Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
It takes some major stones to do what Marvel has done. Literally, in this case, with the culmination of the Infinity Stones, as one of the most ambitious attempts to create a universe of films just hit a new crescendo. Teetering just on the brink of becoming too much of a good thing, Avengers: Infinity War delivers the goods promised in upping the stakes for the MCU, as well as shoving nearly all of the main characters, and more than a fair share of supporting ones, into one grand scale, action-packed, eye-candy adventure. It’s appropriate that culling together most of the cinematic universe would generate a great deal of “star power”, especially now that they nearly all appear in the 19th official release. It’s a necessity to fully understand what’s happening for viewers to be familiar with all of the prior MCU titles, save perhaps Ant-Man (who doesn’t make an appearance), in order to comprehend Infinity War to its fullest extent.
Infinity War is directed by the Russo brothers, Anthony and Joe, who delivered two of the films considered at the upper echelon of MCU movies in Captain America: Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, both films which contained a great many Avengers beyond its titular hero, to the point where many fans consider them crossover films worthy of having Avengers before their titles as well. Working from a script credited to Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who collaborated on all three acclaimed Captain America films, and the one that many MCU fans consider the worst one, Thor: The Dark World. It’s not nearly as weak as the latter, but I’d still take the Captain America films above this in terms of generating action-based excitement and palpable tension.
A performance-capture representation of Josh Brolin (Hail Caesar!) plays the god-like Thanos, the ultra-powerful intergalactic villain that we’ve seen in short roles in prior MCU films since the first Avengers film in 2012, in a sweeping search to complete his collection of the six infinity stones, powerful gems of distinct elemental powers formed at the beginning of the universe’s creation. Nothing and no one is expendable in his quest to become the most powerful being in the universe, as, once gotten, he aims to chop the population of everyone by half in an instant, citing too many entities vying for too finite resources. Alas, for us Earthlings, two of those stones are on our very own planet (in the possession of Doctor Strange (Cumberbatch, Doctor Strange) and the Vision (Bettany, Avengers: Age of Ultron), so it’s up to the heroes of the universe, including Earth’s Avengers, to unite and try to take on the greatest threat to existence they’ve faced to date.
Clocking in at just under 2.5 hours, Infinity War flies from plot point to plot point, going through the formula that Thanos is going to have to battle and kill in order to gain each progressive stone to add to his Infinity Gauntlet. Most of the dialogue is relegated to either upping the bantering and bickering for the purpose of comic relief, or in putting characters in positions of having to make a critical decisions that will affect their lives or, more commonly, the life of a fellow hero. As en “event movie” it is bold and brash, and delivers on the scale you’d expect, and will be deemed as a somewhat emotional experience for those who come into the film with an investment into these characters.
As a piece of storytelling in and of itself, it’s slim pickings, as I could sum up everything you need to know happens in this film in about two sentences. While prior Marvel films used the Tesseract and some of the Infinity Stones to accelerate a rise to prominence, or imbue characters with additional powers, their use here is used mostly to serve as plot devices to generate battle sequences, and in order to give the entire MCU a centralized foe to fight against for this and future entries. Again, it works as plot, but as a story to follow, it is far less interesting to observe except as it relates to characters that we had a prior connection to coming into the film.
Although the consequences are heavy, the requisite humor is here as well, as the Guardians of the Galaxy officially make their contact with the Avengers through a Thor they pick up left for dead in space. Guardians fans will likely be ecstatic at how much screen time they’re give in this adventure, with Gamora (Saldana, Guardians 2) getting the most development of all in her twisted and sad backstory on how she became the reluctant adopted daughter of Thanos in her younger years. That is the new development meant to add emotional content to the story, and it does to some degree, though any wrinkle of nuance is flattened over by the sheer enormity of the scope of the film, in which personal beats at particular times seem to be too small of potatoes to fully ponder as half of the universe is threatened with extinction.
While the film is heavy on plotting, that also means it is lean on storytelling, with the main points of interest from some fans being a few personal touches along the way that manage a modicum of resonance in between all of the battling, squabbling, and overall unsettling angst. There are a number of choice moments when the action is slowed down to allow for a beat of personality, humor, and some emotion, which becomes a welcome respite to the all-out action sequences that comprise the bulk of the run time.
TThus far, Marvel has been giving us quality in addition to quantity, but one wonder how much the MCU can expand before it becomes increasingly diminished to devolving into an exercise in touching all the bases for two-plus hours in their event films. I suppose that the entries with “Avengers” in the title will be relegated to being war films first and foremost, and to appreciate them for their size, scope and spectacle, but, at this point, it’s beginning to look like they should ditch the “Avengers” title in favor of MCU, aas much of the action gives more screen time to non-Avengers, while actual Avengers such as Black Widow (Johansson, Ghost in the Shell) are relegated to joining in on a couple of fight sequences without furthering her character’s story. Even Avengers main player Captain America (Evans, Gifted) seems to have less screen time than the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Thanos emerges as a more complex villain than one might originally think, as he does some reprehensible acts, though seemingly does so for reasons he feels are for the overall good. He’s a hero in his own mind, resting balance to people he feels have outgrown their usefulness, even if he knows that no one else will recognize him as such. By giving us a few flashbacks to his rise to his current power, we are able to get a non-judgmental peek behind the psychological curtain that drives his seemingly mad acts, which makes his actions multilayered beyond the typical striving to do evil for evil’s sake that we typically get in battle royale superhero flicks of heightened magnitude.
***SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU WANT TO AVOID VAGUE SPOILERS*** Much will be made of the events that occur within the film, especially in some notable deaths that we see occur in the course of events. I will say that some of those characters’ deaths would be far more impactful if we didn’t already know that a number of them are slated to appear in future films that aren’t prequels that we know of. If you’re walking out of the theater thinking to yourself, “Oh, I don’t have to take any of this as permanent since I know [name of character] is going to appear in or have their own future film,” then the overall impact is blunted, and it didn’t necessarily need to be. If Marvel had adhered to killing off only characters that we feel could actually stay dead, there would have been far greater impact, but by adding a few of the most popular Marvel characters to the mix, it diminishes the importance of even the deaths that could be perceived of as permanent, and relegates the entire excursion as one that we feel will revert to the norm at some point in a not-too-distant future MCU entry. **END VAGUE SPOILERS***
More exhausting than exhilarating, the goods are delivered, as the build-up in the other MCU films allows fans to feel the events of Infinity War are weighty and important even if the story itself within the film generates very little in and of itself, but there’s a lot of overhead tacked on to each morsel to make it all feel a bit taxing by the end. After watching Infinity War, while I feel there are enough choice moments for longtime MCU fans to find enjoyable, I will agree with Thanos on one thing: there are just too many people on the screen who are starving for our attention, and perhaps it is time to “thin the herd” in future entries if we want MCU films to become a happy and balanced place for all yet again. Fans will no doubt eat the film up, while those who’ve become disenchanted, or perhaps never understood the appeal of Marvel films to begin with, will likely point to this entry as yet another example of how they feel that the other edge of Marvel’s mighty sword has begun to inflict damage upon itself with each consecutive swing.
Qwipster’s rating: B+
MPAA Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action throughout, language and some crude references
Running Time: 149 min.
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Zoe Saldana, Tom Holland, Elizabeth Olsen, Dave Bautista, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Scarlett Johansson, Peter Dinklage, Bradley Cooper (voice), Anthony Mackie, Pom Klementieff, Danai Gurira, Benedict Wong, Karen Gillan, Sebastian Stan, Tom Hiddleston, Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Idris Elba, Vin Diesel (voice)
Small roles and cameos: Benicio del Toro, William Hurt, Stan Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders
Director: Anthony and Joe Russo
Screenplay: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely