Avengers Infinity War - On Location in Edinburgh

Avengers Infinity War is the culmination of ten years and eighteen films of the Marvel Studios and you can read my full 5 star review here that is more glowing than a fistful of infinity stones.
The film's release this weekend is a cinematic event of monumental scale and looks set to have box office records falling before it faster than War Machine out of the sky after being blasted by Vision.
Wind the clock back a year to a cold, dark night in Edinburgh in early April, where hundreds of Marvel fans were patiently camped out on the Royal Mile for a glimpse of some action.

Yes, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had come to Scotland.
Edinburgh was chosen by directors the Russo Brothers as the only location outside of their Atlanta base for filming Infinity War and Marvel Studios spent six weeks in the Capital doing night shoots for a major sequence involving Scarlet Witch and Vision.
Not only was there a night shoot taking place on the Royal Mile and inside Waverley Station but the team took over a hanger at Leith harbour and turned it into a makeshift sound studio for filming.
Reports estimate that the shoot brought in around £10 million to the local economy and furthers the argument for Scotland to have its own proper film studio.
During April, Twitter was alive with rumoured sightings around town of Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany and Chris Evans. Anthony Mackie's Falcon had flown the coop to St. Andrews for a round of golf and Team Thor (Hemsworth, Ruffalo and Tessa Thompson) were spotted at the Waldorf Astoria.
So enamoured with the city was co-director Joe Russo, he returned during the world press tour to screen 20 minutes of footage to a hugely appreciative crowd of fans. Full report here.
With the plot kept a complete secret until the film was released, fans were left to wildly theorise and speculate as to the plot of the sequence shot in Edinburgh.
Based on what was seen, it appeared as though Scarlet Witch and Vision were hiding out in Edinburgh following the events of Captain America: Civil War. They seek to fan the flames of their burgeoning  relationship when they are attacked by Thanos's Black Order, looking to reclaim the Mind Stone.

*Mild spoiler warning - the plot of Avengers: Infinity War will be briefly discussed from this point but nothing that is not already featured in the trailers*

Upon seeing the film, this is pretty much how this storyline plays out but with the addition of Steve Rogers, Black Widow and Falcon arriving to save the day.

What is immediately noticeable to anyone from Edinburgh, is how geographically accurate the sequence is. The action flows from Cockburn Street up to the Royal Mile before heading back down the road to Waverley Station. This level of accuracy is something that T2 Trainspotting could not even achieve!

So if you want to visit the "set" of Avengers Infinity War, here are the spots to go:

Miss Katie Cupcake, 52 Cockburn Street, Edinburgh

Don’t worry if you don’t immediately recognise the location because Miss Katie Cupcake, a vintage inspired store, was transformed into Hüsnü Kebab House for the purposes of filming.

This is where Vision and Scarlet Witch stop to discuss their relationship. Probably before sampling some of that Avengers-favourite schwarma or the Scottish twist on the delicacy - the deep fried kebab - pay attention for the sign in the window.

Laila's Bistro, 63 Cockburn Street, Edinburgh

Scarlet Witch is sent flying through the window of this Mediterranean bistro by Proxima Midnight before returning to save Vision as Glaive attempts to remove the Mind Stone rather forcibly.

St. Giles' Cathedral, High Street, Edinburgh

Located on the High Street on the Royal Mile, St. Giles' is the historic city church of Edinburgh. Some of the fight scene between Vision, Corvus Glaive and Scarlet Witch takes place upon the top of the Cathedral.

City Chambers, High Street, Edinburgh

Down on the street below the Cathedral, Proxima Midnight and Scarlet Witch go one on one outside the City Chambers, resulting in the spectacular explosion that featured in the above video.

Waverley Rail Station, Edinburgh

The site of the biggest night shoot for filming, the attempt to retrieve the Mind Stone from Vision's head climaxes inside Edinburgh's main railway station and sees the appearance of Captain America's beard (no, not Sharon Carter!), Black Widow and Falcon to turn the tide and save the day.

An area towards the rear of the station next to Platform 20 was cordoned off for the duration of filming. A green screen was installed along with a fake coffee shop that could and would be destroyed in the fight.

 

For those wanting to recreate the moment Steve Rogers emerges from the shadows, you will need to hop over to Platform 1 and look for the third alcove which has some graffiti and a mark on a brick that makes it easier to identify.

The station has installed a couple of standing screens displaying photographs from the filming plus video and still images from the final film to allow fans to check out exactly where the shots were taken. That way you can recreate the scenes from the movie using cosplay, LEGO figures or just yourself.

So there you have it. complete guide to the Edinburgh locations featured in Avengers Infinity War. We'll just all have to wait and see if there is a deleted post-credit scene where Thanos goes for a deep fried kebab to celebrate a job well done!

Avengers: Infinity War - review

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear right off the bat. Avengers Infinity War is not just a movie. This is an event. This is the season finale of a ten year, nineteen episode comic book series that was merely the twinkle in Kevin Feige’s eye back in 2008.
Disregard what the internet memes say. This *IS* the most ambitious film event of all-time. Nothing else even comes close.

Expectations are higher than they were for another fandom 19 years ago for The Phantom Menace. But can they possibly be met? 

Will it work as a film in its own right and will it work as the culmination of everything that has come before it.

The answer, Marvel fans will be happy to here... is YES.
As for the “story so far”, or “previously on Avengers Infinity War”, it would take Luis from Ant-Man’s motor mouth to take the audience on a abridged history of the MCU in five minutes to get everyone up to speed so let’s just get down to brass tacks.
Thanos, the big purple dude who has been sitting on his giant space toilet (Empire magazine’s words, not mine) since The Avengers has finally decided to claim the six Infinity Stones required to complete his Infinity Gauntlet (3 years after first claiming he would “do it myself” back at the end of Age Of Ultron). This puts him on a collision course with the Asgardians (The Tesseract), the Guardians of the Galaxy (who know where the Power and Reality stones are) and Earth’s mightiest heroes with whom the Mind and Time stones currently reside.
Straight away, from the first scene and his introduction, it is clear that this is Thanos's movie. Immediately establishing as a credible threat and the toughest challenge the Avengers have ever faced. Trust me, there will no longer be jokes about him sitting on his space toilet after this. He is built like a brick space sh*t house and knows how to throw a punch and he certainly has the stones (if you'll pardon the pun) to lay the preverbial smackdown on our beloved heroes.
Josh Brolin, pulling double comic book duty this Summer, proves the perfect choice for the Titan-ic villain. Enhanced by some stunning CGI work, he is simulataneously physically imposing, viciously cruel but also singular in his vision. As all zealots, he believes that his course of action is the correct one, no matter the cost to himself, his family or the universe.

The movie's central narrative thrust follows Thanos on his quest and it turns out to be the correct move on the part of the Russo brothers and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. By making Thanos the main protagonist of the story, it allows the filmmakers to delicately keep all the different plates spinning around him. And boy are there a lot of plates. There are 14 main characters who have had their name in the title of a movie, along with dozens more who make up various iterations of the Avenger rosters.
The Russo's split their cast into teams, each with a plot thread relating to a different Infinity Stone, providing some unexpected pairings that the audience wouldn't have realised they needed until now.
Following the events of Civil War, Steve Rogers (no longer Captain America) has stuck close to fellow fugitives Black Widow and Falcon who take a jaunt to Edinburgh, Scotland to rescue Scarlet Witch and Vision, who has a literal target on his forehead.
Thor, who has shown in Ragnarok that he can mine chemistry and comedy out of any pairing, teams up with Rocket Raccoon and Groot while the rest of the Guardians travel to Knowhere as Gamora's relationship to her "father" comes to the fore.
Finally back on Earth, Doctor Strange and Tony Stark battle for the position of Alpha Male with a goatee, and constantly chastise Peter Parker for his "really old" pop culture references.
Despite the over abundance of characters, every single one gets a moment to shine either with a quip or action beat. Although given the runtime, it leaves you wanting more from them all and some plot threads are left dangling, and maybe will still exist in the form of deleted scenes on the DVD i.e. Natasha and Bruce's relationship now he's returned.
The narrative switches back and forth between the groups organically so that the audience are always aware of who is where and how Thanos's plan is advancing before the various roads to Infinity War converge on Titan (Thanos's home planet) and Wakanda for the final showdown(s).
The trailers have thankfully given away very little of the main action sequences and they definitely deliver on an epic scale unlike anything seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before.
It is a cliche in superhero movies that no one ever really dies or stays dead but right from the off, the Russo's put all their chips on the table and tell the audience that all bets are off in terms of who is walking (or flying) out alive of this battle. There is a palpable level of fear and danger every time a hero goes one-on-one with Brolin's Titan, who towers over them in the same way Dwayne The Rock Johnson towers over Kevin Hart.
No more plot details will be discussed because despite all the theorising and speculating, it goes places you simply could not have predicted and thus is best enjoyed spoiler-free.
Avengers Infinity War is the event movie to end all event movies and where possible should be seen with an audience of hardcore fans. The ones at the midnight screening were invested in every single second. Resulting in bouts of laughter, squeals of joy, shocked gasps, shedded tears and moments of pure, stunned silence... and in Scotland, cheers for a sign in a window that read "We will deep fry your kebab"!
Just like someone holding a complete Infinity Gauntlet, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is virtually unstoppable at this point and Avengers Infinity War is their finest hour so far... but one expects as a time stone would tell, the best is yet to come.

5 stars

Road to Infinity War - Phase 3 - Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Phase 3 kicked off in style with the stealth Avengers film Captain America: Civil War aka Avengers 2.5.
Admittedly there were a few worries going into the film that this was simply going to be an Avengers ensemble film rather than a Captain America film. The Russo brothers however managed to find a way to distil the story about the breakdown of the Avengers to actually further Steve Rogers' story by making the Jenga piece that threatens to topple the whole be James Sebastian Barnes aka The Winter Soldier.
Inspired by Mark Millar's game-changing comic series that crossed over many of Marvel's titles at the time, heavily influencing future storylines, it focused on the issue of a Superhero registration act that would force heroes to reveal their secret identities and become government employees.
As this was not an issue in the MCU due to the fact that most of the heroes were not hiding their identities, the storyline had to be adapted to fit in with the movie universe.
Following the events of Age of Ultron, the Avengers find themselves subjected to legislation called the Sokovia Accords. This would make them answerable to the United Nations, something that Tony agrees with but Steve refuses to sign. The battle lines are drawn between the Avengers as everyone has a different opinion on whether or not it is a good thing. Something which in particular affects Scarlet Witch and Vision's relationship which sets things up nicely for further exploration in Infinity War.
Just as the Accords are due to be passed, Bucky Barnes bombs the UN causing the death of Wakanda's King T'Chakka. This introduces audiences to the character of Black Panther in the form of his son Prince T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman). He desires revenge and goes after Barnes but Rogers sets out to protect his friend, unwilling to believe he was behind the bombing.
Upon his capture, which sees the reintroduction of Steve Rogers' beard... no, not the one in Infinity War, Sharon Carter of course, the Winter Soldier is released by a man called Zemo (Bruhl) using a HYDRA mind control technique.
In order to solve the mystery and bring his friend back, Captain America cuts ties with the Avengers, putting him on a collision course with Stark. Something that will cause all the heroes to pick a side and lead to the MCU's most iconic and fantastic scene: the Superhero Smackdown.
This was the scene that Marvel fans had dreamed of ever since Nick Fury turned up at the end of Iron Man. The chance to find out the answers to the geeky questions like "who would win in a fight? Falcon or War Machine? Ant-Man or Spider-Man?
Yes, just one of the reasons that Civil War is so good is that it is the film that brought Spider-Man into the MCU and boy does he make a great first impression. Tom Holland is perfect as the young teenage Peter Parker and he gets some wonderful moments, particularly with Cap, Falcon and Bucky.
Every character gets their moment to shine but it is Paul Rudd's Ant-Man who steals the show here with his transformation into Giant Man. When Ant-Man was first released I thought that he would transform when returning from the Quantum Realm and burst through the house but they wisely saved it for this and it was completely worth it.
It isn't just the fight at the airport but every action sequence that cemented the Russo brothers as the kings of the Marvel castle. Even going so far as to take a page out of the Marvel TV series playbook and include a fight in a corridor and stairwell.
Ultimately, the film comes down to Cap vs Iron Man as the scheme that Zemo has been plotting turns out to be a more twisted revenge tale than Oldboy as it is revealed that Barnes was the one responsible for killing Stark's parents. This results in the most emotional fight so far (even more so than Thor vs Loki) and one that puts the final nail in the coffin of the Avengers as Steve chooses Bucky over Tony "I'm sorry, Tony but he's my friend", "So was I".
Will we see the old team back together in Infinity War, only time will tell.

Fun fact: Hawkeye calls Tony "The Futurist" which is the name of the album that Robert Downey Jr released in 2004.

Infinity Stone counter = 4

Road to Infinity War - Phase 2 - Avengers: The Age Of Ultron (2015)

You know what? Avengers Age of Ultron gets a bit of an unfairly bad rep.
A lot of that comes from Joss Whedon's split from the Marvel Cinematic Universe following the release of the film where it was revealed that he had not enjoyed the process this time round, feeling that the wider needs of the Universe were getting in the way of telling the story. It also caused him to leave Twitter when fans started hating on him for certain character choices he made (*cough* Natasha and Bruce *cough*).
It is certainly not a perfect film. For one thing it is Avengers: Age of Product Placement with featured shots of Under Armour clothing, Beats headphones, Reebok trainers and, randomly, Gillette shaving cream!
What Ultron does do well is it captures the fun and excitement of having a group of superheroes working together and the wonderful chemistry established by the group of actors who have now been working together for a number of years.
It picks up where it left off, kickstarting the film with an action sequence that features Earth's mightiest heroes in a slow mo one shot again that says "we're hitting the ground running". It also contains the wonderful "language" moment.
There is the party scene where all the Avengers (except Black Widow) attempt to pick up Thor's hammer. The look on Hemsworth's face when Cap makes it wobble ever so slightly is priceless. It also has a wonderful pay off later in the film with Vision.
One of the major criticism's from fans was the middle section where they lay low at Hawkeye's family farm but it allows the movie a chance to breathe and it is a nice, welcome character development for Renner's Clint Barton who spent most of the first film under the mind control of Loki.
Given Whedon's history for killing off characters, it pulls the perfect bait-and-switch building up "one last job", "baby on the way" sacrifice for the hero that doesn't end the way you think.
It also gives him a wonderful moment with Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch where he delivers a pep talk about becoming an Avenger and how ridiculous it all is that he is just a guy with "a bow and arrow".
It is wonderful to finally see the MCU get another female superhero to add to the mix in the form of Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch (No, Maria Hill does not count!). Olsen is perfect in the role that will develop over the next phase as she struggles to deal with her enormous power and relationship to Vision, the child of Ultron.
Voiced perfectly by James Spader, Ultron is the dark mirror image of Tony Stark. Born out of a need to protect the Earth from attack but ultimately deciding the easiest way to do that is destroy humanity, he is the Monster to Stark's Doctor Frankenstein.
On reflection, now that Phase 3 is nearly complete, Age of Ultron actually fits in a lot better to the overall arching storyline. The final battle in Sokovia has huge repercussions for the group that leads into Civil War, Andy Serkis's delightfully wacky Ulysses Klaue as a plot device to introduce the notion of Wakanda (but worth it for his Cuttlefish speech) and Thor's subplot about going for a dream bath now makes a lot more sense given the events of Thor Ragnarok for example. Again it is about finding that balance between being a complete one shot film versus paving the road to Infinity War but if people were to talk a walk back down this path, they will find much more to enjoy second time around.

Infinity Stone counter = 4

Avengers Infinity War Footage Screening - Edinburgh

Tonight saw the Avengers: Infinity War press tour come to Edinburgh. Albeit in a more low key (or Loki) fashion than the London UK Fan Event this past Sunday.
Rumours had been flying around that Paul Bettany (Vision) and Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch) would be in Edinburgh for the screening sadly proved to be false but co-director Joe Russo was on hand to introduce the footage.

He started by recognising the efforts of Mae Trumata who had started an online petition to have the UK premiere of the film in Edinburgh as it was the only place that they filmed in outside of the US and spent 5 weeks shooting on location at Waverley Station and the Royal Mile.
They even built a makeshift film studio in a hanger at Leith Docks for interior shoots while they were here, bringing in $10 million to the local economy.
Russo indicated that the support for the petition was why he was there tonight, and wanted to give something back to the city “for being such incredible hosts to my brother and I and our crew. It was an amazing shoot here”.
He had to go on to apologise because Edinburgh did not appear in the footage that was being screened to the audience (*cue near riots - kidding*) but that Edinburgh would feature in the finished film and that audiences “will see about ten minutes of your beautiful city in the film, which is shot as Edinburgh - it’s not shot as another location and some pretty important sequences happen here.”
That sequence is likely to Scarlet Witch and Vision come under attack from the Black Order before being saved by Captain America… if the trailers are to be believed!
Russo teed up the footage by saying that it was two scenes coming just after the opening of the film that did not give too much away in terms of plot and action. There is only one premiere screening happening for Infinity War to cut down on potential spoilers as there are “so many secrets in this film” and they “don’t want to spoil it for anyone”.
“We have gone to great lengths to protect what happens in the movie, we wrote fake scripts and distributed them to the cast”
As for the footage that was screened… you are not getting spoilers here. You would have more chance of getting blood from an Infinity Stone!
However it is fair to say that Infinity War is in very safe hands with the Russo Brothers following Captain America The Winter Soldier and Captain America Civil War and the result will be suitably epic.
While the event might not have had the star power of the London screening, the fans left happy as Joe Russo happily chatted away with fans, posing for photos and autographs. He even arranged a second showing of the footage to fans who had initially missed out on the event.

Suffice to say that Edinburgh and Scottish Marvel fans will be assembling at their local cinemas come April 26th to see how the culmination of the first ten years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe plays out.