On May 2, 2008 “Iron Man” launched into theaters nationwide and set in motion the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now, one decade and nearly 20 films later, it has all come down to this.
“Avengers: Infinity War” follows the titular superhero group as they prepare to make battle against Thanos, played by Josh Brolin, as he attempts to gather the six Infinity Stones in order to wipe out half the universe.
And that’s about it for the description of the plot. This is a movie you’re going to want to know as little as possible when watching it.
Needless to say, the film, which currently has the highest grossing opening weekend in film history making over 600 million worldwide, is one of the most anticipated films of the decade. Most fans going into this movie had one thought on their minds: “Please lets this be good.”
And despite a few shortcomings, “Infinity War” isn’t just good, It’s fantastic.
Let’s get this out of the way; Thanos is one of the best villains to grace the MCU. While Marvel has had a noticeable villain problem, most of them being one-dimensional characters that exist only for the hero to defeat by the end of the film, Thanos is breath of fresh air. His character is surprisingly complex and sympathetic. The opening scene alone tells you that this is a character to be feared. And Brolin’s menacing performance is brought to life beautifully through incredibly realistic looking motion capture that replicates the actor’s subtlest facial tics.
The tone of the film is also very mature for an MCU movie. Yes, it’s still a crowd-pleasing comic book film with lots of hilarious one-liners and banter, but there’s a sense of hopelessness and desperation to the film that just elevates as the story progresses. Culminating in a final act that will definitely shock and awe the audience.
The sheer amount of heroes in this film is a double-bladed sword. On the plus side it’s a genuine delight to see all these heroes share the screen together. The script makes the wise decision of splitting up the heroes into separate groups making the plot easier to follow. This results in getting unique pairings the best of which being Rocket Racoon and Thor, played by Bradley Cooper and Chris Hemsworth respectively, whose banter is constantly hilarious.
However not everyone gets equal screen time resulting in some heroes being left in the background.
And splitting the Avengers can make the film a bit choppy in a few places. Overall it works in the movie’s favor and keeps the pace constantly moving but at times you forget about some story arcs so it’s bit of a jolt when the film decides to cut back to it after nearly 30 minutes have gone by. It doesn’t ruin the film but it’s a noticeable flaw.
The action sequences however are breathtaking. The Russo Bros utilizes lots of wide shots with very few cuts making every fight scene feel epic in scale. Combined with both practical effects and convincing CGI, “Infinity War” features some of the most memorable scenes in the series.
“Avengers: Infinity War” is a superhero movie triumph. It lives up to expectations of fans as well pushing the MCU into bold new territories. The only downside is that now we have to wait a year for the next “Avengers” movie to find out what’s next for our heroes.
