Avengers: Infinity War
This came out on DVD this week, so my wife finally got the chance to watch it. (She hates watching movies in theatres.) She was pretty excited about it, especially after I told her how much I enjoyed it. I thought that she’d be a fan of the humor, and already warned her about the things I thought she’d hate (the Loki/Heimdall deaths, Starlord being stupid.)
Turns out I vastly overestimated her tolerance for stupidity.
I’m prefacing this by saying that I see the merits of all her complaints. There are a ton of things that don’t make sense in this movie. But if I’m having enough fun during the viewing (as I do with this film), I’m a lot more lenient with them.
Things that ticked her off:
If Gamora knows that she’s the only way for Thanos to find the Soul Gem, why in the world did she join the other Guardians in confronting him? If she’s not in a position to be captured, there’s no need to ask Starlord to kill her.
The movie has a general tendency to opt for the easy one-liner to diffuse the tension of a situation instead of mining it for something more meaningful. Not to say that they aren’t funny, but they’re missed opportunities.
Captain America’s insistence that the Avengers not trade Vision’s life for the lives of half the universe has a certain heroic morality, right up until he sacrifices the Wakandan army to Thanos’ hordes. It’s far less noble to say, “We don’t trade lives as long as it’s something that I’m close to. Screw the faceless Wakandan redshirts.”
Where’s all the Wakandan tech in that battle? There’s not a single plane to provide air support? Did the concept of artillery never penetrate the Wakandan war doctrine?
We didn’t make it through the movie. The idiocy of the Avengers proved to be too much for her. She’s not even a little sad that Thanos won. He deserved it way more than the ‘good guy.’ That should make the Russo brothers happy - They made no effort to hide that this story was Thanos’ hero quest.
Here’s to hoping that Ant-Man and the Wasp is more to her liking.
Pride of Baghdad
Well, one way for Brian K Vaughan to get me to read a complete story by him is to make it a graphic novel. There no next issue for me to not buy. I bought this because it came in a pretty package, and I wasn’t wise to his schemes back then.
This is a gorgeous book. Niko Henrichon deserves far more work than his wikipedia indicates. His creatures clearly look like animals, but still have an anthropomorphic quality that keeps them from feeling inhuman.
The story itself, though, is very meh. Or to be more accurate, it’s very depressing, which makes it meh for me. Vaughan gives us a quartet of characters who really have no place in this world. They don’t belong as captives in a zoo. They’re too used to soft living to really roam free. They’re either too old or young to effectively hunt, and even if they could, there’s not enough in the bombed out city to survive. And finally, they’re no match for the guns of man.
By the end of the book, their deaths are purely tragic, but I’m left to wonder if their survival wouldn’t have been even more so. It’s not something that I usually look for in a comic. But credit to the creative team for putting out a beautiful piece of art.
Regret buying? No
Would buy again? No
Would read again? Yes
Rating: Nice
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