Earning It

With coming release of Marvel’s final climax of its original Marvel Cinematic Universe storyline Avengers: Endgame, I want to take a look at the series penultimate chapter, last year’s Avengers: Infinity War. I consider Infinty War the absolute best MCU film ever assembled and among the top superhero movies ever made, in contention with The Dark Knight and Wonder Woman.

Up until Infinity War, I’ve been lukewarm with MCU as a whole. When the idea of a shared universe came about ten years ago, I thought it was a fantastic and bold idea. Not many film properties took this storytelling undertaking to date, but if there was a place to try, it was for a comic book universe.

But as the films progressed, it felt like each movie was becoming a slave to the idea, worried more about setting up the next movie, rather than focusing on the story and characters at hand. What started as exciting, turned to milquetoast. Bland look, bland characters, bland enjoyment. Each story suffered from plot holes, forced twists, and a misbalance of conflict, stakes, and scale, with each filmtrotting out its tiring end of the world bit, but with another bigger story always known to be on the horizon. Not much was memorable from movie to movie, becoming episodic in nature, with the team-up movies akin to sweeps episodes in television.

That’s not to say there aren’t a few gems, within the dozens and dozens of related movies, which I think are genuinely great films. Guardians of the Galaxy was an absolute blast, having all the fun action I want out of a comic book movie, with pitch perfect tone and self awareness. Others that registered are Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: Civil War, which both had solid stories and a better feel for their characters in the similar way to Guardians. They focused on the story at hand and took their characters to the end of the line, which is rare in the universe. And when they do that, it makes the experience stand out and are all more memorable.

And that brings me to Infinity War, hands down best Marvel movie ever made and film that I believe is one of the best movies I have ever experienced.

Why?

In our age of mature movie viewing audiences, Infinty War did everything a great movie, and story overall, should do — subvert expectation and take the story to the end of the line — that is, using all the story elements at your disposal that the story has no other place to end, except where it finally does.

And this movie does that. I didn’t watch many trailers and only knew the general gist, which was the the biggest of Bads, Thanos (teased through a handful of previous MCU films), was coming to battle ALL of the good guys.

(Which on a side bar, is an incredible feat to attempt. It was questionable with the original Avengers movie, joining up six top line characters/actors, let alone mashup a dozen plus top line characters/actors and properties this time around. I truly love and respect the pure ambition of this film and universe.)

Going into the theater, I kept my expectations moderated, due to my previously issues with the MCU over all and also had the knowledge that this was the first of a two part film, which I thought would mean a setup film for the final sequel.

Boy was I wrong on all accounts. And happily so. At every point of this film when I thought I knew what was going to happen, my expectations were blasted away. And it started from the very beginning.

From the death of Loki, to the short wait time until the first battle on Earth, to the balanced plotting and interaction of the characters, to the death of Gamora, to Thanos successfully collecting all of the Infinity Stones, to achieving his goal of wiping out half of humanity in an instant. Particularly the final two turns left me absolutely stunned and exhilarated.

My expectations throughout most of the movie, were that Thanos would get most of the stones, with his journey bleeding into the final film. But the filmmakers (directors Joe and Terry Russo, and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely) chose the superior, less traveled path of ending it NOW, in this present film, by creating a story where the Bad Guy wins and the good guys are left in the wreckage of their decisions (and failures). George R.R. Martin would be proud.

Because of these decisions, this story and film had so much more resonance to it, more than not just any superhero film, but most films period. I felt moments of pain and shock multiple times throughout this film because of where these characters have been and where this has lead too.

And this brings me to the point of earning it. These filmmakers and producers, through their careful plotting, decisions, and ambitions of the shared universe over ten years, much like a long running television show, earned a connection and truth with its characters, that paid off in this film. It made me rethink all of my previous feelings toward all of the MCU films, both the good and bad. While it had its up and downs, their the trust in a long term goal, even when maybe the course wasn’t totally clear, they found their way to this moment. They continued story threads and character identities through all the films, from Rocket and Thor’s unlikely fast and hilarious friendship, to the true and painful reason for the group’s failure (Quinn’s emotions over Gamora’s death overshadowing his reason), to Vision and Scarlet Witch’s painful double death, to Thanos’s surprisingly and refreshing layered villain, creating a non-stop series of both fun and heartbreaking moments.

But what is most impressive is that, through this fog of war which was ten years of movies over multiple creative forces, they were able to realize and understand what they’ve built with the standards and expectations they’ve created. Then make they correct decision to throw out all the rules, make bold choices, and reveal in it. All while still living within the trusted bounds of spirit for the whole Universe.

The tone of the film was pitch perfect, having the just right amount of humor, along with the flare for the dramatic bordering on melodramatic. But it wasn’t melodramatic if you’ve followed all of these stories over the years. It has all the due pomp and circumstance during its biggest moments, squeezing out every moment of drama and tension befitting a penultimate episode.

And that’s what you want with a finale that has been building. I want them to take this seriously and push the audience to wrap themselves in the melodramatic. You can’t make this film, with its impact without the painstaking construction that has been done over the decade, and not do that. It’s incredibly hard to do that, so when your skill and fortune have brought you to this moment in story telling, use every single ounce of goodwill that you’ve earned.

After the release, I was reading the hundreds of articles written about Infinty War, many feigning bewilderment at the the plot predicament they think the filmmakers painted themselves into. They couldn’t understand why they chose this path of seemingly finality and only imaging that some magic power will somehow reverse course and set everything right. And I say who gives a shit. I want, for once, to not already be looking to the future, prognosticating about what everything means, and just enjoy this moment we are in.

I could care less what happens in the next story as far as how they set the world straight again. If they use a cheap story telling tool, like magic to turn everything around, fine. Do it. You earned it. These filmmakers could have done what many modern two-part films do and just stretch a single plot story over fours and call it two movies. But that is not what the storytellers of Infinty War chose to do. They chose to take the story to the end of the line to a placethat no-one expected, which is so rare in movies. But these type of movies are what set themselves apart.

I actually think the next and final chapter will be really really good. Maybe even great. Or it could be boring and not so great. But it won’t change my opinion of Infinty War, because the filmmakers did the audience a true service. It rare, it’s wonderful, and we should appreciate it more in the moment when it happens.

To Infinty War, and what ever comes next, I have forever been turned into MCU fan, you guys have earned it.