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A Darker Avengers
There’s a chance you may already know this, but Avengers: Infinity War is coming out tomorrow. It’s only the most anticipated movie of the year. But through the roof anticipation for a movie doesn’t immediately guarantee good quality. There are some things that this movie can and should do so that it doesn’t become a disappointment. And I think Marvel has been setting itself up well for it to be good.
In my first post on this site, I talked about what it would take for this movie to be good: it needs to raise the stakes. We need to see that the Avengers are actually fighting for something – that what they do has real consequences. Because a movie without real stakes doesn’t let the viewer actually get invested in the story. The biggest way that MCU movies take away stakes is through jokes during the most important battle scenes. For example, in Civil War, we’re supposed to be worried about our heroes hurting each other. But instead they’re joking around the whole time like they’re in some X-Men style battle simulation. There are no stakes and you as a viewer are not worried about them. The same can be said about just about every action scene in Thor: Ragnarok.
Contrast that with Age of Ultron. The final battle, while against a bunch of faceless robots, scares you because of the darker tone (full disclosure, though: I haven’t seen Ultron in a while, so I could be wrong about this. But from what I remember, it was fairly serious during that time). And this is the battle that resulted in the death of Quicksilver – the one hero death, until Yondu, in the MCU that actually lasted.
Interestingly, Marvel has been leaving us visual hints about how the tone of each subsequent Avengers is getting darker. Take a look at this screenshot from the first Avengers movie.
This shot has become an iconic film moment. The entire team is finally together during the Battle of New York and the shot goes around our team of heroes while their heroic theme plays in the background. In this shot, the colors are very vibrant and bright. With Captain America’s crisp red, white, and blue suit being the main focus of the shot, we get a sense of hope. We feel like the Avengers are going to win this battle without a problem. Because after all, this is only their first film. We expect them to take care of business without a problem. And that’s what they do. The visuals and the score tell us everything is going to be okay.
But now look at this next shot from Ultron.
This is the next time we see a cool team shot of the Avengers during one of their movies. But notice the difference in this one from the first shot. The Avengers are dirty and the colors are duller. Captain America’s once standout outfit now has a darker blue and red, is relegated to the back of the shot, and is without a mask. Their expressions also don’t exude the same confidence that they did in the first one. They’re not sure what’s coming here. And this is indicative of what’s coming in the battle scene. The beginning of the battle actually has no music. The Ultronbots are even getting to the Avengers and causing them some problems. A heroic theme is played, but it’s not the same as the one from the first film. That one is only played hurriedly, before more trouble comes to the team. And then, of course, Quicksilver dies a little while later. The visuals and audio are again telling us something: that the Avengers aren’t as invincible as they may have once seemed.
Now take a look at this shot from the first Infinity War trailer.
It’s a dark shot. Yes, it’s daytime in it, but all of the colors seem muted. The heroes’ suits are even all dark – except for Okoye from Black Panther. And she kind of oddly sticks out from the rest of the shot. Captain America looks older, worn, and weathered, too. He's even without his trademark shield. Now, I can’t talk about what the music is like in this scene, obviously, because it’s a trailer. But I think this trailer is trying to show us this movie is going to be a lot darker than the first two. And I think that it will be. It’s time.
Marvel has been putting out good movies with good stories consistently for ten years now. They’re ready to step up to the plate and do something bold.