Friday, April 26, 2019

Academedia: Avengers Infinity War


  1. "We lost."  This is a massive omission.  It isn't some nostalgic callback.  It's a clear message that this Avengers movie by the Russos is made of the same essential DNA as the Avengers movies by Joss Whedon.  Cap had seen war, but he'd never seen an alien army before, a hole in space, an incredible hulk.  It was the hardest battle that he'd ever fought but at the end, they won.  He realized it in that moment and he said it.  I find it hard to believe that Cap wouldn't have been broken yet stoic watching Bucky die for a second time.  "Oh, God," to me is Cap giving into despair, which is understandable but at the same time, the failure of the Avengers is something that Cap would be very sensitive to making worse by showing his vulnerability.  'Oh God' is fear.  We lost is a fact.  Having said all of that, the realization that 3.5 billion people just died because you didn't get it done - is a lot to process.  All in all, I would have sided on keeping Cap strong in public but giving him a chance to breakdown in private with Nat or Wanda.
  2. Tony knows what just happened, he just watched Peter dissolve.  Hard to think that the next thought through his head and word through his mouth wouldn't be "Pepper".  Especially if he thought that she had been pregnant.
  3. Needs a line when Thanos is put under about considering trying to kill him - something like if you don't do it in one shot, he's definitely going to wake up
  4. Need a line from Gamora taunting Thanos, making clear the distinction between love the word and love the action. Making clear the love of family that the Guardians represent and the idea of love - the feeling separate from the devotion.  Making clear the paradox of the Soul Stone.  Something like saying:  "You killed my mother, my family.  But now you love me?  You love me?  Here's your chance to prove it."  Make it clear that Thanos' 'love' is hollow and meaningless if it still doesn't stop him from throwing her off of a cliff.
  5. Thanos, the mad Titan, is an interesting case.  Where are the other Titans?  Couldn't they stand toe to toe with Thanos?  It would be an interesting wrinkle in a Big Bad if he was part of some Apex predator race and committed genocide against his own people in order to the biggest baddest big bad left.  Like Aegon Targarayan.
  6. I'm going to go ahead and say it - Movies aren't a superior storytelling format to TV.  I would have watched 7 hours of this story and they definitely had at least 7 hours to tell.  When are we going to break out of this mould? 2.5 hr theatrical release along with seven 30 minute-episode uploads to YouTube with 'deleted scenes' that are full of our favourite characters.  You don't have to watch it and it isn't material to the story.  But its a hell of a lot of fun.  Again, its money left on the table.  How many people who came out of that theater didn't want to see 15 minutes of catch-up between Steve, Bucky and Sam?  How many of them didn't want to hear Tony, Peter and Strange getting to know each other on a long space trip or Star-Lord and Peter Parker shooting the shit about pop culture on Earth?  How many of them didn't want to hear more about all the planets that Thanos' minions had conquered?  How many didn't want to see some vision Thor had of Odin and Loki and Heimdahl?  Hell, I would have appreciated 2-3 awkward minutes of Widow and Banner.  Widow & Okoyo; Banner & Suri.  Christ, load the bitch up with commercials if you want.  That's the stuff we really want to see and the stuff that the writers really want to write.  Why is it that TV shows can move into theaters but Movies can't move to TV screens?  We get it people don't want to sit in a theater for longer than they can hold their bladder.  But why does this epic story have to be bounded in this way?
  7. So the one-take, no-cut panoramic continuous shot going from Avenger to Avenger that we saw in the Battle of New York and at the beginning of Age of Ultron, is that an Avenger movie thing or is it a Joss Whedon thing? Because if its an Avenger thing, it wasn't in this movie.  But then again, the OG Avengers are going to get their swan song, maybe it will be in A4.
  8. Was reading someone saying that Loki's death was pointless, esp. for a big bad like Thanos that believes that the Gauntlet is going to rack up the ultimate death count.  To my mind, Thanos gave Loki the Mind Stone and a Chitauri Army to get the Tesseract.  Not only did Loki not bring Thanos the Tesseract, he lost both the Army and the Infinity Stone that Thanos already had and went six years avoiding him.  If anything, Loki died too quick.  There really should have been a lot more discussion about Loki's failure in that scene. If Thanos took Loki for torture, that could have been an equally satisfying motivation for Thor to pursue Stormbreaker.
Simply put, it was all set up for the Swan Song.  So there is a limit in evaluating it on its own merits, in the same way that everyone hated GOT S5 when it set the stage for a massive S6.