The Beginning of the End... Avengers: Infinity War Review! (maybe spoilers?)

...Wow, Avengers: Infinity War really is a whole other cinema beast, isn't it? This one film had over 10 years of build-up, promised a massive 30+ superhero cast, and it's surprisingly depressing ending has been subject to parody and memeification. As someone who tried very hard to avoid spoilers for this movie (the only thing I knew going in was something about bubbles, people not feeling so good, and the fact that it's the most ambitious superhero movie ever made), I can assure you that this... Is a really good movie. What, expecting some witty quip at the beginning? Nope. Just, "It's a good movie".

  

For those of you who aren't into "nerdy" things like superheroes, Avengers: Infinity War was the planned grand finale of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a unique little experiment on Marvel Studios' part, basically spending an entire decade releasing dozens of films that subtly weave an interconnected tale, while still being fun action-comedy films in their own right. While most films in the MCU are self-contained and can be watched in any order without any prior knowledge going in, Infinity War exists as the pay-off for all the lovely people who have at least watched the majority of the films. If want to know the nitty gritty details and world-building and the over-arching story at length, you are going to need to watch, at minimum, Avengers, Avengers:Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Thor: Ragnarok, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Doctor Strange. Keep in mind that if you were to watch all the films I just listed back-to-back, without pausing, it would take you about 12 hours. To paraphrase one of my favorite Lord of the Rings quotes, "One does not simply watch Avengers: Infinity War without at least doing some research beforehand". Evidently, some professional critics panned this film precisely because it pretty much demands the audience to be familiar with the characters and setting from the get-go.

 

For those of you who don't really want to spend 12 hours of your oh-so valuable time just to prepare for a single movie, I will summarize the entire MCU as quickly as possible; Once upon a time there was a team of individuals with "unique talents" known as The Avengers, who were given the task of "fighting the battles no one else could". After fending off an alien invasion, a sudden rise of more superpowered entities, along with increasing collateral damage as a result of the Avengers being far too reckless in their missions, lead to the United States Government forming the Sokovia Accords, which basically boiled down to putting every superpowered entity (or really, anyone with the wit and tech at their disposal to do superheroing) on a list and demanding that any superpowered entities on that list comply with the United States government and them alone, only going on missions with their permission (and any superheroes that refuse would be branded a war criminal and a man-hunt would be ordered on them immediately). In retrospect, the Accords were a terrible idea, since the in-universe controversy over the Accords lead to the Avengers splitting up into two groups (one that complied, the other living life on the run), thus crippling Earth's chances against future invasions. 

Meanwhile, in SPACE, A bunch of lovable anti-heroes known as the Guardians of the Galaxy find an Infinity Stone, which give whoever possesses it godlike power. Rather than destroy it, the Guardians trust what amounts to SPACE police to guard it. Naturally, they get wiped out by Thanos the Mad Titan (pictured above!) who wants to bring equilibrium to the universe... By using all six Infinity Stones to erase exactly one half of the the universe's population from existence.

 

So now both groups of the Avengers, along with the Guardians, Black Panther, Doctor Strange (who is the current owner of the Green Infinity Stone), and The Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man must work together to thwart Thanos's plan. TL;DR, a bunch of superheroes come together to stop a big purple dude with a wonky chin from doing bad stuff. Because they're the good guys! Yay!

 

This film wastes no time establishing that this is the darkest of the MCU films. In the first five minutes alone, Thanos murders fan-favorite characters Loki and Heimdall, curb-stomps the Hulk so badly that Bruce Banner literally can't transform into his Hulk form for the rest of the film (with the implication being the Hulk is too scared of Thanos to transform), and leaves Thor bleeding out in the vacuum of  SPACE! 

Thanos Demands Your Silence. Say no to SPOILERS!!!

I should probably mention that there WILL be spoilers in this review, but given the nature of Infinity War it's literally impossible to talk about this movie without spoiling SOMETHING. In fact, I would dare to say that this film could be described as Spoilers: The Movie. That said, I'm not going to be that guy who's like "such and such are dead, Joey!" (says the guy who just revealed that Loki and Heimdall die in the opening). Don't be that guy. That guy is a dirtbag. But long story short, the spoilers in this review are either minor spoilers (as per my rules anything in the first 30 minutes is free-game) or technical spoilers that thanks to word-of-mouth, social media, and dank memes, are pretty much common knowledge at this point and time. Anyway, first thing I would like to talk about first; I appreciate that in order to maintain a sense of coherency across a massive main cast, they divide the heroes into three groups, which I will refer to as Team Iron-Man (which consists of Iron-Man, Spidey, The Guardians and Dr. Strange), Team Thor (just Thor, Rocket and Groot) and Team Cap (literally everyone else). The film flip-flops from one team's perspective to another, and this is a risky technique for cinematography, as it *could* lead to the audience getting disoriented in the best case scenario, or serve as glorified padding for folks wanting to see a specific character or group in the worst case scenario. But the way Infinity War transitions from one team to the next is done so seamlessly that feels less like "woah, wait what's going on" or "Ugh, we gotta sit through all this boring trash to get back to the good stuff" and more like "Oh! We're with these guys now. Cool! Oh wait, what are these guys doing? They doing good? Cool! Oh wait, let's get back with the first guys and see how they're doing!".  Anyway, first up let's talk about Team Iron-Man.



Team Iron-Man is the team that gets the most screen-time. And it's made up of the most popular characters in the MCU. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!!! Anyway, they get an equal amount of story and action, and this is the team that faces off against Thanos. They were great, honestly. Though not quite as good as Team Thor (more on that later), because I was expecting Team Iron-Man to be the most enjoyable, and it was. Team Thor is better, in my opinion, because they managed to make me like a character I was originally "meh" about. But anyway, Iron-Man himself is great, since despite being the resident sassy trash-talker, he winds up being the only sane man because he gets paired up with Spider-Man (a 16-year-old teen who bit off more than he could chew), Dr. Strange (a near-omniscient sorcerer who is even more passive-aggressive than Iron-Man himself!), and the Guardians (who are the resident comic relief of the MCU and are just as goofy and lighthearted as you could imagine). 

Just a God of Thunder, his Tree and a Rabbit-er,

raccoon. What could go wrong?

Thor's group is easily my favorite part of the whole movie. Mostly because prior to watching Infinity War was "Eh, he's a pretty cool dude, but he isn't like the star or anything". Now my opinion of him is "Wow, Thor is a TROOPER!!! Dude's gone through so much stuff and he is still trying to do the right thing!" I'll be honest, I wasn't the biggest fan of him back at the beginning of the MCU because he was essentially the Superman of the MCU, being an overpowered character whose skillset serves essentially as an instant win button. But this film makes Thor just so much more likable than Super-Man. Now, I have nothing against Super-Man, in fact I think that depending on the story Super-Man can be great, but generally speaking, his conventional heroism and "poster-boy goody-two shoes" mannerisms get old fast. While Thor is in the same tier as Super-Man in terms of power, his personality and Chris Hemsworth's acting make Thor the highlight of this film, at least for me. He has some much-needed lighthearted moments, like when he meets the Guardians for the first time he and Star-Lord get into an argument over which one is manlier (SPOILER ALERT: It's Thor), or the running gag of Thor mistaking Rocket Raccoon for a rabbit. But he also has some emotional moments that establish that underneath his bravado and determination is a broken man who has nothing left to lose.

 

Despite being one of the highlights of the film, he gets the least amount of screen-time, as the bulk of his arc revolves crafting a new weapon with the help of Rocket and Groot, and is generally the most "chill" of the three teams. But when they make it to the climax, it is GLORIOUS. On the subject of Rocket and Groot, they were great as well. They don't get as much of a chance to shine when compared to Thor (partly because Rocket's character development has come full circle and partly because Groot's teenager form is most used for comic relief), but Thor's comical seriousness and Rocket's neverending sarcasm compliment each other flawlessly.

 

Team Cap is weakest aspect of the movie, at least for me. I don't have any problems with the roster they went with but Gee Whilickers, Batman! Cap's group winds up being the largest (Cap, Falcon, Black Widow, Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Bruce Banner, Vision, War Machine, Okoye, AND Winter Soldier), which results in some heroes in this group getting sidelined, with Black Panther, Winter Soldier and Okoye getting the worst of it. None of those three even show up until the final act! What makes it worse is the bulk of Team Cap's screen-time was already shown in trailers, so there wasn't a whole lot of "new" scenes involving Team Cap.

 

The Children of Thanos! And Loki too.

I'll elaborate more on individual heroes later. For now, let's talk about the villains, starting with the Children of Thanos. Or the Dark Order. Depends on which continuity you subscribe to. But anyway, they're basically Thanos's right-hand henchmen. I would critique the film for shafting these guys, but after a bit of research it turns out the Russo brothers (who co-directed this film) deliberately shafted the Children of Thanos out of fear that they would be perceived as being cooler or more memorable than Thanos himself. And I can see why! From their sinister designs, to visually impressive abilities, to the fact that even though they all get killed off in some mildly anticlimactic ways, they manage to force the heroes to think on their toes. These guys are not cannon fodder mooks, they are harbingers of death and destruction. That said, their names sound like they're trying way too hard to sound edgy and dangerous. I mean c'mon! Proxima Midnight? Ebony Maw? Cull Obsidian? Corvus Glaive? Okay, I will admit that Corvus Glaive sounds kind of cool, but the rest are still too silly to be taken seriously.

 

And now for Thanos himself. He's the main villain of the movie, though given he literally has the most screen-time out of any character in Infinity War an argument can be made that he is the true protagonist of the film (and if you watch the film with the whole "Thanos is the protagonist all along" mentality it completely changes the movie). Now hear me out. Thanos is not a good person. He's an amoral zealot whose obsession with balance was used as a justification for a crusade of intergalactic genocide. But given he genuinely believes he's doing what's right, along with fully acknowledging that his actions earned him the wrath of everyone around him and even regretting going through the plan by the time the film ends, make him such an interesting multi-layered villain. The fact that the Russo brothers managed to make what was in the comics a maniac who murders innocents by the thousands for kicks and giggles into a distinct and memorable character is baffling. Additionally, Josh Brolin's performance throughout the whole movie is just perfect, capturing both sides of Thanos. The intimidating, charismatic conqueror, and the pained, tortured demigod. 

 

That said, there are some things that Infinity War does not handle as well as it handles Thanos. Namely, Vision. Poor, poor Vision. They could have done something interesting with him, like being part of a gambit to use Thanos's power against him, since Vision has the Yellow Infinity Stone fused to his brain. They could have given him some awesome moves utilizing his ability to become intangible. What do they roll with? Vision's romantic relationship with Scarlet Witch (which is slightly weird, when one remembers that Vision is a robot and Scarlet Witch is a mutant) is milked for all the drama it's worth. Heck, if Captain America had taken Vision's advice of destroying the Stone (and Vision along with it) the heroes might have squeezed out a victory on Thanos. But NO! "We don't trade lives", indeed. Whether that's a good moral message or Cap and Scarlet Witch being selfish and hypocritical (how many Wakandan soldiers died to give Shuri enough time to remove the Stone non-lethally, anyway?) is a debate for another day. But they do realize that Vision is a robot, a crazy advanced robot with a sense of free will, but a robot nonetheless. And you know what was used to create Vision? Vibranium. And where is Vibranium found? Wakanda. So the question on my mind is, why don't they just destroy the Stone with Vision, then have Shuri, Bruce, and Iron Man rebuild Vision. But then we would have a *Boat-of-Theseus paradox on our hands... Actually, that would make for a good plot right there! 

 

And now for the mother of all discussions, it's time for Star-Lord. Now, Star-Lord is a popular character, partly because Chris Pratt was born to play the role and he does with so much flair and charisma you can tell he was having fun. But there's one moment toward the end, and it's a massive spoiler, so I'm not going to get into details, where he does something so frustratingly stupid the only justification for it could be rule of drama. The worst aspect of the whole movie boils down to this exact moment, and you'll know what I'm talking about when the time comes, and it makes you just think "...Why?". Okay, that's kind of hyperbole. We've seen Star-Lord do stuff like the spoiler-y moment before, but this time a rarely seen aspect of his normally plucky persona is exploited into a Fatal Flaw, and when I say a Fatal Flaw, I mean a Class A Fatal Flaw. What does that mean? I have no idea. But my point still stands. While that moment is jarring and poorly-timed, it wasn't out-of-character, and I've seen quite a few people erroneously cry that the spoiler-y moment is out-of-character, but no, it is. It's a Fatal Flaw. 

 

But at least the rest of the Guardians made up for it! Drax and Mantis have a cute dynamic as the joke characters, with the former being a lovable oaf who's not the sharpest tool in the shed, if you take my meaning, and the latter being peppy and energetic, and comically naive. The simplest way to describe Drax and Mantis is they are Bulk and Skull of the MCU. Also, when the more "serious" characters are talking you can see Drax and Mantis goofing off in the background, resulting in some of the funniest gags in the whole film.

 

 So let's talk about my favorite Marvel character ever, Dr. Strange. They handled him well, here. He comes across as a cold-hearted jerk sometimes, though given his origins and the fact that he is the literal Master of the Mystic Arts means his passive-aggressive nature doesn't come across as jarring. Also, with the implications that he orchestrated the entire final battle to ensure that the surviving heroes stand a fighting chance in the future, including the now infamous Star-Lord temper tantrum, remind all of us how Dr. Strange usually defeats his opponents; He outsmarts them. He never fights them directly. He always tricks them into defeating themselves. And given that Dr. Strange has the power of foresight and admits that he looked into 14 million different futures to find the best way to defeat Thanos, he has probably laid out the breadcrumbs for everyone else to follow, on his elaborate scheme to save the universe from a intergalactic culling. I'll just say it here instead of when I inevitably do an Avengers 4 review... Well played, Dr. Strange. Well played.

 

This image sums up every audience's reaction pretty well.

So let's talk about that ending, eh? I have avoided spoilers like the plague just for this movie. Usually I don't mind spoilers as long as they don't give you the context. Like if you told me that Han Solo died in Force Awakens I would be fine with that knowledge. It only becomes a problem with added context, such as adding Kylo Ren (Han Solo's son) to the mix makes the emotional impact just as good as if I never knew Han dies in the first place. That is not the case for everything concerning Infinity War. It's become a meme to post images representing spoilers and give no context, but because characters have existed for 70+ years in real life and are role models to children everywhere,we, the audience have grown attached to these characters, and seeing so many of them perish and the survivors at their darkest hour is ultimately the most gut-wrenching experience I've had since watching the opening of Up for the first time. But Infinity War does something no other superhero film has ever dared to do; the heroes go up against impossible odds, and they fail. But for added audacity, it has the nerve to kill off so many fan-favorite characters in a row. That said, the Russo bros have confirmed they're working on a sequel, and I wouldn't be surprised if the character deaths were undone via time magic (or something similar). Even if the deaths do get retconned in a sequel, they still hold so much emotional impact that listing who lives and dies who be a disservice.

 

On a more positive note, OHMYGOODNESSWEGOTSPIDER-MANINTHEIRONSPIDERSUITYAAAAASSSSSS!!!!! *ahem* As one can see, Everyone's favorite web-head gets a new suit for Infinity War, and it's the Iron Spider suit. Or rather, a redesigned version of the Iron Spider suit. And the film version looks so much nicer than the comic version.

 

Comics Iron Spider!

Now, in my opinion, MCU!Iron Spider is better than Comic!Iron Spider, mostly because ignoring the spider-limb bits (which are used in the movie, but this time they're retractable), the Comic!Iron Spider suit is Iron-Man's color scheme copy-pasted onto Spider-Man's main suit. I mean, yeah, it looks cool, but loses some of the charm the red-and-blue suit had. In the movie it's an original design resembling the Homecoming suit (but with slightly darker shades of red) with gold accents on the arms and legs, which to me is more aesthetically pleasing, without making Spidey look like Iron Man Jr., which is the last thing Spidey needs right now due to Spider-Man Homecoming being considered by many to be more of an Iron Man movie than a Spider-Man movie.

 

Note: this image is not in the final version of the 

film and was shown only in trailers.

Back on subject, the action sequences were actually really good. Ignoring the ones with Vision, since Vision has been reduced from cool android with cooler powers to being The Load (and I hate to use that term to describe Vision, since he is one of my favorites). With the big standouts being the Battle of Wakanda, which reminds me a lot of the Battle of Helm's Deep from Lord of the Rings. You know, if the Uruk-Hai were from SPACE! And Rohan had afro-futuristic technology at their disposal. And King Theoden had heightened senses and strength thanks to heart-shaped herbs and wore a panther-themed suit of armor. What was my point again? Oh yeah, the action sequences.

 

The reason the action sequences work as well they do is because the animators find some creative (and impressive) ways for the powers of each hero to interact with another. For example, Dr. Strange conjures up platforms which Star-Lord uses to bounce around, avoiding Thanos's energy blasts, and plants a bomb on his back which stuns Thanos long enough for Spidey to web his eyes shut, blinding him for the remainder of the fight. The combinations only get more imaginative from there, and they have to be seen to be believed.

 

As for the presentation, just about every actor brings their character to life, nailing the mannerisms and personality of each hero and villain perfectly. The standout performances go to Chris Hemsworth for managing to make me like Thor more, and Tom Holland, thanks to a spoilerific scene from the climax that really showcases his acting chops. Holland's portrayal of Spider-Man is even better considering he was ab-libbing in almost every scene he was in. Then again, Holland had no choice but to ab-lib, since after working with him for three movies, Marvel Studios has finally realized that the only way Tom Holland (who is infamous for spoiling his own movies on social media) can be involved in Infinity War without spoiling the film on social media is if he doesn't even know what's going on in the first place. Which is actually pretty funny, if you think about it.

 

The music is on point here, as well. A neat little attention to detail, when a character shows up for the first time in this film, their leitmotif plays in the background. Except for the Guardians, who (as per usual) are jamming out to upbeat 80's era pop songs by the time we're (re)introduced to them. And that 80's era music (combined with the Guardians' signature comedy) is a perfect break from the very bleak nature of Infinity War. But the best thing about this film's music is the triumphant reprise of the Avengers' main theme when Captain America first appears, along with Thor's timely arrival in the climax. Because everyone knows when the opening notes ("duh nuh, na-nuh, nuh, duh nuh, na-nuh, nuh!") start playing, you know the heroes are about to whip out some grade-A awesomeness.



Infinity War's visuals can only be described as great. I did notice the CGI on the Hulk-Buster that Bruce uses during the finale looks a little off, like they recycled the assets from Age of Ultron  without updating them. But everything else looks good. Dr. Strange's spells are positively trippy, which is fitting for a Master of the Mystic Arts. Reality's rules are not Dr. Strange's rules. Iron-Man's suit and it's pseudo-shapeshifting looks, for lack of a more sophisticated term, cool. The set-pieces are grandiose and brimming with detail. And I know I keep praising Thanos, but the animators did a great job with Thanos. Seriously Thanos's model is filled with little details that most people would overlook, such as scars, wrinkles, veins, and age spots.



Overall, despite the fact everyone and their mother knows this film has un-disputably the saddest ending not just in the MCU, but perhaps all of cinema, Infinity War still worth watching for the spectacle and seeing these beloved characters interact for the first time. Of course, if you haven't watched any of the MCU movies (and trust me, several critics and reviewers haven't) it loses the bulk of it's charm and emotional impact because you aren't familiar with the characters, and the film assumes you're at least familiar with them. So no, it's not going to explain why Norse deities, talking raccoons, magic, nano-bots, bullet-proof warrior-kings and aliens can all exist in the same world. As someone who has watched almost every film in this decade-long experiment (the lone exceptions being Ant-Man & The Wasp, Thor: Ragnarok, and Black Panther), I can safely say Avengers: Infinity War is a solid 10/10. My gripes with Infinity War are nitpicks at worst, and are for the most part subjective, and Infinity War is perhaps the best film experience since Star Wars: Force Awakens, and even if you go in knowing the ending is not going to be happy, just seeing these characters interact, both on and off the battlefield, is worth the price of admission. But that is my opinion, so if you disagree, that's cool. And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go rank the heroes from worst to best.

*- The Boat-of-Theseus paradox is a real life philosophical thought experiment as well as a riddle for the ages. Basically, the way this thought experiment works is like this; Imagine a broomstick. If you replace the broomstick's head three times, and the handle four times, and the broomstick is identical to how it was originally, is it the same broomstick you started out with? Now the answer is obviously no. But if we take a living creature, say, a human, and replace all of the parts (both internal and external) and the finished product is exactly the same as the human we started out with, should that human be considered the original? You decide!