Thanos finally arrived on Earth in Infinity War, and he was definitely worth all the build-up from the other Marvel films.
The most recent lead-up to Infinity War would be Thor: Ragnarok, and this film opens up with the refugee Asgardians. In Ragnarok's end, Thor encountered Thanos' ship, and the Asgardians have suffered as a result, with everyone lying broken after Thanos attacked. Thor and Loki continue to fight back, with Loki making a callback to the first Avengers movie as he states "We have a Hulk." Even the Hulk, however, is no match for the Mad Titan, and Thanos slams him into submission before Heimdall teleports him to Earth. Thanos soon takes the Space Stone, as Loki reveals he did indeed take it before Asgard was obliterated, and he and Heimdall are killed before Thanos destroys the ship. On Earth, Bruce Banner crashes into Doctor Strange's Sanctum and warns the sorcerer and his assistant Wong of the impending threat to Earth. Strange calls in Iron Man, whose initial cockiness is replaced with genuine concern as he sees Bruce and learns of Thanos. After the group bickers about whether to fight Thanos using the Time Stone within the Eye of Agamotto or get it to safety, Thanos' children Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian descend in New York. The group fights the duo tooth and nail, with Spiderman joining the fray as Doctor Strange is put out of commission. While Wong sends Obsidian to a frozen tundra, slicing off his arm in the process, Maw goes into space with Tony following, and Peter stowing away against Tony's wishes. Meanwhile, Vision and Scarlet Witch are found living a peaceful life, albeit with the Mind Stone giving Vision headaches and prophecies of Thanos. These visions soon come true as the two are attacked by Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight, taking a massive blow as Glaive's spear slices into Vision, damaging his ability to phase. The two hold their own just long enough for Steve Rogers, Black Widow, and Falcon to arrive, and the group meets up with War Machine, who has turned against General Ross and the accord. The group decides to head to Wakanda, where Steve believes Black Panther's sister and technology will be able to remove the Mind Stone from Vision without killing him. Back in space, the Guardians of the Galaxy encounter Thor, saving him with Mantis' power and learning of Thanos' conquest of the Space Stone. Thor, determined to kill Thanos, heads to the Nidavellir, home of the dwarves who created Mjolnir, to have them create the ax Stormbreaker. Rocket and Groot head with him, while the other Guardians travel to the Collector, who Thanos knows has the Reality Stone. The Guardians are too late, and Thanos uses the Reality Stone to stop Drax, Mantis, and Starlord before leaving with Gamora to find the Soul Stone. Thor also finds a problem, learning the dwarves were forced to create the Infinity Gauntlet before all but King Eitri were wiped out, and Eitri lost his hands. Over on Maw's ship, Tony and Peter succeed in ejecting Maw into space, killing him in the process and freeing Strange. In the meantime, Thanos has gotten Gamora to tell him where the Soul Stone is by torturing Nebula, and the duo head to the planet Vormir. Nebula breaks free, however, and sends a distress call to Mantis telling her to go to Titan, where Tony and the others are also heading. After some initial confusion, the two decide to work together to ambush Thanos, and as Starlord and Tony bicker, Strange determines their odds. Using the Time Stone, Strange views more than 14 million possible futures, and gravely says they succeed in only one. As everyone prepares for Thanos, Steve and the others on Earth prepare to hold off Midnight and Obsidian as Shuri works on Vision. Making use of Wakanda's force field, every tribe joins in the battle as Thanos fodder try to break through the barrier. Realizing the troops are splintering off to get them in a pincer maneuver, the Avengers open the shield in front of them and head directly into combat. While the Avengers and Wakandan soldiers are more than capable of fighting, the number of enemies they face begins to cause problems, culminating in the arrival of an enormous bladed machine entering the fray. Wanda is forced to enter to stop the weapon, and it is revealed that Glaive lives and is going after Vision. Some Avengers are forced at this point to focus on Midnight, Glaive, and Obsidian as Vision and Wanda sustain injuries. At Nidavellir, Thor succeeds in creating Stormbreaker with some help from Groot, and over on Vormir, Thanos encounters the keeper of the Soul Stone, and learns of a cost to come with the final stone. This is definitely one of the most impressive movies Marvel has released since starting the MCU. Of course the vast majority have been hits, but there have been some along the way, like the first two Thor films, that weren't well-received. A particular problem has been the lack of 3-dimensional enjoyable villains, with only a few in any movies and fewer surviving for sequels. This is an aspect where Infinity War shines, however, as in his first big role in one of the films, he is quickly fleshed out into an understandable, albeit crazy character. Throughout the movie, it is revealed that Titan became a wasteland after its population grew too high for available resources. Thanos suggested randomly killing off half the population, thus giving the planet some rest time to recover. His plan ignored, Thanos had to watch as his planet and its people slowly died, resulting in his conquest method of killing exactly half a planet's population. Thus, his plan is to gather the Infinity Stones and use it to randomly kill half the universe, with no one safe, young or old, rich or poor. This is altered from the comics, where Thanos killed half the universe with a snap of his fingers to impress Mistress Death, with whom he is enamored. It's no less impressive to see him at work, however, as he takes on multiple heavy hitters from the MCU during the movie with minimal effort. Some have been shocked at the ferocity Disney allowed the film, and though I wasn't shocked, I was still impressed by how violent he remained. From the start of the movie, you get an idea of how ruthless he is, as he has no problem lifting Loki after an failed stealth kill, and snapping his neck. While viewers aren't expected to think his plan is the best, it's something that's at least actually been joked about on the Internet, and we see the exact reason Thanos thinks it's the only solution. Another area that potentially could have been problematic was the number of characters in the film, as along with needing to give everyone justice, there were multiple big storylines coming together. Infinity War pulls it off, however, never spending too long on any one group or ignoring them, and it moves along at a nice pace. We see Thanos encounter every group, and he uses the stones to their fullest potential, at one point turning Starlord's gun into bubbles, unwraveling Mantis, and making Drax crumble with the Reality Stone. He most often uses the Space Stone, as it allows him to zoom across the universe in a split second, and also keeping the story going. There probably was a lot of confusion for viewers who don't know as much about the comics, as very little time was given to recognizing Glaive, Midnight, Obsidian, and Maw's names or character. One of my favorite aspects was another sign of the coming introduction of Beta Ray Bill, like I mentioned while reviewing Ragnarok and talking about his character. As I said then, Bill was an Easter Egg in Ragnarok on the side of the Tower of Champions, and I later learned he was intended to be in the movie, but was cut because the role was too small and felt like a disservice. Now, more than just his face on a building, we have his hammer, here referred to as an ax, and we even got to see the weapon be made. At Ragnarok's end, despite the loss of his eye, Thor was making a massive comeback from the loss of his hammer due to his better control of his powers. He got a nice bonus along the way, and now he has Stormbreaker, which he uses devastatingly well in the coming fight. It's good to see him truly be as powerful as one would expect from the god of thunder, but I am definitely excited for when he gets a new hammer and Bill is there to start using Stormbreaker. For those who didn't see my posts from before and/or just don't know Bill, he is a monstrous-looking character who is worthy to use Mjolnir. As the perfect example of not judging a book by its cover, Billy is a horrific horsefaced being and simultaneously one of Marvel's most righteous characters. In his comic debut, he and Thor ended up fighting for possession of Mjolnir, and fell unconscious at the same time due to the lava field they ended up in. Bill woke up first and saved Thor, so Odin declared him worthy enough for his own hammer, having the dwarves create Stormbreaker. As he is also an incredibly heavy hitter in the Marvel arsenal, he would be an enormous asset to the heroes in Infinity War's sequel, or anything to come later. Already existing characters work well off each other in this movie, especially Iron Man and Spiderman. Tony and Peter have an effective father/son relationship going on, as Tony tries to help Peter succeed while also worrying for his safety. Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Holland show excellent chemistry throughout the movie, and it makes it entertaining to see Tony and Peter interact. Dr. Strange is massively different from his first movie, at least at the start, which seems obvious, but it is quite a dramatic change. Certainly gone is the conceited surgeon, and in his place is the wise, powerful sorcery with the weight of the world on his shoulders. We get some entertaining moments with the Guardians of the Galaxy, in particular a meme-sparking moment with Drax. Groot is a good source of comedy in his emo teen stage, and his short time with Thor results in some good character progression toward the character he used to be. We get some nice interactions between Steve and the others on Earth, and we even get to see Steve and Bucky interact again as they get back into the action. A favorite interaction for me was a friendship between War Machine and Falcon, which came as a bit of a surprise after Civil War. In that film, James Rhodes, or War Machine, sided with Iron Man when it came to the Accords, and was crippled after a battle involving Sam Wilson. While this could have resulted in an angry, bitter Rhodey with a grudge against Sam, but in a turn, he has had a change of heart and gone against General Ross. We see a lot early on with Vision and Wanda's relationships, but as single characters not much happens, as Vision is incapacitated for much of the movie. For those of you who know little or nothing of Thanos and the Infinity War of the comics, go in expecting death. If you're like a girl who was behind me at the theater I went to, who said "You can't just kill of the Marvel universe like that," you're in for a rude awakening. Entering the theater, you'd better be prepared for death, and a lot of it, done in dramatic and pretty effectively emotional fashion. If you didn't know better, you might think George R. R. Martin of Game of Thrones had been handed the reins for this movie. That's a high point, however, as Marvel shows that while it's more often light, it can handle the dark well, and it makes for an excellent movie with both comedy and darkness.
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AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
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