The status quo has changed : Avengers - Infinity War | Review

The last movie to be able to make a statement this phenomenal despite its gargantuan star-cast was the Lord of The Rings: Return Of The King. And let’s be fair, they had made 2 similarly scaled films previously for swinging practice. Marvel has finally brought us to the 10-year and 19-movie milestone of the journey they started us on with Iron Man (2008) that will mark the near end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we recognize it, and helm some expansion that you will come to grasp in the post-credits scene (shuddering already?)

This is simply a review, and no plot points will be discussed. Spoiler review will come a week later! 

In a nutshell that most will obviously be well-versed with – Thanos, a megalomaniacal despot from the planet Titan is out to collect the Infinity Stones so that he can be the ultimate power in the universe and “rebalance it” as he sees fit. The Avengers, who disbanded after a Civil War between 2 factions led by Iron Man and Captain America, must join hands with Doctor Strange, Spider-man, the Wakandans, the Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor to thwart Thanos and his Dark Order’s plans and protect the Universe.

The complete Avengers roster with Thanos in the background

Talking about Infinity War is tough. THERE IS SO MUCH TO COVER! This film would make a great book, probably titled “How to make a comic-book film that is 149 minutes long, comprises over 25 superheroes, and still packs enough story to appeal to nerds and serious film-goers alike!” 

(Scratch that title. Death sentences are shorter than that title. But you get my drift.)

For this review, let's just stick to the principal new entry in this film – Thanos (played by Josh Brolin.) Marvel has always been on the receiving end of praises for the character development of its villains (for the most part.) Last evidence of that was Erik Killmonger. Strangely, I was quite skeptical originally about Thanos, based upon his trivial appearance in Guardians Of The Galaxy. But here, we get to see a seemingly grounded, complex villain who seems to be OCD about balance in everything, and does a challenging discourse about the extent of and the moral compass directing our stereotypical hero’s views about helping people and the world/universe at large. Thanos is a great matter-of-fact villain who believes more in the scale and fulfilment of his purpose than the talk and pomp and show around it (okay, maybe he’s a little pompous? I suppose that much is complimentary), compared to the previous villains like Loki and Ultron. 

The highlight of the film is the relationship between Thanos and his adoptive daughter Gamora (Zoe Saldana) the green skinned assassin and a Guardian of the Galaxy. We get a glimpse into Thanos' more human side which gives weight to emotional attachments too beside his plans of galactic destruction. 

Avengers - Infinity War isn't a perfect film, and probably not close in terms of coherence to many of its predecessors, but with a film of this scale, they manage to touchdown above and beyond expectations. The movie has quite a few plot holes and instances where things happen too fast and merely to allow plot convenience. But where this movie succeeds is the ample screen time and nearly equal share of the spotlight that it gives to nearly ALL its characters. Another thing it succeeds in an extensive lineup of neatly edited action sequences which are well-spaced out and precise in length. The faults that still remain, are fortunately not too major to effectively affect the storyline, even though they might invite some strong questions on repeat viewing. And then, there is this permanent problem that I have with Marvel regarding its persistent overinsertion of childish humour in serious transitional moments in their films, but Infinity War witnesses a polarization, with the story taking extremely emotional strides towards the continuity of its story, which might make you require a drink after. I kid you not.

VERDICT – 3  and 1/2 out of 5 toots of the Bugle 

No-can-do bruh. Sorry.

If any of you out there have been getting too used to the MCU as you know it, brace yourselves for this new big bang in the Marvel Cinematic Universe which signals a sordid turn towards the beginning of the end, and a road to new beginnings.

  

Black Panther: Marvel's most grand product or Marvel's First Sociological Thesis?

Anyone feeling a bit nostalgic for some Magneto-Xavier love? Don’t worry! Marvel comes to the rescue packaging the good old X-Men fight-between-ideals story in a more world-relevant issue and throwing in a bit of monarchy and a whole lot of Africa into the mix. And wait, there’s a bit of James Bond and the Phantom as well (those who know it will see the connection).

And really though, it’s not at all bad. It might just be better than expected.

Wakanda as shown in the film.

So Marvel’s much awaited Black Panther came out this week, with a nearly all-black cast, with the exceedingly revolutionary concept of Afro-futurism, where we get to peek into life at Wakanda, a hypothetical and fictional African nation which is way more advanced than the rest of the world that shares a common Imperialist history, due to the availability of a resource (the metal Vibranium) that allowed them to leap - technologically and societally - ahead of other civilisations by several decades. To maintain their superior status without getting involved in the world’s chaos, this nation uses special technology to hide in plain sight and disguise itself as a third-world country, disconnected from world politics since the beginning of the Time of Man.

_________________________

             ...Black Panther is a principally commercial film from the Marvel banner with cliche’ film troupes sprinkled all over it – a monarchy in trouble, a fight for the throne between warring relatives, and the entire world somehow in danger; many might even find some fleeting similarities with The Lion King in terms of the general plot movement.

But that doesn’t mean that the film doesn’t have its merits...

_________________________

The film follows straight after the events of Captain America: Civil War, with Prince T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) gearing up to take over the Wakandan throne as well as the mantle of the Black Panther, a superhuman Wakandan protector, after the death of his father King T’Chaka. In the process of apprehending an old enemy from Civil War - Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) – he comes across Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) a claimant to the throne with a radically different idea on how Wakanda should exist and what it should strive toward.

Black Panther is a principally commercial film from the Marvel banner with cliche’ film troupes sprinkled all over it – a monarchy in trouble, a fight for the throne between warring relatives, and the entire world somehow in danger; many might even find some fleeting similarities with The Lion King in terms of the general plot movement.

But that doesn’t mean that the film doesn’t have its merits.

Erik Killmonger (Right) challenges T'Challa (Left) for
the Throne of Wakanda

Unlike the typical fight-for-the-crown stories, there is no unilateral device of good v. bad in the movie, like the X-Men films. Marvel does a repetitively good job with the character development of its villains (except for a couple of 2D villains in the past (Obadiah Stane in Iron Man, that elf guy from Thor 2, Blonsky and General Ross in The Incredible Hulk)) and it shows here again with Erik Killmonger. The audience gets to sympathize with both the antagonist and the protagonist based on their respective back-stories and no character is an absolute shade of black or white. Shades of Character! CHARACTER!!

The film is not flimsy, and has it’s layers. Other than a good villain, we see the development of a king and the soon-to-be newest addition to the Avengers in their fight against Thanos in the upcoming Infinity War. The film starts with exploration into T’Challa’s relationship with his late father, the seemingly all-good, benevolent Mufasa-like king who taught his son the ropes of being a king, seemingly so benign he could be called a god, but as the film advances we see a deeper spiritual connection between father and son, through which the new king gets to learn that his seemingly great father made mistakes too, mistakes that could seemingly shatter the pedestal on which he placed his father, and mistakes through which he learns that however big or great the position of a man may be, in the end he is still a man, who must stay as close to the ground as any other. We see a mirror image of the same in Erik Killmonger who, though fighting for an arguably noble cause and possessing the elements of a far-reaching king, might not eventually possess the elements befitting a good man. Also the film reasonably answers audience’s questions regarding the source and reach of the Black Panther’s superhuman powers, which had been left unanswered in Civil War.

__________________________________                ...Marvel does a repetitively good job with the character development of its villains  and it shows here again with Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan)...

__________________________________

In Black Panther, we get to see an amazing conceptualisation of Afrofuturism and get to imagine how the African continent might have turned out as a society with a similar or greater kind of advantage over their Imperial oppressors, and we see this take effect in their clothes, architecture, symbolism and it’s anything but spectacular. We see a good connect between the design of these elements in the film and the contemporary comic book depictions, and hats off to the entirety of the film’s costume and VFX team for providing this visual feast.

Clockwise to Center - General Okoye (Danai Gurira),
M'Baku (Winston Duke), Ramonda (Angela Bassett),
Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), Shuri (Letitia Wright),
Zuri (Forest Whitaker), Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o),
W'Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya) and T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman)

Then we have the biggest thing to speak about – the all black cast! For probably the first time, we have a film that builds upon and moves forward from its roots in the ‘blaxploitation’ subgenre, showcasing a story with a total of two white characters, and an advanced, rich society where blacks are not a minority but the superior people; not the criminal on the run, but the police force chasing him, complete with their own MI5-ish intelligence organisation and cool gadgets and their own king for a James Bond; and yet succeeding as both a mainstream universally awaited comic book film - catering to the millions of Marvel fans the world over by providing a neat standalone entry into the MCU’s continuity with an extremely likeable and kickass superhero – as well as a sociological concept that sets out to tap into a completely new audience who get a major superhero/action hero that they can actually relate with, after nearly a century of filmmaking history.

Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue

Coming to the performances, before we move on to the principal cast, we must concede to the energy-ball that is Andy Serkis. Serkis in playing Ulysses Klaue provides a haunting yet comically entertaining rendition of a South African black-market arms dealer, and easily one of the most welcome performances in the film, with a neat South African accent and a dangerously eccentric personality. As for the remainder of the cast, it was a commendable performance from the entirety, especially from the principal leads i.e. Boseman, Jordan, Wright, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia (T’challa’s ex-lover and a Wakandan warrior) and Danai Gurira as Okoye (the leader of the Dora Milaje). We could have expected better from Angela Bassett who plays Ramonda, the queen-mother of Wakanda, and somehow fails to shed her American persona completely and sound more locally African like her co-stars.

VERDICT: 4 () out of 5 toots of The Bugle

Black Panther seeks to be much more than a simple cliche’d popcorn flick with an all black-cast. And despite all the familiar elements, there is eventually something new and absolutely lovely. 

P.S. - Throwback to the time we saw Black Panther first in Civil War