Avengers: Infinity War [2018]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  RogerEbert.com (2 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (0 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
Los Angeles Times (J. Chang) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller Seitz) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review


Avengers: Infinity War [2018] (codirected by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, screenplay cowritten by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely based on Marvel Comics by Stan Lee [IMDb] and Jack Kirby [IMDb]) sigh ... I guess it was inevitable:

Almost exactly in the middle of the film, as two groups of the story-line's protagonists meet for the first time-- to eventually become essentially the Super Avengers, made-up of the Avengers already introduced to us in previous films plus the heroes of the Guardians of the Galaxy whom the other Avengers do not yet know -- eastern mystic inspired Dr. Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) sternly asks the famously slacker-anti hero Guardian of the Galaxy Peter Quill / "Star Lord" (played by Chris Pratt) "What MASTER do you serve" to which, confused by the question, Peter Quill aka "Star Lord" responds in his characteristically flustered "amiable slacker" sort of way: "Do... you ... want me to say ... Jesus?"

Haha ... there were _some_ (stiff) laughs in the mostly teenage / young adult audience.  But I was basically done.  Ten minutes later, already rather frustrated by the film's overly ponderous story-line, certainly the most convoluted in the franchise thus far -- though in the film's defense, one could say that the Avengers were trying to save THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE -- I left.

The throw-away Christian mocking line reminds me of when I, as still a teenager / young adult was visiting then still Communist Czechoslovakia and with a few Czech relatives of mine was visiting one of the many lovely medieval castles in the country.  In the castle's chapel, the tour guide, certainly a Soudruška (Czech for "Comrade") mindful that most of the group that she was leading was actually a school group of 10-12 year olds on a field trip, stopped in front of a lovely statue of a young Blessed Virgin Mary and told the kids, "Now kids ... in the olden days, the big strong, handsome young knights of this castle would put themselves on their knees before this lovely young maiden, who by the way her name was Mary, to 'worship her' ... Yes, it's kind of childish and _even somewhat obsene_  for us today, but that's what pervy young men, often still not married, would do in those backward days." 

And again the message was clear, an atheist in a position of power, was telling her _captive audience_ of young people that's perfectly okay to mock the Christian faith that some of them certainly still held (among those kids were certainly Catholics / Christians, though they _definitely knew_ to keep their mouths shut under Communism) and certainly held by many more of their parents and grandparents...

Perhaps though the Christian mocking throw-away scene in this latest Avenger's movie was inevitable.  After all:

(1) One of Marvel Comic's most famous heroes is a kindlier, rehabililitated nordic god based Thor (the Wagner-loving Nazis had a more _racially based_ take on him a few decades before ...), and

(2) the Catholic Church / Christian Community in the United States is certainly _not_ entirely without blame: the more conservative elements of the Christian community have _chosen_ to take a needlessly hard (and truly next to impossible to try to dialogue with) line on homosexuality in recent decades, and the ARTISTIC community, which has _always_ been something of a haven for homosexuals (Michelangelo was probably gay ...) has with again SOME DEFINITE JUSTIFICATION taken offense.

As I've written before [1] [2] [3] IN A FREE SOCIETY, the artistic community ultimately can produce WHATEVER ART (films) IT WANTS.  So ... if the Catholic Church / Christian community _chooses_ to pick a fight with the significantly homosexual artistic community, it can expect _exactly_ what it has received: a parade of poignant / heart-rending films each underlying, and in an inevitably nearly infinite number of ways, _the fundamental dignity_ of homosexuals as _persons_ AND eventually a similar parade of films hostile-to and even mocking of Christianity.

To expect otherwise is honestly to "not think things through ..."

But to me it's sad here ... because in the case of this stupid throw-away line here, no one's dignity was being defended.  Instead, Christians / Christianity were simply being mocked.

And yes, obviously, I'm a follower of Jesus ... Zero stars.


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