Warning: This review does contain spoilers.
The movie opens up with Thanos dragging the lifeless body Thor in front of Loki, bargaining for the magical blue Tesseract. Loki tried to trick Thanos with Hulk and to even to gain Thanos’s trust, but all that was in vain and he was brutally choked to death. With the very first scene that jolted us in immense shock and disbelief, our mouths were already hanging open in fear of what’s to come.
First of all, it was pretty evident Thanos’s philosophy was utilitarianism. He believes that, with the scarce resources on the finite planet, the only way that he could restore order and provide for the greatest good is to kill of almost half of the people in the world. His insanity leads him to believe it is a small price to pay for salvation, and that he is doing all this destruction out of mercy. Interestingly, he is not a purely evil villain, and as the plot progresses, we gradually see how his stubborn philosophy started to clash with his inner feelings when his success was within reach.
We then get to see the different Marvel heroes interact with each other in rather amusing ways in the first epic battle including Iron Man, Doctor Strange and Spider Man (Hulk was having a little trouble). It was heartening that Marvel pocketed in jokes and hilarious moments here and there midst all the violent fighting and smashing. Of course, the goofiest bunch was Star Lord and his guardians crew with the joyful and ridiculous banter until they accidently picked up Thor from outer space.
Meanwhile, Thanos and his minions have been aggressively hunting down the six stones that will make Thanos the most powerful being in the whole universe. The epic fight scenes were definitely magnificent and and powerful, giving us an inner roller coaster ride as we cheer on Captain America appearing out of nowhere to rescue Scarlet Witch, delivering a temporary win over the enemy. The beautiful army of Wakanda with T’challa (a.k.a Black Panther) right at the front and center sent us chills of excitement and awe. It was a treat to see our beloved characters joining forces to fight for humanity against chaos.
During so many interactions within the film, we get to grasp a sense of the moral values and struggles within each hero. Captain America’s motto of “we don’t trade lives” led to some tension between the Avengers and Vision. They ultimately sought help from the warriors of Wakanda, but ended up leading the final battle there to create even more destruction. Doctor Strange made it clear to Stark that his one and only goal was to protect his timestone above all human lives because the universe depends on it, but we see that his moral value was on the verge of breaking when he was forced to make an impossible decision. Thanos himself, was confronted with the difficult decision on the edge of a cliff, forcing him to sacrifice the thing that he loved the most. The wave of emotions that these decisions cause hit us right in the gut, making it difficult to dismiss it simply as entertainment.
The ending was definitely heart-breaking, with the heroes seem to be winning after every brutal round and with every glimmer of hope, but in the end they were unable to prevent Thanos from getting what he wants. Scarlet Witch was bursting in tears in the final act of desperation, but even that could be erased by a simple flick of a wrist by Thanos. Seeing all that effort put to waste was extremely baffling to the mind and to the eye.
While we often remind ourselves that shocking and devastating results are usually reversible in fantasy movies like this, it’s like having your heart ripped out as we watched the characters we’ve grown to love getting murdered or tortured brutally. Let’s hope that one of those hopeful fan theories will eventually come true in part 2.