Avengers: Infinity War is upon us

We have waited 10 years to get to this point and it looks like Marvel Studios is going to deliver their most epic movie to date. When that first trailer dropped and I heard Thanos' menacing voice I was simultaneously excited and had chills running down my spine.

"In time, you will know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you're right, yet to fail all the same. Dread it. Run from it. Destiny still arrives."
―Thanos

Marvel has just been going from strength to strength since first giving us Iron Man as an introduction to their shared universe. They have had some low points in their 17-movie run but they had a long-term vision and learned from their setbacks.

The first Iron Man movie has stood the test of time and remains a classic and many still consider it to be the best movie in the MCU. The sequel is less than memorable and then they made up for it again with a solid third installment, post-Avengers. The first Captain America was so-so and then the sequel, the Winter Soldier was so good that the directors, the Russo brothers were bumped up to direct Avengers: Infinity War. The third entry, Civil War served a bit like Avengers 2.5 movie. The first two Thor movies struggled to find their feet but with last year's Thor: Ragnarok they made a gem. The Incredible Hulk is probably their lowest point and one that I always skip when I have a Marvel marathon.

Guardians of the Galaxy came out of nowhere with James Gunn at the helm. It was another Iron Man situation with Marvel taking a risk on fairly unknown characters and making a space opera. The risk paid off because both Guardians of the Galaxy movies are a lot of fun and fan favourites. This opened the door for movies like Ant-Man and Doctor Strange. Marvel also had a big win when they managed to get the rights to Spider-Man from Sony as he is quite critical to the Infinity Gauntlet in the comics and just a great character. Black Panther deserves a post all of its own. I expected it to be good but it exceeded all expectations and is a phenomenon.

We have seen the Avengers assemble 2.5 times now and the Guardians team up twice but on April 27 we see the whole MCU come together to face the Mad Titan, Thanos! It looks like it's going to be a great day at the movies.

Throwing Our Storytelling Toys

I went to go see Captain America: The Winter Soldier some time ago and it was the best movie I saw thus far this year and that made me think about toys and storytelling. Sitting in that dark cinema watching a remarkably good comic book movie I realised that we are living in the best time in terms of seeing things that you could only imagine translated into visual stories.

Growing up reading fiction novels and comic books many people of my generation are at home living in their heads. All you needed to keep you busy for hours was a Lego set. Older generations can boast that they only needed a stick and a stone and that’s fine too. The point is that we were all happy mucking around with sticks or Lego blocks and building these vast landscapes in our minds where robots battled it out with monsters or whatever else. But then we grew up . . . We grew up and our toys were discarded and left to gather dust in a garage but we didn’t discard our imaginations.

Our movies, books, video games and even our toys are taken from the things we loved as children. Michael Bay’s Transformers movies may not have had good plots but I absolutely adore them for their visuals. Every single time I see an Autobot or Decepticon transform I smile. Those are the visuals that I had in my head as a child every time I played with a Transformers action figure or watched the cartoon. To this day I can’t get over how CGI took images I could only see in my head and plastered them onto screens. There’s a little magic about it. It’s like pizza, even if it’s bad it’s still nice to have.

Stories and how we tell them has always been very fascinating to me.  Movies are big business and Hollywood has gone back to your childhood to dig up all your old toys and is telling those stories on the big screen and it works for the most part. Marvel has successfully translated many of its comic franchises into film and they have many plans going forward. Guardians of the Galaxy is their next venture and they sure are being adventurous because the characters aren’t well known by general audiences. Marvel is good at taking their quirkier franchises and making good films though. When Iron Man came out lots of people didn’t know who he was.

DC is not having as good a time with their offerings failing more often than not but Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy sure did set the benchmark for gritty, realistic superhero movies. Everyone and their dog loves Batman but even as a kid reading the comics, watching the cartoons and playing with the action figures you know that the idea of a running around fighting crime dressed as a bat is ridiculous. Batman is probably my favourite comic book character but I’m the first to admit that he is the most ridiculous of the superheroes. You buy into though because it’s fun. Then Nolan sells it to you in a straight-up serious setting and it works. If you didn’t have a guy dressed as a bat the movies could simply be good action/thriller stories. Marvel did a great job with placing Captain America in a realistic setting in Winter Soldier as well. Take away the star spangled costume and Winter Soldier is just a really good spy flick. It’s an interesting dynamic, that, taking stories people think are for children and selling them to adults (and children still) as fun shoot-‘em-ups or taking them seriously as stories that could be entirely plausible.

Sad Batman is sad because he knows he is ridiculous.
No worries, we still love you, bro'.

It’s a great time to be alive and to see things you loved as a kid being reincarnated in ways that make you love them again or make you want to hire a squad of ninja pirates to assassinate everyone involved in ruining your favourite comic book (guys behind Green Lantern, I’m referring to you). You even get charming things like The Lego Movie! We’re throwing all our storytelling telling toys in the sandpit and having a great time playing with or just peeing on them. Life’s good.