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?

Quote Originally Posted by M-bot View Post
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.