Are There Lesbians? No

What Happens?
The Avengers face their greatest threat yet in an event that will make or break the Marvel Universe.

The Verdict:
As many people who know me are well aware, I have spent the better part f the last two or so years practically ignoring anything and everything to happen in the marvel cinematic universe. Suffice it to say that I had hit maximum capacity in my ability to care for superhero movies. I was over the band of misfits arguing with each other only to get back to ether at the last minute to fight a big bad. Therefore the only Marvel movies I have seen in a while have been Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther, mostly because to all intents and purposes I had heard that they were not your standard superhero movie. even then however, I was forced to come face to face with the Hulk and Doctor Strange in Ragnarok. Luckily there was much less crossover in Black Panther. This all being said, I have been warily looking forward to Infinity War. I had been wavering back and forth on whether or not I would go and see it, because deep down I knew it would be just like every superhero team-up ever – the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy would argue but then ultimately settle their differences in the face of a greater threat: Thanos: the original Nice Guy with a boner for Death.

My face still hurts from the variety of expressions I pulled while watching Infinity War. This movie grabs you by the throat and throttles everything you know about superhero movies in the first five minutes. Literally. While there is plenty of banter and arguments, some of which even get resolved in the face of a greater threat, there is none of the bland, deus ex machina salvation that I have, rather unfortunately, come to expect from superhero movies. In the vein of Thor: Ragnarok, where the “heros” are left ineffective and must step back to let powers greater than them simply duke it out while saving what they can, Infinity War emphasises not only the fallibility of its heros, but also the very mutability of their morality. I have read the origin story for Thanos and even then I did not find him a terribly sympathetic character but Infinity War is much more subtle in that it slowly removes any tropes that you would expect to see in regards to the Big Bad. Even from the beginning, Thanos is not afraid to get his hands dirty – yes he lets his children/underlings do their share of the work, but this comes across as mere delegation rather than him sitting back to watch the destruction from the sidelines. He is evil therefore he must not love anything except power, except he does. He loves destruction, so surely once his quest is over he wont actually stop like he says, except that he does (for now at least). Thanos is so charismatic and sure in his goal that he is extremely convincing to the audience, for all that he is an appalling shade of purple with a face like a dropped pie.

Infinity War did that thing where it reminded me just how much I love this stuff in the first place. The silliness of the banter and the over-the-top fights had me laughing, cheering and gasping in horror by turns, and I was completely in awe when Thor regained his lighting powers – it reminded me just why he is one of my favourite superheros. It’s the kind of movie that you can let yourself be completely absorbed by, especially because there is just so much happening that you have to take in. While keeping up with the many different plot-lines was a little confusing (each one could probably have been its own movie), in the end, it was worth it just for the pure spectacle value. The whole movie is very. dramatic. Especially Dr Strange’s cloak, which upstaged Benedryl Cumberbund with its sheer style and personality. As mentioned earlier, I haven’t seen the last two Avengers movies but even then it was reasonably easy to keep up with what was happening. There are a few nods to long-term Marvel fans (which thankfully, I happen to be, despite dropping out for a bit of a breather) but I don’t think newbies will have too hard a time keeping up. However, if this is going to be your first Marvel film, it probably wont have the same emotional punch as it would if you aren’t already familiar with the characters and I would recommend at least watching the first Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy films in preparation.

[[MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW]]

Speaking of emotional punch, Infinity War is really going for cheap shock value, and to be honest, it kind of works. In the classic Marvel way, they have realised that they have too many characters to keep track of and decided to kill a whole bunch of them off – leaving the Avengers with the original team (sans Hawkeye who just wasn’t in the film). Here is where I have a main bone to pick. Black Panther was one of the highest grossing films this year and they just killed him off. Along with every other black male character and quite a few women, not to mention Gamora who is played by a woman of colour, even if we can’t see it under the makeup – something which is an entirely different issue. My hopes for the next films would be that a) Shuri steps into the role of Black Panther, b) those characters who dissolved will come back, and c) that we get more woman being featured. At least the last is sure to happen, as the next Movie will feature the ultra-badass Captain Marvel. Fingers crossed we will get to see her save the day!