I finally saw Infinity War today and Teppy's reaction was sort of mine too

I went in totally braced for

I don't think I really liked the movie tbh, but yet I feel like I need to see it again. It was so completely different from what I was expecting that I'm not sure I took it all in. Overall, too much fighting and not enough snappy dialogue for my taste. Or what Laura said:

Also, if Laura had been in charge

"All of that for a little drop of blood" is going to be important, isn't it?

The movie never followed up on the fact

Teppy, I think that is going to be very important in the next movie, and I think he was trying to tell Tony that right before he disappeared.

"Why was she up there this whole time?"

Best line!

I saw Infinity War again last night, partly because when I saw it the first time I was loopy as hell on migraine meds. And I have to say, seeing it with a clear head, the deaths hit me a LOT harder this time. Especially Gamora and Groot (for Groot, mostly because of Rocket's reaction -- I still occasionally can't believe how the MCU got me to care so damn much about a CGI racoon).

And one thing that didn't really hit me the first time around was that all the original Avengers (except Hawkeye, since he wasn't there, duh) survived because, narratively, they had to lose. Like, I genuinely didn't understand that until I saw it again last night. (Conclusion: don't see movies when tripping balls on migraine meds.)

One thing that I think the movie hammered WAY too hard was trying to get us to sympathize with Thanos (or, at the very least, to see his pain at killing his daughter), and I am just not on board for that. And I'm trying to figure out the difference between the way Infinity War pushed me to sympathize with Thanos and the way I walked out of Black Panther thinking damn, his methods were wrong, but Killmonger had a damn point, and wow, was his arc heartbreaking. I never felt like Black Panther was pushing me to sympathize with Killmonger. It was really clear he was not a good guy, but I still had some complicated feels for the dude. I don't know if that was Ryan Coogler's intent, but it worked. And yet, I feel like the Russos pushed it too damn hard in Infinity War.

And it moved up another notch in my MCU rankings, surprisingly.

Seeing it with a clear head did make it move up in my MCU rankings, too. I actually liked it a lot, and it's in my top 10, but DAMN, is it depressing as shit. Like, when the movie was over, my audience just kind of filed out silently, except for me, because I was ranting to Tim how the movie really did Sam Wilson dirty by making him turn to mulch with no one to witness it WHAT THE FUCK MARVEL why would you do that?

Like, I genuinely didn't understand that until I saw it again last night.

Oh! Ok, yeah. Thanks for spelling that out, I was not getting there myself.

And yet, I feel like the Russos pushed it too damn hard in Infinity War.

Hmm, I disagree, and here is why! I don't think they were trying to get us to sympathize with him; I think they were trying to get us to see him and his motivations and to understand why he had them, while explicitly calling out that his myopic Malthusian views were, well, myopic. (And by explicitly, I mean, Gamora actually calls him on it and his certainty that he's right.) Thanos is the central character, but the movie never mistakes him for anything but horrible and abusive. Yeah, they show that he does love her, but they also show that love not always a positive thing and that you can love something or someone and be horrific. He's all the more horrifying to me for effectively being a cult leader with a savior complex, even adopting children in the case of Gamora and Nebula--who were ripped from their families, families he destroyed in his "righteous" quest--and claiming that he'd saved them and was the reason for any of their good qualities. (Aside: I've seen too many people No True Scotsmaning love in the wake of this movie, which frustrates the hell out of me because it does a disservice to understanding that abuse and love are not mutuall exclusive.)

I also think it works better than the comics version of killing half the universe for a crush.

Also, can I start calling the Black Order the Malthusian Manson Family? Because that would be hella funny to me.

Also, can I start calling

That is AWESOME, Plei.

It really is better on rewatch.

After seeing it four times, it ended up in my top five ever.

I read an article I really disagreed with, where the author was so angry that the movie CLEARLY expected us to sympathize with Thanos and I just didn't see it. To me, it's in "Cool motive, still murder" territory.

It definitely expected us to see his point of view and understand his motivations, but I didn't read it as expecting us to condone it. I mean, he's a zealot with a fucked up worldview that, yeah, is informed by what happened to his planet, but STILL AN ARROGANT, ABUSIVE, GENOCIDAL ZEALOT.