Hello and welcome all,
It's been longer than I had initially intended between posts for this review. I'm hoping to have one per day until we are finished to make up for the delay. In this review I will start discussing some more of the spoiler topics so please if you haven't seen the movie don't let me ruin it for you.
THE MIND STONE
This one is pretty easy in my mind as to me the Russo Brothers, Christopher Markus, & Stephen McFeely best represent the elements of the Mind Stone.
I have often used the anecdote of a juggler to illustrate the hazards of telling a story each element is represented as a ball. A novice juggler can pick up 2-3 balls and keep them flowing and make a somewhat entertaining show of it. An extremely skilled juggler can do a litany of things add balls to their act and still put on a flawless performance.
This film has so many moving pieces that only the very best jugglers could handle it. That credit goes to the screenwriting team of Markus & McFeely, and to the directors who determine which pieces to give emphasis to and which to dial back on.
As I said previously the main characters in this film are so segmented & in disarray based on interpersonal relationships, ideology, and geography that it had to have been incredibly difficult to make decisions on what to emphasize, and how to make sure each moment landed.
Infinity War accomplishes many things, but the best in my mind is the very subtle ploys to keep the audience uneasy. The things we've become accustomed to to comfort we had been provided by previous Marvel movies were slowly stripped away. In many ways Infinity War is a deconstruction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It has been said in interviews that if it were up to the Russo's Infinity War wouldn't have even had a post credit stinger, because they wanted to audience to feel uneasy and unsure going forward. The tropes we have gotten used to were inverted.
Just look at Thor's journey for a crystalline example of this. We have the opening being the remainder of Asgard decimated & Thor vowing revenge. We go through his entire journey and harrowing sacrifices to bring about Stormbreaker, and when the moment comes to end it he does not make the killing blow instead wounding our Thanos in order to smugly tell him "I told you I'd kill you for that" (or something to that effect) buying the Titan enough time to snap his fingers. We are not accustomed to the good guy going through a perilous journey to no reward & ultimate failure.
Another example that comes to mind is when Spider-man is wiped from existence. The prior characters that faded away into nothingness barely received any screen time, or dialogue. It appeared for a moment that the web slinger was spared until he started talking.
The team that created this film through their writing & directing exemplify the Mind Stone in this reviewers eyes. They took a movie in this genre that could've been just another "big, dumb, loud" blockbuster & used it to add stakes to not only the next installment of the Avengers franchise, but for untold Marvel Movies to come.
That's all for today see you next time at The Comic Shop!
Monday, May 21, 2018
Friday, May 4, 2018
"Avengers: Infinity War" A Partial review: Thanos (The Power Stone)
Hello and welcome to The Comic Shop Blog!
So many things going on right now with me that I really don't want to go into detail in, but the gist that mainly applies to you dear reader is that I am rediscovering my love for a great many things. For the past couple years sitting down to have time to write and create was a luxury that I could not afford. There is nothing more important to me as a person than to be a husband and father first and unfortunately a lot of the things that were extra became burdens impossible to bear. As I said though things are changing and it looks like I will have a lot more time on my hands to do some things that I truly enjoy and that includes write this blog, create content for the FB page, and launch a podcast. Enough of this lets get on to a partial review....
I aspire for The Comic Book Shop to be unique and not like all those other "comic book sites" that use current events as a reason to produce tons of clickbait articles with banner headlines like "DID <SPOILER> REALLY <SPOILER> in the <SPOILER> with <SPOILER> in Infinity War?". I also aspire to give things due time before discussing in full. A person should not be punished for having to wait a couple days/weeks to see a movie.
That is why over the next few weeks we will collect pieces of a review like Infinity Stones little thoughts & anecdotes about individuals and events that when placed together on a web browser will become the most powerful force in the universe (unless you are running Internet Explorer).....
A decade of time & 18 movies to build up one Mad Titan. Did he live up to near impossible expectations?
Absolutely.
The Russos created a film that was bold, brave, independent, and didn't need no man (okay maybe not that last one). In doing so they put Thanos at the heart and center of it to great effect.
The way that superhero movies are now we've almost become accustomed to either 1. a listless, boring villain with no real story 2. a CGI monstrosity that could easily be replaced by a wacky-waving-arm-flailing-inflatable-tube-man or a combination of the 2.
Thanos (portrayed by Josh Brolin) breaks the mold. His motivations are easy to comprehend, he isn't a mustache twirling cornball, and ultimately he portrays a total bad ass without feeling the need to talk tough or yell. He conveys a quiet strength & calculation that inspires fear in his delivery.
Brolin's mo-cap/voice over work helps to anthropomorphize what had the potential to be another poorly conceptualized CGI blob. That's not to say that the CGI was bad though because I thought they did a wonderful job rendering the Mad Titan.
It's not an original thought to say that this was Thanos' story and that description is apt. He begins his machinations and the Avengers we've met over the past 10 years scramble like cockroaches when the lights get switched on to catch up.
It can be argued that this will be a 2 part story I have to say in my mind that this was a Thanos movie with a complete beginning, middle, and end.
Thanos best exemplifies the Power Stone because he is the force driving the story told in this film. Lets' add him to our gauntlet and get ready for the next entry.
That's all I really have for today. I apologize for the jumbled nature of my thoughts. I will be back in a few days with the Mind Stone so look out for that.
See you soon at The Comic Shop!
So many things going on right now with me that I really don't want to go into detail in, but the gist that mainly applies to you dear reader is that I am rediscovering my love for a great many things. For the past couple years sitting down to have time to write and create was a luxury that I could not afford. There is nothing more important to me as a person than to be a husband and father first and unfortunately a lot of the things that were extra became burdens impossible to bear. As I said though things are changing and it looks like I will have a lot more time on my hands to do some things that I truly enjoy and that includes write this blog, create content for the FB page, and launch a podcast. Enough of this lets get on to a partial review....
I aspire for The Comic Book Shop to be unique and not like all those other "comic book sites" that use current events as a reason to produce tons of clickbait articles with banner headlines like "DID <SPOILER> REALLY <SPOILER> in the <SPOILER> with <SPOILER> in Infinity War?". I also aspire to give things due time before discussing in full. A person should not be punished for having to wait a couple days/weeks to see a movie.
That is why over the next few weeks we will collect pieces of a review like Infinity Stones little thoughts & anecdotes about individuals and events that when placed together on a web browser will become the most powerful force in the universe (unless you are running Internet Explorer).....
A decade of time & 18 movies to build up one Mad Titan. Did he live up to near impossible expectations?
Absolutely.
The Russos created a film that was bold, brave, independent, and didn't need no man (okay maybe not that last one). In doing so they put Thanos at the heart and center of it to great effect.
The way that superhero movies are now we've almost become accustomed to either 1. a listless, boring villain with no real story 2. a CGI monstrosity that could easily be replaced by a wacky-waving-arm-flailing-inflatable-tube-man or a combination of the 2.
Thanos (portrayed by Josh Brolin) breaks the mold. His motivations are easy to comprehend, he isn't a mustache twirling cornball, and ultimately he portrays a total bad ass without feeling the need to talk tough or yell. He conveys a quiet strength & calculation that inspires fear in his delivery.
Brolin's mo-cap/voice over work helps to anthropomorphize what had the potential to be another poorly conceptualized CGI blob. That's not to say that the CGI was bad though because I thought they did a wonderful job rendering the Mad Titan.
It's not an original thought to say that this was Thanos' story and that description is apt. He begins his machinations and the Avengers we've met over the past 10 years scramble like cockroaches when the lights get switched on to catch up.
It can be argued that this will be a 2 part story I have to say in my mind that this was a Thanos movie with a complete beginning, middle, and end.
Thanos best exemplifies the Power Stone because he is the force driving the story told in this film. Lets' add him to our gauntlet and get ready for the next entry.
That's all I really have for today. I apologize for the jumbled nature of my thoughts. I will be back in a few days with the Mind Stone so look out for that.
See you soon at The Comic Shop!
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