Well yeah because you have to know movies that took place before it or you wouldn’t know the characters. If the MCU ended with Infinity War there wouldn’t be any storylines or beats left unresolved though. Thanos completed the gauntlet, wiped out humanity, retired on a farm. It’s a conclusion that is only a cliffhanger because they made a sequel, but it could have easily worked, from a story standpoint, as the conclusion to the franchise as a whole. Compare that to something like Fast X or Across the Spider-Verse where the story for those films were not self contained.
The difference is, Across the Spider-Verse actually had consistently great visuals & music & general vibes, and its character with a complete arc within that half-story was actually compelling.
Yeah but we're not talking about the visuals, music or vibes lol we're discussing the story within the films and if they felt complete by the end. I felt more cathartic/satisfied with the conclusion to Infinity War than I did with Across the Spider-verse. If ATSV ended the story of Miles it would feel like someone ending a story in the middle of the book. If Infinity War wrapped up the story for Thanos and the Avengers it would have still felt complete. (Depressingly so, but still complete)
I mean, sure, if you're the sicko guy looking through the window in that meme. You do know kids literally cried, right?
Thanos’ story was complete. He completed what he set out to do and “retired” as he wished. You could argue IW was a Thanos movie far more than an Avengers movie. Within that context, it very much can stand alone and has a proper ending. Obviously, as an audience, we have seen all the movies up to that and knew more was coming. We knew Far From Home was coming the following year and such. So, I don’t think IW would have been a franchise ending that would have felt complete, I think Endgame fills that role. But Thanos’s story was so wrapped up that they had to pull a random one through time travel to be the villain in Endgame because the one we knew was executed after like 5 minutes of screen time.
The problem with looking at Infinity War as Thanos' movie is that I guarantee most of the general population was not looking at it from that perspective. So arguing whether it could stand alone from a certain point of view is, in my opinion, a waste of time. As a film about the heroes that people had been following, there's absolutely no way it could stand alone as the end of the story.
Infinity War was all about having a fun theatrical experience. The opening weekend crowds were going NUTS for that. Does not hold up well on rewatch at home at all.
The general population is generally not that insightful and I would say this thread does not fit in that group. If we can only speak to the lowest common denominator, we should probably nuke this whole forum. This is all a waste of time. Regardless of what perspective you want to speak to. None of this actually matters. What I said was less arguing than it was just talking about a perspective. I even spoke to how it is harder to view it in that way as the entire audience already knew what was coming up after that to an extent. The perspective is valid, but it does not exist solely without the larger context. They work together in different perspectives and views. I think that’s cool.
This is confusing. All we really know about Thanos is nearly exclusively in IW. Even what little we knew of him from prior was repeated in IW. And he is pretty widely claimed as a good villain. Why would this suddenly be boring? The movie hasn’t changed.
Hard disagree. I think Endgame fits that narrative better. Not to diss Endgame, I think it does hold up and works at home. But it clearly as way more crowd cheering moments than IW. And I feel they were earned as it is closing out like 20 movies of story telling. Both movies are good in different ways. But looking back, I think I give the edge to IW.
Count me in on Infinity War holding up as its own movie. For those in-universe that say Thanos was right… how the hell do they even know what his ideology was? It’s not like he went on tv and announced his plans. Only the Avengers knew. Maybe large parts of other worlds. But for Earth? Like did the president or UN or anybody even know he was coming before he showed up?