They really hit this one out of the park. I had some concerns, the trailers made it look like a typical save-the-world storyline, and Avengers 2 was terrible. But man I was completely wrong, this was great and mostly thanks to the villain Thanos, who is one of the better movie antagonists in recent memory and probably the best MCU villain (except perhaps Killmonger). He is cunning, ruthless, and physically very powerful.
Marvel villains are usually foils to the heroes, and only exist for the hero to defeat them and learn more about himself in the process. Here, Thanos is a fully fleshed out character who experiences a range of emotions and spends a large part of the movie on his own personal odyssey. He shares surprisingly little screentime with the Avengers (he sends his minions instead) and there is little gloating, cackling or lame quips. When they do clash, they are mere obstacles to be swatted away rather than his genuine rivals.
Taking the action away from Earth and into the cosmos allowed for very imaginative and psychedelic battles. There is a battle on an alien planet that could be ripped straight from the comic books.
I had some problems with the ending and the usual Marvel humour got a little tiresome at times, but other than that this was as close to a perfect comic book movie as you will likely get.
Marvel villains are usually foils to the heroes, and only exist for the hero to defeat them and learn more about himself in the process. Here, Thanos is a fully fleshed out character who experiences a range of emotions and spends a large part of the movie on his own personal odyssey. He shares surprisingly little screentime with the Avengers (he sends his minions instead) and there is little gloating, cackling or lame quips. When they do clash, they are mere obstacles to be swatted away rather than his genuine rivals.
Taking the action away from Earth and into the cosmos allowed for very imaginative and psychedelic battles. There is a battle on an alien planet that could be ripped straight from the comic books.
I had some problems with the ending and the usual Marvel humour got a little tiresome at times, but other than that this was as close to a perfect comic book movie as you will likely get.