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
Review published April 30, 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 firstAvengers
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.
Guardiansfans 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. /p>
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.
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 
