Avengers: Infinity War has made box office history by grossing 630 million in its opening weekend and will continue to fill the coffers of Disney, which is Marvel’s parent company, in the coming days. This is being termed as an unprecedented event in movie history with Marvel taking 10 years and 18 movies to build up the base for a final onslaught of superhero action. The true story of Marvel Studio’s emergence from the verge of bankruptcy in 1996 to one of the most profit making studios of this century is perhaps as fantastical as its comic book stories. Before getting into a general discussion about the movie, the comic books and the MCU it is time for a spoiler warning. This article will contain spoilers for Infinity War so anyone who has still not viewed it can stay away if they don’t want their fun spoiled.

In 1998, a financially desperate Marvel was ready to give Sony the rights for all the characters in the present day MCU for something around $25 million but Sony turned it down. According to them no other Marvel character had any value other than Spiderman. So they acquired just the rights for Spiderman from Marvel Entertainment for $10 million. It is anyone’s guess as to how the MCU would have turned up if that complete deal had taken place. It takes a lot of courage to and determination to start building something from scratch and Marvel planned out to do exactly that .Starting from Iron Man in 2008 to the present date, the company has made a massive turnaround with its movies grossing billions in total. It has even gone ahead of its competitor DC Comics; with its own pack of seemingly less popular characters moving ahead of DC heavyweights in the movie business. Using the right business acumen and great creativity, through a period of ten years Marvel patiently created an entire universe of fantastical comic book heroes who originally had limited cinematic appeal. Setting up multiple sequels and linking the story-lines to set up a bigger picture in the end, Marvel has done a phenomenal job through the years and is now reaping the due benefits.

Infinity War marks a departure from the usual mode of storytelling as it does not stand out as an independent movie. A person uninitiated to the framework of MCU can enjoy previous Marvel movies at least to some extent. But Infinity War is a movie that is not made for newcomers to the MCU. Overstaffed with characters that pop up at regular intervals, exchange some funny dialogues with each other and then venture into their own missions and action set pieces, this movie will seem rather disjointed as a standalone one. But Marvel does not mind that fact as it has painstakingly developed a fabric through the past movies and explores the design in its entirety in this movie. Those who have been with them through this process, the movie will be much more fulfilling for them in small ways and also in the larger context. So in the movie, when Thanos visits the planet Vormir with Gamora to get the Soul stone, only the ones who are familiar with Captain America: The First Avenger will be surprised by the appearance of Red Skull in that planet as a keeper of the stone. For others unaware of the background, the scene will have no special significance.

The appearance of Thanos was teased in a number of previous movies and with his first full appearance, the power hungry Titan lives up to the expectations. The directors wanted the stakes to feel real for the heroes and Thanos, in ruthless pursuit of his objectives tramples the heroes and leave some for dead. Thanos is by far the best villain  in the MCU, which always lacked in that area and Josh Brolin with his baritone does full justice to the character. In the comic series The Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos is tasked by Mistress Death to balance the population of the world. He, being in love with Death acquires the infinity stones and then snaps his fingers to wipe out half the living beings of the universe in a random order; thus exercising the power of the stones.

The movie does not take that approach and gives us no background about Thanos other than exploring his relationship with Gamora to some extent. These leaves his motivations behind the universe cleansing act somewhat underdeveloped in the movie. The brains behind the movie wanted to capture the flavor of a heist movie, as the Russo brothers said in an earlier interview. With so many heroes scattered in various locations, it is Thanos who is the anchor point of Infinity War. So the movie follows him in search of the stones from one end of the universe to another and in the end to Earth where he finally rips the Mind stone from Vision’s forehead to complete his collection. Then after a confrontation with Thor, he snaps his fingers with the same devastating effect. In the end he is shown sitting in his own cottage located in some distant planet and we can be sure that his peace will not last long.

 

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By teleratz team

 

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