fallout from the INFINITY WAR: let’s have a spoiler-filled discussion!

It’s Monday — which means that the INFINITY WAR has already been waged!

If you’re among the OL-faithful, chances’re that you’ve seen the film and want to discuss it. As such, we want to provide you with a space to do just that. What’d you think of the movie? Were expectations met, surpassed, or disregarded entirely? Do you have some guesses for what’s going to go down in the next installment of the franchise?

C’mon in — this is a SPOILER-FRIENDLY DISCUSSION!

In my humble estimation, Infinity War is a genuine cinematic achievement.

It’s not a sequel to Age of Ultron — if anything, it’s a sequel to eighteen movies. Goddamn. At this point, I’m not even sure that sequel is an applicable term. It’s some sort of wild-crossover event that relies on the audience having already experienced everything (or close to everything) by which it’s preceded.

Unlike most sequels, the story doesn’t bog itself down in bringing unprepared viewers up to speed. Many critics undoubtedly point to this as a flaw in the film. After all, isn’t a movie supposed to stand on its own two legs? Isn’t a movie supposed to be a discrete experience in its own right?

Maybe. But maybe not.

If Infinity War gives us anything — and I think it gives us quite a lot — it’s a narrative experience unlike anything that’s ever been presented in movie theaters. That is, of course, not to suggest that longform storytelling has just been invented by the Russos and Kevin Feige and the rest of Team MCU. I mean, there’s actually plenty of pop culture longform narrative that’s existed for decades and decades.

TV shows? Definitely! Pro-wrestling? Of course! Comic books? Well, duh.

But what other movie uses so much scope and preexisting character development and narrative threadwork as Infinity War?

I want all of you out there cruising with Spaceship OL to discuss and debate and celebrate every moment, character, frame, music cue, and action sequence in this movie that intrigues you. And I’ll join in the fun. But for right now, I’m still trying to wrap my head around a potential description for Avengers 3.

Mega-sequel? Narrative nexus? What the hell can we call this thing?