Oh guys make no mistake, this is a self-contained but two-part story. If I could describe it, it's a hit and run film to obtain each Infinity Stone. It both works and doesn't, it literally is the premise of Thanos and the Black Order searching down each separate Infinity Stone. You see how badass Thanos is from the start. It's probably the best start to a Marvel film in all honesty and is the most bleak and serious moment in any Marvel film, it starts off very strongly, and from there it unfortunately doesn't keep the heft and seriousness and consistentsy as it should. Thanos already starts off with an Infinity Stone and has off camera killed the majority, if not all of the Asgardians on the ship, only Heimdall is left half alive at this point with Loki standing in front of the Order and Thor's head in Thanos' hand (There's no mention or glimpse of Valkyrie or the rock dude from Ragnarok, I assume they escaped or for some reason were killed off-screen, it's actually a major flaw in the film in regards to these characters). Ebony Maw is fantastic here, Ebony Maw is just fantastic throughout - Ebony Maw being the standout character I feel from the film. I honestly think this film was a setup in most part just to show how strong Thanos is (and make no mistake, by the end of the film he has everything he needs, we'll start the next film off with Thanos at his strongest and (ultimate spoilers) half the universe already dead included some of the Avengers (however I feel like most of you guys will leave the cinema with the feeling off, well, I'm not buying that, as it's heavily setup under no circumstances would Dr. Strange even try to save Iron Man or Parker at the expense of the Time stone, however he hands it over to Thanos, but you just know form that point onwards is a trick on Dr. Strange's part, and this is after he has searched through all 14 million possibilities and there's only one outcome where they win. It's a shame, because it should be a big moment, but it just doesn't live up to one of the best character deaths in the film which I feel is permanent, and that I hope is because it was really well done and has serious ramifications for the Guardians.
Anyway, form the beginning, there's a character death which sets the precident, actually there's two. And Hulk gets beat to eh point of never reappearing in the film again by Thanos form the start. Thanos. Is. Stronger than the Hulk from the start. Back on New York Ebony Maw practically single handedly takes on Dr. Strange, Iron Man, Spiderman and Dr. Stranges' aid (can't remember his name).
The film from hereon is basically very cliquey, the Guardians are with Thor, there's a lot of great humour here with rivalry of Star Lord and Thor, Thor breaks away with Groot and the Rabbit (Thor constantly calls Rocket a Rabbit) and make Stormbreaker, I think Thor's story is my favourite in the film. Also Peter Dinklage as the weapon creating dwarf is freaking great. Thor has some touching moments. Gamora has some great moments with Thanos, and probably has the saddest moment in the film with him, you learn Thanos' motives here and just how far he will go to carry out his beliefs, it's pretty scary, it shows that Thanos is willing to do anything, and pretty much solidifies the Avengers are screwed, he's already got a the majority of the stones at this point, and you're pretty much aware having the feeling that Thor is the only one remotely capable of stopping him.
Wanda and Vision are in Scotland are attacked form nowehere by Corvius and Proxima, they don't stand a chance. It's here where the film has undone itself in terms of Vision and Wanda being stupidly powerful in Age of Ultron, but looking really weak compared to these two villains. The only lining to this is Vision from the off-set is injured straight away and is on the run from the start with Wanda trying to protect him. It leads to a sudden appearence of Captian America coming from nowhere with Falcon and Widow (it almost doesn't make sense how this happens, but as with a lot in this film, it will get a lot of passes, because it's Marvel), anyway, Proxima and Corvius are actually stupidly beaten by these guys rather abruptly. It's here that the film does such a disservice to these two characters, Proxima and Corvius were basically beat by Widow, with the help of Falcon and Cap, Widow is OP in this film, she freaking handles herself like a boss and apparently has more strength than two otherwordly aliens and as much skill as Cap, it's great for Widow fans, bad for Black Order fans. From hereon Cap doesn't really have much screen time, his showdown with Thanos is pretty much a letdown. The trailer made that moment with the glove seem amazing, but, and this is basically the end of the film, when that happens it's pretty much oh... I don't know, it's still cool, and it's a scene where Thanos is pretty much ***** slapping each Avenger away to get to Vision in Wakanda.
Drax, Star Lord, Gamora and I can't remember the name of the other woman, basically share their time with Iron Man, Spider Man and Doctor Strange on Titan, Thanos' homeworld. There's some great scenes with them to be honest, it's really well done their showdown with Thanos.
I won't go into tooooo many spoilers, of who dies what specifically happens etc.
However, the film doesn't feel as long as it is. It's edited really well, and it's self-contained in the sense that Thanos gets all of his stones. This was a film of him just getting all the stones, he loses a lot on the way. Everyone loses a lot.
It's a letdown that some characers appeared to be underpowered as seen from their previous films, some characters were oddly overpowered, some characters had pretty much no screen time or as much gravitas as you'd think they would. There is a lot of humour in the film, I think they ruined Banner with the humour, the humour sort of works when the Hulk is trying not to come out, but Banner is pretty much a whimpering quasi-smart character, I honestly think they ruined him at the expense of humour. /and is with any Marvel film, apart form the start, they completely tip the scale of seriousness in favour of humour - but eh, people seem to prefer that to what DC do, I have to admit I personally prefers DC's seriousness to Marvels humour. But I think for the most part people won't have a problem with this as they haven't with past films. The Gamora and Thanos plot point is a stand out moment (also, a nice cameo from Mr. Red Skull here).
The only real plot running through this film is Thor's journey to get a new hammer, various characters protecting Strange and Vision, and Thano's backstory with Gamora and Nebula along with him and the Black Order getting all stones. So in this sense the film is self-contained, but at the same time feels a film to setup the enxt where it literally will just be, everyone trying to stop the most powerful Thanos. It is edited really well, and the film does feel concise. It is a great film, I need to watch it again in a better mood. And I wish I had watched it with a full audience. I don't think fans will be letdown by the film, there's enough in it for people to be shocked and happy with a lot of character interactions. However... I'm not convinced it lived up to the hype, expectations, for me personally. I need to watch it again to see if I loved it or not, it is a very good film, I don't think as solid as Ragnarok or Winter Soldier, but considering the amount of characters there are I think it did extremely well.
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