This film needed better character balance and less silliness

Rating: 6/10 (1 May 2018)

No fan of a character or a group of characters is gonna be happy if they feel like their favs are given the short end of the stick, so the IMO appalling reduction of Team Cap/Bucky and even any real dynamic between T'Challa and Bucky - and I mean not a sentence - is gonna go over well. Especially Team Cap hasn't been around since 2016. This film reduced beloved and fascinating characters to glorified cameos. So that's a thing; and for me THAT was awful. Pretty bitter about that.
It's been pointed out to me that this is "Thanos' movie.". OK. But another thing is that IMO it was too much, for me. I liked James Brolins's Thanos. But re Darth Vader I would have liked smaller doses. Darth Vader made a huge impact in scenes in just a few moments. There WERE times when Thanos was utterly chilling. Other times I was just getting bored with him, and tired of seeing that big purple head on screen. A lot. (Hela by contrast every move I wanted to watch.)
So if I didn't get Team Cap, unfortunately what I DID get wasn't welcome - a huge dose of Guardians, Spiderman, Thor, Ironman. Don't get me wrong, I like these characters just fine. Own figures and everything. But I didn't like GOTG2 that much - enough that I'd already said to myself I'd never go to another Guardians in theater.
So about halfway through IW, when the *drama* between Gamora and Thanos was going on - and for me it felt like it went on and on - I started disengaging from this movie. Felt trapped watching a GOTG 2.5 movie - which specifically I didn't want to see - and like I was watching a soap opera. A PREDICTABLE soap opera, e.g. seguing over to scenes straight from LOTR "the way is shut" and Indiana Jones.
And tropes. The idea of sacrifice to gain an object or power is an old one. But far as I know, the Infinity Stones don't work that way, and they don't demand sacrifices. The Soul Stone IS very dangerous; the only stone that is sentient. It seeks souls. But far as I know it doesn't DEMAND sacrifices and was more likely to just suck in Thanos when acquired.
Also, why would the Space Stone behave like judge and jury with Red Skull? Why him? The movie tries to cover that, but for me it was a trope/fan service just to shoehorn in Red Skull. Forced and not needed. And all the drama around the Soul Stone (Well of Souls trope) drags on for a while. Gamora's end boringly predictable. If it's even an end....
This movie has a lot going on - there were things I appreciated. Mark Ruffalo IMO terrific actor and incredibly effective in pleading with Tony early on, and great comedy later. Thor was more the grim hero than I had ever seen him be; Hemsworth did amazingly well. Loved Peter Dinklage and the whole motif of the space forge; Groot kind of coming of age to help; Rocket had great CGI and expression. Powerful use of Heimdal and truly heroic to the last. Loki finally becoming more (and I am really hoping that line "you will never be a god" leads to him coming back - somehow).
Wanda and Vision IMO are the Russos and writers at their best - neither too much or too little, beautiful script, doesn't wallow in sentiment, and also some very nice moments with Vision and Cap later.
For me tho - more or less fresh off the films of 2017 - OK, now I'm stuck in a space ship with these guys quipping (yep, I like Dr. Strange too and love Wong) and basically getting another dose (third time around on film) of "Mr. Stark I want to fight/go home Peter/how dangerous this is/Peter being innocent".Then Spiderman 1.5 jumps over to Guardians 2.5. It was fun, for a while. But to me it also felt like re-hash of 2017 too. *Disengage*
And finally - marketed in probably the best TV spot - Wakanda. Aside from catching up on Team Cap, the Wakanda battle was what I wanted most to see - I mean, it's the Russos right? The fights of TWS and CW? I was expecting FABULOUS things - Bucky well and off the chain mowing down Outriders like corn, flashing knives, T'Challa's graceful and ruthless acrobatics, M'Baku a force unbridled rampaging across the plains, Falcon twisting and turning and SLAYING...and...fizzle. Far as I can tell the camera gave everyone maybe 30 seconds and that's that. So much for Helm's Deep in Africa.
Perhaps most egregious - after 2 years is the blowing through Cap and Bucky's reunion, Unbelievable. A powerful friendship that has withstood nearly a century, fueled 3 beautiful films (some of the best in the MCU), and there wasn't 30 seconds of these warriors even commenting, say, on the World War they had already seen and the end they were facing. Plenty of time for stuff on Titan tho - jokes and tears and fireworks and just plain silliness (like nobody thought to cut off Thanos' arm with all those lasers?). Time for more Spidey tears but Cap and Bucky didn't merit a few lines, or Cap and Sam? Natasha and Bruce? T'challa and Okoye or even T'Challa and Bucky? M'baku as his warriors fell? Anything? FAIL.
Never mind just handing Bucky a new arm, and no idea what it does or anything about it. I think I could count the lines Team Cap has on my hands. Heck, I really like Nebula but she barely does anything except get tortured (tho I did like the hatred between her and Thanos and her hooking up with Iron Man - that has a lot of interesting potential).
The writers have said if characters don't show up in this film, they will show up in the next. But IMO it's too late for what this film might have been, and there was no need to imbalance it this much in the first place. Also, I just don't trust the Russos/writers/marketing/Feige at this point, in the sense that I felt these last 2 films should really be a homage to Cap and Tony and Natasha and Bucky and Falcon and Hulk e.g. the originals that made the MCU great. IW2, I suspect, will be too crammed with characters (including Ravagers showing up), Feige's next phases (Captain Marvel) and whatever. So while there was much to appreciate IMO in this film, for me it was a bitter disappointment and not really a re-watchable film, even, like Ragnarok. I'd actually rate it 6-7/10. (It's stained IW2 for me a year before that movie. OMG I kind of dread IW2 at this point. Probably more Spidey and Guardians stuff.)
As for the "deaths" except for Heimdall and Loki, I didn't feel much of anything. Gamora felt like a trope and I had become so disengaged I didn't care - plus it all happens so fast. Will give the Russos/writers credit for pulling this off tho, even if I didn't like the treatment. Emotionally tho - really appalled by the choices made by the filmmakers and I would have preferred Marvel be more honest about this film vs. marketing like an Avengers movie. It's a Thanos/Guardians/IM/Spidy movie with some DS and few cameos.