Yes No Maybe So: "Avengers: Infinity War"
Wednesday, November 29, 2017 at 10:42AM by Ben Miller
Oscar season is upon us and it’s easy to forget that studios also want to make billions upon billions of dollars next summer. Marvel Studios have been teasing their fans for months with the news of the debut trailer for the Marvel Cinematic Universe teamup to end all teamups, Avengers: Infinity War. Well, the hype has finally culminated to a climax as the trailer was debuted this morning. Take a look after the jump and hit our obligatory Yes, No, Maybe So...
YES
- Normal-faced Paul Bettany! Who knew he was still around? There is obviously no way it can last, but it is a nice change of pace to see a familiar face to go with that ubiquitous voice
- This is the fifth MCU appearance for Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and her fifth different hairstyle. I appreciate the willingness to change things up, especially the blonde that she is currently rocking
- Middle ground Loki is the best Loki. I have no doubt he will be trying to partner with Thanos before this film is done
- “Get this man a shield.”
- Nothing says character growth than a growth of beard to go with it. Heroic bearded Chris Evans has worked before (hello Snowpiercer)
- It looks like a bunch of fighting is happening in Wakanda. This gives me high hopes since Black Panther drops in February before we get this team up. T’Challa seems to be fighting a Xenomorph
- Vision does not seem to be having the best of time
- Thanos does have a clear purpose in this film. He has the infinity gauntlet and by the time he starts punching Iron Man, he already has two of the five
- There is an epic scope to those Wakandan battles in the plains. It also brings together Falcon and Winter Soldier, everyone’s new favorite bickering MCU couple
- That final hero shot of the jungle charge brings together quite an eclectic grouping. Captain America, Winter Soldier, Falcon, Black Panther, War Machine, Hulk, Black Widow and Danai Gurira. I love weirdly mismatched groups (I know Gurira’s character is named Okoye, but I like to imagine it’s just her charging in)
- And the final shot of the Guardians of the Galaxy as they meet Thor might make the whole thing worthwhile. Also, Groot looks like a large teenager (I need more subtle waving from Mantis)
NO
- There are A LOT of characters this film has to get together. Could be a jumbled mess
- The trailer is a little intelligence insulting since it takes 45 seconds before anything new happens. Do we need to reestablish all these characters? The MCU has been going on for almost a decade
- How many times can New York CITY be targeted? There are plenty of other cities that need destroying, but those poor New Yorkers can’t escape intergalactic devastation.
- We finally get a clear shot of Josh Brolin’s Thanos! And he looks…shitty? Like a mix between Butterbean and Grimace? This could go very wrong, very fast
MAYBE SO
- Thanks to that Vanity Fair spread, we know who all is going to be around. No sign of Ant-Man, Wasp, Hawkeye or the token Bechdel ladies
- All the teases and easter eggs pointing to infinity stones in previous MCU films all lead to this. Seems prime for a letdown
- Are they really going to keep Thor’s eye patch the whole time? I am prepared for some timeline/magic shenanigans to get his eye back
- There is so much to unravel, it feels exhausting
We have yet to see a Batman vs. Superman letdown by the MCU. Who can imagine the Russo Brothers doing it now? They have shown a penchant for practical effects over CGI, but this one looks like it could get out of control in that department. But I'm personally still optimistic. You?
is your Spidey sense tingling?
Avengers Infinity War hits May 4th, 2018. Only 156 days from now
Reader Comments (29)
Bearded Chris Evans (LET HIM BE HAIRY, MARVEL, FOR GOD'S SAKE. DC LETS HENRY CAVILL DO IT!) isn't enough to shake the feeling this is going to be a confusing mess. How can you have this many characters without many of them feeling perfunctory? How can you be building up to this over the course of years and several movies and not have it feel like a letdown?
Yes because I enjoy dumb entertainment done well.
I readily admit that i love the Avengers movies so I hope to enjoy this one as much as the other two (yes i also like Age of Ultron which is so much better than people give it credit for despite its flaws). But yes, this looks even more overstuffed than CAPT AMERICA CIVIL WAR which didn't really feel like a Captain America movie there were so many characters.
Yeah, I'm a yes. Now, 5 Plausible Wishes:
1. A Black Widow Movie by 2020.
2. Spider-Man Homecoming 2 as both A: Spider-Man vs. Kingpin AND B: An adaptation of the "gasp, I have a tape of a superhero with a secret identity changing" concept from the first five issues of Jessica Jones' first book Alias. Maybe call it Spider-Man: Alias Investigations?
3. A Marvel Netflix Hero Movie (Daredevil, Jessica Jones or Luke Cage) by...oh, let's say 2023.
4. A Robbie Reyes Ghost Rider movie, also by 2020.
5. Anthony Mackie as Captain America, not Sebastian Stan. (I LIKE angsty Bucky, but...yeah, no.)
Great superhero movies have great villains- Thanos appears to be a CGI mess? He would be better off with just Brolin playing the role sort of like Apocalypse in XMen Apocalypse.
YES, this looks like fun. Definitely overstuffed, but I love all these guys.
I miss seeing normal-faced Paul Bettany in A-list movies. Mawr, please?
I’m yes, but that’s contingent on Marvel bowing out after this film.
A shaky yes, based on Russo Bros. past triumphs. But it's a given that some of the characters will be perfunctory. I don't imagine Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch or War Machine having much to do (this goes for a few others as well). A major character (one of the three above?) biting the dust early is probably inevitable. I was pleased to see T'Challa getting a lot of trailer screen time - I'm sure as stated because of the close time frame between Black Panther and Infinity War and because Wakanda seems to be one of the two main battle fronts.
Sawyer: That's where CONTRACTS come in. RDJ as Iron Man? Probably out. Chris Evans as Captain America? Probably out. Chris Hemsworth as Thor? Contract will be complete, but it seems like he had so much fun with Taika Waititi on Ragnarok that he's doing at least one more. Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk? Safe, for at least one more. Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye? Might die in the Black Widow movie or this, but I'd lean on the former for his death scene, so he's probably safe for now. 75% likelihood to live. Elizabeth Olsen: No one knows her initial contract length. Let's call that one fifty-fifty. Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury? Eight of nine with the first Captain Marvel movie, but hasn't been confirmed yet for either, in-production, Avengers movie. If he gets confirmed for one, he dies there, but if he doesn't, he dies in the Black Widow movie. Paul Bettany: 4 films of just voice work (Iron Man 1-3 and Avengers), 3 films of just live acting (Civil War, Infinity War, Avengers 4), 1 film of both (Avengers 2). I'd say that one's also 50-50. Sebastian Stan: Four completed of nine (he signed that contract after The First Avenger) contracted after these are done. He lives. Tom Holland: Four or five of six completed between these and Homecoming 2. Lives. Chadwick Boseman: Four of five completed after these two. Lives. Don Cheadle: 50-50. If they don't kill him, he'd make a good mentor for Ty Simpkins as Iron Boy. Anthony Mackie: Safe. Probably has the same contract length as Sebastian Stan. Paul Rudd: These and Ant-Man and the Wasp would complete his five film contract but Marvel does like trilogies, so let's say he's 50-50. Tom Hiddleston: His contract's complete, so let's say 50-50. The Guardians: They're safe. Evangeline Lilly: If she's on the same contract as Rudd, she's at 3 (not in Infinity War) after Avengers 4. Safe. Ant-Man and The Wasp 2 or The Wasp, whatever it winds up as, depending on what happens to Rudd, and Avengers 5. Benedict Cumberbatch: Contract size is unknown, but he'd be at 3 or 4, depending on whether the Ragnarok role counts. Safe, if we assume 5 is the minimum. Ejiofor: Unknown, but probably just a 2 film contract. Brie Larson: At least 5, and at 2 after Avengers 4. Tessa Thompson: Also unknown, but absolutely marked for more than one.
I know this is a wall of text. Sorry.
Note: Brie Larson would be at 2 if she's even in Avengers 4, which is a stretch.
Volvagia -- there isn't ggoing to be a Black Widow movie.
nope. one day we will look back at this decade of comic book blow things up movies with the same level of embarrassment as schwarzenegger/stallone 'kill and quip' movies from the 80s - what the hell were audiences [not] thinking?
NO
Nat: Eh, honestly, five or six franchises (Captain Marvel (next is 2022), Avengers (same), Spider-Man (next is 2021), Black Panther (same), Ant-Man (same) and probably Doctor Strange (next would be 2022) are just OUT for 2020. Guardians IS getting a film, and Taika Waititi Thor is probable, but that still leaves one or two slots with nothing clearly ready on time.
2019:
March: Captain Marvel
May: Avengers 4
July: Spider-Man Homecoming 2
November: Doctor Strange 2(?)
2020:
February or March: (?)Black Widow
May: Guardians of the Galaxy 3
August: Unknown, but if there's four, I'd guess this one will either be Captain America 4 (Anthony Mackie or Sebastian Stan, pick your poison) or Iron Man 4 (Ty Simpkins), though I'd bet on the former more easily, saving the Iron Kid for 2021.
November: Taika Waititi Thor.
The amount of characters in this movie it too outrageous to work.
His spidey sense is tingling... meanwhile the giant spaceship has already seemingly long since descended onto Earth. Pretty shit spidey sense.
Eh, this whole thing just looks exhausting. So serious you'd think they were curing cancer, when really it just looks like the exact same plot all over again. Like, literally.
Does anyone know if Nick Fury will be in this?
It looks fun. Someday all you movie critics/bloggers will get over this pretension you have towards CBMs. They're not masterpieces in dialogue or storyline, sure. But nothing everything has to be.
Yeah, cause this site was super-critical of Wonder Woman, the Captain America films, Thor Ragnarok, Nolan's Batman trilogy, Logan and several other X-Men films, Raimi's Spider Mans...
This looks even more overstuffed than Capt America CIivil War which didn't really feel like a Captain America movie there were so many characters...
I was pleased to see T'Challa getting a lot of trailer screen time...
I was pleased to see T'Challa getting a lot of trailer screen time...
How can you be building up to this over the course of years and several movies and not have it feel like a letdown?
Enh. I'll see it, because all those stupid post-credit/mid-credit/whatever scenes have to lead to SOMETHING, dammit, and because it's going to dominate pop culture for the whole year, but... this looks like a mess, and not one that looks particularly fun. I'm seeing it out of obligation. I'll be very pleasantly surprised if I end up enjoying it.
He would be better off with just Brolin playing the role sort of like Apocalypse in XMen Apocalypse.
Marvel Studios just changed the Avengers Infinity War release date in the most epic fashion.
Wow. Thanks for your information. In India, there are lots of fans of Avengers and of course, Ironman.we are ready for infinity war
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