Yep. That was good. Worth it. And having avoided pretty much any of the trailers and videos, I managed to go in with very little idea of what was going to happen.
It is very hard to write this without spoilers, but #ThanosDemandsYourSilence so what can I do? While on the subject of Thanos, let’s start with him. One of the best Marvel villains without a doubt. They finally took the basic writing advice of making the villain the hero of his own story. He is sympathetic. Definitely the bad guy, but a sympathetic one. His logic makes sense in a twisted kind of way. And his story in the movie goes well beyond just going through killing people like most Marvel villains do.
The story, too, was very well done. I wasn’t sure how they woukd be able to pull off having so many characters, but they did it quite well. Lots of different storylines that wove together in a way that was not distracting and all felt right (not like The Last Jedi). Each character that we care about got their time to shine in the action and with their jokes and the mix of the two was good, less cringey than some movies. The movie was also finally a superhero movie was a bit different. It wasn’t as much good vs evil. It didn’t have the same ending, which felt more realistic. Granted, this is essentially part one of a two movie arc and the story will go back to the Disney/Superhero norm before the end I’m sure, but this was a nice temporary relief.
In terms of production value, itbwas really good. The long list of visual effects people earned their spots in the credits. A couple of places I felt it was off, but most of it was really good and with how much there was, thats pretty good. The sound mixing was good too. Especially with the introduction of the Guardians. You knew they were coming before you saw them.
There were a couple of small things that bugged me. Like a certain scene involving tactics, or the lack there of. Maybe they thought it through and have a reason I didn’t think of, but to me it seemed totally unrealistic, it just got it to look cooler. I was also bummed about Iron Man’s new suit, not because of the suit itself but because it is very similar to something I came up with like 10 years ago and have introduced to my writing, but haven’t really gotten out into the world yet and now it might look derivative.
Overall, definitely one to see if you have been watching the MCU. If you haven’t, I would ask you what rock you have been living under, why you are reading this review, and recommend that you go start with Iron Man, watch all of them, then definitely watch this one.