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You should know going in “Avengers: Infinity Wars” is a prequel to another movie story yet to come..

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Review 5

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5 tech score

 

“Avengers: Infinity Wars” (Marvel Studios)

This is a review of “Avengers: Infinity War” by someone who is not devoted to the whole Marvel universe of characters. What I look for is entertainment and that is not delivered in excess in this film. It has a cast composed mostly all of the Marvel superheros – I didn’t see “Ant-Man” – but in this movie that is too much of a good thing. Even with a running time of two and a half hours you still get a scattershot approach to including them all.

And let me quickly state the movie should have been titled “Avengers: Infinity Wars – Part 1”. Going into it I thought this was going to be a complete movie, in the same sense that other Marvel movies had been complete. So when the credits started abruptly showing up on the screen I thought it was some kind of joke. They didn’t even have the forethought to end it with “To be continued……..”

Is the movie fun? Oh yes. At least for the most part. It is fun to see the interaction between Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Spiderman (Tom Holland). These are the characters who appear to get the most screen time. Then later there is the inclusion of the Guardians of the Galaxy crew (Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff and the voices of Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper). They are in a league all to themselves and are at their best when they are interacting with each other and not other people.

The plot has something to do with a huge man named Thanos (Josh Brolin) who is trying to gather six stones so he can rule the universe. Trying to keep him from doing this are the Avengers. These battles against Thanos take place on a variety of planets and occur mostly in the dark. They involve one combination of Avengers or another. Rarely do you see all of the heroes in one place at one time.

The best scenes in the movie involve Iron Man and Spiderman. They hit the right note of humor and adventure. This duo is late to the Avenger scene but they are the best part of it now. Robert Downey, Jr’s Tony Stark/Iron Man is the epitome of what an Avenger should be.

The film is rated PG-13 for profanity and violence.

In the movie Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow is the Avenger who seems to get the least screen time. She pops up here and there but has no part in the plot. And where is Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye? Hawkeye and Black Widow usually have some screen scenes together. Maybe they will reunite in the sequel.

Overall the movie is too long. It was shooting for being an epic saga but ended up being an elongated part one. The plot was confusing and while some characters shone others were duds. For fans of the series this may be movie manna to feed their souls, but for the rest of us it was just an okay film made as good as it was by the humor included.

I scored “Avengers: Infinity Wars” a long lasting 5 out of 10.

Jackie K Cooper

www.jackiekcooper.com

Jackie Cooper

The author Jackie Cooper

27 Comments

  1. The cliffhanger was supposed to be a surprise. It’s not surprising if it just has a pt.1 in front of it. They do this all the time in comics and it’s cool to finally see that in movies.

    I feel like all the people who disliked the movie are people the movie couldn’t have been less tailored for, judging the movie for not tailoring to them. It’s been made for people who’ve either kept up with the movies or know the characters from the comicbooks.

    It wasn’t honestly that hard to follow for me and I didn’t even see Civil War.

    1. It wasn’t made for people like me who are just asking to be entertained. The humor helped but it couldn’t save the movie overall. But I did like all of the scenes with Downey and Holland.

  2. Good day Jackie

    I agree with the comment above that the movie was designed for people who have been invested in the movie since day one (10 years ago).

    I then feel it is inaccurate of you to judge this movie in isolation and exclusion of the build up presented in the movies before it.
    That for me feels like Judging Harry potter Deathly Hallows without having seen any of the previous 6 movies, and expect to be entertained, not be confused, and provide an informed review thereafter.

    You are missing the context of a movie’s design.

    It feels like opening a book in the last last chapters and then expecting to be entertained and not be confused.
    I then feel the movie didnt lack in its purpose and design, that it is rather due to lack of investment in the franchise on your side that you were not entertained.

    Basically my point is, in as much as you were looking to be entertained, I feel you overlooked the context in which this movie was meant to entertain… and that was not the movie’s fault but yours.

    Next up, i feel the retmst of us knew that this was a semi-finale, enough enouncements were made to make that clear.

    But even despite that, lets look at like lord of the rings as an example.

    None of their movies are titled part one or part two, but we all understood it was a continuation. Thats like expecting lord of the rings: fellowship of the ring to be titled part 1 because I wasnt informed of its continuation.
    I then again say i feel this was rather not a movies short coming but rather not being informed on your side.

    Lastly, your review of Thanos’s motives were inaccurate. His intentions were not to rule the universe with the stones. His intentions were to balance the universe, buy using them to cause a mass culling of life. His view was that our resources are finite but life is continously growing as thus to curb an eventual bottle neck by killing.

    I would get past this if you missed who the heroes were because you didnt follow the franchise, however this was was the first time the movie was telling Thanos’s story.
    I personally feel this was made quite clear and that this was from your own part for not paying attention.

    I can understand not being entertained, however an inaccurate review of the plot just dissolves a lot of merit in your review.

    I essentially have no problem with a person who may not enjoy something in contrast to me. We all have our preferences and thats okay.
    But if your reasons for something are not personal taste and we are trying to objectively criticise a movie’s merit, i believe our “why” should be grounded and reasonable.

    However, if within that “why” I find that your context was wrong, that it was due to being uninformed of certian things, and that you missed the entire plot of what something is about even, I then feel the subject of critique was not at fault but the person’s judgement of it.

    I am open to debate our views

    1. Thanos’ desire to eradicate people and planets for the better good was not lost on me. It has been the mantra of dictators throughout history. It does not lessen my statement that he wanted to rule the universe in as much as he would make the decision as to who lived and died. If I missed the news that this would be a two parter or a three parter, my bad. But I have spoken with many others who were stunned when the credits began to role. I was completely unaware – but I did know about “The Lord of the Rings” being a series of movies as well as “Star Wars” etc.

    1. And you know this how? All advertisements I saw for the film did not indicate it was not a complete section of the MCU.

  3. I don’t remember Star Wars telling us from the get go there was for sure going to be two more films. The entire series has been based on there is more. It’s a comic book based storyline…. there is always more to come! 🤦‍♂️

  4. If you did pay attention to the movie you’d know Thanos saw himself as the good guy and by wiping out the half the universe the other half could live very good and long lifes with enough food and water for everyone, and why does he want that? That’s also explained in the movie, it happened to his home planet, Titan.

    Plus, with so many characters and such a huge plot, how do you expect it to be shorter? Would you like another Justice League movie? It would be even more confusing than it was.

    Too dark? I certainly would not make this movie light, it’s the part 1 of the big finale, for many characters this is the last chapter of their story. I would be pissed if it was a comedy flick and too light.

    One thing I do agree with you on however is that they should’ve named it Avengers: Infinity War: Part 1 like they did when it was announced. But the directors also aid there was a reason they decided not to and maybe it was to make the movie more shocking, I don’t know. The directors also said that the title for Part 2 will scare people…

    The score was amazing tho.

    1. When I said it was too dark, I meant most of the action sequences took place in the dark. There was no light. It was either on a dark planet or at night. And yes I understood all the “its for the best” reasoning Thanos spouted. It was a maniacal thing to say and possibly to believe.

  5. This review clearly shows you are not only not a Marvel fan, but did little to no research on the entire basis of this comic story arc. It was announced YEARS ago at Comic Con that this was a 2-part movie series (In the Comics its THREE), some simple research would have shown you this. And the movie tried to stick close to the source material

  6. Most of the action did not take place at night or on a dark planet. Outside of the action that happens in is there any action that takes place in the dark?

    This is the third movie, that’s the first key that it’s a sequential on going story and everything might not be wrapped up.

    Second, they filmed 3,4 together. It was announced as a part 1 and 2, and it was advertise heavily in online articles and magazines.

  7. When Marvel/Disney have discussed things about the Marvel CU (specially release dates and plans during comic cons and events like that) they have always stated this was a 2 part film. The only way you wouldn’t know this is if you actually do not care about the MCU.

    1. I honestly had no idea this was a Part 1. I attempt to keep up with all publicity announcements that come across my desk and on the internet but this was a surprise. And I think it is a surprise for the average moviegoer. But the movie is a smash. That cannot be denied.

  8. I’m sorry but the idea that it doesn’t stand alone or that it’s some kind of dupe is pretty weak anyway. It is movie in an ongoing series. Even if the average movie goer doesn’t know there are some 18-19 films in the MCU they know this series. Avengers is a story that continues to progress sequentially over multiple movies. Even across multiple character’s movies.

    First the Avengers did not break up in an Avengers movie per se as it was actually Captain America Civil War the third Captain America movie. Howerver it is very much full of Avenger’s storyline consequences.

    In all honesty who wants every superhero movie to wrap up with a nice bow and zero consequences to have happened? Who wants everyone of them to be the exact same? You state this is a prequel; no it’s not. It’s just another part of the story. That’s why they took Part 1 and 2 off the title, because they realized it’s unneeded. Infinity War is the war, and there really winners and losers.

    I saw this film for the second time and much of the action takes place in broad daylight and not in the dark. However, there are several scenes in space or space like settings that are dark. But the three biggest fights and really the action scenes in the film are in broad daylight.

  9. I almost never reply to film critics but is this case I feel compelled to point out some things that jusy don’t make sense from a critical or factual point view.

    If you haven;t seen the other films, you should make that clear when reviewing as some of your facts are off. But state that.

    But I do feel in the era of ‘click bait’ reviews dont to generate revenue for it’s publishers, some of you guys are just engaging in verbal diarrhea for clicks.

    Negatively critiquing a film because YOU were not aware of it being a two part film(when this has been WIDELY publicized for at least TWO YEARS) is akin to me being sore at Starbucks for dropping caramel lattes from the menu without sending me a personal note.

    Kinda stinks of some sort of entitlement issues you might have that have actually nothing to do with the film’s merits. But I digress.

    I have NOT like all of the Marvel films. I hate both Guardian’s of the Galaxy films. The films were feeling formulaic.

    I found this film THOROUGHLY enjoyable. It had drama, it had humor and for the first time in a Marvel film it felt, TO ME, that the stakes were real.

    Downey and Holland did NOT have the most screen time.

    Chronologically, Hemsworth and Brolin did.

    You know what, I could go on about your review, but who cares anyway..

    Kinda like your review of the film..

    1. I see close to 200 movies a year. I don’t remember the specifics from each one of those movies. Once I see a film & review it I move on to the next one. Glad you enjoyed the movie along with all the other people who gave it a $250 million dollar opening weekend.

      1. Just to note: this film was supposed to be called “Infinity War: Part 1” initially and they dropped the “Part 1” to give the second part a different name, which the Russo Brothers have not revealed yet as they consider the title to be a bit of a spoiler. I don’t know anyone who I have spoken to in the last year or two who didn’t know this was a two part event, especially due to the size of the story and the 10 year build up to this moment. Pretty sure this was widely known across the internet too, especially as there have been plenty of news regarding Infinity War for so long now. It’s a shame that reviews like this (which reads lazy and short) drop down the Rotten Tomatoes score too. Surprised you were not entertained.

        (Also, the absence of Ant-Man and Hawkeye are explained in the film).

        1. I have spoken with many, many people who did not know this was a Part 1. And yes there were brief “explanations” as to where Ant Man and Hawkeye were. You got your record breaking opening. Be happy with it.

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