Amph Avengers: Doomsday (and Secret Wars)

And Ebony Maw looks so similar to Darth Plagueis.

 

Spoiler

Valkyrie will be in Avengers 4. She filmed some scenes last year with Thor, Hulk, and Rocket

https://mcuexchange.com/tessa-thompson-valkyrie-avengers-infinity-war/

Keep an eye on the thread title. Tag A4 spoilers, please. /heels

 

Why didn't Thanos just use Reality Gem to wipe out half the population? If the dark elves could use it to change the entire universe into darkness, then Thanos should be able to make similar effect as well.

 

Tag all Avengers 4 Spoilers please!

Spoiler

 

It's my understanding that whatever the dark elves were doing needed to done when all the planets were lined up.

 

With the reality gem it shouldn't be a problem.

Return the universe into a dark state obviously is more difficult than wipe half of the lives in the universe.

 

is vibranium part of one of the gem stones ?

 

Can't wait until the Avengers use the "Undo Stone" in the next movie!

 

Avengers: Infinity War is an achievement in film making and it's a product of tens years of story telling that involved a myriad characters and story lines of the course of around 18 films that no other Hollywood franchise has done previously. I mean, typically after three or four films, a Hollywood film franchise starts circling the drain.

I found Infinity War to be a mash up of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (moreso LOTR: ROTK), in that it is a culmination of the films that have proceeded it, as well separating the heroes to perform their roles in this epic scifi fantasy super hero drama. I mean, like Lord of the Rings, the followship of the Avengers is disassembled but yet the heroes must do their part to ensure the big bad villain doesn't get that jewelry to get the power needed to do the bad guy stuff. And there are quite a few of the characters that are reluctant to give up their precious; aka Infinity Stone (Dr. Strange and his Time Stone; Cap/Wanda re Vision's Mind Stone; Gamora and her secret regarding the Soul Stone). And like Tolkien's "Middle-earth" the scope and settings where we find our heroes of Infinity War is vast and imaginative; to the realm of Volmir to the birthplace Mjolnir and everything in between. All of it provides depth and richness to story of Thanos and the Infinity War. And of course the ending has the feels of The Empire Strikes Back as well see the heroes reeling in disbelief and villain is the one that gets to rest in the satisfaction of achieve his goal and watch the sun rise over the horizon. A very stark difference in the previous MCU film where we literally see the sunset on the villain.

The Russo Brothers will most likely not be nominated for any Academy Awards like Peter Jackson did with Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, because Infinity War is a super hero film with a lot of humor, but I don't feel it's any less of an accomplishment considering the amount of characters, special effects, story lines and scope that is covered. And unlike Lord of the Rings' Sauron, the Russo Brothers had the challenge to create a fully fleshed out big bad villain in Thanos. And the Russos did such a great job with Thanos, many people that saw the film found some level of nobility in Thanos' quest to solve the universe's problem of limited resources; people just thought he went about it the wrong way. I mean, Thanos was so well written some that people felt he didn't live up to the nickname "Mad Titan" as he was so seemingly rational and articulate in expressing himself. Bravo! And in addition to Thanos, the Russos and the actor in question made Ebony Maw (aka Squidward) a wonderful villain, with this very gentleman-like monologues on how grateful and honored everyone should be for dying for Thanos. And Maw powerset was more than Dr. Strange could handle, which help sell the character as a badass. The persona of Ebony Maw is dastardly likeable that I was bummed out when they "really old movie 'Aliens'" him.

I love how the Russos set up the Quipster Quartet (Tony Stark, Peter Quill, Peter Parker and Dr. Strange) as the one of biggest and common complaint about the MCU is all the heroes are the same; i.e. joke tellers. By putting the Quipster Quartet together it demonstrates the difference in the characters and how their differences serves the MCU and the story of Infinity War. Stark is more of the practical strategist; Quill is more of the plucky improviser; Parker is the rookie and somewhat ward/sidekick to Stark; Strange is the "outside the box" Wildcard. As such, their different approaches to the Thanos problem create tension and drama, much like the original Avengers film.

Like The Winter Soldier, I thought Infinity War raised quality and value of the films that proceeded it, namely Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. I posted in the main MCU thread that I didn't really Vol. 2 all that much because the humor crossed the film over into being really campy and the film was more plot driven than character driven. However, after seeing Infinity War several times, it retroactively makes Vol. 2 better because if plays off the Nebula and Gamora story line really well and the references regarding being children of Thanos. Moreover, it setups romantic feelings expressed between Quill and Gamora in Infinity War, where we finally see the two kiss. Which totally reminded me of Han and Leia in The Empire Strikes Back that was broken up by C3P0. Anyway, when we see that Thanos is torching Nebula, we understand why Gamora would be in pain at the sight because of Vol. 2.

And speaking of Gamora's family relationships, I felt Thanos' love for Gamora was sincere and heartfelt. It was best illustrated in the flashback scene where we see Thanos "save" Gamora as a young child on her home planet. The moment where Thanos' soldiers are about to execute have of Gamora's people, he diverts her eyes from the killings to spare her from the horror of it. Of course this also further develops Thanos as more a compassionate villain and thus making him seem like he has nobility. Gamora has a certain level of love or affection for Thanos as well, which is demonstrated in the scene where she thought she had finally killed him and had that ugly cry moment. This scene also played up the father/daughter thing between Thanos and Gamora when Quill enters the scene and Thanos responds to something to the effect of, "Awh, the boyfriend," like most dads do why their daughter brings a boy home. And that sets up the scene where Gamora and Thanos have a heart-to-heart in front of the throne, where Thanos says he would have hope Gamora would sit in that chair. It's a quiet and subdue point in the film that could be easily glossed over with everything else going on in the film, but it's very poignant in that it further shows how Thanos honestly feels about Gamora. Instead of sitting in on throne, Thanos sits on the steps and reminisces for a bit about he saved her and her planet. Thanos see himself as parent that provides "tough love" to help his child grow and succeed. In couple scenes in the film he compliments himself on the way Gamora has turned out, so he has that sense of parental pride. So, I felt the anguish on Thanos' face when he grabbed Gamora by the wrist in the moment he decided to drop her to her death.

I love the scenes between the Angel-Pirate Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy, especially Rocket's reaction to when Thor crashes upon the windshield of the Milano and Rockets screams out, "WIPERS!!! Get it off!" And once inside the ship Gamora touches his arm and makes the comment like on how Thor's muscle is like steel, which Quill gets flustered with; moreso after Thor wakes up and puts his hand on Gamora's shoulder in bonding over bad relatives to which Quill's facial expression is priceless. Oh, it's in this scene where Thor does actually says that Thanos killed only half of the Asgardians.

And about Quill's screwing things up when the had Thanos pinned down, it's kind of ironic. Earlier in the film it's Quill that's telling Drax to keep his emotions in check when the see Thanos in Knowhere. Additionally, it's ironic because of how Stark reacted in Civil War when he found out that Bucky killed his parents and Cap knew about. So, I can't fully blame Quill, but I did when I initially saw the film.

As for the deaths of the character feeling meaningless because "we know there are upcoming films starring these characters," yeah, I felt some of that. However, I also felt it from the context of story and vicariously through the characters. Just watching my favorite characters dissipate is upsetting as it creates a feeling of loss. Moreover, seeing the characters respond the effects of the finger snaps was wrenching, which was done amazingly heartbreaking well with Tony and Peter because how the seeds of Tony's responsibility for Parker were planted and watered in Civil War, Homecoming and earlier in this film. So, even though most people know that Spider-Man will be back, the MCU story telling made the death of Peter Parker emotionally impactful.




And that might not have been even the worse death in Infinity War. Vision's death might have been worse to witness because he died twice! First Wanda does the deed in heartbreaking fashion but Thanos uses to the Time Stone to bring him back to life to only kill him again. That's some messed up stuff.

There's just so much Infinity War to talk about.

 

So in the years between GotG V2 to Infinity War (which is, I forget, isn't GV2 set in 2015 only a few months after the first one) Star-Lord and Nebula went from unspoken thing with zero ratings to full on couple. Which is a bit of a jump but it has been awhile.

 

Can they kick Star Lord out?

 

No

@Slowpokeking
That seems like too much power for 1 stone don't you think? I like that you need to collect all six stones to wipe out the population of a planet. If the Reality stone could do that on it's own then you wouldn't need the other 5 stones.

 

And I enjoyed what you said about the Quipster Quartet.

 

Re-doing a scene from Disney's Hercules:

"In 5,000 years precisely
When the realms line ever so nicely.
The time to act will be at hand.
Unleash the Aether, your monstrous band
And the once proud light will finally fall
And you, Malekith will rule all.
A word of caution to this tale
Should Thor fight, you will fail."

 

hahah right, sorry. big Nebula fan anyway, I think Karen Gillan may be the underrated secret weapon in the next film. Even just her screams in this one... holy hell.

 

Thanos can also use the time gem to do it.

 

"Cotati metal fibers". The Cotati were an advanced race of sentient plants. They had some history with the Kree and Skrulls, so that reference might be dropping an eventual easter egg for Captain Marvel.

 

"Not only that, but now I am Hangry!"

 

Damn straight!

 

So I just watched this Kimmel bit again and see how the screeenwriters tied that into some dialog (I'd forgotten Ebony Maw, but I got Tony's reference right off the bat)



Tony: “What is your job exactly, besides from making balloons animals?”
Ebony Maw: “Your skills are very impressive, you must be popular with the children....”

 

Thanks, I couldn't remember what type of metal Gamora said.

I forgot to mention another reason why I love that scene, which is Quill lowering his voice to compete with Thor. So, cute.

I also forgot to mention the MCU did a wonderful job with developing their characters, that when we get to their deaths in the film they have an certain level of emotional impact unlike lesser developed franchises. I'm speaking about you, Singer-verse X-Men. I mean, there wasn't much of an emotional impact when X3 killed off Chuck, Scott and Jean, well at least for me because Singer made the X-Men Wolverine-centric.








Oh well, at least we got this fun meme.

 

After GotG, Vol. 2, I said that I would totally go for a solo Nebula film about her searching for Thanos across the galaxy. She's this ultra-grim, really dark character that I imagine just wandering around the galaxy in this cloud of doom. Nebula didn't really get to me much in the first GotG, but in Vol. 2 she was one of the standout characters for me. I would love a Logan-esque solo Nebula film: rated R, pseudo-western, she's this mysterious figure wandering the galaxy seeking revenge . . . that would be great.