I thought Peter Bradshaw was very generous with his review of Avengers: Infinity War, which offers more than just "touches" of The Lord of Rings. It literally steals the whole story, only now we have six precious stones as opposed to five gold rings. Fortunately, the movie doesn't take itself too seriously so we can forgive this blatant plagiarism to some degree, but the turning point where Thanos imagines himself as the universe's savior by culling the population by 50 per cent is a bit rich. After all, we are talking about infinity here.
With the phenomenal success of the Marvel franchise, we now have a slough of actors wanting to play a role in these movies. One expects Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and maybe even Robert Downey, Jr. but not Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Bettany and Josh Brolin. The supporting cast is even more dense with A-List actors like Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow and Bradley Cooper lending his voice to a space raccoon. Even Idris Elba has a fleeting appearance as Heimdall, a black Viking god no less. However, he didn't hold a candle to Peter Dinklage as a giant dwarf. I can only imagine how much this unfuckingbelievable production cost!
Nevertheless, the film does suck you into its absurd tale of a vengeful villain seeking the six stones that formed the universe and using them to have absolute control over this infinite dominion. Brolin infused Thanos with enough pathos to fill a large ocean. He's basically Saruman from The Lord of the Rings, although one can trace his name back to the Greek mythological figure Thanatos. He seems to have a soft spot for Gamora, a green orphan girl he adopted after ridding her planet of half its population, including her mother. Little wonder she holds an enormous grudge against him, but he loves her just the same, setting up a climactic confrontation for the fourth stone that represents soul.
I don't think Stan Lee is writing any of these scripts. That honor belongs to Mssrs. Marcus and McFeely, who borrow liberally from the pantheon of fantasy books and action movies in stringing together these absurd storylines. There are so many characters you can be forgiven if you lose track of them. Only a handful really seem to matter. In this case, Iron Man, Thor, Dr. Strange and Vision. The rest are just there to form a plalanx around the key characters, including the Black Panther, in whose mythical Wakanda the final battle to save the universe is vigorously fought. The production crew literally left no stone unturned, determined to hit as broad a market as possible for this movie. Although they make rather crude caricatures out of African superheros, with all that primitive stomping around yet a crystal palace built for the 25th century.
There are plenty of women characters as well, the most important being Gamora, played by Zoe Saldana. The others are there more or less as infill, although Scarlett Johansson has some pretty good lines as the Black Widow. I was surprised to find Elizabeth Olsen pitch up as the Scarlet Witch, although my daughter told me she has a recurring role. The character actually dates pretty far back in the Marvel comic-ology to 1964 in The X-Men #4. I hadn't realized many of these characters had such long pedigrees, but then I was more a DC reader as a teenager. Not sure what Stan Lee thinks of all these revamped characters, but he makes his cameo early on as a bus driver, so I assume he is along for the ride.
The main problem with so many characters is that it is hard to identify with any one of them, unless you follow this franchise, which my daughter does. I really could care less if Thanos is able to turn back time and revive Vision long enough to pluck the last stone from his forehead, which I guess was supposed to represent wisdom as he was some kind of supercomputer made into human form by Tony Stark. With all six stones now embedded in his forged iron hand, Thanos is able to stave off Thor's hammer and indiscriminately erase half of the universe's population, so we see characters dissolve into clouds of dust, including quite a few of our superheros.
You have to wonder what Trump was thinking by endorsing a political ad that pictured him as Thanos. Hard to believe this was only last December, just before COVID-19 emerged. Hmmm?
I have to admit the special effects were impressive, even if these characters could bounce back and forth through the universe at astonishing speeds. As Mr. Rogers might say, what a small universe we live in.
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