HYPE - Aaron Tan's Blog

༼ つ ◕◕ ༽つGIVE WAR INFINITY AVENGERS༼ つ ◕◕ ༽つ

But seriously, this movie has been 10 years in the making. I was nine when the Marvel Cinematic Universe started.

As a child, I didn’t really watch many movies, mostly because my parents didn’t feel the need to bring me to the theater and I didn’t really feel the need to complain. The only reason I went to see Marvel’s The Avengers was because the orthodontist had a promotion where tickets cost only $2.

Being a cheap Asian, of course I took the deal.

Gotta be honest, I wasn’t super impressed by the first movie. To me, not having watched any of the other Avengers movies, it seemed a very cliché. Oh so very cliché. There’s the rich dude, the morally righteous dude, the mystical dude, the angry dude, and the badass woman. Sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic, and choleric, in that order. They fight, then they team up and defeat the big baddie.

The next week, I wanted to see what everybody was raving about, so I binge-watched the rest of the MCU. That week opened my mind to how much work went into what was then one of the largest crossover events in cinema. Tony Stark, the rich dude who also struggles with alcoholism and PTSD. Steve Rogers, the skinny kid who got big is willing to sacrifice himself to save the rest of humanity. Thor, the guy who sorta has some daddy issues. All of these storylines stood well on their own, and The Avengers was much more enriched now that I understood all the characters, their motivations, and what they had gone through.

Since then, I’ve watched almost every one of the MCU movies in theaters. Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a continuation in the exploration of Bucky and Captain America’s relationship. The Guardians of the Galaxy was fresh and new, bringing the Marvel cosmic universe to the big screen. Avengers: Age of Ultron brought us Scarlet Witch and … not Quicksilver.

Even though this was all happening, one of my favourite childhood superheroes still hadn’t been integrated into the MCU. Spider-Man. I had a Spider-Man umbrella when I was four, for goodness’ sake! Sony was working away at its Spider-Man universe with Andrew Garfield, and they seemed quite popular… Then the North Korea hack hit and the world found out that Spider-Man was coming to the MCU with a reboot.

Phase three was where the smorgasbord of amazing really happened: Captain America: Civil War was everything that I had hoped and more. Spider-Man finally with the rest of the heroes. People getting hurt. Lasting consequences. Doctor Strange was formulaic but had some cool special effects. I’m still a little miffed that they white-washed The Ancient One, though. Guardians of the Galaxy, while not as good as the original, was still really great.

Then came the strongest movies, in my opinion. Spider-Man: Homecoming, a less apocalyptic and fun-filled movie. They basically got the high school experience pretty spot-on. Thor Ragnarök gave the Thor trilogy a much-needed face-lift, remaking it into a memorable, hilarious movie while introducing the Valkyrior. That Taika Waititi really knows how to work the comedy out. Black Panther was a cultural zeitgeist, and a break from other movies, featuring a wonderful all-black cast. Wakanda, the pan-africanism, the costuming and set… everything about that movie was just delicious.

And now it’s all coming together. Spider-Man’s going to meet Doctor Strange. All the Chrises will be together, finally. The Infinity Stones that were slowly introduced (and, I think, partially retconned) over the course of a decade are coming together on the gauntlet. It’s all connected.

Except for the TV shows. But nobody cares about them anyway.