As Mediocre As Expected

Rating: 6/10 (15 July 2018)

I wasn't going to bother with a review but then I read the first review by blparker that said everyone giving this a bad score were trolls who didn't see the film, then went on to praise it like it was Citizen Kane. I found that rather humorous. My suggestion is to see this in the theatre as the VFX are the only thing it has going for it and won't translate on the small screen. I had no idea this was a 2 hr and 40 min film until I bought the ticket and I seriously contemplated walking into another film because I just did not expect much from this film. When the film started it poorly leapt straight into a scene as if we were in the middle of the movie rather than the beginning. It didn't make a lot of sense other than a set up for on of the long-standing characters to die. Once we moved past this terrible scene it got a little better, which kept me in my seat 'cause the first 10 mins of the film made me want to leave the movie as I was afraid the rest of the film would be like this. It doesn't get much better but at the very least it manages to be entertaining.
There is a plot, though, there is very little to it. If you know anything of the Infinity comic, which also was not that great, you know that a lot of characters die. The difference is they killed characters in the comic I cared about and the movies they don't even bother to have those characters, so, whatever. Secret Wars was a much better comic and tells how Spider-Man got his black suit, but it had actual story, so, I guess they didn't want to use a better comic. Infinity truly is one big dude fight. But not even that exciting of action. I thought the Black Panther action was better. I'd read that a bunch of guys don't like Rey from Star Wars because she's a Mary Sue, which I learned means a woman with ultimate, unstoppable powers. Funny, I've never heard a name for guys but they bothered to come up with one for women. Basically, every dude in this film is a Mary Sue. If Thor has the power to resist a star how is it he can't get out of a couple steel girders a wizard wraps around him? How is Captain America always so invincible? He was always kind of a lame character but now he's all-powerful in this universe. Why is Spider-Man suddenly Iron Man? What is the point of Vision, for someone so powerful he doesn't seem to do much other than whine.
I did think Dr. Strange was cooler than his own movie in this film. Tony Stark, always likable. Thor was very enjoyable, and I loved his scenes with the Star Jammers. Peter Parker's humor was funny and I liked him better in this film than Homecoming. The best scenes for me were the Guardians of the Galaxy crew. Pretty much everything they do is good. The best comedic line was from the bald Black Panther woman, which, unfortunately they didn't show that much of her. In fact, this was a 2 hr 40 min movie with only 2-3 minutes of screen time for the few female characters they've bothered to add to the film Marvel Universe, who are mostly only in the films to make the guys not look gay. The Scarlett Witch seemed to be one of the most powerful characters yet her few scenes were only dedicated to talking about how much she loves Vision and fawning all over this boring robot guy who doesn't seem to have emotion. Yep, a real attractor for women. Black Widow has been lame from the start. A Shield Agent with no powers whom they've given laser guns to, on the team with a bunch of super powered dudes and a god. Lame. There's a long assortment of Marvel super power females they could have added to Avengers but they literally just added someone to look hot. It really annoyed me how underused all the female characters were in this film. Black Panther's sister was the star of the Black Panther film and she has no purpose in the Avenger film other than to cut out Vision's stone. She's basically an extra.
I've never kept much up on Thanos 'cause he's a relatively boring character who wasn't very often used in the Marvel universe for the 10 years I read Marvel comics. I think he was more of a Silver Surfer or Rom villain...which, did anyone actually read those? I thought the idea that balance is used as bad and evil was a bad message. What is he now, an eco-terrorist? He didn't seem so much crazy as a Green Peace dude with too much power. Thanos chose people at random so he wasn't a racist, a bigot, or anything else, he was by the films portrayal an environmentalist. Humans thin out animals when they ravage the terrain. How is it different? I go to films to be entertained, not have these poorly plotted out existentialism by stoners moments. In the past 6 months, Infinity War, Jurassic World, and The Last Jedi all had these nihilist themes or moments where they are trying to express some weak, childish form of morality but it is actually anti-heoric, selfish, immoral, or just lame.
I, in some way applaud the writers for making the film mildly entertaining despite the amount of characters they were working with. That is a challenge. But, overall there wasn't much story going on or actual emotion so I really didn't care when they killed off a good chunk of the heroes. All I could think was, "Oh, his contract is up, so they're killing him off. They didn't use her anyway, so, of course she's dead. Oh, well, he's a new actor every 2 or 3 movies, so, no surprise." Didn't care. The entire film was fairly unmemorable and my life could have continued just fine without seeing it.