MCU Commentary Rewatch: Avengers: Infinity War
(Cover art by Matt Ferguson, for the Blu Ray release. https://www.cakesandcomics.com/)
I’m not even sure I want to watch this movie.
Not just today, but ever again.
There’s a lot of good stuff in it, a bunch of great character moments for some of my absolute favorite heroes.
And then there’s the torture porn aspect of things, including the part where everything’s going great until one entitled a-hole acts like the petulant child we all know him to be, and that horrible incident where Thor’s aim is just a hair too low.
I don’t want to go. But I have to.
I’m probably going to have some feelings later.
TL:DR;
Commentary Ranking: #10 of 23
for reference
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avengers:_Infinity_War
Commentary Takeaways:
So here’s the deal. Despite its downer ending (more on that in a bit), this is a fantastic movie. Not just a (superlative) superhero story, but a well-crafted story in any genre.
Screenwriters Markus and McFeely (in their fifth MCU collaboration) had 40 years of Thanos vs Avengers stories to draw from, and managed to hit just about all of them. The Russos slipped back into the groove well, and after introductions they began laying out exactly what was happening in every shot, why, and how.
It was engaging, informative, and boring as shit. It’s the kind of thing you can stop and walk away from easily and often, and I did just that.
I think it’s a good-watch-and-listen, but it’s not mandatory in any way.
The most interesting part of the commentary was the four white dudes breaking down all the previous versions of the script, and how various characters would have made their entrances in the worst possible timeline.
The second most interesting part was them describing early test audiences for the film. January/Early February fans were dead silent during the Wakanda sections of the film, and had many questions about Black Panther (even though they in theory had seen him in CIVIL WAR). Late February test audiences were screaming in joy during every second of WAKANDA FOREVER, and brought to even lower lows by the ending of the movie.
The third most interesting part is also BLACK PANTHER-related. The Russos had no idea what was going on across town on the BLACK PANTHER set, and were shocked not only as to how well the borrowed cast worked together on INFINITY WAR, but at things like the rhythmic chants, and the aforementioned WAKANDA FOREVER!
Wakanda Forever, everyone. Unless you’re four white dudes who have no idea what’s going on in their sister movie, and completely mis-characterize and criminally misuse its characters.
There was more time spent detailing what a tragic figure Star-Lord was, and holding long focus as hundreds of heroic black men were wiped out of existence to prove a point.
But hey, that’s just me. And my ranking system, which takes into account how good you are at your job–or more specifically, how well you tell me you did at it.
Commentary Ranking
1. BLACK PANTHER
2. DOCTOR STRANGE
3. CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR
4. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER
5. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOL. 2
6. THOR: THE DARK WORLD
7. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOL. 1
8. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
9. ANT-MAN
10. AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR
11. THOR: RAGNAROK
12. AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON
13. IRON MAN 2
14. INCREDIBLE HULK
15. IRON MAN 3
16. MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS
17. IRON MAN
18.
19.
20.
21. THOR
22. SPIDER-MAN HOMECOMING
23. SPIDER-MAN FAR FROM HOME
I learned a lot about the movie from this commentary. The Directors and Writers had a lot of interesting things to say.
But I did not enjoy it, and although I personally rank the movie itself much higher, I probably should have ranked it lower here.