Personally, I think the change in motivation was necessary, as what works in a comic often doesn't work in a film. It would be hard to see Thanos as a formidable foe if his motivation were an inability to woo a girl. Unrequited love plays well in some instances, but not in the "big bad" a team of superheroes battle, so I"m glad they left Young Werther Thanos in the comics. On top of that, the film gives us a very nuanced Thanos, and one it is hard to side against at times, much like Killmonger in the Black Panther film. It's hard to view Infinity War as anything other than the story of Thanos' heroic quest to do what he considers the right thing, and while it's misguided to most of us, there is a logic to it. Meanwhile, how pathetic would he seem if his only goal was to "kill lots of people to impress a girl who keeps saying "no" every time I ask her out?"
Reality Stone-- hard to know what it can or cannot do, but my impression is that it gives its user the ability to manipulate what he, and those around him, believe to be real. I did not see evidence that it could make any permanent alterations to reality. Its effects seem akin to hypnosis. Note that once Thanos, and the Stone, left Knowhere, Drax and Mantis returned to their normal state. The implication was that they'd been "normal" all along, but the illusion lasted as long as the Stone kept it in place. Starlord's gun fired normally after that, implying that he had only believed he'd fired bubbles from it. The most convincing evidence for this was on Titan-- Could Thanos truly warp reality in a permanent way, wouldn't he restore Titan to its former glory rather than simply show Dr. Strange what it once looked like while declaring wistfully how much he misses it?
My big takeaway from the Titan battle is that Dr. Strange is a very formidable adversary for Thanos, able to counter much of the Gauntlet's powers with his magic, while preventing Thanos from activating it by closing his fist.
reply
share
Frogarama (12942)
6 years ago
Yes, I had also initially assumed that the reality stone was changing others' perception of reality, and not reality itself... The two things that confused the issue are Starlord's gun, as you mentioned, because he DID pull the trigger, and the gun DID fire... But only bubbles came out.
If it was just perception, then in reality, the gun would have killed Gamora, and they would see her dying for no reason.
The other is Gamora's knife, she pulls it out and stabs Thanos with it before he tosses her, but the knife turns to bubbles and it's just plain gone. The knife was literally turned into bubbles, vanished out of existence... That's what it seems like.
The only real solution here is that Starlord didn't actually have his gun drawn, he only thought he did... And Gamora pulled out nothing instead of that knife, but was tricked by an illusion of having the knife in her hand.
No matter what's the case, obviously it's very rare for purely fictional logic to be 100% perfectly solid.
Likewise, if we accept that the reality stone can change reality, and that Thanos could feasibly restore Titan.... Well that's the same argument that I gave, where Thanos could use his resources AND the gauntlet as a galactic missionary, fixing the problems he sees instead of simply DELAYING them by cutting populations in half!
Thanos could be a very productive person if he focused on long-term solutions instead of temporary band-aid fixes.
reply
share
FilmBuff (6672)
6 years ago
What makes Thanos so realistic to me is the fact that he does stick with the beliefs he's had for since the fall of Titan. Like most everyone, he's ardent in his views and believes his logic to be correct, his truths to be real, etc. Not to bring politics into this, but compare him to, say, Bernie Sanders. I believe most of what Sanders says to be ridiculous, and question his understanding of human nature. I could write a long post breaking down why I believe this, but I seriously doubt that Sanders, or even one of his supporters, would change their mind one iota after reading what I wrote. Nor am I likely to change my mind were I to read something that explains why Sanders' ideas are sound. That's how humans, and, most likely, Titans, are. We believe what we do, and rarely change our minds.
reply
share
MovieFan007 (317)
6 years ago
Marvel did the same thing with AIW like the one they did in CA:CW - they managed to make certain characters that probably needed more exposure and public's interest look more cool and badass. With CW you had SpiderMan and Black Panther, here again Spider Man and Doctor Strange. Strange delivered a whole new set of magic in addition to some trick from his movie, that multiple arms thing looked awesome for instance. Characters like Captain America, Black Widow, Wakanda crew were on the low key.
reply
share