Avengers: Infinity War (Spoilers)

I watched Avengers: Infinity War last night, on it’s release day here in Malaysia.

And by all things MCU (Marvel Comic Universe) where do I even begin?!

I know!

THE ENDING!

What the heck just happened?? Everyone faded into dust – did they die? REALLY?

What did Thanos do??

Why did Dr Strange give him the Time Stone?! (Sure, to save Iron Man BUT in the grander scheme of things WHY???)

*breathe*

A conversation I had with my brother last night after we watched it separately:

Him: How waz it?
Me: The ending is distressing!!!
All those who disappeared mean they died??
But some still alive leh

Him: Once the gauntlet is fully powered, just a flick of the finger half of the universe population gone.

Me: So just random selected?
Him: Maybe
Me: What did Thanos do at the end?
Reading some theories abt part 2
Him: Gamora did ask that question. Thanos replied that once he restore the balance he will rest and look at the sunset
Me: Read that part 2, antman and captain marvel will save the day

Me: Did u rmbr all the prev characters and storylines? Or did u do some revision before watching just now?
Him: Still remember
Me: I always thought the bad guy in Gotg same as Avengers but someone ever told me last time I was confused😂…guess they were the ones confused
Him: The audience clapped and cheered when Thor appeared in wakanda
And then at the final scene when ppl start disapearing and screen fades to black, the audience were freaked

Me: Freak like how?
I was close to screaming in frustration at the end
Him: The one sitting next to me blurted out wtf 😀
Me: Aaahh okk…similar feeling w most ppl
Him: And had to bear thru like 10mins of credits to see the end credits only to find more bleak scenes except the marvel logo at the very end.
Me: That’s Captain Marvel logo
Him: Yes
Me: At first i thought wonder woman logo but different universe so no haha

Him: Since it is a 2 part..so next we will get origin story of cpt marvel and how nick fury established another team after going underground.
I guess they wanted to have closure for most / half of the characters.
Me: That’s not closure! That’s just killing them off! 😱
Part 2 maybe involve time travel and all the heroes (or most) don’t die in the end
Him: I wished dr strange did use his stone but didnt
Me: Actually, i didn’t watch any trailer or whatever for infinity war and didn’t realise got part 2 so the end just like that was really unexpected 😅
Him: But dr strange did told stark there is 1 out of 4 mil future outcomes that they win
So i guess the remaining heroes will team up with cpt marvel to defeat thanos
Me: Ya! That’s why am expecting some time travel trick just now…so now, that’s expected in part 2
Him: Black widow did she fade away?
Me: Don’t recall..
Him: Gotg team only left racoon right?
Me: Think so..the lady w antenna?
Him: Mantis..not sure.
Nebula?
Me: Don’t recall
Him: I am not disappointed with the movie coz u dont get to see villains actually win
Me: Definitely still around is Iron Man, Hulk, Cap, Okoye..
Him: Esp all this while in superhero movies
Me: I am not disappointed. Just find it distressing. Wanna watch again
Him: Im sad a bit that those who manage to leave asgard at the end of thor ragnarok all died. Except thor.
When i see loki killed off early in the movie..i somehow knew its gonna start the bodycount.
Me: Before watching, so many rumours / questions of which hero will die etc… Figured it would just be 1..not so many..
Him: Did u see the youtube clip i shared this morning where the villains played deadpool?

Me: No. Only saw it just now aft i watched the movie. Didn’t wanna spoil it in any way

Thru the whole movie, in denial when the characters die… Still in denial haha

Him: Somehow that clip is kinda accurate. Got many heroes gone
Me: One review said “all the deaths will feel justified”… I disagree. I don’t feel so.😅
Him: Even has hydra
Me: Didn’t really read all the names on the board
Him: Even at the end of the clip before thanos left the bar he said some of them villains might not be around if he succeed
Me: The way spidey died though…with the rest is just fade… With him, u can see pain😱
Him: Hydra is one of the villan in the bar la
Me: Which one is hydra again lol…anyhoo, thanos also said that line abt remembering to Iron Man…and the villain bar thing
Him: Hydra is the one who met Thanos and Gamora on the soul stone planet

Top things I disliked about Infinity War:

1. The ending is distressing!
2. StarLord caused the plan to get the Infinity Gauntlet off Thanos’s hand to fail!!! Urgh!
3. Why didn’t Dr Strange turn back time and prevent everything that happened from happening?
4. Did Loki really die? From the very beginning of the movie, questions and in denial as beloved characters died one by one…
5. Spiderman’s death in IronMan’s arm moment

Top things I liked about Infinity War:

1. Most of our favourite Marvel characters in one movie – YAY!
2. Aww moment between Loki and Thor, before Loki dies
3. Thor meeting the Guardians for the first time – this was hilarious!
4. StarLord vs Thor “Who is MORE man than the other” moment
5. Thor vs Gamora vs StarLord “Who had a more tragic family backstory” moment
6. IronMan vs Dr Strange “Who is better” moments
7. IronMan, Dr Strange and Spiderman meet the Guardians
8. “Why is Gamora?” HAHAHAHA
9. Dr Strange to StarLord: “Who is your master?” (was that what he said?)
10. I have more but this list is getting too long already

So yes, clearly the likes is more than dislikes so of course I enjoyed the movie. EXCEPT. FOR. THE. ENDING.

URGH.

And now we have to wait for a year for Infinity War Part 2! (Release in May 2019).

However, I am looking forward to Captain Marvel though… and what that implies for Part 2.

So, what are your thoughts?

Favourite and least favourite part of the movie?

Leave a comment!

The Avengers in Bintulu!!!

Thank you Ashtar Galactic Cinema (AGC)!

You can purchase tickets today for tomorrow’s premiere!

Showtime below:

How to purchase tickets?

They do not have online ticketing yet so get yourself to AGC counter A.S.A.P. because the seats are running out fast! Especially for prime hours (early evening).

Do note that tickets are RM17 (adult) eventhough it’s “Movie Night”.

Premiere though so I’m not complaining. See you there! 😁

Ashtar Galactic Cinema : A review

So there’s a new cinema in Bintulu, and it opened it’s doors to the public for the first time yesterday (18 April 2018) albeit on a trial basis. (More on that below.)

Now if you stay in Bintulu, you will know that a cinema is a highly desired yet long awaited amenity here – even longer than before the previous cinema closed its operations in 2016. Why do I say that? We will get to that in a bit.

First, let me show you what the hype is all about!!!

Disclaimer: This is not a paid/sponsored post but an honest patron’s feedback.

Name/Brand

Bearing the name Ashtar Galactic Cinema (AGC), it is not part of the usual cinema chain  that can be found in Malaysia (like GSC or TGV). Not sure why that particular name was chosen, but if you stay till the end of this post, I’ll share with you a fun fact about it. =)

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Trial Basis and Free Tickets

AGC has 6 halls and for 3 days* (yesterday, today and tomorrow), it was offering FREE movie tickets to everyone. All you needed to do is go to the cinema, get in line (the queue was super long yesterday morning) and get the movie ticket(s) of your choice, depending on seat availability of the selected showtime of course. Me and a few friends were fortunate enough to get hold of tickets for last night’s viewing. Some are going tonight.

Movie Hall

Our little group was watching 2 different movies at about the same time and so were divided into different halls. The movie in Hall 2 was already playing for about 25 minutes before our show in Hall 3 began. As we entered our still quiet hall, a friend pointed out that we could hear the sound (not very distinctly but still audible) coming from the hall beside us. Thin walls, perhaps?

The smell in the hall was crisp (but not crispy okay lol) as can be expected when everything around is new and fresh out of packaging etc. The seats were a bit hard for me but that’s probably only because they’re still new. A plus is that it allows you to lean back at a slight angle. Good for those seats closer to the screen I suppose. However, as with most cinemas, try NOT to sit too close to the screen (like the first 3 rows) unless you particularly enjoy a stiff neck after the movies, like what happened to friends in the other hall. We were seated at row F (6th row from the screen), which is good though not quite the sweet spot.

The movie screen and visuals was clear. No comments on that. However, in our hall 3, the surround sound wasn’t that great. It didn’t really feel like we were “surrounded”, if you get what I’m saying. And friends in hall 2 said that the audio in their hall sometimes were not very audible or were muffled. Maybe the management can look into the audio settings of the halls.

Temperature in hall for me was okay. A bit colder would be nice though. We were watching a late night show so perhaps they adjusted the temperature so we would not freeze inside. Speaking of temperature…

Waiting Area/Ticket Counter/Snack Bar

Now this could really use some improvement.

1. Air-conditioning. Unfortunately, the cinema is located in the non-airconditioned street mall-eque Bintulu Commerce Square (BCS). This means that airconditioning is only when you enter the shops/units. For AGC, this makes all areas apart from the movie hall rather unpleasant. We were watching a late night show and were already sweating before we entered the hall. This is Malaysia weather. Air-conditioning would be good.
2. Some benches in the waiting area would be good. That will be a challenge though, as how the waiting area is just a small area in between the ticket counter and snack bar. There are seats along the BCS walkways in front of other shops but that’s not so ideal. Everyone was just standing around in the rather warm and humid waiting area. I could only imagine how unpleasant it must’ve felt for those who were queuing yesterday morning…
3. Ticket counter and the ticketing system was good. The staff was great! Entertaining queries about showtimes and available seats patiently. Keep up the good work guys!
4. Snack Bar. Tried the popcorn and drink. The popcorn wasn’t the best and could be improved. More food options would also be good.
5. Overall layout of this outside area is a bit smaller than what you would normally expect of a cinema. One oddity I noted is that the main screen that they used to show movie trailers is near the entrance to the cinema area and at eye level where people will be walking past to get to the waiting area/ticket counter/snack bar. One can’t really stay there and watch the screen for long even if they wanted to. I reckon the screen would be better off above the space between the ticket counters and snack bar and before the entrance to the halls.

Movie Choices

Since they were giving free tickets and it was a trial basis, it was acceptable that they were showing rather dated movies. On offering were: Insidious, Jumanji, The Greatest Showman and Tomb Raider, the latter being the least dated.

Remember how earlier in this post, I mentioned that a cinema was a long awaited amenity here even when the previous cinema was still around? This was one of the many reasons. The previous cinema showed dated movies after most hardcore movie-goers would have already watched them. This of course led to low patronage and eventually, they closed. (There were a lot of things lacking with them, but this is the main one.)

Dear AGC, I sincerely hope this will NOT be the case when you start operations proper…

I mentioned above that this was a “trial basis”. What that meant was, after tomorrow, we are not exactly sure if it will still be showing any shows the next day until… indefinitely. The management has not made themselves very clear on that front. (They did start business proper the following day!) That said, everybody is deeply hoping that they WILL be showing “Avengers: Infinity War” that is set to be released next week! And they did not dissapoint! The staff of the cinema only said their next show “may be” Avengers. *prays*

And there you have it. My honest review of the new cinema in Bintulu – Ashtar Galactic Cinema (AGC).

Have you tried it? What did you think about it? Do share in the comments.

And as promised, fun fact about AGC:

The new cinema is called Ashtar Galactic Cinema (AGC)…in the 70s there was believed to be an alien broadcast from an Ashtar Galactic Command (AGC) 👽  The truth is out there.

*extended from 2 days