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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
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Sam Graham
AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues.
Posts: 1431
From: Waukee, IA
Registered: Dec 2004
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posted 04-28-2018 03:55 PM
CINEMA: Regal Warren East, Wichita, KS
AUDITORIUM: 14
PRESENTATION: Warren GRAND slope auditorium with a balcony that I'm not sitting in so really who cares
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: None ![[Cool]](cool.gif)
RATING: Two and one half stars (out of four)
THE PLOT: Thanos wants to collect the set of infinity stones. Wackiness ensues.
If you don't like spoilers, just stop reading now because I'm going to lay out everything that happens to save you the time and effort of bothering to go. The Avengers need to stop Thanos from getting his paws on all the infinity stones. They fail and the credits roll, listing the literal thousands who were involved in the making of this picture right down to the assistant payroll accountants. Then a commercial for the all-new 2019 Infiniti QX50, starring Samuel Jackson, airs. Then we all exit to the lobby, where kids are telling those waiting in line to see this that it's the greatest movie ever.
It is a fun ride with the humor you'd expect in a Marvel feature and much more clever pop culture references than were in Ready Player One, at least up until Act 17 or so, when it goes all "Last Jedi" dark and I'm like "God, resolve this already." But do they? NO. THEY FREAKING DON'T. Apparently this is part one of whoever knows how many parts. GOD DAMMIT MOVIE.
So just sit this one out and go to the follow-up, which hopefully there's only one of.
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 04-28-2018 11:47 PM
It's yet another interminable, 47-plots-to-follow, universe-at-stake, funny-in-spots, Marvel movie. I tried reading the Wikipedia plot summary of this one and was lost by the end of the second paragraph.
It's really too bad there isn't some other thing to be "at stake" besides the WHOLE UNIVERSE. They've backed themselves into a corner with this. I liked it when the movies were more simple, such as Superman being mainly concerned with Lois Lane and the population of one city at a time.
I also wish they'd just knock it off already with putting the extra scene at the VERY end of the credits. Just stick it in after the major celebrity name checks and the title, and then be done with it. The audience has already sat there for about 3 hours, and at least half of them get pissed when they have to wait through 12 minutes of gobbledy-gook to get to the ending of the movie - which isn't really an ending.
I suppose we're inching toward the time when the movie runs for about a half-hour, then the end credits, followed by two hours of extra scenes. If I was directing the new Deadpool that's what I'd do.
As expected, this movie has plenty of those stupid "touch your arm and your whole suit unfolds from nowhere" scenes too, which irritate me because they're physically ridiculous, but then I suppose the whole MCU falls in to that category so whatever.
The people who like this kind of thing are loving it, though -- my friend Keith was positively giddy about it -- so, as Pope Francis famously said, who am I to judge? The hardest part of playing this show is having to stand at the exit and act like I loved it. The Oscars ought to have a category for "Best Exit Acting by a Theater Owner."
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 04-30-2018 10:44 PM
Cinema: AMC Patriot 13, Lawton, OK
Screen: #7, IMAX Digital, Seats K14 & K15
Format: Dual 2K Projection 3D, 5.1 audio
Presentation Problems: Audio needs more oomph.
Movie Rating: 3.33 stars out of 4
It looks as if I liked this movie more than quite a few other viewers. One of the big complaints is the dark, cliff-hanger ending after 2.5 hours of run time. It was obvious years ago when Infinity War was first announced that this would be at least a 2 part saga. I expected a big cliff-hanger and dark ending, although this movie finished darker than expected, perhaps too dark to even believe.
Spoiler Alert - Click to Toggle
Some of those killed, such as Loki, Heimdall and Vision (and even Gamora), may stay dead. But there is no way others like Spiderman, Black Panther, and almost all the Guardians of the Galaxy are going to stay dead since there are future stand-alone movies in the works for them. Disney is running this show and its investors wouldn't stand for that big of a character house-cleaning. If anything, I was fairly certain Captain America and Iron Man were going to meet their fates since the contracts of both Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr end with this MCU saga. Steve Rogers was assassinated in the comic books and Bucky Barnes took his place as a new Captain America. But how would Bucky do that in any future movies if he has been reduced to ash?
Bunch of Tedious Crap Here:
The initial marketing for MCU Phase (Is it Phase 3?) let the cat out of the bag with Infinity War "Part 1" and "Part 2" movies slated for 2018 & 2019 respectively. They dropped the whole "Part 2" thing in the marketing when certain youth anthology movies (Hunger Games With Different Names) crapped out when dragging final chapters over the space of two movies. I guess the "Mouse House" panicked over that. "Untitled Avengers Movie" is supposed to make us think the 4th Avengers movie will feature a whole new story, villain and world-ending threat when it's just Part 2 of the movie we just watched. There was no practical way to squeeze all this stuff with Thanos, the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Wakanda, etc into just one movie. I throw the "etc" in there because there other characters not seen in this movie who are involved in the plot. They'll be in other Marvel movies and the next Avengers movie next year.
At least four Marvel movies will be released between now and the next Avengers installment in 2019. Deadpool is in the X-Men universe even though his story-line has intersected with that of Spiderman in the comics. It's highly unlikely Deadpool 2 will have any involvement with the Avengers story-line, other than Josh Brolin playing different villains in both movies. Ant Man & The Wasp and Captain Marvel are both likely to set up plot developments for the next Avengers movie. It's shaping up as more prerequisite "homework" for viewers before this Part 2 thing next year. At least it's not as freaking confounding as watching Lost.
Venom is a big question mark since Spiderman crossed over to the Marvel MCU. The symbiote first appeared in Spiderman issues in the 1980's and has been written into story-lines with Thanos and other Marvel comics characters. It's unclear if the Venom movie coming out this fall will be a purely standalone thing unrelated to Spiderman or the Avengers/Thanos. I am digging how they modeled the Venon character in the latest trailer:
End of Tedious Crap
Anyway, we're all familiar with the plot line of Infinity War. The movie had its moments. Thor's interaction with Rocket was one of the funnier highlights. Rocket had some of the best one-liners. When Peter Quill (feeling inadequate next to Thor) says, "I'm muscular," Rocket replies, "Who are you kidding, Quill? You're one sandwich away from fat." It goes without saying the show is packed with a shit-ton of complex CGI imagery, although a couple of the artificial CGI characters struggled with the "uncanny valley." The female villain, Proxima Midnight, was in that iffy territory in close-ups. They did a good job on the Thanos character (which seemed like a mix of CGI and practical makeup effects).
Cynthia and I watched the movie on our local IMAX-branded theater screen in 3D. Just about all the movie (if not all of it) was shown in the 1.9:1 aspect ratio, filling the entire screen. Other "standard" theaters are showing it in 'scope. I'm wondering if the IMAX-branded shows actually showed more imagery or less. It was clear anamorphic lenses were used on a lot of the live action footage. The credits said "filmed with IMAX cameras," but it seems like this movie was another Rogue One style effort where the Arri Alexa 65 was paired with Ultra Panavision 70 lenses. They even included a ridiculous Ultra Panavision 70 logo in the credits. When Infinity War was first announced there was hype about IMAX and Arri working together to use the Arri Alexa 65 to fill the taller screen height of "IMAX With Laser" screens. I guess they didn't end up doing that. The football-shaped bokeh would have been rotated 90 degrees if they did.
quote: Mike Blakesley
As expected, this movie has plenty of those stupid "touch your arm and your whole suit unfolds from nowhere" scenes too, which irritate me because they're physically ridiculous, but then I suppose the whole MCU falls in to that category so whatever.
I kind of blame the Transformers movie for that crap. Suits unfolding out of nowhere is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to violating the laws of physics. The Marvel MCU has been doing silly things with physics since the first Iron Man movie. A human being can't put on a metal suit and crash into the ground or through a building at jet fighter speed without being turned into a juicy mess of bloody granola. But these are super hero movies. We're supposed to suspend our disbelief to some degree, although it would be nice if the producers, writers and directors would do more to meet audiences halfway. At least the movie seems pretty normal compared to laugh-riots like Torque.
quote: Mike Blakesley
It's really too bad there isn't some other thing to be "at stake" besides the WHOLE UNIVERSE. They've backed themselves into a corner with this. I liked it when the movies were more simple, such as Superman being mainly concerned with Lois Lane and the population of one city at a time.
I agree, I don't know why they keep doing that crap. Yeah, a threat to end our world or destroy the universe is bad. But it's so broad that it's difficult for viewers to relate to it. Plus, so many movies have done the end of the world thing that it has become very tired. Now, to be fair, Thanos wasn't out to destroy the universe. He just wanted to indiscriminately kill off half its population. It's still a pretty broad thing, even with a MacGuffin like the infinity stones and gauntlet being involved. Movie viewers can more easily relate to a goals like defusing a bomb or preventing a villain from killing a specific person. When the writers blow the threat up to a ridiculous scale the threat is no longer personified. A Gamma Ray Burst from a distant collapsing star light years away could cook off the Earth's ozone layer (or worse) in a matter of seconds. Such a thing would touch off a mass extinction event that would killl everything right down to bacteria. Odds are extremely slim of that ever happening. But if it did happen we would be powerless to stop it. So why even worry?
I think Superman: The Movie (1979) was one of the best ever super hero movies. Its villain, Lex Luthor had specific goals in mind. He wanted to create a new West Coast and get filthy rich from it (and cause the deaths of many innocent people in the process). Pretty damn easy to understand there. Never mind the science of geology and how California can't fall off into the ocean in the event of a catastrophic earthquake.
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