Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
…………………………………………………
Avengers: Infinity War Movie Review
Avengers: Infinity War is a 2018 superhero film directed by the Russo brothers and having an ensemble cast. It is a solid and frequently terrific, but in the end disappointing film.
………………………………………………….
“What’s the matter, never seen a spaceship before?“
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
The plot is fairly simple and just an excuse to have this epicness and a culmination of a ten-year journey as they call it. So Thanos finally arrives in search of Infinity Stones and he does get them at the end of this movie. It is up to the Avengers to stop him, but they fail. Now what they did with Infinity Stones, I loved. They were poorly set up before this film, but here they were very well utilized and this whole quest in search of them was very entertaining and pleasantly reminiscent to the quest for Horcruxes or Dragon Balls.
The movie is still incredibly predictable and I don’t get why so many people found it unpredictable and surprising when in actuality most of the things were fairly easy to predict. Most of the deaths were obvious and I just knew that it would end with him getting all of the stones.
Let me now say that I absolutely despise that ending. So basically he gets the stones and half the universe’s population vanishes and among the Avengers, only the new ones vanish whereas the old ones stay alive. I do believe that earlier deaths would remain so, but this was so obviously a set-up for the second movie where the old team will have to rescue and revive the new team.
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
Maybe some of the old team will die in the process, but that is the discussion left for the second movie. This movie ended poorly and if all of them really died, it would be brave and amazing, but I know they are going to come back so obviously this was a cop-out emotionally and that effect where they vanish unpleasantly reminded me of ‘Deathly Hallows Part 2’ as I hate that effect so much.
Let’s talk about the characters now and there are so many of them with only Hawkeye and Ant-Man missing. I actually found this movie less messy and less chaotic than the first or second Avengers flick and thus I would say I prefer this one over them, but still of course the film is overly bombastic and filled with too much action, though we did get some emotional slower or even humorous moments too.
So Tony is terrific and I loved his interactions with both Parker and Strange, so well done and humorous. I loved all of his action scenes as well. Spidey is fantastic and frequently hilarious. The relationship between the two is endearing. Doctor Strange is phenomenal in action scenes particularly, very powerful and cool. I loved that the film focused on him so much as that was unexpected for me. I am a big fan of his movie so I loved every second of him here.
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
Thor is one of the best characters also. He continues to become more fun and better developed. He is human, but also fun and his interactions with Rocket are just infectiously funny and dynamic. These two are so fun together. Rocket is hilarious with his lines about an eyeball and Bucky’s arm.
Hulk is almost like a caricature up to this point as he is too comedic and silly. Cap is entirely forgettable and honestly ridiculously underutilized here. That was honestly surprising to me and just unfortunate as he is a major character from the MCU. Rhodey is okay, but Black Widow is also very forgettable. Black Panther is also underutilized which is ridiculous given the popularity of his movie, but Marvel obviously did not expect it as what we got from Wakanda was forgettable and disappointing.
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
Vision is very good as is Scarlet Witch and I love their final moment together and her willingness to go dark. She is awesome here, though a bit too overpowered. Bucky and Falcon are boring, but I did find Loki’s death impactful, though incredibly obvious. Star-Lord is very funny in his body insecurities as is Drax and Mantis is so well utilized into action here and quite an asset actually. Groot is funny per usual and of course Gamora got a wonderful, moving story and her death truly was heartbreaking.
But the standout character of this film is easily Thanos. He is one of the best superhero villains so far and everything I expected him to be. He is humanized a bit and I did like his population control angle. Although familiar, it was well explored for a comic-book film and at least he has a definite goal. His relationship with Gamora is powerful and he definitely has a sentimental side to him, but he still remains a menacing, powerful villain who is competent, never makes a mistake and he offered some superb fights here. Josh Brolin’s performance is wonderful. And his henchmen are surprisingly effective and strong.
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
Avengers: Infinity War has very strong humor at times and I laughed in more than a couple of occasions, but the film still struggled because of that as it needed a darker tone and edge to go with its cool villain. But that is the problem every Marvel movie shares honestly. The effects are very strong and the action scenes are thankfully superb and more than a couple of them are actually incredibly memorable and exhilarating with the highlights being Thanos vs. Tony, Thanos vs. Team Tony and some of the fights with the henchmen as well. The ending was terrible, but Gamora’s death and the last scene with Vision are some of the best scenes. And that post-credits sequence is easily the best and most exciting one so far!
Avengers: Infinity War is an expectedly chaotic movie which is my favorite Avengers film so far, but still much weaker than some of Marvel’s best films. The action sequences are frequently fantastic and quite memorable, the humor is excessive but definitely strong and Thanos is naturally the standout part of this film as he is a bit humanized, but still remains a great threat, a menacing and truly powerful villain who didn’t disappoint me at all. Team Thor was a lot of infectious fun and Team Iron Man was the best one, but Team Cap is a throwaway, boring team. So in the end, it’s a solid, effective film with a lot of powerful scenes and a great villain, but it’s seriously offset by its predictable nature and that terrible cop-out ending which honestly infuriated me.
