As I have noted before I am not a Marvel Comic Book or film fan. I’m not invested in the stories or characters and I do not look forward to the latest instalment of the franchises whatever they may be. I will watch the films and I will not dislike them for the sake of disliking them and being contra-cool.
I do have to say that explosions, leaping and punching for an hour of running time bores me rigid but this film, story and franchise clearly is not aimed at me.
Infinity War is the penultimate film in this huge rambling series. The final instalment coming up, it’s on my list, is Avengers: End Game. Which knowing this, even when Infinity War was first released into the cinema means that no matter what happens in this film you just know it’s not the ‘end’ and also the next film, no matter what happens there, is also not the end. There is a lot of money to make producing these films, superhero style piles of money. No film company is going to put a stop to this regardless what does or does not happen to the characters.
So for me there are problems, so many characters to fit in, even for a few minutes that it felt like appeasement to fans at times, the story rambling all over the place, with things that happened seemingly plotted to make the running time longer. Logic in the storyline goes out the window early on and then flies to the trees and stays there. It would be churlish to point out all the points that make little to no sense but once you give a single character the power to alter time, reality and all points in between you had better make sure your story is watertight otherwise it sinks in a sea of gooey contradictions really quickly. Avengers: Infinity War does this.
Having said this the film for most of the running time is entertaining and my attention did not wonder too much. The big battle scene in Wakanda, like the last one in Black Panther, lacked tension or thrills and bored me as it seemed to be interminable, the same with the big fight with Thanos, who was so powerful and able to control most of what was going on that it was easy to ask how was there ever fight in the first place? But I fully understand big flashy, non-stop noisy fighting scenes are what makes a Marvel world and it works for youngsters whose eyes and brains perhaps are tuned better than mine to this. I honestly find it boring if goes on beyond the actual endurance of real people.
Like all Marvel films the running time is too long, at least half an hour of bagginess and what on the surface seems exciting depth in character and motivation proves on proper examination to be slight and at times a bit silly. As an example Thanos’ motivation seems initially ‘wow I could see why he might do that’ then in the cold light of day it becomes ‘wait a minute…’ and this is the overall pervading feeling I had. Of course I’m aware I was watching a complete fantasy and just escapism but also the Marvel Comics have always been defended as more ‘adult than you think’ and covering ‘modern hard-hitting topics’. Well they skim the surface but they are just comic-book stories no matter what anyone might like them to be.
The acting throughout is good albeit with some people getting two minutes of screen time and at least Samuel L Jackson gets the best line in the whole film that made me laugh. The visual and special effects are better than usual with a feel of heft and reality to most heavy-laden scenes, which cannot always be said of a Marvel Universe film but any sense of peril or real danger, even at the very end of the film was just missing for me. These characters are expensive commodities and are laying some very big golden eggs. Everyone one of them will return in some form or another.
Usual Marvel fare, well produced, explosion infested and definitely slanted to fans but for me the same, it was okay, but I will not be going out of my way to watch it again.
Review by DeletedBlockedParent2019-05-27T14:49:51Z
As I have noted before I am not a Marvel Comic Book or film fan. I’m not invested in the stories or characters and I do not look forward to the latest instalment of the franchises whatever they may be. I will watch the films and I will not dislike them for the sake of disliking them and being contra-cool.
I do have to say that explosions, leaping and punching for an hour of running time bores me rigid but this film, story and franchise clearly is not aimed at me.
Infinity War is the penultimate film in this huge rambling series. The final instalment coming up, it’s on my list, is Avengers: End Game. Which knowing this, even when Infinity War was first released into the cinema means that no matter what happens in this film you just know it’s not the ‘end’ and also the next film, no matter what happens there, is also not the end. There is a lot of money to make producing these films, superhero style piles of money. No film company is going to put a stop to this regardless what does or does not happen to the characters.
So for me there are problems, so many characters to fit in, even for a few minutes that it felt like appeasement to fans at times, the story rambling all over the place, with things that happened seemingly plotted to make the running time longer. Logic in the storyline goes out the window early on and then flies to the trees and stays there. It would be churlish to point out all the points that make little to no sense but once you give a single character the power to alter time, reality and all points in between you had better make sure your story is watertight otherwise it sinks in a sea of gooey contradictions really quickly. Avengers: Infinity War does this.
Having said this the film for most of the running time is entertaining and my attention did not wonder too much. The big battle scene in Wakanda, like the last one in Black Panther, lacked tension or thrills and bored me as it seemed to be interminable, the same with the big fight with Thanos, who was so powerful and able to control most of what was going on that it was easy to ask how was there ever fight in the first place? But I fully understand big flashy, non-stop noisy fighting scenes are what makes a Marvel world and it works for youngsters whose eyes and brains perhaps are tuned better than mine to this. I honestly find it boring if goes on beyond the actual endurance of real people.
Like all Marvel films the running time is too long, at least half an hour of bagginess and what on the surface seems exciting depth in character and motivation proves on proper examination to be slight and at times a bit silly. As an example Thanos’ motivation seems initially ‘wow I could see why he might do that’ then in the cold light of day it becomes ‘wait a minute…’ and this is the overall pervading feeling I had. Of course I’m aware I was watching a complete fantasy and just escapism but also the Marvel Comics have always been defended as more ‘adult than you think’ and covering ‘modern hard-hitting topics’. Well they skim the surface but they are just comic-book stories no matter what anyone might like them to be.
The acting throughout is good albeit with some people getting two minutes of screen time and at least Samuel L Jackson gets the best line in the whole film that made me laugh. The visual and special effects are better than usual with a feel of heft and reality to most heavy-laden scenes, which cannot always be said of a Marvel Universe film but any sense of peril or real danger, even at the very end of the film was just missing for me. These characters are expensive commodities and are laying some very big golden eggs. Everyone one of them will return in some form or another.
Usual Marvel fare, well produced, explosion infested and definitely slanted to fans but for me the same, it was okay, but I will not be going out of my way to watch it again.