So ok, apparently in another movie (and I don*t really follow the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so I draw a blank here), Thanos, an evil god-like creature, has killed off half of humankind which angers the Avengers so much that they track down Thanos and kill him, because, hey, they're not called "avenvers" for nothing I guess. Of course, killing him solves nothing. But then Ant Man (Paul Rudd), who isn't really an Avenger but somehow he is or something, has the idea of travelling back in time to keep Thanos from getting the "Infinity Stones", the things that Thanos needs to kill half of mankind, and problem solved. Great idea, only flaw is that the Avengers, led by Captain America (Chris Evans), don't have a time machine. Of course, former member Iron Man (Robert Downey jr) is clever enough to make one, but he and Captain America are not the best friends anymore, and Iron Man lives a good quiet family life right now. But ultimately, he quickly invents a time machine anyways, and that leads for Iron Man, Captain America, Ant Man, Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), Nebula (Karen Gillan),  Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) to all go back in time to certain mements from earlier movies and steal the Infinity Stones back from there (during which Scarlet Witch dies a totally underwhelming heroine's death) ... and once they're back in the now, Thanos attacks of course to get the Infinity Stones back, but somehow Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) arrives just in time to unleash all of the superheroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at Thanos and his footsoldiers, and what follows is ... well pretty much an over-extensive bar brawl at the end of which Thanos gets the glove the stones are now attached to for reasons, but then Iron Man steals the stones off the glove, snips his fingers and Thanos and his underlings all turn to dust, and Iron Man is granted his hero's death (as Robert Downey jr wanted to temporarily leave the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and then Captain America travels back to his own time for reasons (well, Chris Evans wanted to take a temporary leave from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well), but other than that all's fine and dandy again and the world is as over-crowded again as it deserves to be ...

Now sure, making just shy of $2.8 billion at the box office alone (not counting any auxiliary profits) makes this film an incrfedible success, I'm not disputing that - but the film also sends out clear signals why the Marvel Cinematic Universe would soon start to crumble, and that's for the fact that the film doesn't even try to draw in a new audience. It requires for the viewer to do one's homework first, and ... well, I haven't, so I had no emotional response to the over-peopled cast of characters whatsoever, the not one but two hero's deaths left me cold (and at least Black Widow's was actually anticlimactic), and the overflow of heroes for the finale's bar brawl was actually underwhelming, as was the brawl itself, the action never felt anything more than functional, not helped by the fact that most character cameos meant little to a casual watcher like me. The core problem here is of course that the film lives in its own world but doesn't do any world-building, as that's been done in earlier movies and as such feels alienating to all who aren't into the series as a whole. A disappointment for sure, but I do understand why it must have also been a God's gift for all fanboys and fangirls. Basically it's just a movie that wasn't made for people like me, and this is of course an approach that will eventually fall into itself - but back in 2019, this was still several years in the future.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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