Avengers: Infinity War Review (SPOILER FREE)

Sooo... I went and saw Avengers: Infinity War today!

Wow. That’s all I have to say. Wow. There was so much going on in that movie. Ten years worth of films culminating into one climatic cinematic event. Twenty-three main actors from a span of eighteen movies! 

So how was this spectacular event? 

A couple of my worries going in were that the story would be lame, the movie wouldn’t be able to juggle so many characters, the villain (that had been hinted at since the first Avengers in 2012) would turn into just another “Marvel movie villain” that would fade into the mix, and then the film just wouldn’t live up to all the hype.

Let me just say, all these concerns were put at ease. It was such a good film and so incredibly well-done! Of course, it wasn’t perfect, but I was amazingly satisfied.

Where do I even begin?

The story was very basic. There wasn’t a lot of character development, sitting around and talking about emotions or any of that. It was mostly get from point A to point B, punch people, blow stuff up, get from point B to point C, punch some people, find this person, and so on. Normally, this would be very bothersome, but we don’t need a lot of character development with this movie because of all the previous movies which included all that. We already know these characters! 

The joy was seeing them in new situations and interacting with other characters that they normally wouldn’t interact with. It was like the first Avengers film except on a much grander scale. I remember when that film came out and how stoked everyone was to see Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, etc. who all had their separate movies all coming together into one movie. It was mind-boggling! Now here in Infinity War, it’s like that times ten since so many more films have come out and so many more characters have been introduced.

The team ups in this movie were just incredible! They were hilarious, savage, and all worked surprisingly well together (not to say they all got along, but they had good chemistry). I loved how they all played off one another both in dialogue and in action. Some standout team ups were Thor with the Guardians of the Galaxy and Dr. Strange with Tony Stark. (Also there was one short moment at the end with Rocket and Bucky. Fantastic!)

And everyone stays in character (for the most part. There is one part at the very end I’ve already been hearing people getting very heated and debating over). Their lines, their actions all line up with their dialogue and actions in their own standalone films. I was very satisfied with how each character was portrayed.

I’d like to say everyone gets an equal part through the movie, but that would be lying. Some characters get a slightly bigger role. Only slightly though, that is important to remember. I do think, though, everyone gets a good amount of screen time even if they don’t have a lot of lines. I know that some people will have their favorite character like Black Widow or someone who has a much smaller role compared to Thor or somebody and will get all salty about it, but hey, I don’t think that’s any reason to hate the entire movie.

The action was super intense and well-choreographed. As I said before, the characters play off each other. I love how they use each other’s strengths and work in synch. I’m not sure it was the most impressive Marvel movie as far as action goes (I think that still goes to Captain America: Winter Soldier), but it was up there.

It was also quite funny. Not on the level of Thor: Ragnarok or Guardians of the Galaxy 2, but it had its moments. It was funny mostly because of the characters just being themselves and interacting with things outside of their usual environment. The jokes didn’t land 100% of the time, but the ones that did always got a big laugh. (Sorry, but I have to spoil my favorite joke, so SPOILER): I loved the part when the Guardians and the Avengers meet up and Peter Quill asks “Where’s Gamora?” and Tony says, “I’ll do you one better, who’s Gamora?” and then Drax says, “I’ll do you one even better, why’s Gamora?” Made me laugh so hard!

The other major thing I was concerned about was the villain, Thanos. We first caught a glimpse of him in the after-credits scene in Avengers. Then we also saw him a few other times in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Guardians of the Galaxy. He had been teased at as this mysterious, powerful villain forever. Unfortunately, Marvel has a history of creating really generic, forgettable villains though, so I was a bit wary.

However, I will just say right now that Thanos was a legitimately threatening and memorable villain. I can’t say a whole lot about him without venturing into spoiler territory, but the movie made him such a round character. He wasn’t some bland, predictable, over-the-top bad guy. He was actually a little sympathetic sometimes (but usually you were screaming profanities at him because of all the awful things he was doing). BUT, you could understand his motivation a little bit. That is to say, you could see his reasoning even if you don’t agree. And Josh Brolin has such a presence too. His performance is what really made the character.

Now, being a Marvel fan, I had been speculating along with others about what significant events would be happening in this film (“significant events” meaning deaths). Don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything, but let me just say that this movie is dark and emotional. Yes, there are the usual Marvel quips and that upbeat Marvel spirit, but man does it get intense. Plus, it’s only part one of a whole story so it ended quite dramatically. I was pretty close to tearing up several times. This is another reason I’m sure a lot of people didn’t like the film. It had a bit of a different tone than a typical Marvel film, plus, yes, some characters died. 

News flash: major players sometimes have to die in order to set the stakes high and to show great loss. There’s no need to get extremely salty over it and say it’s a horrible movie. It’s called storytelling. Plus, it’s a comic book movie, there’s a chance they might get brought back.

I think maybe the film might’ve been a little over-hyped, but I still think it lived up to most (if not all) of my expectations. I know there are people out there who didn’t like it, but I think those are people who are upset over how dark it was and/or their favorite characters’s deaths. It definitely wasn’t boring. It had an awful lot of stuff in there and it was really long, but never at any point did it feel over-stuffed or too long. In fact, by the end, I was like “wow, that was 2 1/2 hours? Didn’t even notice.” I was thoroughly entertained throughout. In this one, all the characters were pretty separated, but I think in the next one, everyone will come together for a great final battle. 

It references almost every single Marvel movie. So, if you’ve seen them at least once, you will understand what is happening and will probably enjoy it. If you haven’t seen any of the movies, you’ll probably be bored since it’s mostly a plot-based movie.

So in the end, I’d say it was a pretty darn good movie. Not perfect, but still good. 8/10.

My Conversion Story

The Sacred Grove- Palmyra, New York

I wanted to talk about why I am a member of the church. The simple answer to why I am a member of this church is because I believe it’s true. I grew up in the church, my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents have all been members. Only now in this current generation have people begun falling away. All my aunts, uncles, grandparents and their siblings are all still active. A lot of my cousins and even one of my siblings have fallen away. 

Non-members believes that church members (or any religious people) are ignorant because they’ve been living in a bubble. They think we’re sort of brainwashed in a way. I can confidently say that is not true, at least for me. I can see why they think that because of all the repetition and shoving things down our throats when we’re young. However, I am not a member just because my ancestors were members. I had to truly find out for myself if I honestly believed these things and it wasn’t just some fantasy a bunch of people “hoped” was true. 

I’ll admit, I wavered back and forth for several years. I had a lot of doubts. I never left the church or anything, but I questioned some stuff. I never had that “burning in the bosom” everyone described when they felt the Spirit. I began wondering if everyone was just making it up because I never felt it. I would get emotional over things sometimes, but I could never pinpoint it as the Spirit. I was just kind of blindly stumbling forward. It’s not to say that I didn’t get promptings or get choked up in meetings sometimes, but my rational mind always came up with some sort of explanation. For example: I just got emotional because I felt sympathy or I thought it was really cool; or that wasn’t a prompting, it was luck. 

I’ve never been very good at identifying the Spirit because I don’t feel it the same way other people do. I’ve learned over time that I don’t get that “burning in the bosom” like most people, but actually, the Spirit speaks to me through rationalization. Unfortunately, I’m already a very rational person so it’s difficult for me to discern when I’m actually being prompted. 

But then, there’s one moment, quite recently actually, where I could not deny the existence of God. 

It was about a year or so ago. I had just finished watching a video about the Book of Mormon and got super “emotional” over it. My rational mind went to work as I began thinking how there was no way the Book of Mormon could be made up. How could Joseph Smith make up something like that? How could he know all those things with a third-grade education? I just was thinking about Moroni and Mormon and all sorts of stuff and was thinking it was all so cool. 

Then, I knelt down for my evening prayer and... you know in JSH how he describes a cloud of darkness overtaking him? That is exactly what it felt like. I remember it so vividly. I couldn’t focus on what I was trying to say no matter how hard I tried. All these horrible thoughts about how the Book of Mormon wasn’t true, how God didn’t exist, and so on flooded into my mind. They weren’t just fleeting thoughts either, they were really convincing ideas and they were consuming me. And they definitely weren’t my own. I felt so awful and empty. I wanted to cry. I just wanted to finish my prayer, but couldn't. I tried to remember how good I had felt only moments before, but to no avail.

But then I remembered what I was doing. I was praying! Even though this voice in my head was telling me God didn’t exist, if there was a chance that He did, surely He would help me, right? So, I plucked up my strength and firmly and desperately asked my Father in Heaven to get rid of these horrible thoughts in my mind. 

I kid you not, no sooner were those words out of my mouth did the darkness instantly evaporate. It was seriously gone in an instant. I could think normally and felt relaxed again. It’s hard to describe. It literally felt like something poisonous had been sucked out of me. 

I can testify without a doubt that Satan was working hard on me that night and when I struggled and called on the Lord, He came and cast him out for me. The Lord has complete power over the Devil, that’s for sure and if we have His light in us, we can too.

I always recall this moment now whenever I find myself doubting anything. That moment was SO clear and SO significant for me. 

One could call it a “sign” which it sort of is. I wouldn’t consider myself a sign-seeker as the Book of Mormon describes them. A sign-seeker is someone who wants some great, miraculous sign to “prove” that there is a God. But God never gives these people signs because according to Ether 12:6, “ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.” Sign-seekers don’t have faith first, they want proof first. People only gets signs after they show they already believe. I hope that this incident proves that even though I didn’t have the strongest testimony in the world, it was strong enough to bring this event about.

Like I said, I wavered for a long time, but I can say now without a shadow of a doubt that God is real. If He is real, then pretty much everything else falls into place. People who deny the existence of God are completely blind to what is around them. I marvel at this world and His creations. There is no way all of this stuff just happened. There HAD to be a creator. 

I believe 100% that God is real, that the church is true, that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith was/is a prophet, that we have a prophet today, that Jesus Christ walked the earth and died for our sins, and everything else. It’s all true! Amen.

Gotham- The Joker's Reveal

This is just going to be a pointless rant full of spoilers for the TV show Gotham (so if you haven’t seen it and intend to, stay away). Also, if you haven’t seen it and don’t care, you really won’t care for this post at all; this is just something I have to get off my chest because I’m just so irritated.

For anyone still sticking around for whatever reason, a little precursor: I have talked about/complained about this show before in previous posts, but I don’t want anyone to think that it’s a bad show because it’s really not. I have never seen a show that so solidly understands its base content (that being the Batman comics). All the characters thus far have a pretty good origin story and development. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some stupid moments and lame story arcs. However, overall, I’ve liked all the characters that have been brought into the show for the most part. The current season has been by far the strongest. 

HOWEVER... as the season reaches its end, I have to say I’m suspecting I might actually witness the first character origin that I don’t approve of... and that is the birth of the Joker. I know, right!? The Joker is not only one of my favorite villains in all fiction, but he is one of the most iconic villains ever written. And stupid Gotham is going to go mess it up! 

Let me explain... I’ve been really looking forward to Gotham’s version of the Joker for a long time because he’s been hinted at since season one. A kid named Jerome Valeska was introduced and he was so obviously going to be the future Joker, it was ridiculous. He was so good, right from the get-go, he blew everyone away! I mean, just look at his first scene:

But then the writers of the show began hinting that Jerome would be an “inspiration” for the future Joker. For real now? I mean, Jerome had already been in several episodes and totally was killing it! And suddenly the writers are saying that he’s not going to actually be the Joker? (You can read my full rant in THIS POST). The show sort of seemed to be going in that direction for a little bit when Jerome died and a cult began following him after his death, mimicking his laugh and crimes. But then, the show made a turnaround and brought Jerome back. His face became deranged and a demented smile became permanently scarred onto his face. It really looked like he was headed towards becoming the Joker after that. All he needed was a purple suit and green hair.

So then in this latest season, the writers stated that the Joker would finally be officially introduced. Jerome was slapping Joker cards around, he was making SO MANY references to the original comics (like “you are so incorrigible...or is that me? I can never remember.”), he got a fancy suit (though it wasn’t purple yet), he even used Joker Venom! It was just looking so inevitable that he was going to be the Joker!

But then the photos leaked. Photos leaked of Cameron Monaghan (the guy who plays Jerome) in full-fledged Joker attire (hat, purple suit, pale skin, everything), but with a catch... his face is completely in tact; no scars or demented smile. At first, one might think that something happened to heal his face; like in the comics, he falls into a chemical vat which is what changes his hair and his skin. Perhaps here, the same thing happens and in the process, his face heals.

Unfortunately, there is a much more stupid explanation... Jerome has a twin brother! Yes, that’s right. Jerome does not become the Joker, his brother does. After all this build up with Jerome, after all his development and all this time we’ve spent with Jerome, we get no pay off. We get to see this other guy whom we’ve seen for only a couple episodes ultimately become the fiercest, craziest, most feared villain in Gotham. How freakin’ dumb!

We as viewers deserve so much better. The Joker as a character deserves so much better than such a lame origin. By adding in a twin brother who drove his brother to madness in a roundabout way adds another layer to Jerome’s complexity, but doesn’t do much for the brother. It certainly makes us see that he is capable of madness, but it only makes us see how much more interesting and complex Jerome is. Just ARGH! Why are they doing this!? 

Two things give me slight comfort: one, Cameron Monaghan will continue to play the part, which is fantastic because he is brilliant! (Though, I kind of feel like it might be different because they’re supposed to be different characters which annoys me). Two, I COULD be wrong. There is the tiniest chance that maybe Jerome will still be the Joker and somehow his scarred face healed through Indian Hill voodoo or whatever. *shrug* I doubt it though.

Whatever. That’s the end of my rant. Like I said, I just had to get it off my chest.