If we had an indication that Stormbreaker was made to make Thor more powerful than ever, that would be cool, but it feels like we just lost the thread of "Thor never needed the hammer" from Ragnarok.
In fact, Thor getting a new hammer to be even more powerful would have been a better beat for part 2, after he shows up mastering his new powers that he figured out in Ragnarok, but wasn't strong enough to make a difference. But we needed Thor/Groot/Rocket time in part 1 I guess.
I kind of don't like that Thanos has a (doubiously) reasoned plan. Playing him exactly the same, but being obsessed with making an offering to Death would have avoided a lot of . . . strangeness . . . around his character.
Thanos can be compelling, he can even be likable, but he really shouldn't be relatable or sympathetic. That "sympathetic" vibe touches elements of the movie it really shouldn't touch.
I think with all of the other potentially drastic things they wanted to at least imply in the movie, they went the "safe" route by trying to make Thanos more (and I hate this term) grounded. But The Ebon Maw was already fanatic space preacher, so why worry about death worship?
It doesn't even lock you in to introducing an anthropomorphic embodiment of Death. It would be totally possible for Thanos to worship death without being in love with the physical embodiment of Death.
Regardless, "Thanos is a relatable dude" unfortunately gets amplified as the Soul Stone requires him to sacrifice something he loves. That could have easily been framed to be "something that means more to him than anything else."
If they had phrased it this way, it would have been way easier to not lose the thread of "Thanos is an abusive father," because of course he values Gamora, takes credit for her being who she is, even if he doesn't have any right to feel proprietary. But instead, it's "love."
I'll admit, when I first watched the movie, I was less upset by the cosmos confirming that Thanos "loved" Gamora (which still has problems), than I was that Good Dad Thanos undermines that he "loved" Gamora and tortured and belittled Nebula.
Because Nebula was introduced as a villain, it almost feels like we're getting a dismissive "of course he treated her that way, she was crazy," instead of the very clear message of Guardians Vol. 2, that Thanos made her the way she was by abusing her and elevating Gamora.
I think Avengers 3 & 4 have some tricky things to navigate. They have to be the big epic conclusion of 10 years of shared universe. Some of what bothers me may be addressed, especially considering "3 & 4" are essentially one 5 or 6 hour movie, not really two separate pieces.
I really enjoyed parts of the movie, but the parts that aren't working for me just have me worried that the next movie isn't really going to come together the way I hope it does.
At this point, I'm more excited for Captain Marvel than Endgame. I just want to know where they put everyone at the end of Endgame so I know where and how they are likely to show up in the next wave of movies, if at all.
By no means let me dampen your enthusiasm if you loved Infinity War. As I said, I liked parts of it. I'm just in this odd holding pattern where I can't fully resolve how I feel about the movie, and I've got some nagging problems with it. If you love it, that's awesome.
Addendum, because I'm not bright enough to think of this initially: Pete in the MCU is actually stepping on story beats they could have used for Riri Williams, which makes it more difficult for her to show up, so we should have gotten Riri, but Spider-Man in the MCU was more $$$.
