Better than expected, but still a narrative and thematic mess

Rating: 5/10 (12 December 2018)

Everything about this movie was portrayed as bigger and more. Bigger Action! More heroes! The problem with that eventually more becomes less and the story collapses under its own weight. That happens here but not as much as I expected. The final film is coherent so there's that. It is also largely fun. There's that too. However, there is still too many sequence of the same stuff (get the stone!) and a lot of the film is very unwilling to play with the world it has set-up. Of note Dr. Strange and Thanos (post reality stone especially) are far too punchy. You can change the fabric of reality. Why do you insist on just punching people?
A film like this lives, or this case disappoints on its villain. Thanos is OK as a villain. He is played well by Brolin. How he is written leaves much to be desired. His radical environmentalism simply doesn't connect with anything that is actually happening in the world today. It makes the film feel insular and escapist in the wrong way. Moreover, the logic of the character requires him to be either a eugenicist or a "eat the rich" radical; the screenplay does neither. The writers try to split the different by applying the big moment randomly. (but somehow random means 1/2 of each significant couple among the heroes). It simply doesn't work. It is not chilling. It is not human. It is silly.
The deaths ("deaths") are overdone. I simply do not believe Disney is going kill off a bunch of Golden Geese. It simply doesn't have any emotional weight because too many characters that have sequels in the works "die." The ending only gets a hearty chuckle from me.
This film is fun. It moves and most of the action is good. But it is shallow, hollow and expects us to forget how capitalism works.