SPOILER THREAD - Avengers Infinity War

[Meister]

Whilst technically you are right in that he says half of all life in the universe, I don’t think he meant all literally as you are interpreting it, but most likely all sentient life. The reason for this is i believe it is implied that Thanos was already trying to enact his plan manually, the example provided was his genocide on Gamora’s home planet and how the results of that act made her planet flourish afterwards, not to mention that we only see half of sentient life disintegrate after he snaps his fingers.

On that snap, although I mentioned the time stone alone having the power to reverse time, hence the likely avenue for our hero’s to return, as Thanos used the gauntlet to make half of life end, I assume it would make sense for the gauntlet with all infinity stones to have the power to turn the universe back to how it was at the snap of a finger as well

[GoktimusPrime]

It wasn't just Thanos. Several other characters also explicitly say "half of all life." And even if it's just sentient life, a lot of animals are sentient and wiping out half their population can devastate ecosystems. And what about worlds with sentient plants like wherever Groot is from etc.? Wiping out half of that population could alter climate and atmospheric conditions.

Also... why would anyone want to willing serve Thanos if they know that when he succeeds there'll be a 50:50 chance that they may be randomly wiped out? They must be a really aggressive and militarised cult.

[Meister]

Populations of any kind left unchecked can also destroy echo systems, that was the reasoning behind his “solution”. Again the whole Gamora’s home planet example I think is a pretty good indication of the intention behind his plan, even in his dialogue with Dr Strange, Strange describes his solution as “genocide”. I don’t think he was referring to trees with that word. Did you see half of all trees in Wakanda vanish?

Thanos is clearly a fanatic, and his followers are no different, just like the fanatics of ISIL are happy to detonate themselves to try and help achieve their cause, Thanos and his followers are happy to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their cause, which is to balance the universe. Thanos himself said it cost him everything, referring to how he murdered the one and only thing he loved. That is a textbook fanatic, dedicated to the achievement of his cause, no matter the cost

[GoktimusPrime]

Did you see half of all trees in Wakanda vanish?

Plot hole right there! Even on Middle Earth the trees knew that they were being screwed.

This video soothes my mind and reiterates what you said about future sequels.

[M-bot]

So from the last tag scene (after the credits), I’m presuming that Captain Marvel is going to be the one who saves the day? It’s really cool the way she is called, with tech Fury has clearly been carrying around for some time. Even if it’s a bit cheesy that the symbol that comes up on the screen after Fury dies is her uniform.

What we’ve been told about the Captain Marvel movie is that it is set in the 90s. So I guessing that will be her origin story and then Avengers 4 will be where they come back against Thanos. How in the loving hell they’ll do that is beyond me.

There’s also been some set photos taken of the filming of Avengers 4 that show Captain America in his Avengers 1 uniform and Hawkeye with a different hair cut. The speculation was that Hawkeye might take his Ronin persona, but now I’m thinking that all that might be set in the past, either as a flashback or, more likely, there will be a time travel element to restoring what Thanos has destroyed.

Another question though - I wonder why Fury didn’t activate the call to Captain Marvel when the Earth was first invaded by the Chitauri (Avengers 1)? Should we presume that he figured the Avengers could handle that particular situation?

Regarding the Dr Strange question, Meister hit the nail on the head. Strange forsaw only one possibility of them beating Thanos, and it involved Stark living and Thanos with the time stone. So he did that knowing he would have to both break his oath and die.

Anyone else get a smile from the fact that Peter Dinklage’s character Eitri was a giant?

Interesting things with Banner and Hulk. They basically had them arguing the whole movie, the Hulk basically being too afraid to come out (at least that’s how I read it).

Regarding the “all life” question - I don’t think it involved things like animals, plants and trees as the whole crux of Thanos’s goal is to allow populations that are left to have an abundance rather than there being poverty and need throughout the universe ie only wipe out half of those that would potentially over-use resources of their worlds. Animals and flora would presumably be exempt from that. My guess anyway.

This movie was so very much the Empire Strikes Back of the Marvel cinematic universe.

Just as a morbid exercise, a list of the dead (as I remember them - please make corrections and additions if you can):
Loki*
Heimdall*
Gamora*
Vision*
Dr Strange
Spider-Man
Starlord
Drax
Mantis
Groot
Falcon
Black Panther
Bucky
Wanda
Nick Fury
Maria Hill

(*earlier in the film, not a result of Thanos’s finger click)

Alive:
Captain America
Thor
Iron Man
War Machine
Banner/Hulk
Black Widow
Rocket
Nebula
Shuri
Okoye
M’Baku (presumably as not shown to die?)
Wong (presumably as not shown to die?)

[M-bot]

For those with Facebook, check out MaximBady’s reaction/review of the film (posted Thursday). Very funny. No spoilers in it (at least about specific events), it only goes less than 2 minutes and has a spot of swearing, so be warned.

Edit: here’s a YouTube link https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nw2pIpi-m6Q

[GoktimusPrime]

I gotta say that considering the film has such a massive ensemble cast that it does deliver a fair amount of character drive. None of the protagonists felt like set pieces (unlike say, most Bayformers) - each of them was given a reasonable window of opportunity to shine and show their worth to the audience. Not a huge amount, but again, given the huge cast I think it was well done.

And Thanos was a really well done antagonist. More than just a motion capture CGI monster (*cough*Steppenwolf*cough*), Thanos himself is actually a character. As the audience we understand his motivation and his moral universe - we can see where he's coming from. Especially when we see his ruined homeworld of Titan and he explains that this was a result of the overconsumption of resources. It reminds me of the antagonist from What Happened To Monday? (and again, Killmonger) -- as brutal and immoral as they are, their cause is not without merit. These villains don't see themselves as villains, they see themselves as heroes. This makes them far more relatable and believable as people. Heck, in this regard Thanos is also similar to Beast Machines Megatron. Not that Beast Machines is a good show, and BM Megatron would be a better character if he weren't meant to be the same character as BW Megatron... but that's a whole 'nuther discussion.

I also loved Peter Dinklage's portrayal as a Dwarf, and importantly, he was still a Dwarf! Just a really huge one. They didn't digitally change his proportions to "undwarf" him. He still has his disproportionately large head, an obvious trait of real-life dwarfism. And it's cool that they actually cast a dwarf to play a dwarf, because there's an argument that casting non-dwarf people to play dwarves is offensive akin to whitewashing. Just as whitewashing deprives non-white people from job opportunities in acting, so does casting non-dwarves as dwarves deprive opportunities for dwarves like Dinklage. It's not easy for dwarves to achieve success as actors... Warwick Davis, Peter Dinklage and the late Verne Troyer are the only ones that come to my mind (without Googling). I'm not familiar with Davis' work outside of Willow and Star Wars, and I haven't seen Verne Troyer in anything since Austin Powers. I hope that this will mean more acting opportunities for dwarves in the future - whether the character is a dwarf or not. As Dinklage has proven many times, you can have characters just incidentally be a dwarf - it doesn't have to be part of what defines the character, such as his role as Bolivar Trask in X-Men Days of Future Past. Trask could've easily been played by a non-dwarf or a dwarf. Where possible it'd be nice to see acting roles just go to the best qualified person -- the person who performed best at audition, regardless of colour, height, gender etc. Obviously there may be certain characters where these traits matter, but in other instances where it may not matter then why not just open the floor to a wider candidacy?

For those with Facebook, check out MaximBady’s reaction/review of the film (posted Thursday). Very funny. No spoilers in it (at least about specific events), it only goes less than 2 minutes and has a spot of swearing, so be warned.

Perhaps this post would be better served on the Movie Critics thread since presumably anyone who enters this thread won't care about spoilers.

[Lord_Zed]

Very cool film considering the huge crossover nature, they even built the villain up even if his plan is a bit odd.

I wont say it's my favourite Marvel Film of the last few years, but considering the nature of these crossover type events in film (or comics) they did the best they could, and deserve applause.

Alive:
Captain America
Thor
Iron Man
War Machine
Banner/Hulk
Black Widow
Rocket
Nebula
Shuri
Okoye
M’Baku (presumably as not shown to die?)
Wong (presumably as not shown to die?)

So, is it just me are all those Avengers that survived the one's whose actors contracts are about to expire?

My personal theory is that somehow most of the heroes who are gone will save the others, but in the process themselves retire or be replaced (recast) somehow.