforce (though it’s possible he’s been moonlighting as Ronin, if the rumours are to be believed), and they need all the heroes they can get. My fear (and the most likely outcome, given the odds) is that some, if not all, of Clint’s family have been wiped out by Thanos, giving him the need for revenge – the same may also apply to Scott to get Ant-Man back in play, heartbreaking for them both if it’s true. So yeah, I’m fine with Clint not being in Infinity War, he’s back for Avengers 4 with a role to play, and if that film deals with character juggling the way this one did, I’m confident he won’t be sidelined.
However, if he dies in Avengers 4, I am going to be very pissed off.
Why is Natasha blonde?!
This may just be me, because of the whole Vampire Diaries thing back in the day with the whole ‘why isn’t Elena blonde?!‘ thing. But this kind of nags at my brain, Natasha turning up being blonde for no explained reason. No one even mentions it. I’m hoping there’s something in the deleted scenes, because this mystery will haunt me otherwise.
Banner don’t need no Hulk
One of the greatest joys of this film was the Bruce/Hulk interaction. It was hilarious seeing a petulant Hulk refuse to come out, especially after he monopolised the share time during Ragnarok. More importantly, it let Bruce be the hero, let him realise he could do amazing things by himself, he didn’t actually need the Hulk.
Also, seeing Bruce skip around in the Hulkbuster made it look incredibly adorable. This is the same machine used in Age of Ultron, which was pretty hardcore then. Change the occupant and the fight, and it’s cute. Deadly and efficient, but still cute.
Identifying with Thanos
Thanos is not your typical villain. In fact, it’s hard to toss him under the same villain as the other MCU bad guys, because he’s not inherently evil (his minions, on the other hand, are a bunch of wicked nutjobs). Until this point, my expectations of Thanos were Big Bad Guy with a God Complex. Even Loki assumes that’s what he’s after. But he… isn’t. Not really. He doesn’t want to be a God, he just wants to do what he thinks is right to save the universe, or at least give it more time. He’s not out to rule the universe, he got the job done and then stepped out of the picture to let the universe get on with it. At the end of it all, he’s tired and mourning his own losses, and probably the loss of that 50%, but he believes what he did was ultimately right. He probably plans on eventually hiding the Infinity Stones again so they can’t be misused.
Thing is, he’s relatable. He’s got a point. You look at Earth and the exploding population and the finite resources we have, and Thanos isn’t wrong to say we’re in a bad place that’s only going to get worse if we’re not careful. His motivation for his actions is actually kind of noble, if misguided. Then throw in his relationship with Gamora. The guy genuinely loves her, is genuinely upset to sacrifice her. But he has a higher purpose, one to make the universe a better place, a purpose that is greater than his own personal feelings, so he did what he had to.
Honestly, Thanos would probably have been happier doing a Clint and raising some little Thanoses on a farm on a far-flung planet, but Fate had other ideas.
Cap’s Beard
I’ve always liked Cap. He’s very attractive and a fantastic person. Then, enter the beard. Cap has achieved new levels of attractive hotness, and combine that with his new ‘I have zero fucks left’ attitude on top of being a good person at heart, and… boom. It’s like Cap has somehow managed to further express the whole embodiment of Yankee Candle’s Mountain Lodge.
That beard needs its own billing, and I hope it was paid well. And whoever gave the greenlight for the beard needs their own pay doubling.
Wanda and Vision
I wonder if they learned something from the Age of Ultron Bruce/Natasha fail with this one. That felt so shoehorned in with no buildup and was rushed because of it all happening in the one film, and it frankly irritated the hell out of me. For a start, it helps that Wanda and Vision are an established pairing from the comics, so those of us with knowledge of this were expecting it and probably more willing to accept it. However, even not knowing this doesn’t negatively impact things. With Wanda and Vision they built it up a bit over the space of Age of Ultron and Civil War, so by the time we see them in Scotland we’re not in the slightest bit surprised to see them in a hotel room together discussing making things more permanent. They got a bunch of the awkward getting-to-know-you done off-screen, which is a good thing. So with the limited time they did have onscreen, their relationship and the fact they love each other was never in question, I wasn’t wondering why the hell they were suddenly so affected by each other. Wanda’s torment over killing Vision felt real. Vision’s regret hat Wanda had to be the one to do it and the absolute trust that she wouldn’t hurt him felt real. It felt so real to me that I’m genuinely not sure if I was imagining Wanda’s expression when she turned to dust; she looked relieved, as if this was a blessing for her that she didn’t have to live without Vision (or Pietro) any longer.
Captain Marvel
I have mixed feelings about this. I am amazingly happy to see Carol introduced and to have another female-led superhero film. I’m just worried about the questions she raises. Her origin story is set in the 90s, which is fine, it’ll be nostalgic. But she’s powerful as fuck, and if she’s been around since the 90s, then where was she during all the major MCU events? Hopefully off-planet somewhere and has only just recently returned, only to despair over the state we’re in right now. Be interesting to see that explained at any rate.
Finally, thanks for making me feel old
I’m looking at you, Spider-Man. Sure, I laughed, but I felt personally attacked. Okay, Aliens technically is kind of old by now, but still. I have great admiration for Stark not decking him in that moment.