By Elaine Hegwood Bowen, M.S.J., Chicago Crusader
Ok, I saw “Black Panther” and really loved it. I have also seen some of the other Marvel Comics franchise movies, although I admit that I have not seen all of them. During opening weekend, I saw “Avengers: Infinity War.” Now I know that folks have been waiting on this film, but I probably would not have gone to see it, if I hadn’t recently seen “Black Panther.” This new film in the franchise “Avengers: Infinity War” is about two and one-half hours long, and it is filled with so much action. However, I admit that I got lost trying to keep up with all the characters—so much so that I missed that Idris Elba was in the film, playing a character named Heimdall.
The gist of the movie is that all of the Marvel characters come together to save the universe from some guy. I figured out that the guy’s name is Thanos, and he’s bent on collecting the six Infinity stones so that he can rule or destroy the universe. I would think that in the other movies, each super hero works on his or her own, so this endeavor—of a united front—probably caused much reflection among each character. How can one super hero grab all the spotlight if a bunch of them are working together to save the universe?
The movie spans a few countries and we finally end up in Wakanda, which is really the part of the movie for which I waited for a while.
The characters who appeared in the film include, of course, the Black Panther, Spider Man, Thor, Thanos, the Hulk, Iron Man or Stark—I remember Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man years ago—Captain America, Racoon Rocket, M’Baku, Okoye, Shuri, Groot, Black Widow, the War Machine, Gamora, Falcon and a host of other super heroes.
The Hulk has a time at coming into himself; Gamora has a few secrets, as evidenced by her flashbacks to when she was a young girl and separated from her mother. Those scenes certainly reminded me of those depicted in films about genocide. The Black Panther, Shuri and Okoye are as cool as ever when it was their turn to assist the lot against the tyranny of Thanos. Spiderman just wants the approval of the Iron Man. Raccoon Rocket, with which I am not familiar, was just irritated that he wasn’t being recognized as the “keeper of the spaceship.” In the end, the universe is spared, or is it?
Of course, Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee does a cameo, as he did in “Black Panther,” as a school bus driver. I am sure that the sexual misconduct accusations that have been levied against him from a Chicago area woman were made after this movie had wrapped up. The film is chock full of big names, including Chadwick Boseman, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Letitia Wright, Josh Brolin, Winston Duke, Chris Pratt, Danai Gurira, Zoe Saldana, Gwyneth Paltrow, and a host of others.
Stay for the end, very end, credits. There is, of course, another Marvel Studio trailer to whet one’s appetite for the next movie. “Avengers: Infinity War” is playing everywhere and making a lot of money doing so, whether I understood everything about it or not.
