Eh, cut the guy some slack. Banner just spent several years as Hulk on an alien planet, then accidentally got discovered by Thor and recruited for yet another suicide mission (during which his previous understanding of how the galaxy worked is pretty clearly upended), fought in Ragnarok (which featured fully fledged gods well beyond what he previously had to deal with) and after all that got ambushed by Thanos who killed most of the Asgardian refugees, once again showed how little Banner actually knew about the universe, and beat so badly that the Hulk (whose actions and behaviour have been the one constant thing he could count on) is ashamed/throwing a tantrum and doesn't want to come out. And depending on your view all of this happens within days or a few weeks with very little down time.

After all that gets transported back to earth to Doctor Strange who as a fully blown magician once again goes against the previous worldview of Banner (and who deals in things very different to what Banner experienced even during his times with the Avengers) and barely has time to warn them before earth gets invaded. And remember from his perspective there is very little pause between this and previous events and if all that wasn't enough the battle ends with Iron Man, perhaps the closest friend Banner has in the Avengers other than Black Widow, disappearing into deep space. And after all that comes the awkwardness of meeting the rest of the Avengers who from his perspective he only left a few weeks ago but from their perspective they "lost" him years ago, action filled years at that. And rather than getting some time to breath and come to grips with his experiences and discoveries he and the rest of the band have to race against time to save earth and perhaps the galaxy (and do so by going to an hidden african nation he had no idea existed either making even earth alien to him).

And as said during the few days he is one earth he also has to deal with the fact that the Hulk, the one constant in his "superhero" life, is rebelling and doesn't want to fight leaving him which means that he not only lost most of his fighting power but also that for the first time in probably years he has to face the chaos and horror of war/battle without the Hulk taking over...

So yeah, I think that Banner needs to be forgiven for not being totally there... Indeed in my eyes Banner served as something of a representation of a normal human/outsider and how overwhelming the situation would actually be.

 

So here's a question: imagine an AU in which Thor and Loki accepted Hela as the rightful queen of Asgard.

In this timeline, Hela ends up ruling Asgard, Ragnarok doesn't happen and Hela plans an eventual crusade to take over the galaxy.

Then, however, Thanos arrives.

Who would win? Thanos with the Power Gem or Hela? Keep in mind that there's no Hulk or Valkyrie in the picture since Thor never went to Sakaar.

 

I'm gonna give the win to Asgard actually. Thor is shown to be a little weaker than Thanos. Hela, who's power was supposedly constantly growing from Asgard, was beating Thor handily at the end.

My money is on Hela, Thor, and Loki winning that fight.

Though...Hela is the goddess of death. So....I'd actually see Thanos attempting to woo her heart..succeeding...and they conquer the galaxy/implement Thanos's plan.

 

Fuck Yeah!

 

Saw this on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed it. As many have said, the ending is made weaker by knowing who exactly has more movies planned, but in the moment it worked. Seeing the anguish on peoples' faces as their companions faded away was powerful.

The great: Thanos. Brolin turned in a fantastic performance. His scenes with Gamora felt surprisingly human and flawed and, regardless of the ludicrousness of his plan, he's as good as any Marvel villain there's been. Only qualm was the weird power scale and fighting even with Tony for a minute despite holding multiple stones. The spectacle of that fight was dope though.

The good: Thor stole every scene he was in. His grief over the death of his people wasn't quite where I thought it should be, but it's a comic book movie...Was a bit surprised that he's now an axe wielder rather than a hammer wielder, but I can live with it.

Everyone else kinda fits into the good as well. Strange had a great dynamic with Tony, Spidey stayed awesome, Cap and his crew did heroic things, and Wakanda still has me vibrating out of my seat whenever it's on-screen. Overall very entertaining.

The one place where I'm a bit disappointed was that it's pretty much only the OG Avengers left to fight Thanos, with whatever help Captain Marvel has to offer. I'm pretty much the only MCU fan I know who wasn't a huge fan of Avengers 1, and tbh I'm pretty over the original cast. Other than Thor, who had some serious life breathed into him with Ragnarok, I can do without each and every one of them. I've been well and truly over Tony's character since Ultron and was seriously hoping this would be his grand send off. There's really only so many wholesome American values I can take from Cap. The Hulk has gotten some good character development, but I've never been too interested in him to begin with. And watching Black Widow and Hawkeye punch up to galaxy level threats has always pushed against my suspension of disbelief a bit.

IMO, the MCU has done a great job of introducing new characters and making me care about them. Dr. Strange is dope, Black Panther is dope, the Guardians (minus Quill now cause he's a bitch) are a joy to watch, and Spidey is just the best. I'm very ready to move on from the OG cast to newer heroes.

Hopefully Avengers 4 will be a proper send off, or at least set the stage for a bit of a transition.

 

Does seem reasonably likely, since from what I've heard most of the actors/actresses behind the original Avengers lineup are at the point where they're ready to move on to new things. From what I recall Downey's the only one interested in continuing on with the MCU and a fourth solo film, and there's been no movement on Iron Man 4 for years (Reportedly because Downey's interest in doing Iron Man 4 hinges on how much Marvel is willing to pay him).

 

I find it incredibly funny that in every single one of the 140+ million futures Dr Strange saw, Peter Quill is a bitch in every single one of them.

Thanos would have legit lost the gauntlet if Quill had kept from lashing out for five more seconds. Quill fails in every single future Dr Strange saw.

 

I doubt that they will eliminate all original Avengers in one film for a simple reason that having six characters sacrifice themselves will actually resonate less than a scene with one, maybe two doing that.

Given his comments about wanting to do directing instead of acting, I would say that Chris Evans is the most likely to exit MCU in A4.

RDJ too, though he and Marvel may decide to have his character retire and do small appearances from time to time.

The rest depends, but after Ragnarok Chris Hemsworth sounded a lot more excited to play Thor in future films than he did before and Scarlett Johansson was, according to rumours, offered quite a money for a solo film.

 

I imagine Strange watching Quill losing his shit for the millionth time and barely holding back the urge to travel through time and strangle baby Quill in the crib.

 

Yeah, even if Marvel isn't willing to drive a garbage truck full of money to RDJ's house to make Iron Man 4 happen, he seemed to like stuff like being Spidey's mentor/father figure in Homecoming.

That, or Thanos losing the Gauntlet isn't the way to the best possible outcome. Nigh-omnipotence is the sort of thing just anyone would be tempted to abuse, and most of the Avengers would have something they'd want to use it for. Why not bring back Uncle Ben, Gamora, and Drax's family, heal Strange's hands, etc. And once that's done, why not use the Gauntlet to fix a few other problems?

As one of the comic sequels to the Infinity Gauntlet storyline covers, that kind of absolute power can lead to bad things even in the hands of a good person.

 

I really loved the movie, and I think the euphoria still hasn't left. I saw that end coming since I saw the first trailer as I expected it to be the best cliffhanger to ensure record breaking opening of A4. I was expecting a couple of the original Avengers to disappear though. Not on the finger snap, but die before then. For all the madness and the cruelty Thanos is known for, he does go out of the way to leave his opponents alive. I really expected all the Guardians to die when then met him in Knowhere. Also killing the characters whose other movies have been lined up seemed lame as there is a clear indication of a reset button.

Something that has really irritated me when I first saw the movie and till now is Gammorah revealing the location of the soul stone. I mean she actually duked it out with her sister in the last movie, then goes ahead to get Star Lord to promise to kill her, yet she is very quickly gave up the location of the stone on seeing the sister in pain. Very selfish of her. Loved the sacrifice bit though.

 

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/r...lf-hour-ad-for-all-the-previous-marvel-movies

I really liked this particular review, as it brings up a couple of points that are sometimes overlooked. I don‘t agree with all of it, but I liked it enough to recommend it to a couple of my movie buff friends with the appropriate caveats. And post it here, I suppose.

(Note: I only noticed after reading the article that it was written by Richard Brody. I very briefly met him last year when our group of students got a tour of the New Yorker offices in WTC1 – a story for another time, perhaps. He‘s hugely knowledgeable but can be quite hung up on tradition and from the impression I got from him there and ever since, that‘s totally something he would write and criticize about Infinity War.)

 

Oh fuck it, I went and saw it again today because my buddy, whom I haven't seen in a long while, was in town.

@Republic, was gonna post the same thing about Quill. What a twat. 14 000 605 options and he fucks up in all of them.

Shuri can go suck a vibranium dick. God, she's only been in two movies and she's been irritating every second she's been onscreen. I'm definitely influenced by all the perfect!Hermione fics I've stumbled upon, but I can't help rolling my eyes at the African princess being smarter than Banner simply because she has access to vibranium.

A few little moments I missed previously that I really liked: Peter's fat friend is a bro. Peter needs a distraction and dude wastes no time, just gets to work. "I need an exit." "Sure thing, bro. WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE, ALIENS ARE HERE!" Rhodey fucking with Banner when they get off the Quinjet in Wakanda. Thor putting in his new eye. Strange's magic battle with Thanos on Titan, the moment Thanos broke the mirror dimension and then when Strange turned Thanos' kamehameha into butterflies.

I loved everything Thor did in the movie. Badass from A to Z. Bracing against the star was just as epic as his battlefield arrival. But I have to give the first place for the best entrance to Cap catching the spear and emerging from the shadow while his theme plays. Beautifully done. Elizabeth Olsen's acting in the moment of destroying Vision was some really well done emotion, although the one death that actually did get me was Loki. I dunno, I have an affinity for this kind of character. He's fun to hate and root for. Like I said, the movie is a collage of awesome little moments.

My rating remains unchanged, but 7/10 is still a very solid movie. I still think 2012 Avengers is better--some of the best MCU stuff is when these characters are allowed to just banter. The Helicarrier scenes, the party and lifting the hammer in AoU--with this many balls to juggle, that's what's missing from IW for me.

 

Yeah, he devotes a lot of time to grumbling that Infinity War isn't really a traditional stand-alone movie. But really, we're 19 movies into the MCU, and this is the third Avengers movie. Was anyone expecting it to be a standalone movie that would be aimed at folks who hadn't seen any of the previous films?

Also, for those who care about the financial side of things, Infinity War set records for the biggest opening weekend and already made more money that Justice League's entire domestic theatrical run (and just barely less than worldwide). So much for superhero fatigue.

 

We all know IW will blink past 1bln box office, it'll probably rival Iron Man 3 and Black Panther. So far, 2012 Avengers is the highest grossing MCU film at 1,5bln. If there's a film (of those so far released) that will top that record, I'd say it's this one. I'll be curious to see if the MCU is strong enough to battle the nostalgia of Star Wars and hit 2bln.

 

I left the cinema disappointed. I like how we spent the entirety of Ragnarok following Thor as he learned that his power did not come from his hammer, but from himself...and then we find ourselves following Thor around to find a new weapon because he can't kill Thanos any other way? The scale of power has been pushed too high, and it makes this whole thing just a cluster fuck: there's no tension in the fights. They'll trade a couple of blows and then Thanos will knock them unconscious or away from him. Someone mentioned how the last 10 minutes were hard, and people would feel it everytime they watch that scene. I completely disagree with that statement. The only scene that was actually gut-wrenching was spider-man's and that was it.

I wasn't a fan of the pacing either. It was dragging halfway through.

All in all, I'd give it a 6/10. It was an enjoyable superhero movie; the special effects were on point and the scope of it was amazing, but the plot and the story left much to be desired and I'm really confused why everyone is calling it 'the superhero movie of the decade'.

 

I don't think we can say that getting the gauntlet off Thanos would have led to a victory. If it had led to sunshine and daisies, all Strange would have had to do was pre empt Quill's outburst.

 

I was talking about the movie today with a friend, and the more I talked about it the more I realized that I loved everything to do with Thanos. His motivations, his relationship with Gamorra, his personality, his powers. The difference between Darkseid and Thanos is that Darkseid is entropy, whereas Thanos is raging against entropy. His lieutenants are competent, and he uses his powers more intelligently than most antagonists. Thanos was the best part of the movie by far, with Thor being the only redeeming quality on the hero side.

 

Just saw it. It was a spectacle but I really didn't feel attached to many of the characters. It kind of felt like the Super Smash Bros of movies - a bunch of previously unrelated properties being brought together for cool fights and pretty flying lights. Sure a lot of it was foreshadowed and it's the climax that the previous movies were building towards but it didn't feel like it really *mattered*.

Thanos was a great villain / anti-hero though.

Anyways, 8/10. I went for entertainment and I was entertained.

 

Maybe I have to watch it again, but I was under the impression that Strange knew exactly what was going to happen, and let it happen, because it would eventually lead to the cicumstances in which they'd be victorious in Part 2.