Iron Man kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe in summer of 2008. Now, just 10 years and 17 movies later, we have the grand culmination of (almost) everything Marvel in the biggest super buffet the cosmos has to offer.
Throughout these many years, several of these movies have centered around the MacGuffins known as the Infinity Gems. Each of these gems has a special power and one grand super villain has been patiently sitting in his chair waiting to collect them for reasons.
Now, he’s decided to collect them all in the biggest team-up experience since Mr. Rogers and Captain Kangaroo joined forces. As Thanos (Josh Brolin) is the biggest threat that the Avengers have faced, they must ally themselves once again and travel the universe to hopefully stop Thanos from reaching his goal.
Infinity War is a one-of-a-kind experience as it attempts to balance out 70+ characters and still tries to make this more than pandering fan service. Let’s be honest, this movie is wish fulfillment for the hordes of fans that guzzle down anything the company has released in the past decade.
The way Infinity War has structured its format so that each charismatic scene isn’t owned by any actor in particular is to divide the teams and put heroes everyone knows and loves into an odd couple situation in their own subplot. You’ll finally get to see Tony Stark and Doctor Strange together or Peter Quill mock the masculinity of Thor.
If there’s one star in the movie, it’s the CG purple space monster Thanos. Outside of too many recent comic book flicks, this movie takes its time to develop Thanos as a character and nearly makes him a sympathetic character. This is so needed, as his grand plan could easily be boiled down to the “Zero Population is the answer my friends” song that Jimmy’s rebellious friends sing in Saturday’s Warrior. It’s really not great, but the fact that they spend time on making him more than one-dimensional gives it some significance.
Without a strong villain, Infinity War would crumble under its own self-important weight. This isn’t helped that each of the original Avengers (outside of Thor) seem to be sleepwalking in their roles, just praying for the end of their contracts. Mark Ruffalo, specifically, seems to have forgotten that he left the set of the joke-stravaganza Thor Ragnarok and onto the set of the darker-in-tone Infinity War. He honestly ruins every scene he’s in.
Be forewarned, this is only part one of a two-part movie. Think Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1 & 2 for reference. Infinity war is only half of a movie, and therefore it’s a very incomplete movie experience. The plot is so focused on the Infinity Gem search that there’s no time for an actual story. Heroes are placed together, they make quips, they provide exposition without building character, and they fight the baddies. Rinse and repeat. That’s your movie.
I hoped against hope that this would be the Marvel movie to change my mind about the generic machine that produces these movies. Sadly, I just felt disengaged as this 2 hour 40 minute flick progressed. Even with its cool-looking fights, it still couldn’t produce genuine excitement.
However, as the movie dragged on, it finally reached a moment where, despite the no-stakes rollout of future Marvel sequels, the story took a really interesting turn. The risk, albeit temporary, ends the movie in a place where I can’t help but appreciate the nerve (that will clearly be undone in next year’s sequel).
As it stands Infinity War belongs in the second tier of Marvel flicks. It’s much better than most, thanks to the villain and ending. But, without an actual story, it just wades around average. C
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