fbpx
FilmsSuperheroes

Avengers: Infinity War (Blu-ray film review).

Having been fairly successful avoiding spoilers and hype, I watched ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ fairly unmolested by expectation, although I do have a few films before to catch up on now. Knowing how many lead characters there were, I did wonder how the plot would avoid having them all together which was skilfully done even if it was really a slugfest trying to prevent Thanos acquiring all six gems for his infinity gauntlet.

No one ever points out that this will give him full god-like powers, this is left to the viewer to infer. Of course, long term comicbook fans like ourselves know the full implications of this, although this version of Thanos isn’t having a love affair with Death, just with population control. I did wonder why the likes of the Stranger, the Gardener or even Galactus or Eternity didn’t get involved but suspect that would confuse the new film fans to the franchise.

The introduction by the directors point out this is a two-part film and the finale with so many casualties, you know the next film will resolve it, albeit with a smaller cast, unless they’re planning to bring in a lot of second-string heroes.

Things I was confused by was turning the Black Widow into a platinum blonde, although it was probably so they could tell her apart from the Scarlet Witch although, considering that they rarely shared scenes and had different costumes, I think the audience would have figured that out.

About the only thing I make a mistake with is not seeing the third ‘Thor’ film first because the opening of this film appears to be its conclusion. Rabbit or Rocket Racoon still managed to shine, as did Groot.

Looking at the credits a second time, I did wonder why the comicbook creator credits was hidden among the other credits when you would think it should be at the top next to Stan and Jack, especially as they are significant characters.

The extras consist of 32 minutes of 4 featurettes behind the scenes. Of the 10 minutes of 4 deleted scenes, I do wonder why they couldn’t be reincorporated for a special edition, especially as they must have cost more than a couple million dollars. The Gag Reel is only a couple minutes and the cast all appear to dance.

The audio commentary is with the directors, the Russo brothers, and the two writers, Christopher Markus and Steven McFeeley. Amongst the gems is that this film is really Thanos’ story with the other twenty-three other character as guest stars. It might have been more daring to call the film: ‘Thanos: The Infinity Gauntlet’ but I guess the ‘Avengers’ has more selling power. According to them, any character short-changed this time around will get more screen time in the second film next year.

I agree with their thoughts that they didn’t want their characters too powerful. I wonder if Warner’s with their DC characters will tone theirs down a tad. Hearing that it took 20 special effects companies to do make all the effects is going to make an interesting question in some maths exam one day. They also point out that the overall plot had to be kept relatively simple or they’d never get everyone in without over complicating things.

Although this film is really a series of battles, getting progressively bigger, there is enough characterisation given to keep the actors and viewers occupied. Of course, the sequel is likely to undo a lot of the things here. After all, there’s a third ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ film and a second in the new ‘Spider-Man’ film series to come yet and they certainly can’t come out until the second film next year. The real question lies with resolution. The Avengers and co took their best shot and failed to stop Thanos with most of their heavy-hitters taken down, who is going to take this demi-god down?

GF Willmetts

October 2018

(region B blu-ray: pub: Marvel Studios. 1 blu-ray disk 149 minute film with extras. Price: £15.00 (UK). ASIN: BUY0292701)

cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Paul Bethany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Chris Pratt and Josh Brolin and many, many more.

check out website: www.marvel.com

UncleGeoff

Geoff Willmetts has been editor at SFCrowsnest for some 21 plus years now, showing a versatility and knowledge in not only Science Fiction, but also the sciences and arts, all of which has been displayed here through editorials, reviews, articles and stories. With the latter, he has been running a short story series under the title of ‘Psi-Kicks’ If you want to contribute to SFCrowsnest, read the guidelines and show him what you can do. If it isn’t usable, he spends as much time telling you what the problems is as he would with material he accepts. This is largely how he got called an Uncle, as in Dutch Uncle. He’s not actually Dutch but hails from the west country in the UK.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.