Where will you be when it all ends?
Avengers: Infinity War is a 2018 superhero film directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, produced by Marvel Studios, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film is based on various Avengers comics by Marvel comics. It stars Josh Brolin and Robert Downey, Jr.. It was nominated for Best Visual Effects, but did not win. This is the nineteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the third in the Avengers series. It acts as the first part to the culmination of Marvel's Infinity Saga, being a sequel to Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, and Black Panther. It is followed by Avengers: Endgame.
"Perfectly balanced, as all things should be." -Thanos
Plot
When the Mad Titan Thanos threatens to rain death and destruction upon the universe by collecting all six Infinity Stones, the Avengers must prepare to fight the evil warlord. Still separated from Civil War, Earth's mightiest heroes begin a battle that they may not win.
Positive Aspects
Let me just make this clear: This is my favorite movie in the MCU. Easily. It is also one of my favorite movies of all time. I absolutely love this film and have seen it almost fifteen times.
First off, the scale of this film is gigantic. I don't think that there has ever been a movie until Endgame and Rise of Skywalker that have had even close to the just massive size of this film. It is so much fun to finally see every character in the MCU interact with each other, whether it's Iron Man and Doctor Strange, Iron Man and Star-Lord, Thor and Rocket, and everybody with Thanos. There are so many characters that get to meet so many other characters that we already know. It is so cool to see all of our favorite heroes banter with each other.
And, of course, you gotta talk about Thanos. Thanos may not be the greatest villain of all time, but he's up there with Joker and Vader and Loki. The writers did one of the smartest things that they could've done in this movie and made Thanos the main character in the film. He has the most screen time. This movie is not about the Avengers. It's about Thanos and his journey. Usually we get to see the hero's journey, but in the case of Infinity War, we get the villain's journey. We get to see his side of the story. You can understand where he is coming from. He has seen a dark and hungry world that needs saving. Now, mind you, his way of saving is not exactly a perfect plan either, because eliminating half of all life is not the best way to solve the universal problem, but he believes that he is the hero of the story. That makes him one of the most interesting characters of all time.
The performances all click perfectly. Josh Brolin's menacing voice works perfectly for Thanos, and he makes every line sound like a well-thought out philosophy. His performance as a nine-foot tall massive CGI purple alien is the best in the movie, and that's a movie that has multiple Oscar-winning actors and actresses performing in it. This is one of the best voice-acted performances that I have ever seen.
There are about fifty other people that are prominent in this film, so I can't really praise all of them without making this review a fifteen minute read. So let me just do the highlights. Obviously, leading the heroes is Robert Downey, Jr. He does the usual Iron Man schtick, but it works so well when you throw in his sarcastic personality with Benedict Cumberbatch's serious Doctor Strange and Chris Pratt's idiotic Star-Lord. Speaking of that, the chemistry between the people on Titan is one-of-a-kind. I love the funny exchanges between all of them, and it adds light to an otherwise dark movie. Cumberbatch takes the situation incredibly seriously as Doctor Strange, and it works so well with Downey and Holland with him. This is an experienced Doctor Strange that we did not see in his solo outing, but did get a glimpse of him in Ragnarok. It was nice to see that in full swing. Tom Holland is very Spider-Man-like throughout, with his kid-like antics and his humor, but he gave the single most horrifying and sad death scene that I have ever seen. Had I not known that it was going to happen when I first saw Infinity War (I got that spoiled for me), I would've absolutely cried.
Chris Hemsworth does a bit of a different Thor than he did in Ragnarok. He still has the charm and stupidity of the Thor that we've seen before, but there is definitely emotion present. The "What more could I lose?" speech is heart-breaking and you see a heartfelt conversation between two characters who are usually not very emotional. Chris Pratt also does a bit of a more emotional performance. The biggest thing is when he finds out that Gamora is dead, he flips out, and it is so sincere and dark, but Pratt could've easily messed it up. He didn't, however, and it brings out a violent, aggressive, and vengeful Star-Lord.
Zoe Saldana actually feels like the deuteragonist of this film, because of her relationship to Thanos. She serves a major part in this film and is angry and sad for most of the film, which just adds to the darkness and heavy weight of this movie. Her death scene is almost as sad as Spider-Man's, as you just can feel the helplessness of our heroes against this unstoppable foe.
Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany share some great chemistry. They both buy fully into the Wanda-Vision romance, and it pays off at the end of the film when Scarlet Witch has to destroy the Mind Stone and kill Vision. like everything else in this film, it is just devastating when Vision dies...both times. Elizabeth
Those are really the highlights, but the rest of the performances are all good. Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, and Chadwick Boseman all have smaller roles, but they all put on much more serious faces and have a darker, more emotion based portrayal of the character. I'm not gonna list the rest of them because there are too many people, so just check the cast list at the very, very end of the review.
This movie is definitely the darkest and most emotional/saddest movie in the MCU. Obviously, the end amplifies that by a million, but Thanos' devil-like presence and violent, aggressive manner make this movie so foreboding and so dark. It is not a happy tone at all, and has a huge "end of the world" vibe. This is the movie that out-darked the DCEU, and it was nice to have a chance of pace in this universe.
The action is one of the many great things about this film. It is so much fun to watch, even though it usually ends up with Thanos beating the pulp out of the heroes. This movie is almost non-stop action from the beginning scene, and all of the action sequences have a massive scale and massive stakes, like the rest of the movie. You also get to see the full strength of all of the Avengers. You see Doctor Strange generating a hundred more astral projections of himself. Scarlet Witch lifts up three giant vehicles and crushes a ton of aliens with them. Iron Man uses nanotech to destroy Thanos and his army. And Thor's entrance in Wakanda is the best forty-five seconds of a superhero movie ever. It is the coolest entrance by any character in the history of film. It is so badass and great to just watch this almighty god obliterate these world-threatening aliens and yell "Bring me Thanos!". You cannot watch that scene as a Marvel fan and not smile. I love that in the action, every single hero gets their own moment. And they had to spread the love between a lot of heroes.
And, of course, the end is classic. It is so gut-wrenching and devastating to watch as Winter Soldier, Black Panther, Star-Lord, Doctor Strange, etc. all fade away to dust. Every time another hero disintegrates, it feels like somebody just stabbed you in the stomach. It all pays off to Spider-Man's horrifying death, which I talked about already. This is the saddest and most unexpected ending to a movie that I have ever seen. Maybe Titanic and Logan are close, but they still don't reach this level. There is no music, just an ominous wind as all of our favorite characters fade away to dust. This is the first time in a superhero movie that the heroes have truly lost, and it hurts.
Finally, this is one of the best stories in the MCU. The hunt for the Infinity Stones is just so much fun to watch, as Thanos travels across the Marvel universe to track down the most powerful objects in the universe. Every hero reacts to it differently, but everybody knows the powerful threat that Thanos is. The movie feels so urgent and intense, and the fast-paced storytelling makes it that way.
Negative Aspects
I have no negatives on this film. The one thing that I could see as a small problem is that you have to have watched a lot of MCU movies to understand what's going on in Infinity War. That could be a negative if you haven't seen Marvel movies and don't know much about the MCU.
Final Score
This is the best movie in a universe full of great films. Infinity War delivers on every level, from action to size to characters to emotional weight.
I will give it a Sweet rating. Age range is 9+.
"Avengers: Infinity War"
Fun Factor: 10/10
Acting: 9.5/10
Characters: 10/10
Story: 10/10
Quality: 9.5/10
Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo
Released on April 27, 2018
Rated PG-13 for superhero action and violence, disturbing scenes, language
2 hours and 29 minutes
Josh Brolin as Thanos
Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
Zoe Saldana as Gamora
Chris Hemsworth as Thor Odinson
Chris Evans as Steve Rodgers/Captain America
Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange
Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord
Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa/Black Panther
Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
Paul Bettany as Vision
Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine
Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer
Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon
Karen Gillan as Nebula
Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon
Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier
Benedict Wong as Wong
Pom Klementieff as Mantis
Danai Gurira as Okoye
Letitia Wright as Shuri
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill
Stan Lee as The Bus Driver