SPOILER ALERT!!!
I have decided to try out something new with each nerd movie that hits the theaters; I will be addressing the good in one post and the bad in another. Thus, today I will be addressing the good of Avengers: Infinity War. Let’s get started!
1. That Intro Music.
The moment the movie begins, the audience knows how dark it is going to be. There is no happy Marvel tune, but rather a quiet, dark tone. You hear the radio from the Asgardian refugee ship, as well as faint screams. Typically CGI aliens do not evoke quite the same sense of fear or desperation on-screen because they are so obviously fake that it is difficult for the audience to accept them as a serious threat. However, per the horror-movie method of showing the frightened person rather than the monster, Marvel effectively sets the dark mood for the entire movie.
2. All-female Fight Scene
Nothing emphasized the growth in the number of female superheroes like the all-female fight scene in Wakanda. Okoye, Scarlet Witch, and Black Widow played wonderfully off of each other, and the line where Natasha says that Wanda isn’t alone shows a sort of bonding between them.
3. Emotional Appeal
I do not cry at movies. Prior to this movie the only movie that made me cry was Logan. However, during this movie I felt like crying right at the beginning, and I did cry at the end. The screams of the Asgardians refugees are haunting, and while Loki’s death is difficult to take seriously, his brother’s reaction was heartbreaking. My sister cried as Thor wept while talking to Rocket about losing all of his friends and family. Not only is he fighting to prevent this horrible event from happening, but he is also fighting to feel okay. He is completely alone. Then, at the end, the final death scene was awful. Sure, many heroes went quickly without saying much, but watching Peter telling Tony that he didn’t want to die, watching Peter be so afraid, was horrifying. Marvel clearly did its job of evoking emotion in the audience.
4. Intensity
There was hardly a down moment in the movie! There was not just one battle scene, but many, from the beginning to the end. Everything was also happening in multiple different places across the universe, making the plot complex yet surprisingly understandable compared to Age of Ultron.
5. New Meetings
Mixing all of these characters from movies with very different tones might have felt weird, but Marvel did well at bringing them together and finding similarities between them. For example: Doctor Strange, Tony Stark, and Peter Quill all were egotists used to being in charge. However, Doctor Strange was more knowledgeable about the battle, Tony Stark more caring for the people in danger, and Peter Quill a bit less prepared. The conflict between them was not just amusing but also sets up a good reason for which they won’t be teaming up much in the future. It was also interesting to see the Guardians meet Thor. He was quite a jerk, which was entirely understandable with the trauma he had just gone through. There was also a clear contrast in their upbringings; the Guardians came from messed-up backgrounds that forced them into criminal lifestyles while Thor was a prince who had the money and time to take Groot as an elective.
Beyond clashes between characters, I would also note the nice transition from Earth to the Guardians. It was one of the few subtitles in the movie (a signature of a GotG film), and it had the nice old-style music. You knew who was coming on the screen before you saw or heard them. My mom ridiculed the caption for having to tell the audience that they were looking at space, but I thought it was a nice touch when broadening the focus to a few more superheroes.
6. The Red Skull.
It seems that most people have forgotten about the Red Skull. After all, he was a one-time villain from decades before the majority of the Avengers were even born. However, including him as a gatekeeper to the soul stone was a nice tie-in to the beginning of the Marvel franchise.
7. Appropriate Gravity
When Tony Stark enters the alien spaceship, he does not just rush in to saving Doctor Strange as if this is another normal save-the-world situation. He gets a call from Pepper, and recognizes how bad the situation is. Except for Thor (and now Banner), the Avengers have not really left Earth before. To humans, space travel is dangerous and life-threatening, a one-way ticket, as Stark stresses to Peter. That moment of noticing that he is headed to an alien planet or spaceship puts the craziness of the whole movie in perspective.
Also, Mantis jumping around in the low-gravity of Titan was pretty fun.
8. The Main Battle Didn’t Happen in New York.
Okay, there was one battle in New York. However, the main battles happened in Wakanda and on Titan, which is a nice change from the majority of Marvel movies. Besides, they could not exactly have no conflict in New York with the Sanctum Sanctorum and the Avengers in the city.
9. Just One After-Credits Scene.
The movie definitely ended on a shocking down note. Having a funny after-scene immediately would have decreased this shock factor. Sitting in the theater and watching the movie for the first time, I actually wondered if they would have an after-scene at all, as excluding it would have amplified the emotion. Of course, only having one was good too, and Nick Fury’s classic response to disintegrating was a good way to end the movie.
10. The Villain Won.
Marvel is known for having happy endings. Of course we know that they didn’t actually kill T’Challa or Spider-Man or the Guardians of the Galaxy; they have big movies coming up or huge new franchises centered on them. However, just for a year, half of the MCU is dead. That’s pretty dark for a Marvel movie.
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