Avengers: Infinity War: Must See*

* Must See for us who are fans of superheroes; other it’s Worth Seeing.

Infinity isn’t exclusively an Avengers movie, it’s the ten-year culmination of what Marvel Studios has been working on since 2008’s Iron Man and hinted at with the ending of 2012’s The Avengers. The latter movie was impressive in how three independent franchises were brought together into a team flick. Now Marvel has topped it by bringing even more together into a giant story which will determine the fate of the universe. Ignore the whining from the Economist, The Nation and the New York Times, I feel that Infinity is a huge success. Maybe not on the story-telling front but in overcoming the asinine legal obstacles intellectual properties face in film and television; aka how past superhero movies have Batman or Spider-Man exist exclusively in the world despite the source material (comic books) continually showing other characters interacting with them. Or worse, Star Trek runs into this by the Borg never showing up in DS9 or allegedly, Discovery had to alter the Enterprise’s appearance by 25%.

No spoilers, so relax.

Infinity‘s story finally brings Thanos to the foreground in his pursuit of six Infinity Stones. Each one has a different power and all are locked away or in use as per the Vision. It also picks up shortly after the ending of Thor: Ragnarok, not Black Panther.

Every Marvel superhero (minus a couple) is drawn into the fight because all reality is threatened by Thanos succeeding in attaining all six stones for his gauntlet. Why should they worry though? Thanos is a fanatic who believes in scaling back all life in the universe due to its finite resources. To our puny intellects, the universe is practically infinite I guess this god-like villain has a better grasp on reality.

The characterization of Thanos by the writers and actor Josh Brolin is how I was won over too. Unlike past mustache-twirling villains desiring power and domination over those they conquer: Ego the Living Planet, Loki, the Red Skull, the Mandarin, Ronan the Accuser, Hydra, etc.; Thanos is a zealot, he genuinely believes his actions are for the greater good and he doesn’t wield the awesome power to stroke his ego. The millions he’s exterminated before gathering the stones continues to haunt his conscience as well.

Do you need to see every previous Marvel flick? The most recent two, yes. Any from 2017, probably just Guardians 2. For casual fans, the movie is a logistical wonder. For us diehard comic-book fans, Infinity is the type of crossover movie we’ve craved for decades, plus the trailers didn’t spoil a few more surprises we’ll noticed via cameos.

Alamo Extras: A recap of every Marvel movie to explain how we got to Infinity; a couple guys from Austin Books talking about the comics that introduced Starlord and Thanos; an explanation on why Agent Coulson is Alamo’s favorite Avenger; a collection of past crossovers shown in Pop Culture:

  • Andy Warhol appearing on WWE
  • Rugrats meet The Wild Thornberrys
  • Ahh Real Monsters! make a cameo in Rugrats
  • Mario meets Sonic the Hedgehog in a videogame
  • Double Dragon and Battle Toads in a videogame
  • Street Fighter v. X-Men videogame
  • Luke Skywalker, R2-D2 and C-3P0 on The Muppet Show
  • Bill Nye the Science Guy visits Mr. Rogers
  • Urkel appears on Full House
  • The Flintstones meet the Jetsons
  • Scene from Who Framed Roger Rabbit of Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse helping Eddie plummet into Toontown
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meet The Power Rangers
  • Lastly, a Hong Kong movie called The Dragon Lives in which “Bruce Lee” teams up with James Bond, Clint Eastwood, Popeye and Dracula. 
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