4k-UHD/Movie Review: Avengers Infinity War

 

Avengers: Infinity War is the first of the epic two-movie crescendo to tie up the initial run of MCU films. The movie was directed by Joe and Anthony Russo and brings back the entire slate of MCU characters and actors, including Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johannson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Holland, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anthony Mackie, Tom Hiddleston, Don Cheadle, Chris Pratt, Sebastian Stan, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Chadwick Boseman, Jeremy Renner, Bradley Cooper, and Karen Gilian. It also, finally, sees the arrival of Josh Brolin's Thanos after multiple teases in various movies or end-credit sequences.

This, as most are aware, is the movie that the entire MCU slate of movies has been building up to. As I said above, Thanos finally arrives, making good on his threat in the post-credits scene in Age of Ultron to do things himself. It starts where the end-credits scene in Thor: Ragnarok left off, with Thanos attacking the Asgardian ship. The movie then finds a way to weave in most, but not all, of the characters from the other movies in an attempt to keep the various infinity stones away from Thanos. The "main" Avengers lineup get the most screen time, while the amount of time the other characters are in the movie varies. I won't spoil anything for those who may not know how it turns out, but it has massive repercussions for the MCU storylines going forward.

The 4k set is a two-disc set. The UHD disc has just the movie itself, which looks and sounds great, as you would expect. The extras are on a regular blu-ray, with about 30 minutes of behind-the-scenes and making-of featurettes, a gag reel, deleted scenes, and a commentary track on the movie. It is definitely one of the best movies in the group 19 or so movies in the MCU that had been released up to that point. Even if you have a bit of superhero movie burnout, it is worth checking out to see all the stories finally tied together.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

 

Guardians of the Galaxy was one of the MCU movies released in 2014. It was directed by James Gunn and starred Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillian, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, and Lee Pace. This movie could have been very good or very bad, depending on whether it was done right. Fortunately, it was, and the result was a very fun and funny action movie.
The story involves the formation of Marvel's "B Team" of heroes, or as the Honest Trailer calls them, Space Avengers. It is set in the Marvel Universe, so while superheroes exist, none of the guardians have powers. The closest is Groot, who is a 7-foot-plus tall tree-looking thing. There is some cross-over with the other films as well. Thanos, who was last seen in the end credits to Avengers, plays another background bad guy in this one, and the collector who was in Thor 2 also makes an appearance.

The main plot involves an orb that is more powerful than most know. It is, in fact, another infinity stone that can destroy almost anything (or anyone) who touches it. Chris Pratt's character, Star-Lord/Peter Quill, is a thief hired to steal the orb. This sets off a huge galactic chase leading to the end battle with Ronan the Accuser, played by Lee Pace. Quill ends up becoming the leader of the group the group of misfit heroes. What makes these characters interesting is that even the good guys are not all good. And they all have very different motives. Drax is after Ronan on a mission of revenge, Gamora (Saldana) is an assassin for Thanos wanting to get away from him, and Rocket, Groot, and Quill are basically all bounty hunters who will do almost anything for money. But what separates them from everyone else is when they need to do the right thing to save each other and stop the bad guy, they do.

Like I said in the beginning, this was totally a movie that could have bombed. Considering 2 of the main characters were totally CGI, and one was an ex-wrestler who was never known to have what passes for good acting skills even in the world of pro wrestling, it could have gone bad quickly. Luckily they wrote Drax's lines totally deadpan and made his character so monotone and serious that Bautista really did not have to do much other than be big and scary. And the animators did so well with the CGI characters that, unlike how they would have looked back at the beginning of the CGI craze, they did not look fake or out of place at all. Bradley Cooper brought great life to a wisecracking smart-a** raccoon and the animators did such a great job giving Groot a personality, it ended up being Vin Diesel's best acting performance yet despite him only repeating the same line over and over.

The Blu-Ray's A/V quality is outstanding and the movie looks and sounds great, especially if you have a big screen and even a decent sound system. I did not watch the 3D version of the movie, but the regular version was flawless (at least to someone who is not an A/V wonk). As far as extras go, they pretty well mirror what was on Thor 2 and Captain America 2 releases. There are a couple behind-the-scenes and making-of features, deleted and extended scenes, a gag reel, and a short look at the making of Avengers 2.

The movie does have a Star Wars meets Marvel Universe feel to it—or, more appropriately, a Spaceballs meets Marvel Universe feel. It is as much a comedy as it is an action/adventure movie, and both aspects work very well. If you are a fan of the other Marvel movies and are in any way on the fence about this one, I definitely think it is worth checking out.