#136638
Postby zico » May 3rd, 2018, 6:26 pm
5/10. Usual fare, but with even more superheroes, and a different big twist on this genre that, for me, is totally unconvincing. It flows along pretty nicely, and doesn't really drag despite its 2 1/2 hour length, but then it's got a lot of stuff to get through.
Remember Stephen Hawkings telling us about the 6 infinity stones (Power, Soul, Time, Reality, MorePower and Formica) that were created in the Big Bang. No, me neither. Anyway, they do exist, because the film tells us about them at the start, and if you're a Supervillain, the really handy thing about them is that any Galactic Supervillain who collects the full set of Infinity Stones can then carry out an evil masterplan of their choice. This film's Supervillain is called Thanos, and rather than having the usual Supervillain goal of wanting to Destroy/Rule the Universe, he's an environmentalist who's keen on sustainability, although being a Supervillain, his environmental plans are considerably more radical than encouraging friends to shower together to save water. He's a pretty cocky Supervillain as he's already had a special glove made for the Infinity Stones, one for each finger, but not sure where the 6th one fits - these details matter, otherwise the film would be in danger of being unrealistic.
The film boils down to a galactic Treasure Hunt for prettily coloured Infinity Stones, where various combinations of Avengers/Guardians of Galaxies/Gods go to various bits of the galaxy and have Thwack! Kapow! fights with Thanos and his band of chums over possession of the stones. The good guys/gals usually have a spot of banter (or if you prefer, deep emotional storylines) before the fights, some of which is quite entertaining, and there are a few clever and witty bits of banter and a few clever scenes and ideas sprinkled around. They've made a bit more effort than usual to humanise the Supervillain.
I agree with Snorvey, the Guardians of the Galaxy don't really fit into this type of film (though they get some of the best lines and best scenes) but the Marvel people have simply decided to chuck in pretty much every character they've ever invented, on the basis that if you like superheroes, you'll really like lots of superheroes. That includes Man with Very Red Face whose special power appears to be Vulnerability, and a couple of other minor superheroes whose special powers appear to only extend to looking good in tight clothing (which I thought was a basic entry level requirement for any superhero). As Black Panther did so well at the box office, the home nation Wakanda gets a big set piece chunk of the film.
No spoilers, but they have done something very different in this superhero film, and if it actually worked, it would be very effective. The trouble is - I didn't buy any of it for a second. Someone told us we should watch the film until the absolute very end, even sitting through the extensive credits and really terrible bombastic music for several minutes, and finding out such life-enhancing things as how many plasterers worked on the Phillipines set (9 actually, and a very good job they did too). But there's just a very brief few seconds of extra film at the end of all that, and it doesn't really add anything to the rest of the film - unless you were completely taken in by the "different thing" they did with this film.
Avid Marvel fans seem to really love this film, but you don't have to be an aficionado of the Marvel world and know everyone's backstories to get the film, as it's mostly people with superpowers using their superpowers against bad guys with superpowers.