Avengers Infinity War Review: Come Together

Be warned, there are some minor spoilers in this review, but they do not give away important plot points. 

The Marvel Cinematic Universe recently hit the ten year milestone and for those that have not followed the popular franchise, Avengers: Infinity War marks the first time that a number of the popular characters have appeared on screen together to battle the lingering threat of Thanos. This alone makes the film worth seeing, as almost every single major character (and some not so important characters) makes an appearance.

The story loosely follows the Infinity War comic series, tailoring the story to fit the MCU (as well as creatively replacing characters that Disney did not have the film rights too) and focuses on Thanos’ obsession with the Infinity Stones. The mad titan has Hitler-ish aspirations to “save” the galaxy, which involves wiping out half of it to save the remainder and is currently in possession of two of the six stones, with the remainder spread among the various realms of the MCU. While this may sound familiar if you’ve seen any of the other films in the series, what really makes this story special is the teaming up of various characters that have not appeared in the same movie previously which really adds a fun dynamic to the film. This is a bit of a double edged sword, as it makes the film a bit hard to follow at times with so much going on.

With such a huge cast, it is to be expected that some characters have more screen time than others, but I was pleasantly surprised to see some of the newer or less popular characters (Dr. Strange, Bruce Banner, Mantis, and Drax) receive more screen time. While series mainstays Captain American, Black Widow, and Falcon appear multiple times throughout, they are sidelined for much of the film, with only a few lines each. I can honestly say that Captain America’s awkward introduction with Groot is one of the funniest lines in the film. The weak link throughout is Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord, who makes a number of questionable, selfish decisions that arguably go against his scoundrel with a heart of gold character the previous films built upon.

Up until this point, I hated Tom Holland as Spider-Man. Hated isn’t even a strong enough word to describe my feelings towards him, as I was a huge fan of Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of the character and felt a bit betrayed as a fan when Sony cut his trilogy short in favor of rebooting the franchise with the new actor. On this outing, Spider-Man really steals the show, with his Iron Spider suit that was only teased at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming joining the mix. Holland’s third time as the wall crawler marks him finally hitting his stride, adding some much needed comedic relief to this film, which was needed to even out the darker tone.

While the acting is simply stunning on all fronts, the writing is a bit lackluster at times. Some of the more recent Marvel films have seemed to shoehorn comedic tones into the films when not really needed, which I believe was partially due to the success of The Guardians of the Galaxy. This has been hit or miss; this go around, the writing lets the smartass quips flow naturally from the characters known for them and rarely feels forced. Dave Bautista’s Drax, no doubt a fan favorite in the vein of Groot after this appearance, is simply hilarious anytime he’s on screen.

The laughs come often, but by the end of the film most fans will be stoic, if not crying due to the overly bleak ending. The body count is staggering to say the least, with many major characters being removed from the equation. Sure, this is a comic book movie where they could and probably will bring most if not all of the characters back, but I have not been this torn on an ending since The Walking Dead introduced Negan.

If you are hyped about the film, you’ve likely seen most (if not all) of the MCU’s other ventures. While many of the past films are enjoyable as standalone experiences, Infinity War requires you to see most of the previous movies to fully understand the narrative and all of its moving pieces. Because of this it might lose some of the younger viewers, as my five year old struggled throughout the film despite it being rather action packed and quick to the point. The fight scenes are all well done and the sheer size of the climax rivals the enormous battles from The Lord of the Rings films. I found the various forms of the Iron Man suits to be a bit overused, as there are a whopping four versions counting War Machine, Iron Man (with his new nano-somethingorother suit that looks more like Venom-like symbiote than Venom does in the new movie trailer), Spider-Man, and a fourth surprise character (you can probably figure this out by the trailer alone, but I won’t spoil it).

If you’ve been following the MCU, this is what ten years of work has lead up to and absolutely worth the wait and countless hours invested in the franchise, for both those involved in the film making process and viewers alike. I am just saddened that it’ll be another year before we can see what the next Avenger’s tale has in store for us.

9 out of 10

Pros

  • Huge Cast of Characters
  • Natural Comedic Tones
  • Action Packed

Cons

  • Some Characters are Poorly Written
  • Iron Man Overkill

Avengers: Infinity War was written by Christopher Markus as well as Stephen McFeely and directed by Joe and Anthony Russo. It was released in theaters on April 27th, 2018. The film was not provided to us for review.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth your time, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great movie that you can feel confident about paying money to see in theaters or at home. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate movies, please let us know.

Check out OpenCritic for a better idea of how our review stacks against others.

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