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Mega Marvel Rewatch II: The Rewatchening: Phase 3, Part the Last
On the docket to discuss today: Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War. We may or may not go see Captain Marvel again on Tuesday; since I haven't really written up my thoughts on that film in any detail, it deserves its own post, and I want to get down my Infinity War feelings while they're still fresh.
I don't have much to say about Ragnarok that I didn't already say when I first saw it. It was the only Thor movie we watched for this project, and I do think some of the things I love about it come out more strongly in comparison to the other two. Maybe I'll need to have a separate Asgardian marathon one of these days.
And then, there is Infinity War. It is probably to be expected that I liked this movie better on a rewatch, since so many of my issues after my first watching had to do with its violation of genre expectations. The more I've thought about this, the more I realize that my initial reaction had to do with expectations: the expectation that, in a superhero movie, the heroes will win (by at least some definition of the term), and the expectations set by the Russo Brothers that Avengers 3 and 4 were two separate movies, telling two separate stories, not a single story told in two parts. Instead, it's as though I was handed a book, told it was a stand-alone romance novel, and then it ended without a Happily-Ever-After. And while there's certainly a place for movies that break genre conventions and strike out to do something new, in almost every other way Infinity War is a by-the-numbers superhero film. One that is mostly well-executed, to be sure. But it doesn't transcend the genre in any other way, not enough for me to grant it a pass for that ending.
All of that said, now that I know that the movie might as well have "To Be Continued" plastered across the final frame, I can appreciate it much more. No one does a better job of juggling complex storylines with a lot of characters than the Russos, working in tandem with the writing team of Markus and McFeely, and I'm glad they're all back for Endgame. Watched in closer proximity to the Guardians movies, especially GotG 2, the relationship between Gamora and Thanos feels more earned than I remember, but I still wish her character had been developed better over all three films. I was struck all over again by how well-matched all the various team ups are: Tony clashing with Strange; Thor, Rocket, and Groot falling into a strange sort of buddy movie; how well the Guardians mesh in with the other groups; the rogue Avengers coming home to Rhodey and Bruce. It all works pretty well, especially given how much story there is to tell in a finite amount of time.
I probably won't be able to come to a final opinion on Infinity War until I see the rest of the story in Endgame. I have to imagine that all of the dusted characters will be back in some way, as will some of the characters who died by other means (given that Guardians 3 is back on the docket, I'd be shocked if Gamora doesn't return to life -- right now I'm thinking that only Heimdall and perhaps Loki are gone for good), so the real question is who of the Phase One heroes don't survive. I have my thoughts and predictions, but I don't really feel like setting any of them down for posterity here. We have tickets for Friday afternoon, so I'll know the answer soon enough.
I don't have much to say about Ragnarok that I didn't already say when I first saw it. It was the only Thor movie we watched for this project, and I do think some of the things I love about it come out more strongly in comparison to the other two. Maybe I'll need to have a separate Asgardian marathon one of these days.
And then, there is Infinity War. It is probably to be expected that I liked this movie better on a rewatch, since so many of my issues after my first watching had to do with its violation of genre expectations. The more I've thought about this, the more I realize that my initial reaction had to do with expectations: the expectation that, in a superhero movie, the heroes will win (by at least some definition of the term), and the expectations set by the Russo Brothers that Avengers 3 and 4 were two separate movies, telling two separate stories, not a single story told in two parts. Instead, it's as though I was handed a book, told it was a stand-alone romance novel, and then it ended without a Happily-Ever-After. And while there's certainly a place for movies that break genre conventions and strike out to do something new, in almost every other way Infinity War is a by-the-numbers superhero film. One that is mostly well-executed, to be sure. But it doesn't transcend the genre in any other way, not enough for me to grant it a pass for that ending.
All of that said, now that I know that the movie might as well have "To Be Continued" plastered across the final frame, I can appreciate it much more. No one does a better job of juggling complex storylines with a lot of characters than the Russos, working in tandem with the writing team of Markus and McFeely, and I'm glad they're all back for Endgame. Watched in closer proximity to the Guardians movies, especially GotG 2, the relationship between Gamora and Thanos feels more earned than I remember, but I still wish her character had been developed better over all three films. I was struck all over again by how well-matched all the various team ups are: Tony clashing with Strange; Thor, Rocket, and Groot falling into a strange sort of buddy movie; how well the Guardians mesh in with the other groups; the rogue Avengers coming home to Rhodey and Bruce. It all works pretty well, especially given how much story there is to tell in a finite amount of time.
I probably won't be able to come to a final opinion on Infinity War until I see the rest of the story in Endgame. I have to imagine that all of the dusted characters will be back in some way, as will some of the characters who died by other means (given that Guardians 3 is back on the docket, I'd be shocked if Gamora doesn't return to life -- right now I'm thinking that only Heimdall and perhaps Loki are gone for good), so the real question is who of the Phase One heroes don't survive. I have my thoughts and predictions, but I don't really feel like setting any of them down for posterity here. We have tickets for Friday afternoon, so I'll know the answer soon enough.
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But, even going in with the knowledge that Infinity War was going to have a depressing ending, I was still shocked. Admittedly, some of the shock was taken away because, again, I am that geek that keeps up with production news and I knew that two of the characters that got dusted had sequels that been confirmed already when I went in to see the movie. It's safe to assume that at least those two characters are highly likely to get un-dusted because you don't make sequels without the main characters. How they went bothered me, though.
For me, though, it's more about how they make the journey than the destination of that journey. What interests me is how they get to the destination.
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