1. Stalling isn't the strategy I'm referring to. I'm talking out on the battlefield. The only thing decided was when to let down the forcefield. Considering all the heroes out there on the battlefield I expected a lot more coordination and definitive plan of attack instead of basically a street fight. Even if the stone had been destroyed they still needed to repel the invaders.
You can say they were blindsided coz of the type of army they had to face. They had no idea what these creatures were and what was the way to kill them. And yes, you can't strategize to any great extent without knowing whom you are facing and how they can be defeated. I don't see how this can be offputting to anyone but to each his own. I can only say you are the only one I have seen complaining about this.. So I guess it just works for the majority.
2. While what you say is true - again what it's lacking is a tangible reason for BP risking the nation of Wakanda like that to begin with. Due to time constraints that element is paid lip service. That whole sequence needed more room to breath, but the focus was to press forward with a big action sequence.
Every sequence in the movie would have been better for die hards if it had more room to breathe. But the movie has to work for everyone, not just the die hards. And the movie as it is today works completely well as a full movie with enough backstory given for anyone to understand. As I remarked somewhere else, I took some MCU Virgin friends of mine to this movie and they had no trouble following the plot points. Some of the situational humour was lost on them, esp. about Drax but because the characters stay true to their emotions and motivations throughout the movie, it was not hard for them to fill in the gaps in their own ways.
But the audience generally speaking is conventional. I'm not sure people can relate to making the children they supposedly "love" battle to near death. The favorite daughter line happened once in GOTG and again it's lip service.
It should not have worked but with performances like Seldana's and Brolin's, it does. You under rate the power of performance. Not every movie can set up every relationship within the movie. There are movies where you are told two folks are best friends and they just have a couple of scenes of interactions to establish it but you still buy it due to the chemistry and performances. Exactly what happened in IW. Again, to many this was even the highlight of the movie. Just goes to show it did work.
The point of the Accords wasn't to split the Avengers. It was to put their power in check, it just so happened to indirectly splinter the team due to philosophical differences.
Again, we get one passing mentioned of it when Cap and squad return to the Avengers base. That's it. It had virtually no effect on the film. Ross quickly stood down when Steve confronted him. Before Tony and Steve could even speak, New York got invaded.
The very scenes you are talking about were the consequence of Civil War. Vision and Wanda having to moonlight their relationship, Tony (and eventually Bruce) having to call Steve when they all needed to be together as time was of essence, the Avengers being split to protect the time and mind stones, Thanos getting the Time Stone being the reason for him to get the Mind Stone... I am sorry but to say Civil War and its events did not have an impact is just silly. Sure, the Accords alone did not have an impact but it did not, even in Civil War. It was essentially the first thing to cause the rift but it was never the whole plot even in CW.
I haven't touched on the search for his people. There are most definitely areas of the film they could have trimmed to lengthen the Asgardian ship sequence.
From a "self contained" perspective it works fine. From the perspective having seen all the prior Thor films and then obviously Ragnarok, it feels cheap. We last saw him watching Thanos approaching then next suddenly others are slaughtered and one of the main Avengers on the doorstep of death. That's a major plot event in the MCU that's glossed over. I can't recall where in the MCU something like that would happen with such a major player.
Again, as a die hard you may feel these are important. But the movie does a great job of establishing what it needs to establish to tell the story it needs to tell. A battle sequence on that ship would have been a nice to have, but not a must have as what matters is where we pick up. As a matter of fact, all the other fights are done well to establish exactly how Thanos and Children could have conceivably defeated the Asgard warriors, esp. with the power stone in possession.
I think maybe you're referring to parallels, but again it gets diluted a bit after three different instances of it. Reminds of the Oprah meme "You get a .... she gets a .... everyone gets a ...!!!!"
Nah, it was story telling symmetry. Too bad it comes across this way to you but that does not mean its not. Maybe you just don't appreciate it coz of your earlier nitpicks.
In a literal sense yes they took on multiple Avengers. The problem for me was watching them spar with Vision - who is head and shoulders above Cap/BW/Falcon and yet those three were able to stand up to them in 1-on-1 attacks. The Russos should have gone to greater lengths showing A: More teamwork and B: The Black Order getting weakened from scuffling with Vision/SW.
Vision was attacked from behind and its obvious the blade has alien powers that stops him from being able to use many of his abilities. The Cap Team were very careful to avoid being hit by the blade and they had the jump on the attackers much like the attackers had on Vision. Also, Wanda did beat the **** out of them, she was just finding it difficult as she was also trying to protect Vision.
Appreciate it.
Again from an isolated perspective the film works, which is an amazing accomplishment given how many characters it had to tie together. I just felt because of its size, I was also forced to accept quite a bit of surface level exposition and I wasn't allowed to slow down to settle into the film.
I dont think the movie works only from an isolated perspective. I feel that feeling is rather more of an isolated perspective, coz every time I have seen this movie, it only works so much better.
