Avengers: Infinity War came out on Blu-Ray last week on August 14th, so now seems like a perfect time to look back on the most ambitious crossover event in history. I’ve seen the movie three times already and plan to watch it a lot more now that I don’t have to a buy a movie ticket every time to see it. Warning, I’m going to get into some pretty nerdy stuff here.
Undoing
First of all, I want to address one of the biggest losers of Infinity War: Permanent consequences. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) gets criticized a lot for not killing off or even seriously injuring their main characters, and undoing the deaths that they do have the guts to pull off. I think it’s a very legitimate criticism. Here’s a quick list of just a few of the deaths/injuries that have been undone to date, in no particular order:
- Phil Coulson’s death in Avengers was undone in the first episode of Agents of Shield (although it’s arguable whether or not that’s part of the MCU)
- Bucky’s death in Captain America: The First Avenger is immediately undone in the very next movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
- Nick Fury’s death in Captain America: The Winter Soldier is shown to have been a ruse by the end of the movie
- Groot’s death of Guardians of the Galaxy is undone just a few minutes later (although technically, I suppose it wasn’t undone since the new Groot is actually the son of the original Groot according to James Gunn)
- Loki’s death has been faked twice. First, he returned in Avengers after seemingly dying at the end of Thor. Next, his death in Thor: The Dark World was shown to be an illusion by the end. That’s two deaths in two consecutive Thor movies that were reversed!
- Doctor Strange undoes Wong’s death (along with many others) using the Time Stone in Doctor Strange.
Infinity War might be the worst offender of the bunch, though. Nearly all of the injuries suffered by our heroes in the previous movies were rolled back:
- Thor loses an eye in Thor: Ragnarok and start sporting an eye patch like his father, Odin. Rocket (Rabbit?) completely randomly just happens to have an eye that completely fits the Asgardian and simply needs to be pressed into his eye socket to work. Even given Rocket’s fetish for prosthetic body parts, it’s a bit of a weird scene.
- Speaking of Thor, a great deal is made of the loss of his hammer, Mjölnir, in Thor: Ragnarok. Not to worry, it doesn’t take long for him to get a replacement in Infinity War. I’m hoping they at least keep Odin, Frigga, Heimdall and Loki dead for Avengers 4.
- Thor’s eye isn’t the only lost body part to be replaced. Bucky also gets a new arm having gone maybe four scenes without one.
- Not quite a missing body part, but Rhodey’s near paralysis that was the major injury coming out of Captain America: Civil War certainly seemed largely fixed thanks presumably to Stark tech.
- Oh yeah, and they brought Red Skull back. That was a pretty cool reveal, though, so I don’t fault them for this one.
Winners and Losers
Loser: Thor – The god of thunder plays a pretty major role in Infinity War, but it’s not enough to hide the fact that he’s on a major two movie losing streak. In Ragnarok, Thor finds himself taken down quite a few pegs: first by his sister Hela, and later by Valkyrie, the Grandmaster, and even Hulk, to a certain extent. In the process, he loses his father, his close friends (the Warriors Three) and his homeland. When Infinity War picks up mere minutes later, he proceeds to lose his brother and another Asgardian friend (Heimdall). I would also be interested in seeing how that initial battle between the Asgardian refugees and Thanos went down off-screen. While on the surface it would seem like it would be a mismatch with Thanos being joined by all four members of the Black Order, let’s not forget that Thor had quite the team on his side as well. The two strongest Avengers, Thor and Hulk, were joined by Loki, Valkyrie, Heimdall, Korg, Miek, and all of the other Asgardians. And while Thanos is certainly an imposing villain, he only had the power stone at that point, while Loki was in possession of the space stone. Basically, it seems like it should’ve been more of a fair fight than it was portrayed as.
Also, he really should’ve gone for the head.
Winner: Iron-Man – Not a surprise to see an impressive performance from Tony Stark. The new nano-suit provided plenty of really neat scenes and it was truly awesome to see Iron-Man going toe-to-toe with Thanos and actually draw blood. I have a sneaking suspicion that that scene will play a pivotal role in the next movie. I was also impressed by the signs of maturity from Tony in this movie. He was too brash and independent to lead the Avengers in the first movie, but here it felt natural to see him leading Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and the Guardians against Thanos. Bonus points for hinting to Pepper that he was ready to have kids despite his daddy issues. Finally, while he did hesitate, I believe he was mere seconds away from swallowing his pride and calling Steve Rogers before he was interrupted. If this movie does represent the beginning of the end for the man who started it all, this is a great start to a send-off.
Winner: Spider-Man – This was an easy call. Peter not only gets his upgraded Iron Spider suit, but he also officially becomes an Avenger (so much for his grand gesture turning down the invitation from Tony at the end of Homecoming). He was also pivotal in saving Doctor Strange and coming up with the plan to kill Ebony Maw. Lastly, he also earned himself the most involved “dusting” scene. If only he had been able to pull on that infinity gauntlet a little harder…
Loser: Doctor Strange – Don’t get me wrong, the Sorcerer Supreme played a much bigger role in Infinity War than I expected and had a number of really cool moments not only in his battles with Ebony Maw and Thanos, but also his less literal (or perhaps more literal?) verbal sparring with Tony Stark. However, that’s not enough to distract from the extremely obvious question: “Why didn’t he use the Time Stone?” Sure, he used it to see into 14 million possible future outcomes, but we’ve already seen from the Doctor Strange movie how incredibly useful the stone can be for getting out of sticky situations (including reversing deaths that have already happened). They were so incredibly close to pulling the gauntlet off Thanos on Titan before Star-Lord lost his mind. Why not reverse time back to before that moment and warn Peter about Gamora’s fate so he doesn’t lose his composure at a most inopportune time? Or he could even just incapacitate him for a few crucial seconds. Heck, considering how the MCU is obsessed with cutting off arms in a tribute to Star Wars, why not just use a teleportation portal to cut off Thanos’ arm, with the gauntlet with it? Wong had already shown how effective such a trick is earlier in the movie when he cut off Cull Obsidian’s arm. This is why it’s difficult to add magic and time travel into any fictional universe: It too easily creates plot holes.
Winner: Wanda – Now here’s a magic user who really upped her game and used her powers to the best of her ability, including the impressive disappearing act that she pulled on her accent. Much like with Doctor Strange, I was surprised by how large of a role the Scarlet Witch played in Infinity War. The entire effort to protect the mind stone from Thanos revolved around Wanda and her ability to destroy the stone. She killed Proxima Midnight, single-handedly fended off Thanos as she made the difficult decision to kill the one she loved in order to save half of life in the universe, and inspired one of the best lines of the movie: “Why was she up there all this time?”
Loser: Vision – Going into Infinity War, I thought Vision might be the Avengers’ best chance of defeating Thanos. Not only was he in possession of an infinity stone, but, with all due respect to Thor and Hulk, he seemed like he might actually be the strongest avenger in terms of power and versatility. His ability to change his density seemed like it would make him extremely difficult to defeat, and Age of Ultron implied that he had a body made of vibranium, which should’ve made him close to indestructible. So I was a little surprised when he was essentially taken out of the fight early on in the movie after being stabbed by Corvius Glaive. Speaking of which, why didn’t Glaive go for the head? It was a complete surprise attack that should’ve allowed him to strike wherever he wanted. Why the non-lethal strike? Regardless, with a single strike, Vision goes from one of the Avengers’ best hopes for fighting Thanos and the Black Order to essentially a liability that has to be protected for the rest of the movie. Hopefully Shuri was able to extract his memories and this isn’t the last we see of him.
Loser: Hulk – File this with Thor and Vision as another disappointing outing by presumably one of the strongest Avengers. There’s not much to be said. The fearsome Hulk, who has been shown to be nearly unstoppable in previous movies, is not only defeated in hand-to-hand combat in a one-on-one fight, but is defeated quickly. Couple that with his refusal to appear later in the movie and it’s hard not to think a little less of the big green guy now.
Winner: Star Lord – This may come as a surprise, considering how much blame Peter Quill gets for infamously losing his cool at exactly the wrong time and punching the barely conscious Thanos. Don’t get me wrong, that was definitely a bad move and he deserves every bit of blame coming his way. However, I have come here not to bury Star Lord, but to praise him. I wanted to go back to earlier in the movie, when Thanos had Gamora and Peter was faced with a difficult choice: He could (likely ineffectively) shoot Thanos, or he could kill the love of his life, like she had earlier begged him to do. Peter agonized over the decision, and despite not knowing the reasons behind Gamora’s request, he ultimately did make the difficult call to sacrifice her life for the good of the galaxy. Thanos and the reality stone ultimately made that decision meaningless, as it turned his laser blast into bubbles, but I came away impressed (as did Thanos, who mentioned liking him). The good guy almost never makes the tough call to sacrifice a loved one for the greater good, especially if the threat isn’t imminent. Unlike Wanda later in the movie, Thanos only had three infinity stones at the time so his victory was far from assured. Yes, Peter did let his emotions get the better of him on Titan, but he also showed earlier on that he isn’t completely ruled by them and can make the tough call. I wanted to remind people of that.
Also, he did tell Gamora to go right.
Loser: Nick Fury – Let me get this straight: You were facing an all out alien invasion that seemed incredibly likely to take over all of Earth and you just decided to sit on this intergalactic pager that could summon Captain Marvel to save the day? Bold strategy, Cotton.
Winner: Wakanda – All of it. The Wakandans went from fanatically isolationist to willing to lay down their lives to save total strangers in what is presumably a few months to at most a few years. With just a few lines, Shuri announced herself as an intellect on par with Bruce Banner and Tony Stark. Okoye and M’Baku fought just as well as the enhanced humans they were surrounded by. I still get chills thinking of the scene where T’Challa and Steve are racing out ahead of the Wakandan army to be the first to engage with the outriders. Contrast T’Challa and Wakanda’s response to the alien invasion with Secretary Ross and the rest of the world’s response and there’s no doubt that Wakanda acquitted itself quite well in Infinity War.
Winner: Captain America – Out of all the main Avengers, Cap seemed to have the most subdued role in Infinity War, but that just helped to increase his awesomeness-to-screen-time ratio. He had perhaps the most dramatic introductions of all of the Avengers and managed to fight off two members of the black order with the assistance of two normal humans. He was part of the aforementioned scene with T’Challa where they were the first to engage the enemy. But the scene that really sticks out in my mind is when Thanos, with 5 out of the 6 infinity stones, reaches out to swat away what he assumes is a puny human. Steve grabs onto the infinity gauntlet and brings Thanos, clearly perplexed at how a mere human is doing this, to a complete stop. Compare that moment of triumph, brief as it may be, to how easily the Hulk got defeated by Thanos when he had 1/5th as many infinity stones. Captain American is the man.
Although I will say that it did seem like Vision owned him when, in response to saying that, “we don’t trade lives”, it was pointed out how Cap sacrificed himself to save many lives at the end of The First Avenger. Well played, Vision.
Loser: Cap’s Beard – This is perhaps my most controversial take. Sorry. Not a fan. Bring back the clean-shaven Steve Rogers, please.
Winner: Russo Brothers – Just a few years ago, it was inconceivable that any two directors could be considered as important to the MCU as Jon Favreau and Joss Whedon were. Favreau had directed Iron Man and Iron Man 2, setting the realistic but also comedic tone that has come to define all MCU movies since. Had Iron Man been anything but the amazing success that it was, the MCU might’ve never gotten off the ground. Whedon was the writer/director who pulled off the incredible juggling act of combining the three main franchises of the time (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America) into the amazing Avengers movie that really announced the arrival of the MCU as a cinematic force to be reckoned with. However, with the success that Infinity War has seen, I think it’s possible that not only have the Russo Brothers entered the same tier as Favreau and Whedon, but they may have surpassed them. They directed the well-received (and my personal favorite MCU movie) Winter Soldier and followed it up with also amazingly successful Civil War. Infinity War might be their greatest accomplishment yet, and it feels like no other directors have had as big of an impact on the MCU.
Loser: Pre-announcing future movies – The Snappening was an impressively bold way to end Infinity War and certainly provided a gut punch to many audience members, but for anybody with a passing knowledge of Marvel’s upcoming movie slate, it was hard not to immediately be skeptical of how permanent those deaths will be. Black Panther 2 and Spider-Man 2 have already been announced, and it’s nearly impossible to see how those movies get made with their titular characters being dead. Likewise, the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy 3 might have to be renamed Guardian of the Galaxy after the losses that group suffered. The dustings of those characters would’ve been much more impactful had Marvel managed to keep their upcoming movie slate after Infinity War a secret. I probably still wouldn’t have believed that Peter Parker was dead, but a small part of me might’ve wondered if they were preparing for a bold move and ready to transition to Miles Morales.
Thanks for indulging in my Infinity War ranting. Who else can’t wait until next April?
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