Avengers: Infinity War – Review

Where to start with reviewing this film? Probably at the beginning right? Sure. Only I’m gonna need to go waaaay back, back to 2008 and the release of Iron Man. You see, back then nobody was giving that film any serious consideration or thought leading up to it’s release. Even following its release, it wasn’t a box office smash by any stretch of the imagination pulling in just over $500 million worldwide. What it did do was start the now relentless machine that is Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, although it did only stay in 1^st gear for a while. Incredible Hulk (2008 – $263m) followed, although not technically a Marvel Studios film (Hulk is still owned by Universal by the way), as did Iron Man 2 (2010 – $623), Thor (2011 – $449m) and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011 – $370m). Thor and Cap, along with Iron Man were all solid origin stories and even then, they were starting the process of being part of a bigger picture. It wasn’t until Avengers: Assemble was released in 2012 that the juggernaut went from cruise control to top speed. Avengers: Assemble grossed $1.5 billion worldwide. The MCU had now officially arrived and dug its roots deep into current pop culture. From this moment, the landscape grew and grew. Audiences flocked in their masses to watch a space film with an angry racoon and a talking tree! Including the mentioned films above, we’ve had since 2012, thirteen further films. Two Thor Sequels, two Captain America sequels, two Guardians of the Galaxy outings, origin films for Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Black Panther and a third outing for Iron Man. The Avengers themselves have now had two sequels, Age of Ultron and the latest outing Infinity War. The preceding eighteen films have led to this point.

My anticipation level for this movie was even greater than Avengers: Assemble (which was off the charts back then). Ever since reports hit the internet detailing the footage that had been shown at San Diego Comic Con’s 2017 Hall – H Marvel panel, the world has been waiting for the release of this film. The trailers teased and hinted at what was to come but the product that we finally get to see will honestly leave you speeches. None of the fan theories are even remotely close to what unfolds before your eyes. So, the plot for this outing of Marvel’s superheroes sees them attempting to stop Thanos (more on him later) collecting all 6 infinity stones and placing them on to the Infinity Gauntlet. The stones and their locations at the beginning of the film are:

Time Stone (green, aka Eye of Agamotto) – Doctor Strange (Earth)

Space Stone (blue, aka the Tesseract) – Loki (Space)

Power Stone (purple, aka the Orb) – Nova Corps (Xandar)

Reality Stone (red, aka the Aether) – The Collector (Knowhere)

Mind Stone (yellow, aka the Gem) – Vision (Earth)

Soul Stone (orange) – Unknown

We know at some point during the film that Thanos and his Black Order (Proxima Midnight, Cull Obsidian, Gorvus Claive and Ebony Maw) will come to Earth to retrieve the mind and time stones. How these events unfold is nothing short of fantastic. Each scene weaves in and out seamlessly early on as each character gets a decent bit of screen time whilst building up the story. All of the familiar locations we’ve seen throughout the MCU are visited and we are even taken to some new and surprising places. The Russo’s have directed a very tricky film and managed to make it look easy. They obviously have a lot of source material to get a basis for the look of the film, but they have also brought Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely’s screenplay to life, which must have been a difficult thing to write in itself. How did they keep track of all those heroes and the preceding 18 films? What a fantastic achievement.

Avengers: Infinity War is like no other MCU outing, the stakes are higher then they’ve ever been and the possibility of death for one or more of our beloved heroes is absolutely possible. You never know from scene to scene if there will be a major death or not, I’m not saying there is or isn’t, but you’ll have no finger or toe nails left by the end of the film. There was one scene in particular that made me say quite loudly “HOLY SHIT.” It just showed the amount of planning that has gone into this project from day one. Its my favourite part of the whole film.

Marvel films are known for their light-hearted approach to humour throughout their films. 9 times out of 10 they get it right. Here, it’s perfect every time. Each quip delivered at the right moment and in the vain of the scene and character. Its not forced, it feels organic. Some people don’t like the comedic side of these movies and I understand why, but in life humour does not stop when tragedy occurs, humour is sometimes the only thing that gets us through. There are some hilarious moments between sets of characters that you wouldn’t have even contemplated 5 years ago. No comedy for Thanos however.

This next part is dedicated to the villain himself. Portrayed by Josh Brolin, brilliantly I must add, we are finally given a bad guy worthy of the MCU. He is formidable with a grounded sense of purpose and is not afraid to show a wide range of emotions which span from absolute rage to tranquil serenity and everywhere in between. The power he possesses without the stones is enough to bring carnage to anybody that dares go toe to toe with him. The only hero that compares in size is Hulk. His reason and quest for the stones is to bring balance to the universe. He feels that life, left uncontrolled will be the end of civilization across the cosmos. He means to put that right by destroying half of everything in existence (this isn’t a spoiler. It was part of Marvel’s press release). Does this make him a villain or anti-hero? It’s a fine line for the character and one that is played out exceptionally. We all seem to love the really good villains. Darth Vader, Freddy Kruger, Hannibal Lector etc. Thanos easily sits on that level.

On to our heroes. They are all unsurprisingly where we last left them. The Guardians are off in some distant part of space as are Thor, Loki and Banner. Captain America and his fugitives are still off the radar moving from place to place, Stark is in New York along with Strange and Parker and Black Panther is in Wakanda. There isn’t much change for some of them but there are some very unexpected location switches for a few. How they move about and interact with each other is fantastic. Thor’s arrival on Starlord’s newly repaired Milano (again) is a prime example. Again, not a spoiler as it was part of the trailers. I can’t go into any further details about who meets who and where, these would definitely be spoilers.

I suppose I need to talk about the technical aspects of the film. CGI? Spot on. Music? Moving. Run time? Who cares, you won’t want it to end. Also, please see it in IMAX. Filmed completely in that format specifically for those screens. Now, I haven’t seen the IMAX release, I couldn’t wait to just get in to the nearest theatre and watch the god damn thing. Take it from me, please see it in all its glory, standard screens aren’t big enough to show the full scale of what’s going on. I will be seeing it in IMAX very soon hopefully.

Overall this is an absolute powerhouse of a film, a 10/10 from me and my new favourite MCU film. I honestly don’t know where they’re gonna go with Avengers 4 (which is still untitled to avoid spoilers). I haven’t known a film to end like this since Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers or to have the same feeling as Empire Strikes Back. The story hangs in the balance at this point and I can’t wait to find out how it all ends. Roll on May 5^th 2019, it’s gonna be a long year.

 IF YOU WANNA KNOW WHAT MY “HOLY SHIT” MOMENT WAS AND YOU’VE SEEN THE FILM THEN PLEASE SCROLL DOWN PAST ALL OF THESE STARS. ************************************************************************************

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So, it was Red Skull being the guardian of the soul stone. Yes, Red Skull. He’s been there for 75 years!!!!! We last saw him trying to hold the Tesseract on his Hydra plane in Captain America: The First Avenger. The universe opens up in front of him and he sees true knowledge, confirming what he’s thought about the gods. He knew the whole time, from the moment he laid eyes on it back in Norway in the 40’s that it was more than just a power source. Two lines which seemed like throw-aways in the First Avenger are now some of the greatest foreshadowing lines I’ve ever heard. That’s some pay off on their end game having to wait 7 years for people to know what they’ve known. The lines that are delivered by Red Skull are:

“Quite simply gentleman, I have harnessed the power of gods”

“You could have the power of the gods! Yet you wear a flag on your chest and think you fight a battle of nations. I have seen the future, Captain. There are no flags”

As I said above, this just shows how much planning has gone in to the MCU from the very beginning.