Originally, I was going to do a write-up on WWE Backlash, but I just couldn't... That show - except for that stellar opener between The Miz and current Intercontinenal Champion Seth Rollins - was a complete waste of time. I'm not going to waste my time reminding you all of how bad it was. Instead, I'm going to point out a few glaring issues that this show highlights with WWE's current product here in 2018.
The WWE Championship is still treated like a secondary/glorified mid-card title.
I wanted to kick myself in the nuts after wasting my Sunday sitting through this entire show...
I have a horrible feeling that we're less than a year away from the WWE Championship title matches opening RAW/SmackDown! shows and PPVs as the opening match or kick-off/pre-show matches like how the World Heavyweight Championship was regulated to before the end of the original brand split. Remember when Edge and Alberto Del Rio were fighting for that title on the opening match of RAW and/or WrestleMania back then?
I kid you not - I fear those dark days for that title are going to be sooner more than later. It was bad enough when Jinder Mahal held that damn thing for the better part of last year. It's a damn shame too when AJ Styles (arguably the best worker in the company along with Rollins) is busting his ass to keep it relevant, despite being in a lackluster feud with Shinsuke Nakamura. That mess though? That feud is it's own pile of crap all on it's own, not to mention the icing on this shit sundae being the double nutshot/low blow to end a damn No DQ match of all things by double count out. This whole thing would be over if both guys would actually wear a damn athletic cup for protection.
Nakamura's all smiles going along with this whole "No speaky English" bit when I'm sure Vince McMahon is foaming at the mouth to make him Kung Fu Naki 2018.
The Roman Reigns experiment has failed - on MULTIPLE levels. It's time to pack up and move on.
I wanted to choke Roman AND everyone on WWE Creative for this match running over 11PM on a Sunday night when it's not even anywhere close being a WrestleMania-caliber show.
It's been what, FOUR YEARS, since Vince McMahon tried this experiment and we're still here in 2018 with Vince McMahon forcing this narrative down our throats. Say what you will about John Cena but even his rise to fame wasn't this forced back in the day.
Roman Reigns is a solid in-ring worker, but he's definitely not the guy to be carrying the company into the future, no matter how hard Vince McMahon wants that to happen. It would be best to just regulate Reigns to some midcard feuds and out of the main event picture for a long while to get that taste of failure out of everyone's mouths - then maybe they can pull that heel turn and salvage the guy for people to give a damn but as it stands currently, it's hard to be a fan of that guy. He's definitely NOT the guy that needs to beat Lesnar. To be honest, they missed the boat to let Strowman do it a few months ago when he was at the height of his popularity and the lackluster feuds and directionless narrative for his character is only going to drag him down into the comedy route and there's little escape from that. Just ask all of those guys in The New Day or Heath Slater. When Vince has it in his head that you're going to be traveling goof then it's going to be hard to get that stink off of you unless you leave the company and comeback like Gallows (previously Festus) and Drew Galloway/McIntyre after reinventing yourself on the indies. Then again, if I were a betting man, I would bank on Bobby Lashley being the one who ends up dethroning Lesnar at Summerslam as that's the only remaining marquee match that neither of them have done that would be worth their while. It's not like WWE are at a loss of options to go with for who should be in Roman Reigns' spot as "the guy" for the company, it's just that WWE are pretty damn ignorant to crowd responses to him and definitely have blinders on when it comes to the rest of the tons of talent they have signed to contracts.
I can't speak for anyone else but it frustrates me on days end that this company has so many indie greats on payroll, yet refuses to utilize that talent properly. Everyone else can see that Roman Reigns isn't the guy so why can't WWE Creative or more importantly, Vince McMahon?
There's not a single compelling narrative for neither of the Women's Championships on either RAW or SmackDown!
Don't look at me like that Bliss. I didn't book this shit.
After her stellar debut at WrestleMania against the team of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, Ronda Rousey was nowhere to be found in action on this card. So much for that whole bit about she's "full-time" like everyone else on the roster. I would bet the farm on this that in a few months, Ronda Rousey will end up having the female equivalent of Brock Lesnar's deal in terms of limited appearances and what not.
Despite their strong debut, the IIconics have been nothing more but jobber fodder on the main roster. It was strange too - they were on the kick-off show panel briefly, but didn't interfere in Carmella's title defense against Charlotte Flair. I suppose WWE said that was too obvious to see coming that even Ray Charles saw it, so didn't opt for that finish. Regardless, anything was better than that entire match of Carmella shrieking like a banshee and holding Charlotte in rest holds for what felt like twenty minutes for the bulk of that match. I'm a fan of Carmella's gimmick/character, but much like Alexa Bliss (we're about to get to her in a minute too...), her ring work leaves a lot to be desired. I understand the argument of "Oh but heels aren't supposed to do much and just garner heat!", but heels aren't supposed to bore me to sleep either. Baron Corbin's already king of that profession if that's the case...
Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax's title match wasn't any better, following another lackluster build with Bliss continuing her "Moment of Bliss" vignettes where she cites examples of Nia's bullying while shading in a few body shaming jabs in there. Be A Star my ass... We're at this level of childish storylines even though WWE wants to continue to shove this whole "women's evolution" thing down our throats when we're still booking Attitude Era/Diva Search Era-level storylines. Stuff like this doesn't do the girls any favors and it definitely doesn't do the company any favors with promos like Nia's that were clearly forced and scripted there. If WWE keeps this up, people will start to reject this whole movement for the women and this whole thing will blow up in their faces before they could cash in on that inevitable Four Horsewomen of NXT vs. Four Horsewomen of MMA match.
There's a lot of great matches between the women on both the main roster and down on NXT, but the story behind them are either facepalm-worthy or non-existent.
The talent that should be carrying the company are littered throughout the infamous "mid-card hell" or held down underneath a glass ceiling instead of being given the ball and allowed to run with it
The reigning Intercontinental Champion, Seth Rollins, had a taste of a main event push prior to his injury, but ever since he came back he's been firing off at all cylinders. His opponent on this show - The Miz - hasn't held the WWE Championship for well over seven years. These are two Superstars who could easily carry both brands if given the opportunity. They can definitely deliver in the ring, with their match on this show being a perfect example of that.
At some point, WWE needs to just get the Universal Championship off Brock Lesnar and kick him to the curb if he's not willing to commit to semi-full schedule. Alas, we probably won't see Lesnar drop the title until after he breaks CM Punk's record as the longest reigning WWE title holder of the modern era at 434 days - which he's guaranteed to do since (as of this posting) he's not scheduled to defend the title at Money in the Bank.
I will never understand what is WWE's fixation on these "temporary band-aids" garner a boost in ratings either from part-timers coming back, a random NXT call-up or roster split trade/move, or a return from injury, then either don't do anything of value from these individuals outside of a single noteworthy match or two while their regular workhorses get the shaft. Wouldn't it make more sense to have the workhorses at the forefront and have those band-aids to complement what you already have instead of hitting the "oh shit" button whenever someone gets injured and having to play damage control on your spoiled goods - i.e. workhorses and regular full-time talent that have been damaged from poor booking and horrible gimmicks.
*** Note: This article will be updated with ongoing character reveal videos/trailers and gameplay videos as Namco Bandai releases new footage and information on the game until the release later this year in 2018. *** Soul Calibur VI is an upcoming 3D weapon-based fighting game developed by Project Soul and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It will be released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2018. According to producer Motohiro Okubo, the game is a celebration of the franchise's 20th anniversary.
Reveal/Initial Announcement Trailer
E3 Story Trailer
Libra of Soul Story Mode Trailer
Gameplay Videos
Character Reveals
Geralt of Rivia
Soul Calibur VI reveals it's guest fighter right off the bat in the form of Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher series. I'm surprised that they didn't try to get 2B or someone else from Platinum Games for this one as Bandai Namco admits that they ALMOST got Bayonetta in the last one but that proved to be a bit too technical in terms of how she was envisioned to play. Star Wars characters were in Soul Calibur IV, so I wouldn't mind seeing Travis Touchdown being in one of these games someday too.
Mitsurugi
Mitsurugi is back and young to boot. If they did another game in the current timeline, Mitsurugi would have been as old as Heihachi Mishima at this stage of the game.
Sophitia
After her absence in Soul Calibur V (being Elysium doesn't count - neither does having her moveset split between her children either), her inclusion this time around is a much welcome addition as she was the second character revealed when Bandai Namco released their initial trailer to tease this game.
Grøh
One of the only "new" original characters for this sequel who is brandishing a dual blade style. I hope this doesn't mean the newcomers like ZWEI and Viola aren't out of the picture from Soul Calibur V since that was one of the few good things about that game.
Seigfried
Seems like Siegfried went back to his roots in this trailer, even down to his appearance. Don't get me wrong, that's a good thing as long as he doesn't go back to being the whiny bitch he was in Soul Edge/Blade since this is a prequel in a sense.
Nightmare
That horse for Nightmare freakin' wicked. Loving every ounce of that here.
Kilik
I'm guessing they want Kilik to be this game's Devil Jin in a sense and play up that time period where he was possessed by Soul Edge and killed Xianglian before meeting Xianghua. The more footage that I see of him and Xianghua, I'm convinced that they are going to allow us to play through the murder of Xianglian and his short-lived corruption to Soul Edge before he was cleansed by Kali-Yuga.
Xianghua
Sheesh, Xianghua looks younger than her original Soul Calibur days.
Zasalamel
Ever since Soul Calibur V, I thought it was odd that they omitted him from the roster, given how well the character played in that game, compared to the other two newcomers - Tira and Setsuka. He had no mention at all in that game to say that he served such a pivotal role in the series to that point.
Ivy
Ivy seems to retain her voluptuousness in this game, but her new arm guard looks pretty bad ass. Ever since her transformation into a Homunculus to save her own life at the start of Soul Calibur V, I honestly don't know how old she is supposed to be anymore since she's technically immortal like her father Cervantes now. As a former Ivy main/player myself, I hope they revert her back to how she played in Soul Calibur III with a few improvements rather than how she played in Soul Calibur IV and V. Here's to me keeping my fingers crossed on that one.
Taki
Taki being able to inflict chip damage with her blades is going to be HUGE to her pressure game.
Talim
I'm surprised they haven't tried to age up Talim or something. Even Xiaoyu in Tekken is of legal age from my knowledge. Gameplay-wise, it seems like she's still got most of her old tricks, but added the wind effect/tornado attacks to spice her style up after missing like 2 of the past iterations of the game.
How about that trailer, yo? This just makes me more excited for Season 4 in June. I could rewind and dissect this thing from a hundred different angles, but for once, I'm going to wait and see - even though I've read some of the spoilers from the first set of tapings they did a few months ago.
You can see it first hand from this trailer though... Catrina is going find a new pawn to do her bidding. The gauntlet is going be still fought over, with an unlikely alliance of Aerostar, El Dragon Azteca, and King Cuerno meeting to discuss on how to deal with it. Johnny Mundo somehow gets his hands on it too. Paul London and the Rabbit Tribe go down the rabbit hole in what looks like a test of sanity. The Black Lotus Triad seems to have some in-fighting going on. Kairi Hojo (Sane in NXT) is in WWE, so I'm sure that they've found another talented joshi to replace her in that role. Some of past stars will return - Pentagon Dark, Ivelisse, Marty the Moth Martinez, Mariposa, Son of Havoc, Taya, Johnny Mundo, etc. - but they are joined by some newcomers (Tommy Dreamer, Jack Swagger, Chelsea Green, etc.) in a montage that went by so fast you'd miss 'em if you blinked.
Without spoilers, if you've read this far into the manga, you would know that this is the part of the story where there's more of a focus on humanity within the walls instead of the Titans. This creates a civil war of sorts between the government and the Survey Corps over who should "control" Historia and Eren Yeager. What brings things to a boil is that the government has their own black ops hitman squad, led by Kenny Ackerman - the very same man who raised Levi. That last name should be familiar as he's a relative to Mikasa's family lineage. I know they are going to take some liberties here on storytelling like they did in Season 2 to differentiate from the manga, so I'm anxious to see how this is going to play out as there's not much action in this story arc outside of the skirmishes between the two factions within the walls.
America, 1899. The end of the wild west era has begun as lawmen hunt down the last remaining outlaw gangs. Those who will not surrender or succumb are killed. After a robbery goes badly wrong in the western town of Blackwater, Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang are forced to flee. With federal agents and the best bounty hunters in the nation massing on their heels, the gang must rob, steal and fight their way across the rugged heartland of America in order to survive. As deepening internal divisions threaten to tear the gang apart, Arthur must make a choice between his own ideals and loyalty to the gang who raised him. From the creators of Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption, Red Dead Redemption 2 is an epic tale of life in America at the dawn of the modern age. Coming October 26, 2018 to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One systems.
To be perfectly honest, I thought the original Red Dead Redemption was one of the most overrated games of that console generation (to be fair, I've never seen the fascination with every new Grand Theft Auto release either), but as an Old West narrative it wasn't bad at all. Rockstar Games pulled influences and inspiration from several Westerns to weave that's definitely worthwhile experiencing at least once in your gaming experiences. At the end of the day, it's another open world/sandbox game from Rockstar. The Deadeye mechanic slowed down time and allowed for precision aiming on multiple targets, but I felt that GUN did that better with it's Quickdraw mechanic in that game, where you simply flicked the analog sticks while aiming to mow down multiple opposing gunmen at once. That got that "old west gunman" feel to it more than Deadeye did in terms of the gunplay, in my humble opinion. We don't get much here in terms of gameplay, but instead we're treated to what seems like tidbits from the upcoming sequel's story following the Van de Linde gang. John Marston makes an appearance in this game, clearly showing that this game will be a prequel and not a sequel. That alone makes me care even less. Jack Marston tracked down his father's killer and got revenge in a post-game quest, but I wouldn't have minded a game where we followed his exploits in his father's footsteps.
After Star Wars: The Last Jedi, I don't know if I can handle anymore of Disney/LucasFilm ruining my childhood with sequels, but if they can deliver something promising here like they did with Rogue One, then I'll give this a shot. That being said, I'm not going out of my way to see this though. The cast looks great on paper, but I don't know... Han Solo in his youth is a story I honestly have little to no interest in. Maybe if they toss in some history with the Hutts and possibly the other shady criminal underworld and bounty hunters it would peak my interest, but as it stands currently, this merely gets a "meh" from me.
Gotta be honest here, but I'm not particularly fond of how the costume looks with the CGI. This could be promising but I can already see Twitter making fun of how Sony Pictures are literally going "Let's just skip the whole bonding with Spider-Man bit first and go straight to Eddie Brock", but they can do this story where Eddie gets the symbiote first as the comics continuity recently revealed that SHIELD were keeping symbiotes "on ice" for years as they've known about them for quite some time.
It seems like forever since the original Incredibles film. I'm surprised that it took them this long to consider a sequel. Many people consider that film to be a better "Fantastic Four" film than the three attempts by FOX, in which I can see both sides of that argument to be honest. From the surface it seems like this film will be a rehash of the original, but with Mr. Incredible stuck at home with the kids while Mrs. Incredible "relives" her days of being a costumed heroine/vigilante and the kids are going through their own growing pains with their powers and being "supers" in their own way.
OK you got me off-guard on this one Capcom. I might actually cave for the bundle with the on-disk copies. DEFINITELY picking this up.
This would make streaming the older X titles MUCH easier (at least for me anyway) without having to deal with the Mega Man X Collection on PlayStation 2 and the older visual requirements for broadcasting/livestreaming.
I saw this trailer before the premiere screening for Avengers: Infinity War. I'm still not too crazy about their castings for majority of the X-Force members here, but I guess I can live with Josh Brolin juggling both roles as Thanos AND Cable this year. That dude is going to be rolling in dough from Hollywood this year for sure. I'll just have to wait and see if the other actors and actresses portraying the members of X-Force are going deliver and justify that upcoming X-Force movie spin-off.
Right now from these trailers, I have a "wait and see" attitude about how this show is going to play out. I remember reading their mini-series from 1985 when I was growing up when they were mostly fighting against drug lords, so I suppose that will work if they want to keep their end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe contained to itself from the minor ties to Roxxon. I wouldn't be surprised that these heroes have guest-starring roles on Hulu's Runaways down the road either because those teens did cross paths a few times in their comic book publication history.
The film was announced in October 2014 as Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1. The Russo brothers came on board to direct in April 2015 and by May, Markus and McFeely signed on to write the script for the film, which drew inspiration from Jim Starlin's 1991 "The Infinity Gauntlet" comic and Jonathan Hickman's 2013 "Infinity" comic. In 2016, Marvel shortened the title to Avengers: Infinity War. Filming began in January 2017 at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, and lasted until July 2017, shooting back-to-back with a direct sequel. Additional filming took place in Scotland, England, the Downtown Atlanta area, and New York City. With an estimated budget of $300–400 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made.
Having previously acquired the Power Stone from the planet Xandar, Thanos and his Children—Cull Obsidian, Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive—intercept the ship carrying the survivors of Asgard's destruction. Thor, Loki, Heimdall and Hulk are powerless to prevent them from extracting the Space Stone from the Tesseract as Thor is imprisoned, Loki is killed and Hulk is overpowered by Thanos. Heimdall sends Hulk to Earth using the Bifröst before being killed. Thanos then departs with his children and obliterates the ship.
Hulk crash-lands at the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City, reverting to Bruce Banner. He warns Stephen Strange and Wong about Thanos' plan to kill half of all life in the universe. In response, Strange recruits Tony Stark. Maw and Obsidian arrive to retrieve the Time Stone from Strange. After a battle including Peter Parker, Maw captures Strange; Stark and Parker pursue Maw's spaceship, while Banner contacts Steve Rogers.
In Scotland, Midnight and Glaive ambush Wanda Maximoff and Vision. Rogers, Natasha Romanoff and Sam Wilson rescue them, and take shelter with James Rhodes at the new Avengers facility. Vision offers to sacrifice himself by having Maximoff destroy the Mind Stone in his forehead to keep Thanos from retrieving it. Rogers suggests they travel to Wakanda, which he believes has the resources to remove the stone without destroying Vision.
The Guardians of the Galaxy respond to a distress call from the Asgardian ship and rescue Thor. He surmises Thanos seeks the Reality Stone, which is in the possession of the Collector at Knowhere. Rocket and Groot accompany Thor to Nidavellir to retrieve a weapon capable of killing Thanos. There, they and Eitri create Stormbreaker, an enchanted battle-axe. Meanwhile, Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, and Mantis find Thanos at Knowhere with the Reality Stone already in his possession. Thanos kidnaps Gamora, his adoptive daughter, who reveals the location of the Soul Stone to save her captive adoptive sister Nebula from torture. Thanos and Gamora travel to Vormir, a planet where Red Skull, keeper of the Soul Stone, informs him the stone can only be retrieved by sacrificing someone he loves. Thanos reluctantly throws Gamora to her death, granting him the Soul Stone.
Nebula escapes captivity and requests the remaining Guardians meet her on Titan, Thanos' destroyed homeworld. Stark and Parker kill Maw by ejecting him from his ship and rescue Strange. Landing at Titan, they meet Quill, Drax, and Mantis. Strange uses the Time Stone to view millions of possible futures and states there is only one in which Thanos loses. The group forms a plan to confront Thanos and remove the Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos arrives, justifying his plans to Strange as necessary to ensure the survival of a universe threatened by overpopulation. The group subdues him until Nebula deduces Thanos has killed Gamora. Enraged, Quill retaliates, breaking the group's hold on Thanos, who overpowers them. Strange surrenders the Time Stone in exchange for Thanos sparing an injured Stark, and Thanos departs for Earth.
Upon arriving in Wakanda, Rogers reunites with Bucky Barnes and The Avengers task Shuri with extracting the Mind Stone. Thanos' army invades and the Avengers mount a defense alongside King T'Challa and the Wakandan forces. Banner, unable to transform into the Hulk, fights in Stark's Hulkbuster armor. Thor, Rocket, and Groot arrive on Earth and rally the defenders. Midnight, Obsidian, and Glaive are killed and their army is routed. Thanos arrives and retrieves the Mind Stone, destroying Vision. Despite being severely wounded by Thor, Thanos activates the complete Infinity Gauntlet and teleports away.
Thanos' plan succeeds with half of all life across the universe disintegrating, including Barnes, Drax, Groot, Mantis, Maximoff, Parker, Quill, Strange, T'Challa, and Wilson. Nebula and Stark remain on Titan, while Banner, M'Baku, Okoye, Rhodes, Rocket, Rogers, Romanoff, and Thor are left on the Wakandan battlefield. Thanos, healed, arrives on another planet with the Infinity Gauntlet where he watches the sunset in satisfaction.
Right off the bat, I'm going to say that this is hands-down my favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe film to date, effectively replacing Captain America: The Winter Soldier from the top of my list.
I loved how they essentially threw the Sokovia Accords right out of the window right off the bat. We already seen them ignore it for the most part during the latter half of Captain America: Civil War and briefly in Black Panther earlier this year, so it made sense to have everyone come to their senses on that matter given the scope of what they were dealing with.
After what happened in Captain America: Civil War, I thought Rhodes would have had PTSD after crashing to what seemed like his demise while piloting the War Machine armor. Here, he jumps back into action without a second thought. We were treated to why Ant-Man and Hawkeye were absent from this ordeal - Widow simply states that they were on house arrest with their families. If I could nitpick about anything here, there wasn't enough attention given to his character arc and to what was going on with Bruce Banner/Hulk and Widow reuniting. It was just some awkward silence between those two and we moved to the next scene. I was going, "Don't you two have a LOT to talk about after what happened from the end of Age of Ultron to current?" I guess no one is going to bring up why Widow has blonde hair either. I'm still banking on that she was never Romanoff in the first place and was Yelena Belova all along,but that's a discussion for another day...
Wait, lemme go back a little bit to start of this film... It starts off with the Asgardians that escaped at the end of Thor: Ragnarok being slaughtered at the hands of Thanos and the Children of Thanos (better known as the Black Order in the comics). Thor found himself at the end of yet another beating after his own film with not even Hulk being able to hold his own against the Mad Titan. This sequence sets the tone for this film and gave us the first of multiple shocking deaths in this film, starting with Heimdall and Loki thereafter. Loki's death shocked me more than Heimdall's as I thought Hela was going to off him in the last film he appeared in and I thought Loki would have been around at least for another few Thor sequels - at least until they introduced Enchantress into this continuity. Loki gave Thanos the Tesseract (or Cosmic Cube as how some people thought it was) and Thanos crushed it to reveal the Space Stone within. I swear, if you go back and watch the original Avengers film it's confusing to keep track of all of these Infinity Stones by merely their visual colors, you would be confused. The Tesseract (Space Stone) and Stone within Loki's scepter are both blue, but we would later find out that the Stone in Loki's scepter is the Mind Stone (which is visually yellow) that resides within Vision after his creation in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
One question that's left on the table is the fate of Thor's companions and newfound friends that he made at the end of Thor: Ragnarok, including Korg, Miek, and Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie. Were they slaughtered at the hands of Thanos and his children or were they left to float among the debris within the stars like Thor was until the Guardians picked him up?
Pepper Potts had very short appearance in Spider-Man: Homecoming and her screen time here was just as brief where we found her and Stark chatting about his dream where they had children. Foreshadowing maybe? I don't know - that would be a great way of closure for both of their characters after ten years in this continuity, but I don't see Stark living through Avengers 4. Hell, he barely made it through this film. Wait, wait... I'm getting ahead of myself here.
Most of Infinity War's interactions between the Avengers and Guardians in a nutshell.
The first of many The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones moments (I know, I know.. I'm showing my age here...) occur here as Dr. Strange asks for Tony's help after Bruce Banner/Hulk was sent to Earth by the dying Heimdall to warn the Avengers of the pending threat of Thanos. Shortly thereafter, we get the first of many amazingly awesome action sequences as Dr. Strange, Wong, Ironman (who is sporting the new Bleeding Edge nanotech armor), and Spider-Man face one of the Children of Thanos, Ebony Maw. Ebony Maw seems to have telekiness/magnetic powers akin to Magneto in this iteration when he didn't have powers with his comic book counterpart. In this case, this was a welcome change as it offered a stunning visual display of his powers. Banner is forced to sit on the sidelines for this one as he is having issues transforming back into the Hulk. I'm guessing they are planning a big moment for him in Avengers 4 for when his balls drop again after getting his ass handed to him royally from Thanos when he barely had ONE Infinity Stone (ironically Power for that matter too that he took from the Nova Corps on Xandar... Too bad we couldn't see that encounter, but I guess that's what deleted scenes/DVD extras are for). Strange quickly finds himself in over his head as Maw captures him and retreats on his spacecraft. Spider-Man (now sporting the Iron Spider armor that was teased at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming) and Ironman end up as stowaways on Maw's ship. Spidey ends up showing his age with his references to the original Aliens films as their means to defeat Maw and break Strange free. The Awesome Facial Hair Bros. (so sad that joke/reference wasn't made here...) and Spider-Man collectively agreed upon taking the fight to Thanos on his home turf.
Such a hilarious opportunity was wasted here not including this moment in the film, but I'll forgive them this time...
When the Guardians opted to intercept Thanos on Knowhere before he could get the Reality Stone (aka the Aether from Thor: The Dark World) that was being held by The Collector (remember that this was left his charge after the events of that film by Lady Sif and another member of the Warriors Three), I didn't fall for it for a second that Gamora was going to be able to slay her father that easily. I think they may have fooled the casual fans with that one, but the name of the Stone gave that deception away. It was interesting to see that Thanos still has a definitive hold over her, despite her claims that she wants to slay him as much as Nebula does. I appreciated how this film expresses to how much Gamora and Quill/Starlord care for each other too, to say that it's been downplayed a little over the course of the last two Guardians of the Galaxy films. Don't get me wrong - it's there, but not overpowering the narrative so much to the point like it's Justice League and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice-level annoying with Lois Lane and Superman's relationship. That factor alone made the Guardians more than props to the plot here other than coming across as extra unnecessary baggage.
Mantis is so adorably cute that I want to give her a hug.
While we're on the subject of the Guardians in this film, I felt that they stole the show in terms of the interactions with the rest of the Avengers and various Marvel Cinematic Universe personalities. Mantis and Drax killed it the most by far and their on-screen chemistry shines as much here (if not more so) as it did back in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. That being said, I enjoyed Rocket and Groot's interactions with Thor too, but my favorite Rocket moment came from him and Bucky Barnes teaming up on the Wakandan battlefield and he asking if that gun was for sale. When that offer wasn't on the table, Rocket promised that he was going to get that arm when it was all said and done.
Whoever cast Peter Dinklage as the giant Dwarf weaponsmith Eitri needs to be credited for that stroke of genius there. People are so used to him in the "little person" roles and it was pretty awesome to see him towering over everyone else for once.
I was glad that this film wasn't entirely forcing the comedy left and right (something I didn't care for in Thor: Ragnarok TBH) and established at multiple points throughout the film that this isn't a laughing matter. At the end of the day, this is a film that establishes that all hope is lost for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it stands. Thanos made the promise that he was going to eliminate half of the universe's population and watch the next sunrise in peace, knowing that his job was done.
The title of this film may be Avengers: Infinity War, but this is essentially a Thanos origin story for the MCU, with the stars of the MCU (thus far) serving as guest stars in his rise to power and making his dreams a reality. In one fell swoop, Marvel Studios has effectively ended their so-called "villain problem" that is brought up by critics time and time again. I ask, what is there to complain about now? We've had Kilgrave earlier this year in Black Panther and now we have Thanos - with the icing on the cake that he wasn't killed off in a single film either.
I read feedback on the film and discussed it with colleagues, only to get the perception that people think that this is a "new" take on Thanos. Yes and no. It's "new" in the sense that Thanos isn't written as bland and one-dimensional as he was originally in the comics continuity where his only motivation was pleasing the living embodiment of death called Mistress Death. Y'know as one-dimensional as DC Comics' Darkseid and his obsession over the Anti-Life Equation... I'm sure we'll be hearing about that sooner more than later if the DC Extended Universe doesn't get rebooted anytime soon... FYI he was actually in one of the earlier scripts for Justice League before getting scrapped in favor of Steppenwolf. Thanos himself has evolved in a sense over his motivations throughout the last few decades of his comic book publication history, so I was delighted to see him given this amount of substance. The motivation to eliminate half of the universe's population is still there, but he still cares for his "surrogate daughters" - Gamora and Nebula - as if they were his own flesh and blood. Somehow, Gamora manages to hold the most of his affections over the rest of his children and winds up being the one he needed to sacrifice to obtain the Soul Stone. Oh the irony of that Stone's name... That revelation on what Thanos needed to express his "soul" was lost that everyone should have seen where this was going from all of the flashbacks from Thanos and Gamora's childhood. In spite of that, Gamora's death shocked me a little as I could have sworn that Zoe Saldana still had a few more appearances left in the MCU on her contract. Then again, they could hit the big reset button with the Infinity Gauntlet in Avengers 4 and undo everything so it's like whatever at this point...
Speaking of the Soul Stone, what about that Red Skull reveal as the Stonekeeper? NO ONE can say that they saw that one coming.
I was so happy to see that Marvel Studios finally acknowledged that the character still exists in their continuity, just sucks that Hugo Weaving declined on reprising the role. His loss, I suppose. That's cool that the Red Skull is on table for stuff going forward following Avengers 4 whatever the state of the MCU afterwards.
Let's talk about the Black Order, or rather the "Children of Thanos" briefly. In this film, their roster consists of Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, Corvus Glaive, and Promixa Midnight. No Supergiant and Black Swan in this iteration unfortunately. Ebony Maw was the best of the four, followed by Promixa Midnight's performance. I was expecting a little more from Obsidian and Glaive if I'm perfectly honest. Black Swan's fairly new to the comics continuity, so wasn't expecting her in this film anyway. I was a little bummed out that all of the Black Order were disposed of in one film, but it's not a problem when Thanos has the means to simply undo everything that happened to them in this film anyway with the power of all of the Infinity Stones.
That fight against Thanos on Titan though... HOLY SHIT that was awesome - like ALL of it. Find me a better fight than that out of all of the MCU to date. We were treated to the full display of what Ironman's new Bleeding Edge armor is capable of (something that I'm still mad that they didn't introduce back in Ironman 3 when they brought Extremis on the damn table...), Dr. Strange with countless decades of experience in the mystical arts thanks to his manipulation of time, along with Spider-Man, Mantis, Drax, and Starlord all running defense/support. I'm surprised I didn't throw my underwear at the screen or down the aisle of the theater and needed a cigarette after that one.
Much like Gamora and Starlord's relationship, Scarlet Witch and Vision's relationship was something that was hinted at in Captain America: Civil War, but wasn't really expanded on too much. The comic book savvy fans know that those two become an item and Wanda even somehow conceives children with him, but I know Marvel Studios aren't going to go that far this soon. I was more surprised that Captain America's team didn't have her on the frontlines during the battle at Wakanda, given that she's pretty much the most powerful Avenger they had until Thor showed back up with the Stormbreaker. A part of me was half-expecting Wanda to snap at the fact that she had to live through Vision's death not once but twice - once at her own hand from overloading and shattering the Mind Stone and the second after Thanos ripped it out of Vision's skull after rewinding time with the Time Stone mere moments after. I thought that event would have been the breaking point for her control/restraint on her powers to create a Dark Phoenix level threat to challenge Thanos' power. Alas, Wanda found herself cast aside as easily as the rest of Captain America's team at this point. I suppose that would have been jumping the gun a bit on Wanda's character arc. It took her decades of comics history to get to the point of House of M level insanity from her.
I know people are going to whine and complain that Black Panther (along with his entourage from his film, including Shuri, Okoye, M'Baku, etc.) didn't get much screen time here, but let's just remember that his film came out less than two-three months ago. He had his time to shine this earlier year, let the rest of the Avengers have this. To be honest, Black Panther didn't have much of a major role in the comics in this storyline anyway, so Marvel Studios is doing a massive favor and service to the character to have him and Wakanda itself be the focal point of the film's climax. I saw Wakanda being the same stage and setting as the Battle of Helm's Deep in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Before someone mentions it in the comments, yes, I'm aware that the Black Order attacked Wakanda in the comics before too. I will admit that I'm a little surprised at the lack of interactions for Shuri and Okoye with the rest of the Avengers, but I'll take what we got here. We got a team-up between Widow, Okoye, and Scarlet Witch against Promixa Midnight that was just every bit of awesome that I wanted out of that encounter.
When Thanos magically snapped his fingers and instantly eliminated half of the universe's population - signified by those affected dissolving like dust, Tom Holland's Spider-Man gave the performance of his MCU career thus far that just pulled at my heartstrings. Goddammit the feels in that scene between him and Tony Stark. It definitely broke Tony Stark (even though Thanos nearly did that physically after stabbing through Stark's midsection) since he had to face one of his greatest fears ever since the initial attack on New York back in the first Avengers film - the same thing that gave him PTSD in Ironman 3 and drove him to create Ultron in Age of Ultron. I swear that scene ALMOST broke me. I don't know which one was more fucked up on an emotional level - that scene with Spider-Man "dying" or watching Scarlet Witch being forced to kill the man (or rather synthezoid) that she loves by overloading his Mind Stone with her hex powers, only for Thanos to rewind time and make her experience his death all over again after he forcefully rips the Stone out of his forehead. Seeing Vision's lifeless husk/shell on the ground discarded like trash is up there with Professor Xavier's wheelchair being left on top of his grave in X-Men: The Last Stand on fucked up shit in these superhero films. At least here, I refrained from busting out laughing hysterically like I did during X-Men in the middle of the theater.
My Personal Predictions for Avengers 4/Untitled Avengers Sequel
Everything ended on a somber note with this one, so I'm positive that they are going to hit the undo button on all of the character deaths that they got away with here. Out of all of the Guardians that were spared, only Rocket and Nebula are left. I'm 110% sure that Nebula is going to be the one who fixes everything and restores it to normal, but not before she repairs the damage that Thanos did to her body (hence why she has so many cybernetic augmentations) and lands the killing blow on her "father". Gamora and Nebula have pivotal roles in this story in the comics and I doubt that Marvel Studios are going to shy too far away from that here either.
Dr. Strange definitely has an ace up his sleeve from having Tony's life spared so there's that too. Remember that Thor is the only one who has been able to deal some damage to Thanos after getting all of Stones and after the post-credits teaser, the Avengers will have another heavy-hitter in the form of Captain Marvel. Between her, Thor, and Hulk (once Banner gets his shit together), the Avengers still have a few big guns left to throw at this guy. They must have one hell of a back-up plan if Ant-Man, Hawkeye (even though he thought it was absurd for him to be on the frontlines during the finale of Age of Ultron), and Wasp weren't called in to help in Infinity War.
I expect the start of this sequel to start off surveying the damage that Thanos has reaped throughout the MCU after his actions, only to spend the bulk of the film bringing the Celestials (one of them appeared already in previous MCU films - Eson the Searcher in a brief montage during the Guardians' initial meeting with The Collector in Guardians of the Galaxy) to confront Thanos over what he has done, only for them to spite them with the Infinity Stones. The Avengers are brought in as the last line of defense as they want to pull a final Hail Mary plan for revenge for all of the lives that have been lost.
Thanos left the core founding Avengers (for the most part) still alive. That fact along with the reminders that everyone keeps pointing out that those actors/actresses are pretty much checking out as their contracts up with Marvel Studios make me think that Marvel Studios are going to kill them all off permanently, only to have the Infinity Gauntlet resurrect/rewrite their positions in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with new blood (read: new actors) as a result. I mean, c'mon... if any storyline would be the best time to bow out and/or introduce new people as replacements it would be this one.
In the original comics, Adam Warlock (FYI Kevin Feige, the Russo brothers, and James Gunn all said that he won't be used in Avengers 3 and 4 as he's being saved for Phase 4 and beyond) played a pivotal role to the final confrontation with Thanos and the fate of the Infinity Gems (now referenced as Stones in the MCU). He had a strong connection to the Soul Stone after having it embedded within his forehead and part of his body for so long. If I were to make a prediction at this stage, I feel that Vision would have a similar role in Avengers 4 with the Mind Stone and maybe somehow connect all of the minds of the people that were "killed" to fight back against Thanos from within the Infinity Gauntlet, giving the Avengers the opening they need to gain the upper hand.
Watch It or Don't Bother?
I haven't seen ANYONE mention this or bring it up but this scene from one of the last promotional trailers of the film doesn't happen at ALL in the theatrical release. The clear giveaway is that Hulk is in the background with the Wakandan warriors.
Are you insane? DEFINITELY watch this - this is the Marvel Cinematic Universe film to see this year. I'm sure everyone is going to be talking about this one until Avengers 4 drops after how the Russo brothers toyed with our emotions here from start to finish.
Captain America's first appearance in this film as he catches Promixa Midnight's spear out of the air.
When I watched this film in the theater on the premiere night (I went Thursday night as I knew I wouldn't be able to survive online Friday morning without seeing spoilers), there were THREE occasions where the audience collectively applauded. 1) When Captain America stepped out of the shadows to help Vision and Scarlet Witch deal with Promixa Midnight and Corvus Glaive. 2) When Thor came back to even the odds with the Stormbreaker during the film's climatic battle in Wakanda. Finally... 3) when the credits rolled.
It took Marvel Studios ten years to build towards this and it was definitely worth the wait.
