SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

‘Avengers: Infinity War’ is the newest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The plot of the movie revolves around the mad titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) going around the universe trying to collect all of the infinity stones and assemble them to balance the universe the way he views it. But it is up to the Avengers to pair with the Guardians of the Galaxy and stop Thanos from wreaking havoc.

To date, this is the biggest Marvel movie, and quite frankly one of the biggest films of all time. This  has been built up by for over ten years now since the release of ‘Iron Man’ (2008). So, there is a lot of expectations to be met by avid fans who have been patiently waiting for this moment.

The best thing about the film by far is Thanos. It truly is his movie. He has been teased in a few of the past MCU movies. But it was nothing that could really get fans dedicated to his character. Underdeveloped villains are a problem Marvel has faced before. In the past, there have been some bad guys that the audience just didn’t care for because the character seemed to lack a background story and motivation for doing what they do. Cough (Whiplash) cough. But since the beginning of the third phase of the MCU, Marvel has seemed to learn about this villain problem and have really put the time and energy into making the villains of each film connected and integral to the story.

Sadly people were still worried this problem was going to fall on Thanos. He had been built up for over ten years now. He has to have a reason to be the biggest, the baddest creature the MCU characters have ever faced. If you have a poorly developed villain, who is the main character of the film, everything just crumbles down.

From the very first five minutes of the film, fans get to see what they have been waiting for. What Thanos does is truly destructive and it sets the tone for the rest of the movie: a very dark heist film. Thanos is, without a doubt, the best Marvel villain that there has ever been. He is a real despicable person, but yet at the same time, you sympathize with him. You get to see his pain and why he wants to wipe out half of existence. He is most definitely better than Whiplash from “Iron Man 2″.

Seeing a movie from the villains view point is so much more fun than some would expect, especially when you have a great character to tell a story about.

Yes. There is comedy in a Marvel movie. And some fans were a bit worried. Myself included. Going in, I expected there to be a darker tone due to the nature of Thanos and how he viewed the various problems the universe faced with overpopulation. Having quirky one-liners would indeed be distracting. But, I’ll admit the jokes here are some of the best yet in a Marvel movie, if not the best. Sometimes it was reassuring because it helped soothe the audience after something bad happened. Plus, having the Guardians means there are going to be some fun goofy shenanigans. 

There is bound to be some pretty cool team ups of various superheroes in the film because of how many there actually are. My personal favorite was Thor and Rocket. I think both of these characters work really well together on screen. The dialogue between the two was very quippy. Also, Doctor Strange and Iron Man were incredible. Both characters are so much alike and they can never seem to agree with each other, and that goes back to the comedy. Stark and Strange always seem to be bickering with each other. Tony Stark has finally seemed to meet someone who is his match…kind of. Even though Stark doesn’t seem to want the approval of Strange throughout the film, there are various scenes where it is implied.

Where the film falters is when it jumps around from place to place. This movie is full of almost every big Hollywood name. It takes place mostly in three different locations, so it has to jump around a lot to show us what is going on and how they are dealing with it. Sometimes it could be more than 20 minutes before we even see one of the groups. So, having a lot of characters on screen together is cool. But it can also feel a bit too overcrowded a various points.

If a movie has over 30 main characters, it is bound to have some that don’t get the most screen time. But, both Russo brothers said in an interview that if fans felt some of their favorite heroes didn’t get a lot of screen time in ‘Infinity War,’ they would not have to worry because the currently untitled ‘Avengers 4’ will allow those who took a backseat to have the most screen time.

Also, and some may disagree with me on this, but there was one joke involving Thor and Rocket that I felt went on too long. The first few times it was pretty funny, I can’t deny that, but after a while it just wasn’t anymore. At points in the film when the joke would drop it began to feel overused.

There were also some scenes where the CGI looked a bit wonky. Granted this movie is filled with incredible, jaw-dropping scenes. But there were just a few where you can notice that not the same amount of work was put into it. It doesn’t take away from the film at all. It can just look a strange. Chances are it is something that will go unnoticed by the average moviegoer.

Overall, ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ is what most will want, hopefully. Like I said above, it’s a movie that has been built for ten-years now. It will give patient audiences what they wanted, especially if they’re fans of the ‘Infinity Gauntlet’ comic. There are some very cool and clever surprises. So I would recommend you go into this movie knowing nothing.

The film ends with one wanting more, immediately. But fret not, we won’t have to wait long because the ‘Avengers 4’ hits theaters May 2019.

‘Avengers: Infinity War’ is in theaters now.