Review | Avengers: Infinity War

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     I still remember when I went to the movies ten years ago to see a new movie called Iron Man. I've always liked superhero movies since I was a kid, when I grew up watching Christopher Reeve playing Superman (I must have seen the first two films of that franchise hundreds of times on Venevisión, a channel here in Venezuela), and of course Batman , interpreted at the beginning of the nineties by Michael Keaton. At that time of my life there weren’t movies based on characters from Marvel Comics, which I came to know mainly through the animated series of the 90’s. But everything changed in the year 2000 when it was released X-men, produced by Twentieth Century Fox, which ushered in a new era of comic-based films . Later on the first Spider-man film was released in 2002 with actor Tobey Maguire and produced by Sony Pictures . These studios (Fox and Sony) have the film and distribution rights of both franchises, which Marvel sold in the past due to financial problems they faced in the 90s, but the success of them contributed to Marvel Studios taking a risk to produce films with the characters whose rights they had not sold, starting with Iron Man, which was released in 2008.


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     Since the first installment of this franchise the seeds of what would be a larger universe were sown on the after credits scene, with Nick Fury appearing in the living room of Tony Stark's house to talk about the initiative of the Avengers, which promised the future inclusion of many characters.


_{Tony Stark arrives at his house at the end of the first Iron Man movie. source
He finds Nick Fury who tells him about the Avengers initiative.source}
     It has been a long road to this moment and the trip has been incredibly pleasant (although with some exceptions) and the expectation for Avengers: Infinity War could not have been bigger. You may wonder why I have taken so long to write this post, it has been a long time since the premiere. I have two reasons. The first is that I wanted to give you enough time to go to the cinema to see it, because I didn't wanted to ruin the movie to anyone.


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     The second reason is that I needed some time to recover from the trauma and organize my thoughts on the film.

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     Without further ado let's start, and I remind you again that there will be SPOILERS, you are already warned.

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     The story begins where we were at the end of Thor: Ragnarok, with the ship where the survivors of Asgard were traveling being intercepted by Thanos' ship, who is finally starting to personally gather all the infinity gems. Immediately it appears to us that many of the Asgardians have been killed and that Thor has already been defeated (off camera). Thanos has boarded the ship to take the Tesseract that Loki had previously taken from Asgard at the end of Ragnarok (they never mentioned how Thanos was able to track the gems and why he did not do it before).


_{Heimdall and Loki. source}
    The film doesn’t waste time in showing that the thing is serious and that Thanos is an enemy to fear, killing Heimdall and Loki a few minutes into the film. Loki is considered one of the best villains of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and definitely the most memorable and loved to date, that's why his death left many traumatized hahaha. Let's make a minute of silence for Loki ... Another example of Thanos's brutality is the way he manages to knock the Hulk unconscious without much effort, which was teleported to the ground by Heimdall before he died. Thanos takes the space gem, contained by the Tesseract, and adds it to the gauntlet, but it was not the first one because he already possessed the power gem. This gem was on the planet Xandar, left there by the Guardians of the Galaxy in their first film. The ship is destroyed with Thor inside.


_{Thanos with the first two gems. source}
     A curious detail that perhaps many didn’t get is that at some point it is mentioned that only half of the Asgardians were killed, although it is not clear if the rest were taken as prisoners or if they escaped. This explains the absence of Valkyrie, a character introduced in the latest installment of Thor, and Korg, that rocky being that caused so much laughter.


_{Korg and Valkyrie. source}
     Back on earth the Hulk, in the form of Bruce Banner, has a very convenient forced landing in the sanctuary of New York guarded by Doctor Strange, and I say convenient because these characters did not know each other. However in Thor: Ragnarok is shown that the Asgardians had knowledge of the sorcerers of the earth since Thor and Loki asked for help from Dr. Strange to locate their father Odin, therefore it is possible that Heimdall sent him there on purpose. .


     Bruce and Strange get in touch with Tony Stark, just before being attacked by two of Thanos's lackeys, who have come to earth to claim the time gem that is in Strange's possession.

_{Wong, Dr. Strange, Bruce and Tony. source}
     In the battle Spider-man appears to help while Bruce fails to transform into the Hulk (he refuses to get out). They couldn't prevent Strange from being taken into space, but Iron Man and Spider-man were able to infiltrate the spaceship. This is where the story begins to get complicated narratively since the plot is divided into several parallel sub-plots. Meanwhile in space we find the Guardians of the Galaxy, who come to the call for help from the Argardians but arrive late, only to find Thor floating among the remains of the ship destroyed by Thanos.


_{Thor meets the Guardians of the Galaxy. source}
     But Thor does not stay much time with the Guardians because he starts a journey to obtain a new weapon with the power to defeat the new villain, a weapon to replace the hammer that was destroyed by his sister Hela. Rocket and Groot accompany him while Star Lord, Gamora, Drax and Mantis go to Knowhere, the space station where the Collector resides, to prevent Thanos from taking the gem of reality. Until now as spectators we knew, or had been shown, the location of all the gems except for the soul gem. Some time ago, when Gamora was still working with Thanos (his adoptive father), he asked her to investigate the whereabouts of the soul gem, and she discovered it but kept it a secret, saying that she had not succeeded because she hated him for being a genocidal and responsible for the death of her real family. With the imminent encounter with Thanos and his search for the infinity gems, Gamora asks Star Lord for a favor, to kill her if Thanos manages to capture her, to prevent Thanos from discover the secret of the whereabouts of the soul gem. It is a difficult situation because Gamora and Star Lord have finally recognized the love they feel for each other but Star Lord accepts the request. When they arrive to Knowhere Thanos has already taken possession of the reality gem, which he used to deceive the Guardians and make them fall into a trap to capture Gamora. When the time came to fulfill the promise that Star Lord has made to Gamora there is little that can be done to stop the power of Thanos, and the latter easily defeats them and takes Gamora with him, using the space gem to teleport somewhere. Thanos had discovered that Gamora did know the location of the soul gem and tortured Nebula, his other adopted daughter, to pressure Gamora to reveal the secret.


_{Thanos and his adoptive daughters Nebula and Gamora. source}
     Thanos and Gamora travel to the planet Vormir to find the gem. Meanwhile Nebula manages to escape and communicates with the Guardians to meet them on Titan, Thanos's home planet. Already in Vormir Thanos finds the guardian of the soul gem, a mysterious character who turns out to be Red Skull, Captain America’s enemy and director of HYDRA from World War II, which was transported to space at that time by effect of the Tesseract (the space gem). Red Skull, who has been there for decades, reveals to them that in order to obtain the gem, a loved one must be sacrificed, "a soul for a soul". Gamora is happy that Thanos could not get what he wanted because she thought that someone so cruel was incapable of loving someone, but she was wrong. He really loved her as a daughter, she was the sacrifice he had to make to get the gem, and he did not hesitate to do so due to his determination to collect all the gems. Gamora was sacrificed and Thanos obtained the gem, the fourth in his possession next to the gems of power, space and reality. The rest were the mind gem, located on the forehead of Vision, one of the avengers on planet earth, and the time gem, whose carrier was Dr. Strange who had been captured by one of Thanos's lackeys and taken in a spaceship to the planet Titan. Strange is rescued inside the ship by Iron Man and Spider-man but they decide not to return to the Earth but to attack Thanos in his own territory. Already on Titan they meet the Guardians (actually only Star Lord, Drax and Mantis) and they unite to fight against Thanos.


_{Spider-man, Iron man and some of the Guardians. source}
     While an attack plan is organized and discussed, Dr. Strange uses the time gem to visualize all possible futures, to know how many possibilities they have to beat Thanos. He could see approximately 14 million possible futures and only in one they obtain the victory. This is something important to remember.


_{Dr. Strange evaluating 14 millions of possible outcomes. source}
     When Thanos arrives at the planet Titan, they attack him in a coordinated manner and almost manage to snatch the gauntlet with the gems, but Star Lord ruins everything when he learn of Gamora's death and acts imprudently, full of pain and rage. Thanos defeats them and is about to kill Iron Man when Dr. Strange asks him not to kill Tony, offering Thanos the time gem in exchange for forgiving the life of iron man. When Tony asks why he did that, Strange responds that they are now in the final phase. While all these events occur in space, Bruce Banner contacts Steve Rogers (he no longer uses the name of Captain America since the Avengers separated and he and his allies became fugitives from justice) and alert him of everything that is happening, specifically that the enemies will go after Vision, who is with Scarlet Witch because they have a romance despite being from different sides of the "civil war" that divided the Avengers.


_{Black Widow, Falcon and Steve Rogers (Capitán América). source}
     Steve, Falcon and Black Widow help Scarlet Witch and Vision when two lackeys of Thanos try to steal the mind gem from Vision, and then they meet with Banner and James Rhodes (War Machine) at the base of the Avengers. Vision suggests that the gem, along with him, must be destroyed but Scarlet Witch refuses to accept that option. Bruce Banner proposes the possibility of separate the gem from Vision, which lead them to Wakanda, where there is more advanced technology. In Wakanda they are received by Black Panther, meet again with Bucky (the winter soldier) and prepare for the arrival of Thanos while the process of separation of Vision and the gem is carried out.


_{Black Panther, Captain America, Black Widow and Bucky along the warriors of Wakanda. source}
     Thanos’ soldiers arrive in Wakanda and the fight begins. The process of separation of the mind gem from Vision is interrupted because he is attacked in the laboratory and forced to fight. During the confrontation Thor arrives with his new weapon, and accompanied by Rocket and Groot, definitely one of the most applauded moments of the film. Our heroes along with the warriors of Wakanda manage to control the situation after a fierce battle but Thanos arrives, too powerful to be stopped.


_{Captain trying to stop Thanos. source}
     In a dramatic scene Scarlet Witch has to destroy the gem along with Vision to avoid it falls into the hands of the villain, but Thanos, now with the time gem, reverses the destruction of Vision and rips the gem of his forehead, killing him instantly. In this way he manages to gather all the infinity gems. In a last attack Thor appears with a brutal blow direct to Thanos’ heart, but Thanos responds that he should have pointed to the head and makes the famous snap of his fingers that changes everything. His goal all along had been to kill half of the population of the entire universe to avoid exhausting resources and saving them all from extinction. Only with the infinite gems he could do it in an instant and finally he succeeded. Suddenly half of the people in the entire universe begin to fade. Many of our favorite characters become dust before our eyes, leaving us with an unexpected, dramatic and full of questions end.


     Avengers: Infinity War is making history, breaking multiple records, and it has definitely been a satisfying climax to the infinity gems story and Thanos' story arc, which has not ended yet as next year we will see in theaters the follow up to the story that already have many of us creating theories and speculating about what will happen next. Although it can be noticed that the large number of characters in the film drastically affects the screen time, amount of dialogue and development of many of them, giving more prominence to some of our heroes while others are only there without doing much, all this was in favor of the development of the protagonist of the film, Thanos himself. The MCU has been characterized by having many underdeveloped villains that have turned out to be unmemorable to focus on the heroes. However, this approach had to change if we wanted the expectations that were being built bit by bit about Thanos from his first appearance in the Avengers in 2012 to be fulfilled. Marvel has managed to give us a villain with a real motivation, one that thinks in his own logic that he is doing the right thing and has even proven to have feelings. Without any doubt it has been worth waiting for so many years and observing the progress of this story up to this moment, and I look forward to see the resolution of this conflict, because as many suspect, these deaths caused by the gems can’t be definitive. Characters like Spider-man or Black Panther, who are among the ones affected by the snap, and very popular and loved by the audience, await their film sequels in the years to come. What did you think about the movie? Let me know in the comments.

_{All the rights of the movies, characters and pictures belong to Marvel Studios.}