directed by Anthony and Joe Russo
written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
It's hard to believe it's been ten years since a fledgling Marvel Studios broke away from the studio system with one of their B-list characters and set out to change the way filmed storytelling was done. Ten years and 18 movies after the surprising success of Iron Man, Marvel has, indeed, changed the way blockbuster movies tell stories with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and are, with this film, finally culminating a story that has long been brewing.
Thanos the Mad Titan (Josh Brolin) has, for the last several years, been seeking the six Infinity Stones with the goal of wiping out half of the population of the entire universe, an act of mass murder he justifies as bringing balance (that's not a spoiler; it's in the trailers). In past MCU films, Thanos had others track down the stones, but in this film, he gets somewhat more hands-on in his approach. As a direct result, the story begins with a catastrophic confrontation for Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the rest of the refugees from the now-destroyed Asgard, who include Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Heimdall (Idris Elba) and Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). They are then separated, with Hulk plummeting to earth, in particular New York and then warning Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his colleague Wong (Benedict Wong) of the coming threat, which actually arrives quite quickly as two of Thanos' henchmen, Ebony Maw (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) and Cull Obsidian (Terry Notary), drawn to the time stone, which Dr. Strange has with him, show up in very short order.
This is enough to bring Tony Stark aka Iron Man (Robert Downey,Jr.) and Peter Parker aka Spider-Man (Tom Holland) into action, but it soon becomes clear that they'll need the rest of the Avengers, like Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Sam Wilson aka Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Wanda Maximoff aka the Scarlet Witch (Mary Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) to do battle with Thanos. Vision is particularly vulnverable as the infinity stone on his head draws Thanos' other henchmen, Proxima Midnight (Carrie Coon) and Corvus Glaive (Michael James Shaw) to him. Soon, they find themselves enlisting even more help as they travel to Wakanda to seek the help of King T'Challa aka the Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), to help remove the stone from Vision's head without killing him.
Meanwhile Thor, having sent a distress signal while Thanos was attacking his ship, is now floating in space when he encounters the Guardians of the Galaxy: Star Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Vin Diesel). Having lost his hammer Mjolnir in Thor: Ragnarok, Thor, accompanied by Rocket and Groot, sets out to find a new weapon with which to fight Thanos, while the rest of the Guardians travel to Knowhere, a mining planet where they believe Thanos will seize an infinity stone stored there some years ago.
One thing is for absolutely certain: Thanos is unlike any threat any of them have ever faced.
I'll keep this review as short as I can, lest I spoil any key plot points, but I will say this: even though the Russo brothers and their writers Markus and McFeely may have stumbled every now and then in telling this story, they deserve full credit for this mammoth effort, unprecedented in its scale.
Amid the truly stunning CG pyrotechnics and the immensity of a movie that has to feature just about every major character from their shared universe spanning 18 films (with the exception of Paul Rudd's Ant-Man and Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye, who are explicitly NOT in it), the Russos and their writers made the canny decision to narrate the story mainly from the point of view of the film's antagonist, Thanos, whose coming has been foreshadowed since the end credits stinger of the very first Avengers movie. He is given nuance, and pathos, and a motivation which, while it does not justify his genocidal desires, definitely goes a long way towards developing him as a character and distinguishing him from Marvel's crop of generic bad guys. Brolin turns in a stunning performance, and wears the CGI that brings his character to life as one would wear a costume or makeup. I couldn't imagine anyone else in this role after seeing him in this film. In short, whatever criticisms may be leveled against this film, one cannot say that it has a lame bad guy.
That's not to say that this film is above reproach; as tight as Markus and McFeely try to keep the narrative, which is squeezed into two and a half hours, there's still so much to take in that it definitely feels a little overwhelming, and the rapid-fire shifts in tone are a daunting tightrope to walk. This is an extremely grim movie, but it nonetheless features Marvel's patented humor all throughout. I once raked a movie over hot coals for tonal inconsistency, and had this film been made by lesser filmmakers, it might not have worked. I'll admit that the cracks do show every now and again.
In a movie this big, it's inevitable that some of the characters will get crowded out. Some ballyhooed appearances in the trailers amount to little more than walk-ons, but to be fair, everyone in the cast is pretty much in top form here, no matter how short their screen time.
In truth, EVERYONE here brings their A-game, from the visual effects wizards at ILM, Digital Domain, and Weta Digital, to cinematographer Trent Opaloch, who infuses the different locales, which include several different planet, with a broad (and lush) color palette that breaks away from, and looks so much better than the washed out, blue-grey drabness of his last two Marvel films with the Russos. This film also marks the return to the Avengers of original composer Alan Silvestri, and while he leans on variations from his heroic theme from the first film, he creates, quite possibly, the richest, most nuanced music score I've ever heard from him, and I've followed this guy's work since Back to the Future. His music is a huge part of the characters' journey on this film, and enhances the impact of the Oh-my-gosh moments without being cloying or overbearing.
This was always going to be an extremely difficult film to put together, and it shows, but overall I think Marvel and their cast and crew have pulled off something truly outstanding.
8.7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment