Rewatching Infinity War

[samanthabryant]

 My family got Avengers: Infinity War on disk as part of our holiday haul. My eldest daughter never got to see it in cinema, so we watched it together tonight, first time for her, second time for me. The rest of this entry includes spoilers, but I don't feel bad about this as the movie is hardly new anymore. 

 

I'm still profoundly ambivalent about this film. I'm not sure I've forgiven Marvel for the emotional abuse. 

 

It was a ballsy move to make a superhero movie where the superheroes lose, even if you have a back-pocket plan to make another movie to let them still win, in a way.  On a second watch, much of the emotional impact is lessened, since you already know its coming, but it still managed to punch me in the feels a few times, and I really appreciated the performances. 

 

There were lots of small movements and great eye work. Tom Hiddleston's Loki and the "go ahead and kill him" feint falling apart; Chris Pratt's Starlord keeping his word to kill Gamora like he'd promised; Danai Gurira's shocked grief as Okoye when T'Challah disintegrated before her eyes. 

 

(On the other hand, I was mostly annoyed by the Spidey/Ironman exaggeration. Tom Holland got longer to die so the kid could beg for his life and die in his mentor's arms. Chew that scenery a little harder guys; I think a piece of it was still standing). 

 

Like a lot of viewers, watching the first time, I felt suckered. On my big-screen viewing, a man seating near me slammed down his popcorn bucket and said, "The f*ck I just watch!" and a lot of audience members sympathized. Even now, months later and with previews of the sequel out there offering reassurance, I still feel wounded. That's probably a kind of compliment to the work-it hurt, lastingly. 

 

As a writer, I was very impressed by how well it functions, structurally. I have my doubts that it plays well if you haven't watched the whole MCU, but if you have, it does a deft job balancing so many moving pieces! The Guardians were used to great effect for the "worlds collide" moments of heroes meeting heroes. Everyone falling in love with the angel-pirate Thor. And the hero-vs.-hero misunderstanding over who worked for Thanos and who didn't with Strange, Ironman, and Spidey. 

 

The weakest bit in my mind was the whole not-killing-Vision thing. I wasn't that attached to Vision as a character from previous movies, so we retro-fitted a romance storyline with Scarlet Witch that I don't remember even a whiff of in previous films. It felt even more manufactured than the Hulk/Black Widow romance line and I thought that whole thing was a cheap shot, too. 

 

But, the movie needed us to feel bad about killing Vision, so we gave him a girlfriend and some scenes with a human face on first. Total cred for the writers though for using Quill and Gamora's "kill the one you love" moment earlier on as a foil for the "Scarlet Witch has to kill her honey-bun" moment. It really did help bolster the emotions for a scene that didn't have enough emotional payoff on its town. 

 

Whether this one becomes a film I can watch over and over again like some of the others in the MCU will depend on the sequel and if they pull this out without it feeling like a total cheat. Time will tell. 

Comments

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I felt violated by it. And that is the last Marvel movie I'm buying. If they can't be arsed to follow even the most basic contract between entertainer and audience, then my money can stay in my pocket and they can go fuck themselves.

It wasn't just the cop-out of a non-ending. It's that there was literally nothing in the film I enjoyed, and a lot that I found appalling, like Bruce beating on Hulk. I was just waiting for it to be over to see how they resolved the action, and they didn't even bother to do that. Fuck 'em.

On the bright side, I have unsold that movie at least half a dozen times.

Re: Yes ...

[samanthabryant]

It sounds like I'm still more ambivalent than you. I've got a long history as a Marvel fan-girl and it's hard to let it go entirely. I want to think they'll pull this out and win me back over. I'll still see the second film and see how I feel then, but it's definitely telling that so many fans writing about it use words like "abuse" and "violated."

Re: Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> It sounds like I'm still more ambivalent than you.<<

You are.

>> I've got a long history as a Marvel fan-girl and it's hard to let it go entirely.<<

So do I. So it is. But they don't get to treat me that way.

>> I want to think they'll pull this out and win me back over. I'll still see the second film and see how I feel then, <<

I have been watching Marvel movies get more and more disturbing over time. They've been hit or miss for years. I'd put up with the awful ones in hopes of getting to the good ones. I am no longer willing to do that. I don't care what's in the second movie, or any other movie. There is literally nothing they can do to make it up to me.

>> but it's definitely telling that so many fans writing about it use words like "abuse" and "violated." <<

I mean them very literally, as a scholar of such things.

I was appalled to see Bruce slapping himself as a way of beating Hulk, who was (quite sensibly) terrified to come out. It was like watching a man beating a toddler while trying to drag him out of a closet to solve the man's problems. There was no implication whatsoever that the moviemakers thought Bruce's action was wrong. Now I know Bruce-and-Hulk come from a horribly abusive background, and Bruce tends to treat Hulk horribly, but canonizing Bruce's physical and emotional abuse of Hulk was awful. That's not my idea of entertainment. And I don't wish to watch movies by people who think that's fun.

It's not a fluke either. Civil War was ~2 hours of domestic violence. Bucky is a former prisoner of war. There are guidelines about how such survivors are to be treated and the compensations they earned, and Marvel has broken pretty much all of them. >_< I keep wanting to hand him a cup of chamomile tea, throw a blanket over him, and say, "It's okay, Buck, you don't have to eat the eggplant." I know veterans. I resent Marvel treating them like kleenex. Especially because that's how our government is behaving, and making that look fun is heinous. Indeed, villainous.

And let's not forget the infamous HydraCap incident, in which Marvel made small children cry by destroying their hero, and then laughed about it.

If you're seeing a lot of fans say they were hurt or violated by these movies, ask yourself: how many of them are trauma survivors?

I know it's supposed to be entertainment, not real life, but I don't want to run around behind a canon with shovel trying to clean up one mess after another. They're hurting real people with their made-up stories, and I don't think that's okay.

As for violation, in addition to the above incidents, I refer to the contract between entertainer and audience. I expect, at minimum, all the components of a story to be present; such as it shall have a beginning, a middle, and an end (not necessarily in that order). Not only was Infinity War not entertaining, at times downright offensive, and generally boring, it failed to deliver a competent resolution. Marvel thought it was fine to leave people hanging. I felt cheated. I felt violated because I paid money for entertainment that was not all there. And damned if I'll pay them again. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

Here's a great dissection of a broken contract.

Now, Marvel can make whatever movies they want. That's their right as entertainers. But every time they break that contract, people leave, and some of them never come back. Some of us will forevermore use those wretched movies as examples of what not to do, which is not really the sort of fame that most entertainers wish for.

YMMV. If you're still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, it's up to you. Your tastes may be different.

Re: Yes ...

[samanthabryant]

Interesting points. There's a lot there to consider. I hadn't really thought that deeply about the Hulk/Banner treatment…though I've thought the entire MCU didn't quite know what to do with those characters throughout. It's often the moments that feel like throwaway comedy bits that are the most telling.

Thanks, Ysabetwordsmith.