One thing I really like: the “Thanos will return” credit at the end. That’s usually reserved for the hero of the film. “The avengers will return”, “Spiderman will return” etc. More fuel for the idea that, in Thanos’s mind, he’s the hero of the entire story.
Overall, quite pleased with the movie, although I would have liked more quips and fewer big incomprehensible fight scenes. Do we really care about zillions of faceless Wakandans vs zillions of faceless aliens?
Especially since they set that up all the way back in the stinger for The Avengers. Wasted opportunity, that.
My prediction: they fix everything at the end when Mr. “We Don’t Trade Lives (except all these other people)” gives himself up to save Iron Man for reasons. Tony finally gives in to Pepper and gives up all the Iron Men (again) and Thor finds a home for the rest of the Asgardians, leaving the superhero life for people that aren’t God-emperors.
But honestly, there were five separate times in the movie when these benevolent, un-selfish heroes could have stopped Thanos, and instead, well…didn’t. Loki says, “Screw it”, and Thanos never gets the Power Stone. Same with Gamora and the Soul Stone, and Wanda/Cap with the Mind Stone. The only one that is defensible is Strange with the Time Stone, given the obvious setup of “searching 14 million futures” for success. And had Starlord not lost his shit just as they were about to succeed, same thing. Strange portals everyone back to Earth, and Thanos gets to live out his days alone on his home planet, reminded yet again of his failure.
But this way, we get a sequel and more superhero movie mashup, so I won’t complain.
While Thanos seems like the sort of guy who enjoys a good game of “Do what I want or I’ll pop this guy’s head”, is there any reason to believe that he couldn’t have just beat the shit out of Loki and taken the stone anyway? Loki had it hidden but Thanos knew that he had it.
To be fair, there is no proof they would have succeeded in removing the gauntlet even if Starlord hadn’t lost his shit. Or that Thanos wouldn’t have gotten it back somehow. Dude’s still powerful even without the gauntlet. I’d like to think the fate of half the universe didn’t soley rest on Starlord being an idiot.
Spider-Man actually got the gauntlet off just as Thanos woke up - you could see his entire left hand. But he grabbed it and put it back on immediately. One more second and they could have at least tried to keep the gauntlet away from him. Like by Dr. Strange opening a portal for Spidey to take it back to Earth.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda. I think it is obvious that the best path was only achievable playing out exactly as it did. And I don’t think it’s a path where necessarily everyone lives.
This movie makes me wish I had seen Civil War, Ragnarok, and Black Panther. That’s simultaneously annoying and very cool.
This. Lokis options were not “let Thor die and keep the stone” or “give up the stone”. They were give up the stone and save some people or everyone dies and Thanos gets the stone anyways. At every point the heroes only move was to save who they could to fight later or to slightly inconvenience Thanos quest for the stones. Even destroying the mind stone was only a temporary setback because they couldn’t destroy the time stone. The only one who would have been more than a minor inconvenience would have been Gamora, but she found the stone so Thanos could find it eventually also.
I was responding to your claim that there was “no proof” that they could have removed the gauntlet. There was proof - the fact they actually did it.
As I follow along, I get this feeling like people are taking about Dr. Strange’s motives the same way people talk about the existence of evil.
God lets evil happen because he knows it will bring about good.
Therefore, we can’t argue about God’s reason for allowing evil.
Dr. Strange lets people die and do seemingly stupid stuff because it will bring about the defeat of Thanos.
Therefore, we can’t argue with Strange.
This is extremely simplified (seriously, the problem of evil has stymied theologians for centuries), but I get this sort of resignation about everyone’s fate. Eh, Strange thinks it’s the right thing to do… so it must be.
Thanos killed Loki after Loki ‘swore allegiance’ and then attempted to stab him in the throat. Thanos had already beaten him (and thor, and at that point, the hulk) to a bloody pulp and Loki hadn’t given it up - as the theme was, he gave it up to save Thor.
Loki’s gambit to give up the stone and then kill Thanos failed - he really is the worst.
Otherwise - you have a good question - what would have happened to the stone if Loki died before retrieving it? I assume it would have stayed where it was (pocket dimension).
Refresh my memory?
The Other: “Humans. They are not the cowering wretches we were promised. They stand. They are unruly, and therefore cannot be ruled. To challenge them is to court…Death.”
Thanos turns his head…and smiles.
From start (ship arrives in New York - Spidey, IronMan and Dr. Strange leave aboard it) - until the final snap - how many hours/days do we think passed on screen?
I know it’s night time in Scotland - but that coould be same ‘time’ as it was in new york (evening in new york , nite in scotland) and we’re definitely in day in wakanda during the big battle.
We thinking this whole war was over in the span of a few hours?
I know that ‘some time’ passed between Xander and Asgard attacks…
This gives Thanos more motivation for his goals though. I can already tell I like “Doing evil to try and save the universe” Thanos more than I would like “Trying to impress a chick in a robe” Thanos
Given that Wanda and Vision are watching news coverage of the New York attack (though likely not in real time), I assumed that the attack on them occurred very soon after the New York attack.
Nice. Wonder if at the time they intended to go with that storyline and changed mid-cycle.
Yes, I figure both ships hit opposite sides of Earth at around the same time (it would make sense to coordinate attacks). From there it’s a Quinjet flight to New York, and then over to Wakanda (where it’s now daytime). I think the whole thing went down in less than a day.
I liked how Loki referred to himself as “Odinson” right before he attacked Thanos. That was a nice little touch.