"10 years in the making." Or so Marvel likes to remind us. 10 years of films intertwined that lead up to Infinity War, the first hints of which we received at the end of the very first Avengers (if I'm not mistaken about that-I'm fuzzy on pre-Thor films as far as details!). As for me, I've only been a fan 3 years fewer, really only getting involved in the MCU in 2011 with Captain America and then Thor. Or maybe Thor and captain America. I don't remember. I only remember seeing the Avengers teaser at the very end of CA and being way too excited for it the next year. I was living in Mississippi at the time, and a friend and I decided to hit the Avengers midnight premiere. Literally. I'd never been to a midnight premiere of any movie, and I was thankful for the pre-order function online! We got to the theater at 11, and the movie was already sold out, and the theater itself was half full by 11:30. I think one of the reasons I love Avengers so much was because of the atmosphere that night. It was GREAT watching it with people who were obviously bigger fans (I mean, some of them had dressed up!), hearing them cheer and clap at various points throughout the film. Unfortunately, I haven't been back to one since that movie. Only nothing has really been special enough to me to want to see it at midnight (not to mention working the next day kind of takes the fun out of it!).
But, I really wanted to go to the midnight showing of Infinity War. Anyone who knows me fairly well knows how giddy I kind of get over these movies/characters; what can I say? I embrace my nerd side fully. A friend asked if anyone wanted to go, and of course I said yes. Ok, granted, it was the 9:00 showing and not the 12 a.m., but it still counts, right? I didn't get home until 12 anyway. Haha. 5 of us went last night, and it. was. awesome. Sad. Bittersweet. Shocking. I'm still reeling from some of the deaths we witnessed in the film. Before I go much further, yes, this will have a ton of spoiler material. If you don't want to know, don't read past this paragraph. You've been warned.
Ok. Can I just start out by listing the death toll?
Confirmed dead (we see bodies and/or blood):
Loki (gah!)
Gamora
Heimdall
Vision
Presumed dead ("erased" per Marvel explanation)
Nick Fury
Maria Hill
Peter Parker (gah!)
Dr. Strange (gah!)
Bucky (GAH!!!)
T'Challa (gah!)
Wanda (gah!)
Thor (at least I think he was 'erased', I don't remember seeing him again after Thanos snapped his fingers, but my eyes were a little blurry by credits' end...)
Drax
Mantis
Groot
Peter Quill
Characters completely missing:
Clint Barton
Scott Lang
*Per Natasha: both took deals (think Civil War) for the sake of their families. However, as far as the film goes, their fate is unknown; though, if Ant-Man and the Wasp follows the events of IW, then we know Scott is still alive.
I was shocked, SHOCKED that Loki was killed within the first 10 minutes of the movie. I had an inkling that he might die, just based on things I'd been reading from different fans, but I at least thought they'd let him live half the movie, you know redeeming himself from previous mischief. Nope. The only consolation is that he died to save Thor. Reason 101 why I love him. Also not happy AT ALL that they killed off Bucky. We had hardly any time with him in this film, presumably when he was back to normal! What gives?! I just can't. I was so stunned by Loki's death that I had a hard time even crying. Then when other characters began disappearing after Thanos snapped his fingers, the waterworks started. Especially when Peter Parker grabbed onto Tony and said, "I don't wanna go, Mr. Stark. I'm afraid to go." Cue the hard core crying. I had fully braced myself for CA dying, since we know Chris Evans' contract is up after Avengers 4. I was not, however, prepared for the sheer number of characters who died.
One grumble I have against the film is the absence of Clint Barton (Hawkeye). I'm not sure why he wasn't in the film, I haven't heard any kind of explanation as to why. Poor Hawkeye-he always seems like an afterthought! For the negative (aside from all the dying), I didn't necessarily like how they all went separate ways and there were almost separate stories for a while. I guess with so many superheroes in one film, they had to do this for the sake of ease.
For the positive: the banter between Strange and Tony was hilarious (although I was waiting/hoping for a Sherlock reference ;) ). Obviously any scene with Peter Parker in it was funny also, he was such a good choice for Spider-Man. And that entrance by Captain America...multiple people in our theater cheered when he showed up! I've noticed that even though people know Marvel films, they tend to leave when the credits roll. Most of the theater sat through all of the credits, and didn't get up as usual, which I thought was interesting. Part of me is trying to stay hopeful-we know that in the Marvel universe, people have a hard time dying. Maybe those who were "erased" will come back at some point. One of my friends made a good point: "This is what needed to happen", says Dr. Strange before he disappears. We know Strange saw 14+ million possible futures, only one in which the Avengers beat Thanos.
Is Strange's comment a clue? Will Infinity War Part 2 bring back many of these characters (maybe similar to Coulson)? Or will more characters bite the dust in that film?
We'll find out next May!
(P.S. Make sure you sit through ALL of the credits. Captain Marvel is teased, since it's coming out in March 2019.)
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