Infinity War Dispatch!

Well that was interesting.

Went to see Avengers - Infinity War with my two girls the other day and we all enjoyed this spectacle of a movie. I was told by a student who had seen it that I would not find it dull and that the time would fly by and they were accurate on that count at the very least. This was a blockbuster action flick, with mayhem and murder erupting in the very first scene and never really stopping right on through the end credits sequence. A decade of plot threads weave together and unravel at the same time as we meet nearly all the characters who have been introduced in the various Marvel movies over the course of the flick. The only exceptions are Ant-Man and Hawkeye, who we are told are away protecting their families. There's plenty of disaster and tons of action, but more after some spoilers.

SPOILERS BEGIN...

Death is the order of the day. The story begins when Thanos and his henchmen invade the Asgardian spaceship and kill both Heimdall and Loki along with I assume almost everyone else. The story shifts to Earth where in quick succession we meet Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Spider-Man and on and on as the threat looms in the sky. The Avengers re-assemble as both the Vision and the Scarlet Witch find themselves attacked. Then Thor is saved by the Guardians of the Galaxy and then it really gets going. The story is set on multiple planets in multiple times and the cast of characters is sprawling.

My favorite moments are too many to count, but among them are teenage Groot totally enmeshed with his video game, Bruce Banner's attempts to evoke the Hulk fruitlessly, the look of total love in the eyes of Vision and Wanda, and much to my surprise Thanos. I absolutely loved Thanos as he was presented in this story and I was well and truly prepared to hate on him. I didn't like that he lost his helmet, but we do get to see the classic appearance and frankly they manage to get so much emotion in his face, the helmet would've been a hindrance. And I loved his henchmen, all wonderfully Starlinesque designs. The rendering of them was a beautifully done, especially in the bright sunshine which is a feature with many of these movies.

Like all stories in which Thanos is the villain, this is ultimately his story and we are put in the weird place of becoming the tiniest bit sympathetic with his genocidal goals by the end. He is a madman, a mass killer on a scale undreamed of, but one who is seeking to solve a problem and though his methods are heinous and his means murderous, it's clear that in his mind he is the protagonist and that the Avengers who fight against him are the enemies who are standing in the way of the ultimate salvation of the universe. He is a man who makes hard choices, even killing his adopted daughter to gain the power to fulfill his goals. He is a man who is willing to take on the pain to make the universe a better place and his smile at the end is evident that in this movie at the very least the bad guy won.

SPOILERS END...

I cannot recommend this movie enough, as if Avengers--Infinity War needed my measly recommendation. This one has long been coming and it's a movie which will be debated for a long long time. What is good, what is bad and how do we know the difference.

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