Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Today Disney held their live action panel and showed off a ton of stuff, but we gotta talk about their big closer: a sizzle reel from Avengers: Infinity War.
The footage opened with the Guardians of the Galaxy cruising through a debris field, Quill saying they had to be careful... this was dangerous. “Let's put on our mean faces.” And then something hits their windshield. That something ends up being Thor. “Hit the wipers, hit the wipers! Get it off!” says Rocket.
He's unconscious, they bring him in and Mantis wakes him up. “Who the hell are you guys?” he asks.
The focus of the footage was showing the sense of doom as Thanos approaches. We see Loki holding the tesseract. We hear Thanos talking. “Fun isn't really something one considers when balancing the universe, but this does put a smile on my face. I know what it's like to lose, to feel so desperately that you're right, but to fail all the same.”
Thanos himself appeared, gauntlet on, walking out of some kind of black portal. I only glimpsed 2 of the stones in the gauntlet. I know for sure one of them was was purple and I think the other was blue, but don't quote me on that.
Spider-Man is well-represented in this footage. Remember all that talk about him not having Spider Sense in Homecoming? Not so much. First thing we see of Parker in this footage is him on a school bus and the hairs on his arm stand on end, his Spidey Sense tingling as a giant ship comes into our orbit.
We also saw him in action in his big Avengers suit from the end of Homecoming, but I don't know if that's going to help him much. Thanos seemed to be kicking everybody's ass, including Parker's. One of the quick shots was of Spidey with his mask off. He was holding back tears, Iron Man holding him as he says “Tony, I'm sorry.”
One of the action beats showed Peter Quill and Doctor Strange attacking Thanos at once, Quill shooting his little plasma step things and running on them. Later on we saw Quill falling in slow motion, hitting the ground. We saw Thanos straight up punching Iron Man like he was nothing and all before he even uses the power of the gauntlet for the footage's final Holy Shit moment.
This shot showed Thanos, standing tall, holding up the gauntlet, making a fist and, with a great deal of personal strength, tearing what looked like chunks of the moon behind him off and bringing them down on our heroes. The crowd went ape shit. It's a big comic book moment and done in a way that no kidding gave me goosebumps.
Now, I don't think this was Earth they were fighting on. The colors were definitely more sci-fi-y and the moon was way larger on the horizon than our own. In short, that just made everything feel even more Jack Kirby.
One other very notable thing from this footage: Captain America with a full beard stepped out of the shadows. The footage happened as Tony Stark's voice over was saying something like “We've got homefield advantage. He's coming to us, so that's what we use,” implying they might be putting aside their differences for the greater good.
Oh, I should also mention there was a kick-ass shot of Black Panther at the head of a Wakandan army, so Thanos has that to deal with, too.
Of course it's early footage. Of course it's going to be the studio's best foot forward, but I gotta tell you that as much as I was looking forward to this it seems to be even bigger than I imagined. The way the Guardians seamlessly connected to the great MCU universe and how natural Spider-Man fit in already... it just seems like it's gelling in a way that defied even my most optimistic expectations.
Thanos actually looks menacing. His powers are massive, his personality even bigger. If they get this right they'll once again make history. I can't wait to see if they stick this landing. It feels like they are.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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