You have to give props to Marvel for being able to effectively orchestrate something of this magnitude, I really enjoyed Avengers: Infinity War, it’s not a perfect film by any means but I think it’s about as perfect as anyone could have hoped for, it’s everything Justice League wishes it was! I’m actually looking forward to next one as well, it’s still early days so I can’t decide if this is better than the first Avengers movie but it’s definitely better than Age of Ultron and it’s on the upper echelon of Marvel movies in general. All in all I’d consider this a success, it was entertaining, it had a great villain and it left me wanting more.
Until now I haven’t really had any interest in Thanos despite teasers of his arrival being peppered over the end credit scenes in the last few films, I’m definitely interested now! Josh Brolin was brilliant, he delivers a menacing performance and Thanos as a character was written very well, he’s the best thing about Infinity War, it’s pretty much his film and as such time is taken to really explore his background and identify his motives. Thanos wants to reduce the population of the MCU in order to create a better life for the few left and even though this is clearly a flawed ideology he truly believes he’s doing the right thing for everyone.
Thanos is easily the best villain in the MCU, having said that I should mention that I’m still yet to see Black Panther, I know! It’s the best thing since the invention of the written word and I’m excited to see it but as of right now, I haven’t. I mention this because among the exclusively positive things I’ve heard about it, one of them was that Killmonger was a great villain and as a Michael B. Jordan fan since The Wire, I’m excited to see him in it! That aside though, Thanos is easily the best villain in the MCU, I loved Loki but Thanos snaps his next like a twig in the opening scene.
Infinity War takes place almost entirely in outer space which I was a little disappointed with, it’s not really a problem just a preference of mine but I’d have liked to see a little more time spent on earth, it felt a lot like Guardians of the Galaxy 3 if anything and I like Guardians of the Galaxy but, yeah, earth. The Guardians portion of the film was actually great, it’s consistently funny throughout in that Guardians/Ragnarok/Homecoming sort of way despite it’s dark tone and it worked really well, I laughed multiple times and I enjoyed finally seeing all these different worlds collide, it was definitely fun seeing all these characters interact.
The main concern going into Infinity Wars was that it would feel crowded and it inevitably feels crowded how could it not, what’s impressive is that it doesn’t feel too crowded, they manage to effectively give all of these characters something interesting to do and for the most part I cared about everyone’s storyline. This has pretty much been ten years in the making and it works surprisingly well given it’s wide scope, it’s definitely a film that you need to have some sort of prior knowledge of to be able to enjoy, this is the nineteenth film in the MCU and it only really works on the back of the 18 films that came before it.
There’s a real sense of the ending being nigh with Infinity War, it feels like the end of an era, not that I believe this is even close to where the MCU ends, but in the sense of at least this first wave of it, the first generation, it feels like the end is close and we’re about to see the introduction of the second wave, Robert Downey Jr. can only do so many more of these! I’m not a particularly huge fan of the MCU and as such don’t perhaps have the emotional connection with these characters a fan would but I have to admit, there’s some pretty emotionally impactful stuff here.
The worst part of Infinity War for me, outside it’s fairly obnoxious run time, was the scene where the Avengers have a chance to disarm Thanos and render him beatable but Quill, due to being emotional, for some reason decides to hit him and pull him out of the trance Mantis had him in instead of waiting one minute and taking revenge more realistically and fairly immediately as well, it made absolutely no sense, it was completely fucking stupid and extremely irritating, what a twat! I also didn’t buy into Doctor Strange picking Tony Stark over the entire human race because they’d apparently bonded exponentially over the past few days, even weeks, whatever it was!
All of these characters were cast perfectly, I can’t imagine anyone else in these roles, other than maybe Hugh Laurie as Doctor Strange, they all embody these characters very well and I really like their performances. It’s also really well directed, the Russo brothers did a great job, they also directed The Winter Soldier and Civil War both of which I enjoyed. It’s fairly well written, the jokes land mostly and it’s emotionally impactful, Thanos is the only character that needs to be explored given all the other characters having already been established so they’re able to effectively develop him and make him interesting and we’re able to just enjoy the interaction and journey of everyone else.
All in all I enjoyed Avengers: Infinity War, it’s not something there’s any point recommending, if you’re gonna watch it, you’re gonna watch it! What I would recommend is that if you haven’t seen any of the other Marvel films don’t start with this one, you need to have an understanding of the MCU and some prior investment in these characters in order to be able to enjoy it and if you don’t have that then Infinity Wars isn’t going to land with you, it’s like watching the nineteenth film in a series of films! For the nineteenth film though it’s pretty good and I definitely had fun with it, Marvel seems to get better with age.
I’m gonna give Avengers: Infinity War 7.5/10, though I reserve the right to go back and re-rate it upon further inspection if I deem it necessary, as I would like to with all these reviews, you know what fuck you, if I wanna re-rate my shit I’ll fucking do it, bitch! Overall I enjoyed this film and I’m actually looking forward to Avengers 4 now, Infinity War ends almost hauntingly and I’m excited to find out what happens next. This is how you do it, DC, this is how you do it, that’s how you make a villain interesting! Well, that’s my two cents, appreciate you reading if you’ve made it this far and I’ll see you for the next one!
What did you think of Avengers: Infinity War?