AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR
It’s all come down to this, Avengers Infinity War.
Synopsis
The Avengers and their allies must be willing to sacrifice all in an attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos before his blitz of devastation and ruin puts an end to the universe.
Review
Finally, Avengers Infinity War has released. After first being teased all the way back in 2012 in the end credits scene of The Avengers, Thanos is here to fight the Avengers to meet his goals. Avengers Infinity War was written and directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo. The duo previously work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the movie they wrote and directed Captain America Civil War. The film brings back nearly every character from every Marvel film before it, while also bringing in a couple new people. Joining the movie for the first time are Josh Brolin as Thanos and joining him are the Black Order aka the Children of Thanos Terry Notary as Cull Obsidian, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Ebony Maw, Carrie Coon as Proxima Midnight, and Michael James Shaw as Corvus Glaive
After the events of The Avengers, and all the other Marvel Cinematic Universe films, Thanos has decided to take it upon himself to get the infinity stones himself. As such, he ends up going to where the infinity stones are, and getting them one by one in hopes of creating a perfectly balanced universe. Thinking the only way to prevent worlds like his own from perishing, they need to have half the population erased, and with the infinity stones, he can easily accomplish this. There is only one thing standing in his way, and that is the heroes of the galaxy from Captain America, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and even the Guardians of the Galaxy. The only chance they have to defeat Thanos is to put aside all their differences and fight back as if their lives depend on it.
Avengers Infinity War is the kind of film that most people would declare as an impossible endeavor. The film was heading toward an uphill battle since it first was announced, with everything it went out to accomplish. With a huge cast, bringing a villain that has been teased for six years in various movies, and then bring together all the infinity stones that have been appearing throughout the different Marvel movies, this movie is a part one to an epic conclusion of the Marvel Cinematic Universes current format. It had a big goal to reach, and it manages to reach it with flying colors pulling off some amazing action and fight scenes, some good world building, and creating a somewhat sympathetic villain with reasoning behind his goals. This by no means makes him a good person, as his way of fixing a problem is horribly skewed, but he does have good reason to believe what he is doing is right. It creates an interesting villain, and it is a good change of pace that Marvel found out how to properly create their villains for these movies. It is also helpful that Thanos is the primary focus of the entire film, which gives plenty of time to build up his character. There are even a couple points in the film where there is almost an understanding of Thanos where the viewer can start to sympathize with him.
Throughout the film, there are four major stories that are taking place. There is the story of Thanos and his quest for the infinity stones. Everything happening as the heroes of Earth prepare for Thanos’ arrival to the planet. There is the story of Thor getting a new weapon capable of fighting Thanos. Then finally, there are the several heroes on Titan preparing for the arrival of Thanos there. As the movie progresses these four plots intertwine with each other, but switch back and forth to show what is going on in these different places. Each story has its good and its bad moments, but the constant switching of stories does get annoying at times, as you want to continue following what is happening at a given time. By the time segment ends and it is ready to switch again though, you feel the same way towards that part of the story. Each part of the story keeps ending with these cliffhanger moments where they keep raising the tension of every storyline every time it cuts away to another, all rising until the end of the movie where there is nothing but silence is felt. It is a rare occurrence in films to be missing moments of calming, but Avengers Infinity War just keeps building the action and the tension to new levels with every scene.
The biggest accomplishment is that each character is still easily identifiable, even in the giant cast and intertwining storylines it is easy to keep track of where everyone is at any point in the film. Each character gets their moments where their abilities are put to the test, and they get their moment to shine. The best part is that even the newer members of the Avengers get their time to shine. This movie does not just focus on Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man like previous Avengers films. This time around even the likes of Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Doctor Strange who are all newer characters get their time to shine, multiple times is various scenes. They do not just feel like guest characters in the film, and they are actually involved in the film. Even smaller side characters from other films get chance to shine such as Falcon, War Machine, and Okoye who all get their own respective moments. There is a perfect balance between the usage of the characters, and no one feels wasted. With the stakes as high as they are, it feels like everyone has joined in the battle to give it their all and they all stay true to their characters from the past films as well. While their characters and personalities will sometimes get mixed up in their own films, Avengers Infinity War manages to keep everyone consistent to who they are. This does mean we do not see any development of any of the characters due to time, except for Thanos, but it is not an aspect of the film that feels missing in the end either.
Closing Thoughts
Avengers Infinity War is the culmination of 10 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it does not disappoint. With a wide range of characters, and multiple plotlines going on, this movie should be one of the hardest to keep track of, yet everything blends and flows almost seamlessly. There are of course hard cuts in the story that happen as it switches to different characters, but second after the cut the new scene already stations itself and get the viewer back on track. The entire movie is a rollercoaster of action, emotion, and witty humor that keeps it going as a movie that will be remembered as one of the best Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Avengers Infinity War is a requirement to watch before Avengers Endgame, and one I highly recommend going back and watching again anyway.
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