Shit’s about to go down in Avengers: Infinity War. Photo: Disney
Avengers: Infinity War is demanding, heartbreaking, exhilarating, massive, and dense. More than seemingly any movie so far in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it requires its viewer to be intimately acquainted with all the films that come before it – and, if you are, it’s rewarding and audacious in ways the franchise has never been before and isn’t likely to be again. It’s a movie that is not screwing around.
Directed by the Russo Brothers, Infinity War is driven by an evil villain named Thanos (Josh Brolin), glimpsed during several previous films, who decides to traverse the universe hoping to acquire the six Infinity Stones he believes will allow him to rule the galaxy. Standing in his way are almost all the heroes of the last 18 Marvel movies, including Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), the Guardians of the Galaxy, and much of their supporting casts.
The Guardians finally come into the larger MCU in Infinity War.Photo: Disney
The whole story hinges on not just knowing what happened in those previous movies, but feeling emotionally connected to all these previously introduced characters going into the theatre. Because once things get going, they get going.
Infinity War has no time for a recap. From frame one, the movie dives immediately into its story and basically doesn’t stop for the next two and a half hours. Characters, relationships, and narrative get hurled at the audience just as aggressively as the film’s many action sequences, and you’re either engaged with the characters and stakes or you’re not.
If you are, and after 10 years of movies that’s a lot of people, Infinity War gives the audience all we can want and more. Characters we never imagined coming together do. Relationships we’ve longed to see develop actually do develop.
And very, very quickly, those characters and relationships are put to the ultimate test. They’re put up against the most sinister and formidable villain, maybe ever, and massive shifts must occur to have a chance at victory.
Thanos steals the show.Photo: Disney
With several dozen Marvel characters to juggle, Infinity War‘s main narrative drive comes from Thanos. He’s big and bad, sure, but also humanized in a way that few villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been before.
Thanks to Josh Brolin’s surprisingly nuanced performance, it’s very easy to understand why he’s bent on killing off half the universe. At times, he genuinely seems sympathetic, mainly because we spend more time with him than most other characters in the film.
His prominence may disappoint some fans hoping for more from their favourite heroes, because with so many heroes to juggle, none of them really get to stand out. Vision (Paul Bettany) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) get a small, but surprisingly interesting arc. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) is used sparingly, but effectively.
Okoye (Danai Gurira) and Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) work together well. Beyond that, though, everyone is given one or two great moments and, eventually, those begin to pile up into something bigger. And ultimately, the greater focus on Thanos raises the stakes for the moments the heroes do appear.
But this isn’t two and a half hours of Thanos. All of the Marvel characters are jumbled up and sent on various missions, resulting in roughly five or six narrative threads that weave throughout the movie. That’s a lot of story to tell and Infinity War does so by structuring itself almost like a book, with sections that start but then don’t continue for sometimes an hour or more.
That means a few pieces are more exciting than the others and many times, lots of information is delivered in short periods of time. The result is that the film drags some in the middle, but as those threads slowly come together, so too does the film’s pacing, leading to a jaw-dropping final act that takes up roughly a third of the movie. It’s enormous, filled with big action and bigger emotion, and its conclusion can only be described as staggering.
Vision and Scarlet Witch are two of the best characters in Infinity War.Photo: Disney
By the end of Avengers: Infinity War, it’s almost hard to get your mind around everything you’ve seen – to the point where you may start planning your next screening as you walk out of the theatre.
Marvel’s Phase Three isn’t over – it won’t be until Avengers 4 next year – but to say every movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been leading up to Infinity War is absolutely true. And it’s a chapter fans will never forget.
Avengers: Infinity War is airing nationally now.
Comments
31 responses to “The Incredible Avengers: Infinity War Lives Up To All The Hype”
Cant wait to see what DC fanboys say about this.
Its an amazing bit of film and Thanos is the stand out.
Please, this whole DC fanboy dislike thing doesn’t exist, it’s just a bunch of people hating on what people like, for their own amusement.
It keeps being bought up every movie, but it’s all hot air
Doesnt change the fact that its hilarious that people will nitpick the smallest things over it and say its shit.
Mate, I’m a DC fanboy since day dot. I love Batman, Superman, Green Lantern et al for life. I was utterly blown away by this. I love the MCU and think it’s one of the greatest achievements in the history of cinema. I do wish WB/DC could get their act together and replicate it, or get their act together and deliver something of similair quality, but until such time as they go through their ‘dark days’ and come out the other end understanding exactly what they need to to get things right, like Marvel did (and don’t be misled, they definitely did for a long time…), I doubt DC will, at least until they have that humbling experience that Marvel did of nearly losing everything at some point.
As far as the film goes, it *is* amazing, it’s great, I loved every single bit of it. I laughed, I teared up, I sat on the edge of my goddamn seat so many times. I felt like I was ten years old again in the cinema, I’m forty now and haven’t felt that way in so damn long. So yeah, that’s how this DC fanboy felt. Elated that someone managed to make him feel like a child again watching a movie, it was an almost transcendental experience in that regard.
Probably not the reaction you were hoping for, but I hope it was satisfactory 🙂 Have a good one.
I’d go one step further and say I’m a DC fanboy who has even (mostly) enjoyed the DC movies so far and I still agree with you on the Marvel side of things.
Even the ‘bad’ MCU films have been as good, if-not better, than half of DC’s films – yeah I enjoyed BvS but it was such a poorly made film (still so disappointed for what could have been) that I still think the first two Thor films and the Edward Nortan Hulk were better.
Infinity War is certainly in another league to anything DC have done (no pun intended). Easily one of Marvels best, though I feel like I’m saying that with all their new films lately.
What I’ve noticed is a trend with Marvel that every 2nd or 3rd movie we’re seeing them ‘going back to the drawing board’ with the faults of previous movies.
1. Poorly thought out villains? Here’s some well thought out, well presented villainy with three dimensional character development!
2. Bland heroes with shallow development? Here’s some indepth, flawed heroes with very real issues that echo real life for most of us.
3. Everyones kinda coming from the same cultural background and gender? (Let’s not kid ourselves. I’m no SJW myself, but the initial run of Marvel was kinda white…) it’s become so diverse it’s great to see. But, I will agree, it’d be nice to see more Asian representation… that always seems to get lost in the ‘black and white’ argument.
4. “The movies lack colour and look bland!” A VERY valid comment when you watch most of their catalogue. And then Guardians happened. BUT then Civil War happened. AND THEN Guardians 2 happened. And then Black Panther which looked sumptuous. And Infinity War ran with it and looked utterly glorious.
So yeah, Marvel keeps fixing its issues, clearly listening, it’s really benefitting from this attitude, while DC is lagging behind, because quite frankly WB is making them drag, responding to a board, reacting rather than being proactive.
Whats really interesting to me is the implications of the After Credit Sence. Like, it hints at Cap Marvel, but the rest of it is FAR more interesting.
Then there is the Ant-Man and The Wasp coming out, which is set BETWEEN the infantry war movies. How will the implications of what happened in IW work into the Ant-Man story? I mean, it has to in some way, given what happened.
The movie was absolutely amazing, I’ve never been in a theatre where there was so much silence and then so much chatter as the credits began to roll. I was in shock and awe at the ending.
The minute I got out of the cinema I started looking up which films are in production to try and figure out how the hell they’re going to pull this off.
given the post credit scene
it will be interesting to see if Captain Marvel will have any hints even if the movie is set in the 90sI doubt it.
With Both Ant-man & the Wasp and Captain Marvel set before Infinity War, I doubt either will tie into the story outside of maybe their own post-credit scenes showing the end of Infinity War happening around them. Then we’ll pick up with them in and the classic Avengers in A4.Oh I don’t expect a literal tie in for her, but given her power set and how Kevin Feige describes her as one of the most powerful superhero ever introduced, I’m ?hoping? / expecting the movie will answer where the heck she is during every world ending major event (first battle of NY, Ultron etc)And are they going to leave half the cast of Agents of SHIELD dead for a year?That was one of the bravest endings to a movie I’ve seen since The ESB.
It was solid; sure it had some story flaws, a couple of scenes weren’t as visually touched up as others and it felt like there were too many characters at some points, but the movue was really entertaining and I look forward to next year.
I’ve seen it twice. Will probably see it a third time this weekend!
Great flick! Juggled all the characters and team-ups really well, and led to an absolutely devastating finale. Almost too much so… one wonders how they can possible come back from that :/
Tbh I think it’s a bit obvious, it was all there in the movie. Think back to Dr Strange’s role in it and his stone.
Im guessing Cap, Tony and Thor probably give their lives to use the soul stone and time stone to bring everyone back.I don’t see them losing Thor right after the success of Thor 3 tbh. Cap and Tony I think are going to reunite and sacrifice themselves, yes.See, I’d love for that to be the case because the Thor movies are actually some of my favourites in the MCU, but… Hemsworth has been pretty forthcoming about wanting out of his contract for a while, now. (As, actually, have many of the first-phase actors – funnily enough, they want to do other things with the primes of their careers, before they get old.) Best case scenario they stun him into submission with a few dump-trucks of money, next-best, we get Lady Thor.it felt a bit rushed sometimes but I’ll be dammed if it wasn’t satisfying to watch even after having seen it 3 times
I just wish that
they’d spared Spiderman and more of the Guardians. The fact that we know Spiderman 2 and GOTG3 are already in production implies that this all gets CTRL+Z’d at some point. If they’d survived I might be more inclined to think it was permanent.well part 2 is comming out next year isnt it? so if GoTG 3 and Spiderman 2 are in production already, they wont be out until after part 2 comes out. what will be interesting is Antman and Wasp because that comes out later this yearAntman and the Wasp takes place between Civil War and Avengers 3. Spiderman 2 takes place allegedly ‘a few hours after Avengers 4’.Hawkeye must be playing a big part in Ant-Man and The Wasp I reckon. They mentioned he was in hiding I think (?) but I have a feeling he must be being held back for a support role in one of these upcoming movies.
That disappointed me at first too but I realised this means the start of A4 will be the phase 1 Avengers cast – Iron Man, Cap, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye (+ some extras with Ant-Man/Wasp and Captain Marvel). Will be great to see them back together again, especially as I doubt they’ll all survive it.Oh, I dunno…
Don’t count out the permanency. Being signed to newer upcoming movies doesn’t mean anything when they can either by pre-quels/set before Avengers 4, and/or the roles might actually be flashback/dream-sequence/vision guide/spirit animal bulllshit roles, meant to provide context for the heroes who take over. Remember, Spidey’s got Miles Morales, Thors got ‘all of the Thors’ (specifically lady Thor), and the Guardians have the Elder crew. Cap was supposed to have been replaced by Sam, but there’s nothing stopping Rhodey from taking the spot.One interesting possibility is that they might not be able to restore things quite the same as they were before. Imagine if they all go to Titan and use the reality warping powers of the stones to bring everyone back to life. Then come back to earth and find that the Baxter Building in New York, and everyone else remembers the X-Men being around for the last 50 years.I like how Australia was given the whole day off to watch Infinity War.
Okay I’m more pro DC, just cos those were the characters and stories that shaped my childhood, but that hasn’t stopped me from watching every Marvel film since Iron Man. Some good, some not so much.
Watching Infinity War unfold in front of me – having flashbacks to seeing all the other films over the past 10 years, it was almost surreal.
I hope DC find their footing and can eventually produce quality films on the regular, until then I’m more than happy to see where the Marvel ride goes next.
And I geeked out so much at The Black Order… 🙂