Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War ★★½

My favorite moment in this movie is Mantis' mean face upon the arrival of the Asgardian wreckage. Drax' line "Why is Gamora?" is a close runner-up.

● If you can use portals to transport your enemies to the other side of the planet why not make that your no. 1 go-to move? Dr. Strange and his pal could've resolved that attack in New York way faster.

● So Hulk doesn't want to come out any more after he took a beating from Thanos even though in Wakanda he would only have to fight some random aliens and maybe Thanos' Children? Also, didn't Hulk take a beating from Iron Man in Avengers: Age of Ultron without turning into a pussy?

● Since Fury can text Captain Marvel wouldn't an ongoing invasion of Earth by an alien species as in The Avengers have warranted to text message her instead of trying to assemble a random team of egomaniacs?

● Since Dr. Strange is in possession of the Time Stone couldn't he turn back time (at any point basically) and get to the Stones himself (which seems to be the direction the sequel is taking)? Why not rewind time once Quill messed up the assault on Thanos and incapacitate him until Peter has the glove off?

Considering that I think the vast majority of these Marvel movies aren't that great I was at times pleasantly surprised with Infinity War. It's not a good movie but better than the other two "Avengers" films. Although it feels extremely disjointed with an off pacing, mostly due to the fact that it jumbles a variety of franchises and storylines together.

As the film returned to Thor after about an hour of screen time I honestly totally had forgotten about him and his side mission. Just like Captain America: Civil War felt more like an "Avengers" sequel this one feels more like a "Guardian of the Galaxy" entry. The whole movie comes off like those yearly DC crossover episodes with Green Arrow, Flash and Supergirl, as if Infinity War intercut four episodes of tonally and visually different TV shows together. The result being that there are some stretches that don't hold my attention.

Everything in Wakanda with their mimicking of The Phantom Menace I couldn't care less about. Maybe because I already didn't care about Wakanda in Black Panther. Similar things could be said for the segment about Thor, Rocket and Groot. The best moments of the movie are when the characters are interacting with each other, e.g. Tony Stark is updating Peter Parker mid-fight in Central Park about what's currently happening. The trio of Iron Man, Spider-Man and Dr. Strange actually worked the best out of all the team-ups.

Thanos is an intriguing villain – I'd like to think that the 50 percent of people getting to live after the snap are not random but at least slightly based on the ones who were brave enough to stand up against him (Iron Man, Captain America, Nebula, Hulk, Thor) – but even 15 or 16 movies into the MCU now I still don't see his MO. What's his deal? As far as I understand the comics make his murder spree a courtship of Death but since she isn't featured in the MCU it is either not really established what his motivation is or I missed the scene explaining it (that whole balance thing seems extremely weak and unmotivated to me).

P.S.: I'll consider it a missed opportunity if in the sequel Karen Gillan's Nebula isn't sharing the screen once with Benedict Cumberbatch introducing himself to her as "Dr. Strange" with her reacting "Dr. Who?"

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