Thanos, musuh terkuat di 'Avengers: Infinity War.' (Dok. Marvel Entertainment via Youtube) Thanos, musuh terkuat di 'Avengers: Infinity War.' (Dok. Marvel Entertainment via Youtube)
Seluruh pahlawan super Marvel bersatu melawan Thanos. (Dok. Marvel Entertainment) Seluruh pahlawan super Marvel bersatu melawan Thanos. (Dok. Marvel Entertainment)
Jakarta, CNN Indonesia -- It's all been leading to this.Delapan belas film yang dipersiapkanselama satu dekade terakhir-mulai Iron Man pada 2008 sampai yang terbaru Black Panther-mencapai final,Film ini ditunggu-tunggu para penggemar Marvel bukan hanya karena mengumpulkan hampir seluruh pahlawan super mereka bersama. Avengers: Infinity War memang ujung dari penantian, perlawanan paling mati-matian mulai penjaga bumi, galaksi, sampai penyihir dan remaja yang disengat laba-laba, terhadap ancaman terbesar yang pernah ada pula.Lebih dari 20 karakter pahlawan ada di film ini. Mereka melawan Thanos, makhluk ungu raksasa dari Titan yang yakin bahwa satu-satunya jalan menuju surga adalah menciptakan neraka. Ia hendak melenyapkan separuh populasi semesta demi menuju keseimbangan galaksi.Caranya: infinity stones. Enam batu keabadian yang terbentuk lewat ledakan Big Bang. Space Stone, Mind Stone, Reality Stone, Power Stone, Time Stone, dan Soul Stone.Jika Thanos bisa mengumpulkan keenamnya dan meletakkan mereka di sarung tangan khusus miliknya, hanya dengan mengepalkan tangan ia bisa mewujudkan kiamat semesta.Mengenyahkan ego masing-masing, para pahlawan super bersatu melintasi batas ruang, menghadapi Thanos. Meskipun, seperti dalam trailer Infinity War, satu demi satu tumbang.Sutradara Anthony dan Joe Russo menyusun porsi peran tiap pahlawan super dengan sempurna.Mereka tak kehilangan taji dari filmnya masing-masing yang sudah berdiri sendiri sebelum infinity war meledak. Iron Man dengan segala teknologi yang dimilikinya. Doctor Strange dengan trik-trik penyihir dan permainan ruang, waktu dan pikirannya. Black Panther dengan vibranium dan pasukan Wakanda-nya. Scarlet Witch dengan lambaian tangannya. Captain America-atau kini ia lebih suka disebut Steve Rogers-dengan strategi dan komandonya.Bahkan Groot dengan sulur-sulur cabang pohonnya."Mereka akan membutuhkan semua [kekuatan] itu untuk melawan Thanos. Ini seperti membangun semesta, dan dengan caranya masing-masing setiap karakter akhirnya berkumpul bersama," ujar Joe dalam konferensi pers dengan media Indonesia melalui panggilan video.Ia dan Anthony bukan hanya membawa kekuatan para pahlawan super itu ke Avengers: Infinity War, melainkan juga detail-detail dalam tiap film yang pernah ada. Hampir setiap dialog dan adegan dalam film ini merujuk pada film Marvel Cinematic Universe yang telah tayang.Saat Bruce Banner berkata, "Kejadian di New York, itu dia [Thanos]!" misalnya, ia merujuk pada Battle of New York yang dibawa Loki dan pasukan Chitauri dan akhirnya membentuk Avengers di The Avengers (2012). Saat Peter Quill membawa tim kecilnya ke Knowhere, penonton diajak mengingat sejarahnya dengan Sang Kolektor di Guardians of the Galaxy.Tentu saja, ketika Tony Stark mengakui dirinya dan Steve Rogers sedang "tidak saling berbicara," ia mengenang pertempuran mereka di Captain America: Civil War (2016).Dengan cemerlang, Marvel seakan memang sudah mempersiapkan timeline dari film-filmnya-yang disebut sebagian orang membuat industri perfilman pahlawan super membosankan-detail demi detail, selama satu dekade terakhir. Dan sekali lagi, semuanya berujung pada pertempuran pamungkas, infinity war. Avengers: Infinity War. It's all been leading to this.Meski baru bergabung dengan keluarga besar Marvel Studios saat menggarap Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Russo bersaudara dengan apik 'merekap' 18 film dalam MCU. Mereka menyelipkan peran masing-masing pahlawan super, pertempuran di masing-masing ruang, dengan pas. Itu juga berkat racikan skenario Christopher Markus dan Stephen McFeely.'Intro' untuk memperkenalkan setiap tim pun menarik. Penonton setia film-film Marvel langsung tahu bahwa saat lagu menyentak seperti Hooked on a Feeling milik Bjorn Skifs terdengar di luar angkasa, itu pasti dari pesawat milik Guardians of the Galaxy.Mereka juga tahu saat bulu kuduk remaja laki-laki meremang di sebuah bus sekolah, itu pasti Spider-Man. Pun, saat instrumen musik Afrika terdengar sayup mengiringi perkataan Steve Rogers, "aku tahu sebuah tempat," itu pasti waktunya Black Panther dan Wakanda.Russo bersaudara juga tak menghilangkan ciri khas humor yang mendadak ada di film-film Marvel, sejak Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Ant-Man (2015), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), bahkan sampai Thor: Ragnarok (2017) yang sutradaranya berbeda-beda.Di awal film, Anthony dan Joe membuat penonton tertawa terbahak-bahak lewat dialog yang renyah, nakal dan penuh sindiran, namun tetap berbobot dengan detail sejarah MCU. Namun jangan terjebak di kembangan tawa itu terus-terusan. Mereka juga menepati 'janji,' seperti yang pernah 'dibocorkan' oleh Joe, bersiaplah untuk patah hati."Thanos adalah penjahat tak terhentikan dan dia tak terkalahkan, dia sangat pintar-levelnya genius-dan dia seperti Genghis Khan di semesta ini. Dan untuk menghentikannya, akan membuat mereka [para pahlawan super] membayar mahal," tutur Joe kala itu.Di antara emosi yang terombang-ambing karena dialog kocak dan patah hati karena kehilangan itu, penulis skenario juga memasukkan nilai-nilai yang menambah kaya film ini. Kesetiakawanan, kekeluargaan, bahkan kekompakan sesama perempuan dari perkataan Black Widow, "dia tidak sendirian" saat Scarlet Witch diserang-seperti isu #MeToo di Hollywood.Sayang, ada satu gambar yang tidak 'mulus' dan cukup mengganggu mata karena polesan efek visualnya kurang apik, yakni saat Bruce Banner di 'kostum' Hulk-nya. Namun di luar itu, efek dahsyat kekuatan pahlawan super dan pertarungan besar mereka, memanjakan mata.Mereka yang bukan penggemar Marvel dan tidak mengikuti MCU 10 tahun terakhir, sebaiknya mempersiapkan diri untuk menonton Infinity War. Bukan hanya karena ada banyak karakter yang ditampilkan sehingga mungkin akan membingungkan jika tak mengenal satu per satu.Akan ada pula banyak detail yang, seperti sudah disinggung sebelumnya, merujuk pada film-film lain di dunia sinema yang diadaptasi dari komik garapan Stan Lee dan Jack Kirby.Tenang, masih ada waktu karena Avengers: Infinity War baru tayang di bioskop Indonesia hari ini, Rabu (25/4). Seperti preseden sebelumnya, film ini masih akan bertahan lama.
VIVA – "Parah sih ini mah," seorang teman di samping saya geleng-geleng kepala sesaat, setelah post-credit scene film A vengers : Infinity War selesai diputar. Seruannya nyaris tak terdengar di antara tepuk tangan dan hingar bingar reaksi para tamu undangan yang hadir dalam acara Pers Screening Avengers: Infinity War di XXI Kota Kasablanka, Selasa malam, 24 April 2018. Avengers: Infinity War akhirnya resmi meluncur di Indonesia pada hari ini, Rabu 25 April 2018. Luar biasa, karena Indonesia menjadi satu dari sedikit negara saja yang memutar film ini dua hari lebih awal dari perilisan di mayoritas negara lainnya. Avengers: Infinity War , bahkan baru menggelar World Premiere yang dilanjutkan dengan screening terbatas di Los Angeles, pada Senin malam waktu setempat, 23 April 2018. Di sanalah, para pemain dan kru juga baru pertama kali menonton film ini.
Menjadi puncak dari timeline cerita Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) selama 10 tahun, Avengers: Infinity War benar-benar memberi suguhan yang terbaik bagi semua pecinta karakter superhero di studio ini. Avengers: Infinity War bisa dibilang memenuhi, bahkan mungkin melebihi apa yang fans Marvel harapkan. Bukan hal mudah untuk mengumpulkan puluhan superhero ke dalam satu film yang sama dengan durasi hanya 149 menit saja. Tetapi, Russo bersaudara, sang sutradara, tampaknya tak punya masalah dalam hal ini. Film berjalan dengan jahitan plot yang halus, tanpa harus menonjolkan satu superhero di antara superhero lainnya. Namun, seperti yang pernah Joe Russo katakan, ada dua karakter yang memang punya peran penting. Selain Thanos si penjahat utama, ada juga Thor. Rasanya, aman bagi saya menyebutkan superhero dari Asgard itu, sebab Russo sudah mengonfirmasinya, seperti dikutip dari Screen Rant, Maret lalu. "Aku rasa, kalian akan melihat Thor punya bagian yang sangat menarik di film ini. Dia belum pernah menjadi sentral di film-film Avengers sebelumnya, tetapi di sini, dia punya peran yang sangat penting. Jadi, aku akan bilang (yang punya jatah waktu banyak) adalah Thanos dan Thor," begitu kata Joe. Tetapi, bukan berarti yang lain tak penting. Jika Anda menontonnya nanti, mungkin setuju, karena semua orang bermain dengan porsi yang nyaris sama. Saya sendiri bingung, jika harus menyebutkan siapa superhero yang paling sedikit muncul di film ini. Itulah salah satu keunggulan MCU, dibanding para kompetitornya. Karakter masing-masing superhero berhasil dibangun kuat satu per satu selama 10 tahun. Hasilnya, ada keterikatan emosional yang sangat terasa, tak hanya di antara para karakternya, tetapi juga dengan kita, para penontonnya. Berikutnya, Thanos>>>
Avengers: Infinity War feels like a Marvel movie on bath salts. Trying to describe any part of it alone will make you sound like you’ve lost your mind; trying to describe it all kind of makes it sound like it’s lost its mind. And it’s all the more confounding for how closely it mirrors its decade of movie predecessors only to end up shattering that mirror: Infinity War moves, sounds, and acts like a typical Marvel movie, but then unmasks itself as a creature distinctly its own.
Throughout Marvel Studios’ 10-year cinematic history, we’ve seen the world saved multiple times, from threats ranging from a chunk of Earth poised to crash down and wipe us out like the dinosaurs in Avengers: Age of Ultron to the unkillable goddess of death in Thor: Ragnarok.
You don’t have to squint too hard to see that all these villains and their endgames (take control of the planet and/or the universe), as well as our heroes’ efforts to stop them, have started to look essentially the same.
“We don’t trade lives,” Captain America (Chris Evans) tells his compatriots in Avengers: Infinity War, essentially summing up Marvel’s ethos over the past 18 movies: Leave no men, women, children, or any other life form behind.
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Directed by the Russo brothers, the architects behind Captain America: Civil War and Captain America: Winter Soldier, Infinity War slyly betrays Cap, presenting his and the Avengers’ worldviews as naive and privileged. Instead, it dares to ask what happens if saving the day means taking real, tangible losses — a concept so foreign that it comes in the form of an intergalactic purple titan named Thanos (Josh Brolin).
It’s a testament to Marvel and the Russos’ daring that Thanos is actually one of the less surprising things about Infinity War. For the past six years, we’ve been told that he’s on a collision course with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, setting us up for the chaos that ensues in this long-heralded culmination. What I didn’t fully realize is just what that chaos would look like, and that Marvel had the guts to, mostly, pull it off.
Infinity War is more of a Thanos movie than an Avengers movie
The most difficult task facing Infinity War is addressing all of the characters, motivations, subplots, and relationships that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has built up over the years without making it feel like an expository avalanche careening down a mountain to bury the audience below.
For example: Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) are adopted daughters of Thanos, the villain of Infinity War and the big bad lurking in the shadows of Marvel’s movies since 2012’s Avengers. Gamora and Nebula hate each other and hate Thanos, who tortured them by pitting them against each other; he also killed the family of Gamora’s Guardians of the Galaxy teammate Drax (Dave Bautista).
Gamora, Drax, and the other Guardians aren’t technically Avengers, but that’s just because they operate in Marvel’s cosmic universe, which we found out in Thor: Ragnarok is connected to Thor’s Asgard, a recently destroyed world populated by Norse gods and goddesses.
That intricate web of characters and motivations barely scratches the surface of four of Marvel’s recent movies; there are 18 total, not including Infinity War.
The Russo brothers’ solution to this dilemma is to turn a movie nominally about the Avengers into a movie about Thanos, played by Brolin decked out in lumpy mounds of purple CGI.
The special effects needed to turn Brolin into Thanos distract in the villain’s softer moments, as when he explains how exactly he came to be the Mad Titan. We’re told that, ages ago, Thanos’s home planet was bountiful but resources were finite. To alleviate the stress on the planet, Thanos had the idea to reduce it by half, eliminating life in order to preserve it.
Not satisfied with culling his own planet, Thanos has continued on a mission to eliminate half the life in the universe, and needs the Infinity Stones to do so. And it just so happens that our Avengers are the only thing standing in his way.
Thanos’s story allows Saldana to shine, as she rounds out Gamora with more humanity and purpose than the Guardians movies have allowed her. That she’s acting opposite a computer-enhanced Brolin in a majority of her scenes is even more impressive.
But giving Thanos such an expansive history comes at a price.
Most of the Marvel superheroes appearing in Infinity War, particularly Black Panther and Captain America, are compressed, concentrated versions of themselves. T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) is given five or so lines to be majestic in his defense of Wakanda; Cap gets a few more minutes to be noble and inspiring. Spider-Man (Tom Holland) is around to remind us that he’s young.
Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) have scenes together to tell you they’re in love. Characters like Drax, Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Shuri (Letitia Wright), Okoye (Danai Gurira), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and, of course, Groot (Vin Diesel) have a few one-liners.
Instead of showing us why these characters are so beloved, the Russo brothers employ a Marvel shorthand of sorts, relying on past movies to do most of the work. And that’s not an unreasonable instinct: Captain America’s first onscreen return in Civil War is awe-inspiring in large part because he’s the Captain America who’s lived in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the past seven years.
The same kind of chills happen when the “Wakanda” theme plays in Infinity War — a testament to the power of Ryan Coogler’s massive film. For devotees of the MCU, there’s plenty to read into between the lines of Infinity War, but only if you know where to look.
Not all of the film’s heroes are underutilized, though. Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) fear of a galactic threat, established over the past few films featuring him, is fully realized in Thanos, and Downey sinks his teeth into Stark’s vulnerability and apprehension. Stark has to not only defeat this villain but also reconcile that mission with the fact that Thanos’s plan is horrifyingly adjacent to Stark’s dream of a universe so safe that Avengers are rendered obsolete.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange and Chris Hemsworth’s Thor are apt counters to Stark. Cumberbatch’s Strange is coolly stubborn, calculating in ways that Stark isn’t. And Hemsworth, after flexing his knack for comedy in 2017’s Ragnarok, taps into that same humor but laces it with jagged grief and anger informed by having seen Thanos’s wrath firsthand.
It would have been stellar to see all of Marvel’s superheroes allowed these little pockets of storytelling in between the Thanos action, but there’s already not enough room in Infinity War’s two hours and 40 minutes. I don’t envy the difficult decisions the Russos had to make about the heroes and storylines to spotlight, but I’m also not convinced that giving us a Thanos origin story and relying on that Marvel superhero shorthand to fill in the gaps was the most efficient way.
Perhaps the easiest way to reconcile this is to understand that Infinity War doesn’t want to have multiple profound heroes, but rather have one profound thing happen to all of its heroes.
Avengers: Infinity War is the most comic book movie that Marvel has ever created
The best and worst thing about Infinity War is that it’s a comic book movie.
Comic book artists aren’t bound by visual effects budgets, so they’re allowed to give us priceless imaginations on paper: new worlds on every page, mystifying beings, dazzling spacecraft, spellbinding powers, and megaton fights. Infinity War is the closest iteration of this limitless power that we’ve seen onscreen.
Midway through, I lost count of the planets and galaxies visited, each one terrifyingly beautiful in its own way. There’s a breath-stopping visit to a deserted ghost city of a planet, so evocative you can almost smell the sulfur in the air and feel the temperature drop when it comes on the screen.
And the faces of Thanos’s Black Order, his cabal of henchmen, are fearsome and distinct, offering both scintillating powers and copious nightmare fuel. Their fights with the Avengers are the film’s highlights, and a couple of them truly feel like significant threats to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
The problem with flexing this sort of expansive world building is that it requires so much jumping around the universe that the film feels like it’s spinning plates. That results in the compression I mentioned earlier, the feeling that some characters are around simply to remind you they exist. But it also, frustratingly, kneecaps what should be the MCU’s grandest fight scene, Infinity War’s invasion of Wakanda.
It’s the largest-scale onscreen fight I can recall since the Battle of Helm’s Deep in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Our heroes, in a valiant last stand, are the only thing that stands between Thanos and universal destruction. And his generals have unleashed thousands of intergalactic hounds — what look to be a cross between snapping turtles and WWE wrestlers — upon Wakanda. Cap and Black Panther teaming up to hold the line is a strange mix of joy and stress. Seeing Okoye and Black Widow’s combat expertise in tandem is breathtaking. Same with Scarlet Witch unleashing her full powers.
Unfortunately, though, because there are multiple storylines going on at one time, we jump from Wakanda to outer space and another faction of Avengers doing their part to save the universe, or get thrust into Thor’s side quest to find a weapon strong enough to kill Thanos.
It’s frustrating that it’s so difficult to fully appreciate the fantastic work that went into orchestrating these massive spectacles when we’re constantly being jostled from place to place. Midway through, all these different settings and all these jumps begin to feel exhausting.
The same thing can happen in comic books. Some story arcs are better than others. And sometimes you’ll have to read through them all — even the most boring ones — to get the full crossover experience and make sure you didn’t miss anything.
But also as in comic books, there’s one absolute bombshell of a moment that grabs you by the neck and drives you back into the story. Infinity War boasts the most breathtaking, audacious moment in superhero movie history, one that rocketed through my brain and tore apart everything I thought I knew about the past 10 years of Marvel moviemaking. For the first time in a while, I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Benedict Cumberbatch at the Avengers premiere
The latest Avengers blockbuster is getting almost as many raves as it has superheroes, with one critic calling it "a supremely entertaining showdown".
Avengers: Infinity War, writes The Guardian's reviewer, is an "utterly confident comic-book movie mash-up."
Featuring most of the characters from the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), it shows Iron Man, Black Panther et al unite against an apocalyptic threat.
Variety says the result - out in the UK on Thursday - is "bedazzling fun".
Yet its critic does suggest that having so many superheroes populate the same film "means they're all less special".
Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and the stars of Guardians of the Galaxy also feature in the two-and-a-half hour film.
Their adversary is Thanos, a computer-generated villain who seeks to collect six "infinity stones" that give their owner power over reality, time and space.
Image copyright Marvel/Disney Image caption The film sees Doctor Strange (left) have his first encounter with Tony Stark, aka Iron Man
Attendees at screenings held in central London on Wednesday were exhorted not to reveal details of the film's plot that are not already in the public domain.
"Don't spoil it for others, the same way you wouldn't want it spoiled for you," read a message written by the film's sibling directors, Anthony and Joe Russo.
Critics are largely adhering to this request, though the Daily Mirror's Chris Hunneysett gives away a few key details we won't share here.
"Fans will be dumbfounded by the direction the movie takes the Marvel Cinematic Universe," he writes in his five-star review.
Image copyright Marvel/Disney Image caption Josh Brolin plays Thanos, the film's computer-generated villain
According to Screen Daily, the film "boasts plenty of comic-book action while also making room for a darker tone and emotional resonance".
Total Film concurs, describing it as "an onslaught of action, thrills, gags and gasps" in its own five-star review.
Yet Digital Spy expresses reservations in its three-star write-up, saying "it all feels a bit rushed" and is "ultimately rather depressing".
The Telegraph's Tim Robey, meanwhile, finds fault with Josh Brolin's Thanos, suggesting he resembles an "outsize ogre-thug beamed in from World of Warcraft".
Avengers: Infinity War will be followed next April by another Avengers instalment that has yet to have an official title.
But fans will not have to wait that long for more MCU fantasy, with a second Ant-Man film due out in August and a debut outing for Captain Marvel scheduled for March.
Our verdict, by entertainment reporter Neil Smith
"Thanos demands your silence," critics were told at the packed screenings that took place on Wednesday night in London's Leicester Square.
And there will be many film lovers who will be avoiding the internet today, in case their own viewing experience is spoiled by people in the know revealing too much.
So what can we write about Avengers: Infinity War? Well, it won't ruin anything to say it's an efficient, engrossing and entertaining spectacle with some craftily sprung surprises.
Image copyright Disney/Marvel Image caption Spider-Man and the Guardians of the Galaxy also feature in the film
Its vast ensemble cast features most (if not all) of the characters we've been introduced to over the last 10 years, many of them assembled in rewarding new configurations.
Keeping so many balls in the air has ramifications for the plot, which is spread over a number of locales and is sometimes confusing.
As they did in the two Captain America films they co-directed, though, the Russo Brothers make some bold choices fans won't stay silent about for long.
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