Clovis was right

-I think my biggest problem with the Avengers movies is they focus too much on fan service and not enough on actual plot. The first two were saved bc of their villains, Loki and Ultron, who were developed characters with methods to their madness. Let’s just say Thanos, so far at least, isn’t close to that. Aside from his backstory with Gamora they don’t even try to give him a purpose or anything, it’s just RAWRRR IM BAD I WANT POWER, which isn’t interesting to me at all. This is a common theme bc despite the movie being two and a half hours there’s basically 0 character stuff at all, like let’s do a rundown:
1. Steve/CA- they literally tell us nothing about what he, Natasha, BF, and Wanda have been doin at Avengers facility since CA CW, he just is kinda there.
2. Stark- Him and Steve are on the outs...that’s it. They don’t address that further.
3. Thor- he’s sad Loki dies, but uh that’s it? No real meaningful dialogue or development for him.
4. Hulk- same (he can’t hulk up, we have no idea why, that’s the extent of his character)
5. Spider-Man- nothing.
6. Strange/BP/Guardians- ditto.
7. Clint/Scott- “witness protection” lol ok.

So basically what you’re left with is a bunch of characters not being remotely developed, facing off against a bad guy whose motivations aren’t remotely clear, everyone just sorta exists to say a funny line, deliver fan service, or get us from one action scene to the next. The movie is literally 50% action scenes destroying cities (or ridiculous planets). The exceptions are- Vision+Wanda, which is very one note (vision: you have to kill me, Wanda: I can’tttttt), Gamora+Thanos which is definitely the most meaningful and developed relationship of the film. For starters, they give us a reason to care about this fight for Gamora and why it’s so personal, but it also humanizes Thanos rather than making him a 100% mustache twirling villain which he basically is thus far. The irony of Thanos is he tells a story in the movie about his plight to save his planet (by wiping out half the population) that is far more developed than his plight to collect the infinity stones and...what is he trying to do again? I legitimately don’t know. I mean for some reason he doesn’t kill Thor at the beginning. That was stupid. He wants to wipe out half the population, why? Does he want to rule the ashes? Wtf does he want? Again, we know why he wanted to wipe out half of his planets population, bc there were only so many resources and in his mind population control is the answer. But in 150 minutes they never once give us a clear reason why he’s collecting the infinity stones and why he’s goin around causing havoc.

So ya, they have a lot of work to do in part 2 for this to viewed as a good movie in my mind. I will say that I enjoyed the Stark/Strange/Peter plot, and that Pratt absolutely slayed it as Quill per usual.

I guess I just disagree. I understand he's been mentioned in other MU films and post-credit scenes, but exactly how was he developed in IW? What are his motivations? What is he trying to achieve?* He's just a bland super-powerful mustache twirling villain as far as I'm concerned. Ultron very clearly states his goals and why he has them, and through his dialogue and actions he is very clearly developed. Aside from his relationship with Gamora there is essentially zero substance to any Thanos scene. It's either look at how evil & powerful I am, or random quip. Very little in between imo.

*Seriously if you know and I missed major dialogue I am happy to be wrong, I am typically a huge MU fan, this just completely fell flat with me.

His motivations might feel like they're missing because they're surprisingly narrow.

His goal was illustrated in several scenes, least of all in a monologue explaining just this: population control. He wants balance. The universe has finite resources. He saw his own planet and everyone he cared about destroyed because they wouldn't make the necessary sacrifices. Everyone sees him as evil because of the cost, but he truly believes he's saving the universe.

His primary conflict on whether to proceed is that doing so requires him to kill the one remaining person he loves.

Meh.

For the last few months, my buddy and I have done the usual Marvel nerd thing and tried to take apart trailers to try and guess what would happen. The biggest debate between he and I was how the film would end.

His take was that Thanos would get all 6 stones, kill half the universe and then the n the 2nd movie would be the remaining Avengers finding a away to undo the damage.

I said that he should get 4 or 5 of the stones, kill a few main characters and then the 2nd film is about protecting those and finding a way to kill him. I thought that if he got all 6, and carried out his plan, the 2nd film would have to basically "but nah" the first and basically undercut any emotional impact.

I feel like I was spot on.

When Loki gets got, even though my friend and I agreed he would die to set the "tone" of the film, I still had a "Holy ****!" moment. Ok, ****'s real now. People are going to get got. Then...nothing much happens. Gamora's death was still during the "ok, this is dark" phase of the movie, so that's a positive, but even that was undercut by an out-of-nowhere Redskull cameo.

After Gamora's death, the movie just too a progressively less serious tone. Once Thanos had the Time Stone, two things were obvious:

1) Dr. Strange knew that "losing" was the only way to win and Avengers 4 is 100% going to be called Avengers: Endgame

2) Nothing mattered. Everything was getting undone so there's no reason to get emotionally invested in anyone.

That was brought to a low point with the final sequence. The screenwriters had a chance to save it by killing the old hands. Let Stark and Cap fade away, along with Banner and Widow. Whatever you do, don't "kill off" characters who's goddamn films have already been announced. It completely ruins the emotional connection to the plot and basically guarantees the next movie is just a magical rewind.

Sam Jackson's "Motherf..." was great but the fact that they're tying in Capt. Marvel is pretty silly to me. This was supposed to be the blowoff of the last 10 years and instead we get "Just kidding, we've got a few more characters to solve this for you".

I enjoyed the film for what it was, a fun popcorn movie with a bunch of different colored lasers and explosions. The story was predictable and a victim of character bloat, but the actors in general did a fantastic job. Spiderman's death scene was incredible, I just wish it would've meant something.

K so half the MCU just died, I wonder if that gets undone somehow.

If he's truly a god now why not just double the universe's resources instead of killing half the universe? The comic books had a far better motivation for him.

I'd totally be willing to overlook these things if the movie had some redeeming qualities, but it does not.

I read a few comments online that were similar to:

"Oh my god, I just left and I'm so shook. Spidey's death had me crying"

How the hell do you leave the theater thinking that his (and Falcon's, and Strange's, and etc.etc.) death was nothing but a quick time out for those guys until they get brought back.

"OMG guys the stakes are gonna be so high in this one" and then...nah

Thanos is dead

once again, just double the universes resources, don't kill half the universe. Or do a million other possible things