Avengers: Infinity War
Bit chalky.
+: MCU running on rails at this point in terms of cast, characters, plot
-: technically half a film(?), inevitable short-changing of cast.
Infinity War is basically pointless to contemplate as a standalone film. It works as one, sure, but it gains its weight from 18 prior films. But what might be most remarkable about it is how it recontextualises those films, too.
The most obvious way is through Thanos, a man who spent most of his three prior appearances sitting in a chair. Infinity War turns around Thanos’ prior depictions, which seemed to accidentally portray him as something of an idiot (giving away Infinity Stones, hiring insubordinate delegates) and a hesitant one too (he waited six years?!). But now Thanos has a plan, and everything is lined up, so clear, so obvious: for example, he needed the Space Stone early, and the others spread out, to give a tactical advantage, for him to bounce from place to place whilst various characters chase around after him in slow, useless spaceships.
But the other big context shift is bigger than Thanos. What Infinity War shows, more than anything, is how the Avengers have been steadily losing for years, even as they knocked down threat after threat with relative ease. The time the original six members made their stand on the Park Avenue Viaduct — 13 films ago — might have been the last unqualified success. Crippling HYDRA meant taking out SHIELD, the team’s support system. Trying to replace and improve on it resulted in Ultron, an overreach which split the Avengers altogether. And splitting the Avengers proves crippling once Thanos shows up.
The Russo Brothers, now on their third and biggest blockbuster, manage their fanciest cinematography — it’s not a high bar, given their unfussy style — although they are still prone to cutting too much (see the Edinburgh fight, for example). We’re a long way away from Community’s “Modern Warfare” episode, though, with longer takes and swirling camera moves hitherto undreamt of in their prior films. This also manages to be a nimble film, given its size — Ebony Maw dies 62 minutes in, if you can believe it.
And whilst it’s inevitable that characters get short-changed — neither the Russos nor Feige anticipated the success of Black Panther, which is understandable, but Captain America also seems like a diminished figure here, far behind Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk or even the Scarlet Witch in understanding what’s actually happening — Infinity War still juggles some two dozen characters with something close to perfection. Doctor Strange in particular is a revelation here, a true and actual Master of the Mystic Arts.
Avengers: Infinity War arrived just before the tenth anniversary of Iron Man, and shattered the apparent $1.5bn ceiling the first Avengers film had set in 2012, just after Black Panther had again raised the bar for non-Iron Man solo films and, as it turned out, solo superhero films in general. Marvel Studios in 2018 grossed over $4bn worldwide, and $1.6bn in North America alone, accounting for 13.4% of the entire box office gross there.
I get into the vulgar question of money because, for almost the entire ten years of the MCU’s existence, there has been the frequently-raised issue of ‘superhero fatigue’ — is it happening? Is it, in fact, a myth? Is the inverse in fact happening, with superheroes ultimately destined to take over cinema as they did comic books? In this regard, both 2019 and Avengers: Endgame will be a true test for the MCU, Marvel Studios and Marvel generally.
2018 was the year, after all, in which the Netflix corner of the MCU more-or-less died — at time of writing, The Punisher and Jessica Jones remain, albeit likely because cancelling before release looks bad. But the fate of Netflix-MCU was likely decided by The Defenders (2017), whose tenuous villains and shaky conclusion sucked away all momentum. It’s a reminder of the tightrope the MCU’s films have had to walk; come Endgame, they’ll have to stick the landing and the turnaround. Given Marvel’s track record so far, though, you’d expect them to do it with a skip, a twirl and a somersault. On the other hand, from this height it’s a long way down.
High Points: Iron Man vs. Thanos on Titan gets to the heart of what Tony Stark’s about.
Low Points: the Battle of Wakanda has plenty of great moments — this film is wall-to-wall great moments — but the suicidal Outriders highlight how it’s a less essential part of the plot compared to everything else.
Curios: Peter Parker’s school trip is to MoMA, around three miles away from the fight on Bleecker Street. Spider-Man, Iron Man and Wong appear to fight in Washington Square Park, although the surrounding architecture doesn’t seem to support this. Wakanda has an air force. The phrase “perfectly balanced, as all things should be”, suggests that alongside his other flawed logic, Thanos fucking loves false equivalence. This does, however, provide a theme about halves and evenness that’s everywhere you look: half the Knowhere Guardians get hit with the Reality Stone, and we only directly see Thanos acquire three of the six Infinity Stones. The Vision has 2 trillion neurons, around 20 times that of a human brain.
Flagrant Product Placement: often spoken rather than shown — Ben and Jerry’s and Starbucks in particular. That Peter Parker boosts a Fox film and disses a Paramount one might be a coincidence but feels like a corporate in-joke.
Connections to Elsewhere: better to refer to what isn’t connected; Ant-Man seems to be the one obvious exception.
Stan Lee Cameo: bus driver who complains about those damn non-spaceship-seeing kids. Bit perfunctory. (5/10)
End Credits: Maria Hill, Nick Fury both get dusted — but Captain Marvel’s coming. (8/10)
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Next: Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
