Avengers: Infinity War movie review

Here's what you need to know; a threat greater than anything the Avengers have faced before is on its way to Earth, Thanos, a Titan with the desire to harness the power of the Infinity Stones and use it to commit genocide on a galactic scale. But with the Avengers scattered and uncoordinated, and Thanos' forces behind every corner, they need all the help they can get, enlisting the help of the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Masters of the Mystic Arts and the Black Panther in a desperate effort to halt Thanos' advancement, but even that might not be enough this time.
Leave it to a Marvel movie to breathe life into my local cinema, the place is practically dead every time I'm there, but on the opening weekend of the most anticipated film of the year, maybe one of the most anticipated of the decade, the hype was as palpable as the lobby was packed. Not since Jurassic World's opening in 2015 have I been in an Odeon auditorium as full, which almost makes me feel like the thing I enjoy more than anything else in the world isn't a total waste of my life. But enough about dwelling on the crushing sense of failure that looms over my every decision, it's time to dig into Infinity War, yes, there's late to the party, and then there's me, this film's been out for a good while now, and everything that can be said about it has probably already been said, but the honest truth is I wrote practically all of this review a month ago, and never bothered to publish it, so let's fix that.

So Infinity War's a marvel movie, and that means witty quips, fast action, and people in cool suits, but for me Marvel movies tend to shine brightest in their less comedic moments, and on that point, I was in love with Infinity War before the film even started. The best way to describe the mood of the film's opening sequence is dread, with the bleak, atmospheric music playing over the Marvel intro, accompanied by the crackly, disjointed distress call of the Asgardian refugee ship, then followed by possibly the best intro to a villain in the franchise's history, Thanos looming large over a room full of dead and dying Asgardians. This intro has it all, a smattering of action, a minor alleviation considering that we then get an admirably cruel death. You know me, I don't like it when films keep it clean; I criticised Black Panther for not having the balls to show blood when someone got their throat cut, and Thor: Ragnarok for not making its villain kill an innocent civilian, and then in comes Infinity War, with Thanos crushing someone's neck like it's made of tin foil. What this intro does brilliantly is establish a mood for the film, a not so subtle signifier that no one is safe, the best I can compare it to is the opening scene of last year's IT, a scene that establishes the cruelty of the villain perfectly, while also casting the safety of its heroes into doubt, and while Infinity War is obviously nowhere near as horrific, the effect is the same, and I loved it. It's after this opening however that we get to one of the film's weaknesses, if you could call it that, as this film's roster of heroes is expectedly massive, bringing together the vast majority of the MCU's heroes to fight Thanos, but that's dozens of characters that the film has to juggle, and no matter how well you do that, there's going to be problems. But knocking the film for its hack of character development would be stupid, as that would be ignoring the rest of the MCU's long list of character developing solo films, but that obviously isn't the issue, it's that the roster is so massive that the film constantly bounces around and tries to juggle all of these people being in different places and fighting different fights, which, no matter how well they do it, is inevitably going to be at least a little messy. You have Iron Man, Dr Strange and Spider Man meeting up with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor going with Groot and Rocket to get a replacement hammer, everybody else on Earth trying to protect Vision and the Infinity Stone in his head, and to top it all off, you have Thanos going on his own personal journey, however you cut it, that's a lot of juggling, and the fact that the film's still coherent is admittedly quite impressive. The film's romances are, however, weak, I never really got invested in the Vision, Scarlet Witch romance, and Star Lord's romance with Gamora is something that probably needed another Guardians film to develop, and how it impacts the film's finale could easily break the film for a lot of people, which isn't unfair to say; the people who blame Daryl for Glen's death in The Walking Dead will leave this film with one hell of a hatred of Star Lord. Another thing that's equal parts expected and saddening is that some people aren't given much to do; with the likes of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Dr Strange getting the most to do, and characters like Wong, Bucky and practically everyone from Black Panther getting the back seat, though again, this is inevitable, a film's runtime is finite, it's resources, finite, if character moments are left unchecked, coherence will cease to exist.

Shit, I'm quoting Thanos, well, that wasn't a terrible segue at all. Right, Thanos, where to begin, how about him being awesome. When Thanos makes his entrance in this film, he is menacing, looming over the dead, and killing major characters, but what's remarkable about Infinity War is how, in addition to the juggling it does with its good guys, it gives a villain who is well developed, sympathetic, and frightening. Thanos' plan of intergalactic genocide is not motivated by malice, like the villain in Black Panther, his motives and beliefs aren't so black and white, pun intended, rather they are complex and nuanced, and informed by a deeply warped and misguided quest for justice. Kill Monger sees the suffering of black people as the fault of "their oppressors" and sought to end that suffering, and the film did a great job of not being preachy about which side was right; with Kill Monger's dream of a planet spanning race war is no more right or wrong than Wakanda's rulers turning their backs on the world around them when they have the power to help. In Infinity War, Thanos' goal to half the universe's population is insane, monstrous, simple, but, before any of those, a plan spawned from good intentions, since Thanos had to watch his planet die due to lack of resources. Like Kill Monger, and indeed like many great villains, he's the hero of his own story; he repeatedly calls his mission an act of mercy, referring to the suffering he survived and his desire to prevent that suffering from ever happening again. This portrayal of Thanos makes the film's ending far deeper than it otherwise would have been, with ominous and terrifying implications, but with a final shot that is as beautiful as it is haunting, and is one of the most emotionally fulfilling endings I've ever seen, and that's honestly not an exaggeration. Thanos is the driving force of this film for me, my favourite scenes are all scenes that he's in, and like Doctor Strange made me go out and buy a little Doctor Strange to put on my shelf, Infinity War makes me want to go out and buy a little Thanos, I loved him in this film.

But Infinity War isn't all Thanos, as sad as that is, there's also some fighting here and there, some action for the kids, so how is the action. There are a few good action sequences in the film; there's an incredibly brief scuffle with Thanos and Hulk that I really enjoyed, and the throw down in New York with Iron Man, Doctor Strange and Spider Man taking on the children of Thanos is okay, as is the throw down in Scotland with Vision and Scarlet Witch getting their arses kicked by the other children of Thanos.  In all honesty though, these fights weren't anything massively special, not compared to what the film has to offer later. The big Wakanda battle at the end also kind of sucks, there's no nice way of saying it. It sucks because of the lack of tension; with Black Panther and his royal army working with what's left of the Avengers to fend off an army of bug lizards. The thing about these bug lizards is that they have no concept of self-preservation, and just swarm in massive numbers, they're all the same, they don't have faces or names, and die by the dozen, they're compete fodder, and thus aren't very threatening to the heroes. This wouldn't be a massive problem if there wasn't then the battle of Titan, with Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Spider Man and the Guardians of the Galaxy fighting Thanos, a fight that is beautiful to behold, with everyone working together and using their powers to overpower Thanos, and that tension that's non-existent in the Wakanda battle is here in abundance in the Titan battle, especially when things inevitably go to shit, leading to an incredible one on one with Thanos and Iron Man that I adore. In fact, let's just stretch that out to the last fifteen minutes or so of the film, the point at which you realise how this film will end, as those final moments are a rollercoaster, and the big thing, the thing that's big that I can't say anything specific about, is a moment that silenced the crowd in all five of the showings of this film I've been to. in fact there were kids at all of those showings, and in two of them, I heard crying coming from somewhere in the audience, this film makes kids cry, and that makes me smile, interpret that how you will. How I interpret that is these kids have just seen something they've never seen before on the big screen, and it's freaked them out that something like it could happen, and even I can't believe the balls on this film to pull off an ending like that. But I love the ending, it just works so well, the last spoken line, the brilliant music, the emotional final shot, it would obviously be an impossibility, but if the MCU ended like this, that'd actually make me happy, this ending is just so grim and impactful, but I suppose some of that impact is lessened by the fact that some, maybe even most of the deaths in the film aren't permanent, but ultimately this ending will be judged a year from now, and will be judged based on how it pays off in Avengers 4, or how it gets completely ruined, only time will tell.

All that for a drop of blood
Avengers: Infinity War is one of those films that I can't stop thinking about, when I first saw it, I enjoyed it, but after the third showing, fourth showing, fifth showing, I was only finding new reasons to love it. It's an achievement that the film manages to balance all of its heroes as well as it does, even though some characters aren't in the film much, and don't have much to do. But they all have movies where they do stuff, and this movie isn't theirs, it's Thanos', Infinity War's villain is its strongest aspect, being compelling, menacing, frightening, and sympathetic, he's brilliant, and the film is at its absolute best when he's on screen. The film does suffer in some aspects; it's romances feel underdeveloped, and some of its action sequences range from fine to dull, but that is insignificant compared to the Titan battle, which might the most awesomest super hero battle ever, with a climactic, tense, and incredible one on one that I adored. And while right not it's impossible to know if the film's ending will pay off, and a certainty that some, possibly most of the dead heroes will return, the film's ending is still damn creepy, and certainly leaves an impact. Infinity War is fantastic, it's a film I've seen five times, and I know I'm not done with it yet, it's definitely worth watching.