The Avengers: Infinity War

SPOILER ALERT!!!! IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHING INFINITY WARS TAKE A HIKE!

AFTER MUCH WAIT AND ANTICIPATION IT'S FINALLY HERE! I'm sure most of you are thrilled and with good reason. After 18 previous films creating and evolving this once small universe, this movie finally pulls everything together for an exciting story that is both what the audience expected and a triumph in originality.

If you've been on the internet or have been a long term fan of Marvel movies, comics, and such alike, then you likely suspected the huge array of deaths that ensued. It's all Tumblr could talk about for a while. I personally stayed in denial about it all until I watched it, though. Now, a lot of people are making posts about this right now, with a lot of opinions and some repetition, but I have a couple points I'd like to address.

While everything was falling apart and the many beloved characters wafted away into ash I really wanted to feel sad about, I really genuinely tried...but then, I also have been pretty much certain from the start that not a single death is permanent. Thus I had to stop from laughing when the girl in front of me audibly yelled, "NO!" at Black Panther's passing and sobbed uncontrollably when we lost sweet little Spider-Man. I feel bad about it...sort of, but here's why my heart is fine, even though I lost Loki at the very beginning which was the main thing capable of breaking my heart in this movie!

It all comes down to what Dr. Strange said on Titan. He viewed millions of futures, but only saw one where they win, so it of course makes sense that he would take action to make that future their reality. Now he never said what that future is, but obviously the one he chose required him to allow Thanos to win, to give up the Time Stone...or more importantly, make sure Tony Stark lived. Strange said from the beginning that he wouldn't risk the stone to save Tony or Peter and there was really nothing that happened in between that conversation and when Thanos attacked that would change his mind on the matter, other than a vision of the future where the sacrifice of the stone was a valuable enough trade for the salvation of their entire reality. And of course lastly, before he too drifted into dust, he reiterated that giving up the stone was, "the only way". So there is definitely a plan there and I'm sure you Marvel fans agree! Strange wouldn't have sacrificed half of the galaxy if he didn't somehow believe that his decision to save Iron-Man would somehow be rectified later on.

So yes, watching some of my favorite characters like Loki, Starlord, Black Panther, and Spider-Man die was very saddening and emotional, but my realistic mind kept me from reacting appropriately. I sure hope that poor girl feels better soon!

Secondly, my main thought coming away from Infinity War, simply...THANOS IS AN AMAZING CHARACTER! As a focal point to the whole story he was engagingly sympathetic and as a villain he is strong and formidable, a character that feels as though he SHOULD be a challenge to the heroes and not just made that way for the sake of the narrative. My very favorite scenes in the entire movie were his interactions with Gamora, the ones where you could see the perverbial "humanity" in him, see the love he had for this little creature he had raised. He wasn't a perfect father no, and I'm certainly not justifying his actions, but you could see that he didn't do anything out of loathing or an evil nature. He wanted the universe to be fixed, to know peace, to thrive, and he didn't want to rule it, he just wanted to watch the sunset in peace and know that he had completed his "good" works. He has definitely found his way into my top three favorite Marvel villains.

And his action were not without some reasoning behind them; there were indeed finite resources in this universe and with the growth and expansion of living organisms across space eventually the balance would be tipped in one way or another if nothing changed. Perhaps not for a few thousand years, what with suns dying out and planets drying up taking time, but it remains a not entirely irrelevant point. But his solutions was short term. He reduced the populations so that there would be more to go around per person...but humans and the many alien species across the galaxy have a tendency to reproduce and in a few hundred, maybe a thousand years, he's back to where he started. He put a band aid on a gunshot wound, in a sense.

I don't know what the actual solutions is for this fictional universe, but Thanos's was not the answer; nevertheless, he one 100% believed it to be. And when a villain believes they are right, morally and otherwise, it creates a good character, not just defined by the fact that he creates conflict for the heroes. I want to give an A+ to the writers and to the portrayal, because well done!