Avengers: Infinity War started production recently on February 10th. This is slated to be one of the biggest movies in history, in almost every way possible. The cast is an amalgamation of characters from across the Marvel Universe, the story is the culmination of almost a decade’s worth of film, and it is only part one.
When Avengers was first announced, I was very skeptical that it would work. How would you combine characters from four different movies in a way that worked both on paper and on screen? I thought it would be a travesty and poorly conceived film form the sheer fact that no one else had ever attempted it. Obviously, Joss Whedon triumphed and cemented himself further into pop culture history.
Now, in my opinion, up until “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, the story across the Maverl Cinematic Universe had been concise. Every word seemed carefully chosen and every plotline had a clear direction. Even’s ABC’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” was carefully crafted with a plot that subtly hinted at the events seen in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, but you had to watch it binge-style to really catch everything (which is why the first season is one of my favorites in that story knew where it wanted to go).
Of course, this film had a lasting effect on the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Just like I imagine “Avengers: Infinity Wars” will.
You have distinct parts of the Marvel Universe coming together in a way that has yet to happen on film. In the television realm, we’ve gotten a glimpse of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents interacting with everything from different planets, different planes of existence, and even different species of humans. While more confined and not necessarily a heavy part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is not necessarily a new idea for that genre. But, the film has to contend with characters who can blend seamlessly in the world of comics, but not necessarily in film.
At some point, it may become necessary to suspend belief and just go with it.
Up until “Doctor Strange”, the idea of magic and mysticism was explained away in “Thor”, with magic being science that no one understood. This appeared to exclude the possible introductions of characters like Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange because their powers relied heavily on magic in a way that did not appear to mesh with the canon that the MCU was creating. Characters like Ghost Rider seemed like an impossible dream until “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D” introduced not one, but two Ghost Riders (Robbie Reyes and presumably Johnny Blaze), characters who were tied to a divine character.
But, the directors and writers for the film have shown themselves capable of handling a large amount of characters. “Captain America: Civil War” was also a huge event with several established characters, and the film, while still having a bit of plot issues, handled the inclusion of many different characters flawlessly. However, it has already been reported that there is slated to be more than fifty individual characters in “Infinity Wars”. That’s a hefty amount of characters vying for screen time, and that isn’t even including the idea that characters from the television side could potentially make an appearance, but in all honesty, it is highly unlikely that we will see them on screen, especially The Defenders. Now, with SHIELD back and public once more, it stands to reason that they could be mentioned, but will have no real effect on the story line.
As for the actual speculation on the plot of “Infinity Wars”, we already know that the big boss is Thanos, a character that has been seen on screen a handful of times, most noticeably in “Guardians of the Galaxy”. He has an obsession with Death (presumably the character) and the Infinity Stones, of which four have been seen on screen so far. The last, I believe, is going to appear in “Thor: Ragnarok”. Outside of that, the plot with also handle the fallout of the events of “Captain America: Civil War”.
Things that would be fun to see in this film is the interaction between the Guardians and pretty much everyone else. Rocket, a fan favorite character, is no doubt going to get on everyone else’s nerves in a way that makes for good cinema. This film could also introduce the “Man on the Wall” storyline that heavily futures the character of Bucky in space or at the very least, mentioning it. At the very least the reaction of both Steve and Bucky in space, characters who were born more than a century prior, would no doubt be funny.
Spiderman will also be appearing, which should come as a surprise considering the negotiating that went on for the character to appear in the MCU.
There is so much to look forward to, but with filming having only recently started, time can only tell what to expect. We still have the introduction of Captain Marvel and the Attilan Inhumans to deal with.
