SPOILERS - Avengers

[cilantro]

I am NOT using "magic" as shorthand for "don't explain it." I am saying that the explanations for things like cell phones would sound magical when you think about the reference points you would need to make them understandable. Cell phones use the power of lightning (electricity) to send invisible light to a tower that sends the invisible light to a machine flying above the air (the satellite) which sends the invisible light to another tower, etc.

If magic works in ways that can be analyzed, it is essentially just another set of physical laws - Arthur C. Clarke said that any science sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. I believe it was the comic Girl Genius that pointed out that any magic sufficiently explained is indistinguishable from science.

From a perspective of fictional works, magic that works in ways that can be predicted is just another form of made-up science (e.g. warp drive).

Well usually in Sci-fi (and in some fantasy) there is an explanation of how things work. All I am saying is that the whole, line of "advanced technology= magic" to primitive people does this:

A. doesn't really give us an explanation of how these things work and/or are supposed to work. Instead, it just avoids the issue entirely.

B) Makes the person saying this assuming that the person (or persons) they are telling this to won't understand the basics.

C) Since this line was uttered by Thor to Jane Foster (who is a physicist in the movie) and in my opinion, it was talking down to her.

BUT

D) Maybe the Asgards literally DID combine their magic (like literal magic) with their technology (hey it's possible in the comics and the Earth base characters have been doing it for some time. The humans have called it, "Shadow Physics" and it's basically just a combination of magic and science. Hell, T'Challa is a leading Shadow Physics scientist of this form of "science" in the comics. I think that Dr. Doom is also a leading Shadow Physics scientist as well.

[BunBun299]

So, we don't seem to be using spoiler tags in this thread, as there's a spoiler warning on the thread title, so I will discuss away.

Avengers Infinity War is my new favorite movie, a title formerly held by Captain America Civil War. I'm planning to see it again this weekend. I have only one major complaint about the movie. That was them killing off Black Panther and Spider-Man. Not because they're my favorite characters or anything, but because we know both are getting sequels. Disney isn't even trying to hide that. So killing them just says in big, neon letters that this will be undone. Now, I'm not naive. I knew this would be undone in the next movie before I even bought my ticket to see this one. But it at least would have helped the illusion that what Thanos did might last. Off topic, but I actually had similar thoughts regarding It last October. Both the book and the old TV Movie version split the story between the Losers Club as adults and as children. The new movie just had them as children, no cut aways to them as adults. So while I knew, as someone who saw the old version and read the book, that all 7 would live to the end, not seeing them as adults helped the illusion that someone might not make it through to the end. Still, in spite this, IW was still a great movie. And Thanos winning in the end was very powerful, in spite my one complaint about it.

Also, Thanos was one of the most interesting movie villains I have seen in a long time. I don't agree with what he's trying to do for a second. But I understand why he thinks this way. I can see why in his mind, he's the hero of this story. Thanos was not overhyped in the slightest.

Also, my brother showed me that link about Thanos killing/sparing you shortly after we saw the movie. My family really lucked out. We were all spared, though we know some people who were not.

[Ordo]

youtu.be/3eQP6JoxtKk

[phantom000]

I never read the comics so i have no idea how well they handled the character of Thanos. As for his motivation it is not bad I think for a one shot villain but for a recurring role? I don't know, i mean he's got what he wanted so that's basically it, right? He has no reason to do anything else and if they tried to hunt him down for revenge he could just snap his fingers and make you disappear.

I was half expecting that maybe at the end when he snaps his fingers he is shown a vision of the universe he created; a universe totally devoid of life. The idea being a universe of total balance, where nothing would be allowed to change and so everyone asked; 'what's the point?' If you can't change anything, you can't do anything, you can't achieve anything then what is the difference between you and a rock? Realizing what he has done Thanos perhaps snaps his fingers again and brings everyone back, or maybe just rips the gauntlet off and throws it into a black hole so that it can never be used again.

I guess it would be kind of anti-climatic but it would be a fitting end for Thanos. He was so certain the universe would be grateful, only to find the universe has rejected him in the end.

[cilantro]

youtu.be/3eQP6JoxtKk

Thanos wasn't right. He was wrong and his logic made him into the "Mad Titan" according to the film but to me, he came out as an unimaginative villain with little understanding on how to "fix" his problem.

[Winter]

youtu.be/3eQP6JoxtKk

Thanos wasn't right. He was wrong and his logic made him into the "Mad Titan" according to the film but to me, he came out as an unimaginative villain with little understanding on how to "fix" his problem.

That's villainy in a nutshell, unimaginative and a lack of understanding in how to fix the problem. The assumtion with just about every villain I have ever seen is, there's this one thing standing between me an peace/ultimate power and once this one thing is removed everything will always go right for me/the world forever.

[cilantro]

youtu.be/3eQP6JoxtKk

Thanos wasn't right. He was wrong and his logic made him into the "Mad Titan" according to the film but to me, he came out as an unimaginative villain with little understanding on how to "fix" his problem.

That's villainy in a nutshell, unimaginative and a lack of understanding in how to fix the problem. The assumtion with just about every villain I have ever seen is, there's this one thing standing between me an peace/ultimate power and once this one thing is removed everything will always go right for me/the world forever.

The thing is though is that Thanos is supposed to be THE villain but he comes off acting stupid. His actions really don't make any sense and also the "overpopulation" angle was never even hinted at by the larger MCU until this movie.

[bronnt]

Resurrecting this thread since I've watched the film on Netflix a couple of times recently. Just a few thoughts.

1) I'm always disappointed with Black Widow. She's always so out of place in these movies, even worse than Hawkeye in some ways. She's not a superhero, she's a superspy/assassin type, and there's never anything for her to do in her own area of expertise. The only movie that even slightly catered to her was Winter Soldier. It makes me wish she had her own feature just to see her acting in her own element. It's not exactly a criticism of this film, just the MCU in general.

2) What's great about Thanos isn't that his logic makes sense (it falls apart in a lot of ways), it's just that he believes he's right. He seems himself as the good guy doing the horrible necessary thing that's going to save civilization. Sure, he's only delayed things for the 30-40 years it will take to repopulate (in the case of humanity) but he's just a person-possessing emotions, working toward goals, an actual motivation-possessed with with the unwavering certainty that he's right. It makes him very compelling.

3) One minor complaint about a character I wanted to see get more play was Captain America. What's compelling about Captain, to me, is that he's a leader. He's the guy who's willing to bring people together no matter how far apart they are when it's time to work for a common goal. He doesn't have much to do in this movie, unfortunately, he's just another really strong guy punching things. But it's small complaint since almost everyone in the movie got their moment to show what they're really about, he just didn't get to it.

4) I loved Thor's story in this, honestly. He's had a bit of an issue in the other Avengers movies where it's always felt like he's not invested in what's going on. He's kind of separated from the other characters in previous films. But in this, Thor feels much more central to the story than most of the other heroes. He actually bookends in the story since he's both the first and last person to take a shot at Thanos.