Avengers Infinity Wars (plot holes?)

[irishda]

Comic book movies pretty much exist so that you have to literally disconnect yourself from scene to scene. A person is given an amazing power or discovers one. Thanos obtains the reality gem and can alter reality, for instance. He demonstrates this power by completely faking a scene and then turning Mantis and Drax into goo. But then he never uses that power again despite its enormous advantage. The fights from then on only become dramatic if you forget that he has this power. You have to forget that Strange can cut people apart with portals (extremely handy when trying to get a glove off someone) or stick people in infinite time loops. "We don't trade lives," Captain America boldly states only a few minutes before they make a plan to trade many Wakandan lives for the sake of Vision. Even movie to movie in this interconnected universe, you have to forget things, such as how Thor's true power did not come from an instrument but from himself.

Therefore to me the plot holes are all about the disconnect. Characters don't do things based on motivations or logic, they do things because it looks cool.

 

[Marik2]

Because most people aren't logical with their political beliefs. It's either one or the other.

No compromise or middle ground.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

but the big glaring one is Thanos' plan. None of it makes sense.

So? Why do so many people expect villains to be like the good guys with rational plans and motives? Thanos is insane. How is that not clear to everyone?

Nothing about Thanos spells insanity. He's rationally, logically motivated to care about overpopulation - a perfectly valid concern, specially given his backstory - and everything he does works towards solving that problem.

That given the power to bend time, space and the very fabric of existence he would waste those powers in a narrow-minded way that defeats his very purpose in a number of ways is a plot hole because nothing about his character says he's insane or, well, stupid.

I feel like they didn't give enough time to see how he would've arrived at the conclusion. It's fairly easy to infer that he has seen what happened to his race befall dozens, if not hundreds, of other species who tried other methods, so he finally decides to force his way on the rest of the universe.

And he probably subscribes to the idea that the other workarounds will lead to the same outcome he fears, just after a longer delay or be worse when they do go off.

Again, nothing about Thanos' plan indicates he's gotten to the "fuck it" point of strategy. Not how he acts, not what he says, etc.
Even "forcing" the whole thing doesn't resist a simple analysis: halving everything puts you immediately back on square one. You've "solved" the issue of space for a few decades, but organic resources are still a 1:1 problem. And on the subject of space - it's not like the universe is lacking, most of it is empty anyway. It's called fucking SPACE. There's enough to go around.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Nothing about Thanos spells insanity. He's rationally, logically motivated to care about overpopulation - a perfectly valid concern, specially given his backstory - and everything he does works towards solving that problem.

He's delusional. That is a sort of insanity.

 

[Maze1125]

Doctor Strange makes everything more difficult simply by existing in the story. He uses magic that bends time and space and Dormamu was arguably just as much of an existensial threat as Thanos if not bigger. Strange looked into the future where the avengers won, so when he saw the battle turning away from this reality he could have turned time back, or at worst put himself in the same infinite time loop as he did with Dormamu since Thanos can't control time without his infinity stone.

What makes you think Doctor Strange didn't do exactly what was needed to keep them on the path to victory?

 

[TrulyBritish]

Doctor Strange makes everything more difficult simply by existing in the story. He uses magic that bends time and space and Dormamu was arguably just as much of an existensial threat as Thanos if not bigger. Strange looked into the future where the avengers won, so when he saw the battle turning away from this reality he could have turned time back, or at worst put himself in the same infinite time loop as he did with Dormamu since Thanos can't control time without his infinity stone.

What makes you think Doctor Strange didn't do exactly what was needed to keep them on the path to victory?

Yup, he even says to Tony after the fight "This was the only way".
Strange wanted events to turn out the way they did.