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!
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