As amazing as it would be to be in charge of as exciting a movie as Avengers: Infinity War, it’s hard to envy directors Joe and Anthony Russo for having the task of managing to tell an engaging story in a film that’s stuffed full of about 20 leading characters and will jump across various locations around the galaxy. For the filmmakers, though, the trick was to simply follow something they’ve always made the bedrock of their direction: emotional realism.
The Russos spoke to The Telegraph India about how they’ve tried to find “emotional realism” in all of their MCU projects so far. Joe, in particular, explained that once you have that, you can play around with the tone and the audience will stick with you.
“The one continuity that you’ll find in the four movies we’ve done is emotional realism. You can be dramatic and emotionally real. And you can also be comedic and emotionally real. Emotional realism at its core is the unifying tone to all of our movies.”
The director then went on to claim that, out of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, it’s actually their latest movie that’s the most intensely emotional of the lot. Despite the film operating on a cosmic playground and featuring all kinds of crazy sci-fi action, Joe promises that the characters will remain “humanistic” and the pic will explore their “true motivation.”
“Avengers: Infinity War is also by far and away the most intense of our three films. But I think that as long as the characters are humanistic and they address the stakes with intentionality and true motivation you can take the audience on any journey that you want to.”
To explain his point, Russo used how Infinity War deals with the Guardians of the Galaxy as an example of how he and his brother aimed to play with tone but keep the emotions of the characters at the forefront. He teased that hilarity will ensue when the misfit band of heroes arrive on screen, but that things would quickly be moved into more dramatic territory.
“The tone can shift on a dime. It is because they are aware of these characters, and they have an emotional history with them. So, when the Guardians show up hilarity can ensue immediately. But, also, we can take the Guardians to a place that’s intensely dramatic very quickly as well. ”
What we’ve seen of the movie so far supports Russo’s comments. Though there have been plenty of comedic gold moments involving Star-Lord and his pals in the trailers, there have also been a lot of darker ones, too. Notably, the opening to the second trailer which featured Gamora telling Tony Stark about her history with Thanos.
All things considered, it sounds like fans should be prepared an emotional roller coaster when Avengers: Infinity War arrives in cinemas on April 27th.
