Avengers: Infinity War

Just got back, really only have one thing to say: when you make a 3+ hour movie, having characters converse next to a loudly-burbling river at roughly the three hour mark is nothing but an exercise in abject cruelty. Won't somebody please think of all that root beer I drank.

xp She used her future self's knowledge of the equipment picked up from hanging out with Banner, Stark and co long enough perhaps - all in the shared memory between past and present Nebula. The bigger problem might be no-one realised Nebula was such a threat to the plan in the first place.

I didn't like that Stark pretty much solved time travel on his own (Cap Marvel could've been more involved in this - also was hoping for more jokes about her having time for a haircut).

ok so she built a better time machine in an hour than stark did in ten mins

that is at least consistent but cmon its still bad

cpt marvel left to go to all the other places that had a chance of restoring life to half the universe and had solved time travel

basically time travel was a terrible choice for this movie

Was watching the Red Letter Media review (they mostly liked it) and they brought up a really good point that in the last movie, Thanos already had most of the stones and a handful of the Avengers were still more or less able to best him on that planet. But the Thanos they fight at the end of this one ... has no stones. And yet the mightiest of the mightiest struggle with him.

yes, considerably more powerful cap, witch hazel or w/e, let alone cpt marvel

fighting thanos is always a p dumb choice for the writers

Some people itt are very bad at following time travel narratives. Which isn't a damning observation, mind (I'm very bad at financial management, for instance, and I'm still a valued member of my community), but true nonetheless.

I have problems with basically every fictional employment of time travel, but I was surprisingly okay with it here.

some ppl itt will want this to work that is a criticism if it leads to them having little digs at any criticisms of how lazy an effort it is

*twirls magic hammer that isnt worth a shite now apparently*

As the comic book movie to end all comic book movies, the plotting is entirely consistent with its native medium, in which all manner of inconsistencies and incoherences are permitted so long as the action is sufficiently epic.

The big battle was kind of murky and muddled, but I liked some of the touches, like the whole game of keep-away with the gauntlet.

If we’re going to quibble about anything, who decreed that it took a fingersnap to make the stones work? Why can’t you just put them on and think whatever you want and make it happen?

But whatever. It was a likable cast in a big dumb TV show with enough funny bits to keep things moving. If you want more than that you’re in the wrong place.

There was a part of me that wanted to see them cut from the two armies charging one another to the aftermath. Just skip all the beatemuppery, fade to white, funeral scene.

the allowance that it be kitschy-dumb in the vein of a lot of comic-book swoopery is a fair one but clearly not the vibe they were going for

tb otm, in fact between cgi armies, beardy chubbed antipodeans and tearful goodbyes its as good a time to say fuck peter jackson again as we're likely to get

But it is not this day. *is killed*

Hmm come to think of it I THOUGHT something was off with Stark's equation.

So well anyway as others said upthread, this was extremely satisfying, probably my favorite of the Avengers films (which are mostly kinda mid-tier MCU for me). While I'm glad that they're making more, this would've been pretty much a perfect ending to the saga. I was a little surprised by how much of an emotional roller coaster I found it to be (nb, I do cry at movies but this was the first action blockbuster to jerk my tears). I can only imagine how kids who grew up with this series are feeling rn. Actually, I don't have to imagine. I always liked Star Wars fine but it never resonated as strongly with me as it seems to with so many others. I'm realizing that this is my Star Wars, basically. Only had to wait until I hit my forties to find the juvenilia that really spoke to me, fair enough.

Quick shout out to Jarvis being (I believe) the first and only MCU tv character to make his way into a film.

You are correct re Jarvis.

Man people really not getting the Nebula thing. She didn't build a better anything or any of that.

- Future!Nebula went back in time from 2019 to 2014 with Rhodey. The two of them grab the Power Stone from the temple on Morgan.
- Thanos is on his ship with Past!Nebula when she has that glitch and shows the "memory" from Future!Nebula.
- Thanos's henchdude causes the two Nebulas to sync up, so that when Rhodey returns to 2019, Future!Nebula is left behind. She is captured by Thanos.
- Past!Nebula pries a differently-colored plate off of Future!Nebula's head to disguise herself. She then uses Future!Nebula's suit and Pym particles to return to 2019.
- This is the important part: SINCE THEY ALL ARRIVED BACK AT THE SAME MOMENT, NO MATTER WHEN THEY LEFT FROM, NOBODY COULD TELL IT WAS THE WRONG NEBULA. They all left from different years and different places at different times, but all arrived back in 2019 simultaneously. So as far as Rhodey knew, he was never separated from Nebula for a second.
- Past!Nebula disguised as Future!Nebula then uses Stark's machine to bring Thanos and his army forward from 2014. They literally show her walking in, turning on the machine and creating a quantum tunnel that Thanos's ship travels through to 2019.

Like the movie or not, you can't pretend this wasn't explained on-screen!

who is confused about anything there until past nebula being able to bring a country-sized spaceship into the future without any hassle

I enjoyed the heck out of this. I commented on facebook as I was checking in at the theater "If you google 'edging' the first result is the MCU wiki."

xp it was miniaturized by Pym particles, just like the Milano was so that Hawkeye and Black Widow could take it back and fly from the Power Stone planet to the Soul Stone planet.

hmm i dont like this i dont like any of it

tbh I thought the exact same thing about the finger-snapping stuff. When Thanos did it the first time he was just making literal his "with the snap of the fingers" boasting. But here it's made out like it's the only way the magic glove operates. It's a giant god-glove that gives it bearer unlimited power (including snapping at all with a giant metal glove on), yet the act of snapping is so goofy and mundane. I guess they had to find some way to show it doing its thing, and a finger-snap is better than a hi-five, though that would have made a pretty funny movie.

i amused myself by thinking of it as a particular dig at that bono campaign a few years back

Thanos only *thinks* he's Bono.

Finger-snapping is just fanservice for the comics nerds, re: Thanos putting the whammy on half the universe in Infinity Gauntlet to the tune of 'Finger Popping Time'. But it's established there and elsewhere that no snapping was ever necessary to wield the magics of the Power Glove.

well as long as it's established

Avengers: Endgame (2019)
(dir. Joe & Anthony Russo) pic.twitter.com/2ZvQtBST6w

— Simpsons Films (@simpsonsfilms) April 27, 2019

well played

Thought this was a useful read

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/movies/avengers-endgame-questions-and-answers.html

Why does Natasha Romanoff have to die?

McFEELY Her journey, in our minds, had come to an end if she could get the Avengers back. She comes from such an abusive, terrible, mind-control background, so when she gets to Vormir and she has a chance to get the family back, that’s a thing she would trade for. The toughest thing for us was we were always worried that people weren’t going to have time to be sad enough. The stakes are still out there and they haven’t solved the problem. But we lost a big character — a female character — how do we honor it? We have this male lens and it’s a lot of guys being sad that a woman died.

MARKUS Tony gets a funeral. Natasha doesn’t. That’s partly because Tony’s this massive public figure and she’s been a cipher the whole time. It wasn’t necessarily honest to the character to give her a funeral.

Wow that is a crock of shit. She should have gotten a funeral because the Avengers were her family and it's not like Tony had a big public funeral in the movie anyway.

They should just admit they just had no idea what to do with Natasha/Black Widow - early on, they kept hinting at a possible (past?) romance with Hawkeye, and then a flirty thing with Cap, and then it turned out she was in love with Banner the whole time? And then they blew it up by having Hulk disappear into space for a couple of years.

They never knew how to write her as anything other than as a potential love interest for the other male heroes. They could have done something more with her friendship with Cap/Hawkeye, her desire for family, just anything else other than what was shown.

I'm increasingly curious about what the impending Black Widow movie has in store. And I'm increasingly certain that it won't simply be a mundane prequel.

Keep in mind that both her and Gamorra's deaths involved the soul stone, a fate which the comics have demonstrated is decidedly Not The End.

Calling it now: Adam Warlock pulls the two of them out of Soul World in GOTG 3.

...

What a weird and confusing movie. I didn’t pee once though! Very immersive.

1. How did Captain America suddenly develop the ability to use Thor’s Hammer?

2. What happens to Past!Kemora?

3. Is it considered correct (as was our consensus after the film last night) that Strange gave the crystal to Thanos because he saw this extended narrative that involved half the population dying, five years going by, time travel being invented, Hulk going back in time to 2012 and meeting with Tilda Swinton and retrieving one of the power stones? And that this conclusion is so transparent that “Strange knows what’s up” that the mere mention to Tilda Swinton that “Strange have Thanos the stone” is enough for her to give the stone to Hulk?

(My phone keeps correcting Thanos to Thanks and Hulk to Bulk)

Like here’s Tilda Swinton committing to defend the power stone with her life but simply saying “Strange gave it to Thanos” is enough for her to say “oh, I see, I see” and give it to Hulk?

Sorry for blinking blinking I just find seers to be intrusive elements in storytelling. Time travel is so fun in fiction! Seers can fuck off tho I hate puzzling out these know-it-alls. It’s like playing D&D with a sullen and manipulative DM

1. How did Captain America suddenly develop the ability to use Thor’s Hammer?

odin enchanted the hammer with the words "whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of thor"

cap was worthy

I just saw this. first time I saw a movie in a movie theater in twenty five years. I dunno, I got tempted having watching Infinity War on a transcontinental flight last month. to a billion dollars & beyond!

yeah I'm still confused about the Dr STrange stone bit.

having spoiled a 30-year-old issue of thor for darragh on another thread, i might as well pick up the question here: cap's gonna pick up thor's hammer and beat the shit out of thanos with it at some point in the second part (possibly giving up his life in the process) isn't he? they've got to pay off the hammer-lifting scene in age of ultron eventually and it would be a hell of a moment

― Mahogany Loggins (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 11 May 2018 12:11 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i would like to point out that i have been otm in this thread

Ah OK Ultron was a movie I skipped

it was eminently skippable tbh but yeah there was a scene where each avenger had a go at trying to pick up thor's hammer and everyone failed except cap, who seemed to shift it very slightly (muchto thor's consternation) just before ultron showed up and tried to kill them all

WmC why u give me ellipses bruh

Seems pretty clear to me that they have further plans for Black Widow given the impending Black Widow movie whose existence would otherwise now be really weird.

Yeah but lots of people seem to think it's a prequel movie.

But why

I mean they blessed us by not re-re-re-representing Spidey's origin. A prequel without some meaningful impact on the larger story seems decidedly outside the MCU purview at this point.

By which I mean (as I said upthread): yes, it will likely be to some extent a prequel inasmuch as ScarJo is appearing as a character who has just died but it's likely to be a prequel in the same way, say, Captain Marvel or the first Cap movie were prequels. And also I don't think its status as a prequel precludes future employment of Black Widow in a present context.

Keep in mind that both her and Gamorra's deaths involved the soul stone, a fate which the comics have demonstrated is decidedly Not The End.

I think we're at the point where comics continuity is no predictor of movie continuity.

Seems pretty clear to me that they have further plans for Black Widow

Clear to you based on what onscreen evidence?

Based, again, on the fact that one of the very next movies after the movie where they killed off Black Widow is a film starring Black Widow. Does this not strike you as a peculiar decision.

It really doesn't.

Like Vision is seemingly capital-d Dead with seemingly no chance of resurrection in sight and yet there is a show coming soon entitled WandaVision which leads me, somehow, to believe that his story isn't quite complete.

ach don't worry tony will invent a not-dead machine in an afternoon

ok so i don't know how the soul stone works in the comics, but i did wonder why they couldn't just get BW back in exchange for returning it to Vormir.

her death didn't work for me (none of them worked for me until Morgan Stark asked for cheeseburgers tbh) i think because death seems so easily reversed in this particular MCU? like Bucky died and then he didn't, Pepper died and then she didn't, Vision died and then he came back and then died again, and then Thanos snapped his fingers and everyone died but we knew they were going to be unsnapped anyway. So I always assumed that Natasha would be back by the end of the movie. and then she wasn't. :/

Infinity War Gamora dies, but the 2014 new timeline Gamora has jumped five years into the future, presumably to restart whatever it was she had with Quill and the Guardians. I'm guessing this is what happens with Loki too, after he steals the Tesseract. So the version of Loki who had reconciled with Thor in Ragnarok and was killed by Thanos has now been replaced with the old chaotic Loki, back to stir up trouble.