Avengers: Infinity War is a 2018 superhero film about the Avengers and their allies who must be willing to sacrifice all in an attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos before his blitz of devastation and ruin puts an end to the universe.
I haven’t felt like this leaving a movie since The Dark Knight came out a decade ago. I have no idea how Joe and Anthony Russo were able to tackle such a monster project that was 10 years and 18 films in the making, but hats off to them. In quite possibly the most epic film endeavor ever they delivered 110%. I’m still in shock that they were able to pull off such a tremendous feat, but the movie speaks for itself.
I’m extremely torn on how to give a review for this film for two reason. First, the movie is all over the place. When balancing such a massive amount of characters spread across multiple galaxies, it’s hard not to be. Therefore, trying to piece together everything that was going on and all the jumping back and forth is a challenge. Second, I don’t want to spoil a single moment of the film. I did my best avoiding any spoiler bait online today, and to ruin even the slightest detail for someone who has yet to see the movie feels unfair. I’ll do my best at giving a high-level overview, and then give some more feedback on the overall production.
The movie picks up virtually right where Thor: Ragnarok ends, with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the escaped Asgardians sitting face to face with Thanos (Josh Brolin). We see the remnants of the battle between them, and get a chance to really meet Thanos and his Black Order. It doesn’t take long to get a feel for the true nature of Thanos’s cruelty and ambition. He believes that for there to be balance in the world he must destroy half of every planet’s population. In turn, civilizations will avoid overpopulation and lack of resources. Obviously completing this task requires some serious power, so Thanos is traveling planet to planet gathering the six Infinity Stones. If he’s able to acquire these he will be virtually unstoppable.
Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), still paired up with Thor, is able to escape to New York where he meets up with Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr). He warns them of the impending threat of Thanos, but it’s not long before part of the Black Order is invading earth to retrieve the Infinity Stone that Dr. Strange is hiding. Meanwhile, Vision (Paul Bettany) and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) are spending some romantic time together when they are also attacked by part of the Black Order to get the Infinity Stone that’s embedded in Vision’s forehead. Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) come to their aid, and are able to fend off the Black Order.
To avoid having the Infinity Stone ripped from Vision’s head and in turn killing him, the team decides to head to Wakanda where there might be the technology to remove the stone. Once there, they team up with Prince T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), his guards and local tribes, and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) to hold off an attack from more of Thanos’s alien monsters while T’Challa’s sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright), attempts to remove Vision’s stone. Throughout all of this, Thor, having recently bumped into the Guardians of the Galaxy, is attempting to find a famous weapons forger to provide him what is needed to stop Thanos.
Obviously, I left a ton of detail out, but hopefully that gives a general idea of the direction. Throughout the film there is even more character interaction and worlds traveled to, along with some unexpected yet familiar faces popping up, but I’ll leave that to the audience to see for themselves. One aspect that really amazes me about this film is its balance. The Russo brothers did an unbelievable job at bouncing around to all of the different storylines, yet getting characters pretty equal screen time. Not to mention the movie doesn’t feel like you’re cutting back and forth all the time and can’t keep track of things, it flows perfectly. The film never gets bogged down with boring or slow storylines because nothing is unnecessarily dragged out, and you’re constantly engaged. Time wasn’t a luxury that they had here, and the fact that they packed everything into 2.5 hours is remarkable.
This movie included everything that makes the Marvel films so great. The dialogue, per usual, was witty and packed with humor. Throughout the film I was either on the edge of my seat from the intense action, or laughing pretty hard at the banter amongst characters. That’s one thing that makes some of the Marvel movies so special is being able to balance a certain amount of seriousness with humor. Infinity War is no different, and they even mixed in some of the tone from Ragnarok into Thor’s lines (which was refreshing).
In comparison to the other Marvel movies, Infinity Wars had an Avengers feel to it but with better action. What made the first Avengers so great was the whole “getting to know you” phase with the superheroes. There had been some minor crossover during the individual films, but seeing them all interact and figure out how to work as a team was the best part. I got a little bit of that vibe in Infinity War because of how distant a lot of the characters had become, as well as characters like Dr. Strange and the Guardians being new to the mix.
I do have two gripes about the film, one of which I totally understand and can appreciate that it was unavoidable. The first one is that I could’ve used a bit more screen time from certain characters. I didn’t love Captain America after his first film, but following Winter Soldier and Civil War he’d become one of my favorites. So, I was a little disappointed that he didn’t have more action in Infinity War. I also could’ve used some more Black Panther, but as I said earlier, time wasn’t on the Russo brother’s side. The other gripe I have is that I thought the ending happened a bit too quick. Not only that, it happened with minimal explanation. I was sitting there scratching my head, and next thing I knew the credits were rolling.
Still, I’m pretty sure this is my favorite Marvel movie yet. It delivers the fun and flare of the first Avengers, mixed with the high intensity action and well-choreographed fight scenes we’ve come to know in the recent Captain America movies. Fan or not, go see this in the theater. It’s worth every penny.