Avengers: Infinity War (No Spoilers)

So this is going to be a very difficult movie to review. While I've been having some difficulty lately writing spoiler reviews for superhero movies lately, this is a movie where that is absolutely necessary. I'm going to try and maneuver through reviewing this movie without giving anything away and because of that I'll air on the side of caution and be pretty vague. I'd rather do that than give something away. Because of that, this might be a pretty short post.

Avengers: Infinity War is the culminating episode in the Marvel cinematic universe saga. It follows the aftermath of a lot of movies like Captain America: Civil War, Thor Ragnarok, and Black Panther (sort of) to find the Avengers disassembled and scattered not only across the world, but across the universe.

Now there are a lot of characters in this movie. You've got Iron Man (played by Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (played by Chris Evans), Thor (played by Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (played by Scarlett Johannasson), Spider-Man (played by Tom Holland), the Guardians of the Galaxy (played by Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, and the voices of Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel playing Starlord, Gamora, Drax, Mantis, Rocket, and Groot respectively), Doctor Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), Vision (played by Paul Bettany), Scarlet Witch (played by Elizabeth Olsen), Black Panther (played by Chadwick Boseman), and a lot of other characters. If I listed them all I'd be here all day.

They all come together throughout the movie to address a looming threat that we've been waiting for since the end credit scene of the first Avengers movie, Thanos (played by Josh Brolin).

This guy man... Up until this point Marvel villains have been running jokes, that they are too one noted, or they aren't as interesting as the hero, or in the few cases that they are, they are either killed or put in a position where they can't come back again.

So it is a breath of fresh air to get a character like Thanos who is by far the most interesting character in this movie. I'll talk a little bit more about this later, but the movie has so many characters that they don't exactly build a lot of room for individual character development with few minor exceptions, so if you have a particular favorite character in the Avengers, they probably won't get the amount of screen time you want them to have. They'll get a moment or two of being a badass, but they have to share screen time with about a billion other characters, as well as Thanos who they really build as a phenomenal villain.

And I have to applaud everyone involved. I have to applaud Marvel for not disappointing us with a villain they've been building up for years, I have to applaud Josh Brolin for giving a phenomenal performance as a complex and almost sympathetic, but also ruthless and brutal villain. Just a round of applause all around.

Without giving too much away, the movie is basically divided into groups of Avengers/Guardians and their individual quest. Thanos is trying to obtain the Infinity Stones that have been alluded to in previous films to carry out his evil plot. This movie also moves around a lot and there is A LOT to cover. Luckily, they have about 2 and a half hours to do that in a movie that really feels like it's three hours long.

I don't think the length felt as long for me because I was invested with this movie from start to finish due to this being the culminating chapter, but if I was someone going into this movie for the first time, I would have maybe felt this movie was really long and drawn out. It's a weird circumstance because on one hand, in order to have all these characters together, it needs to be long, but it DEFINITELY feels its run time to both its credit and its downfall. I don't think the time is going to break this movie, but it is an issue.

But this movie definitely focuses on certain characters and other are just there. The Guardians actually get a lot more exposure in this movie than I thought they were going to get. Which is what I was kind of alluding to earlier, there are definitely characters that get a lot of screen time and a lot of attention, and then you have characters that aren't as important when you feel that maybe they should be.

The upside of this is that the movie felt a lot like a comic book. It was relying on the fact that you've probably seen the previous films and they don't need to introduce these characters. They can jump from character to character in the same way the comic book "Infinity War" might.

I almost imagined some of the jumps from scene to scene of having the subtitle, MEANWHILE IN WAKANDA or MEANWHILE IN SPACE!

I actually went with a friend of mine who has only watched a couple of the MCU movies. He wasn't as into the MCU prior to this and he just said, screw it, I don't care, I'll check it out. This provided a fun exercise for me throughout the movie as I tried to imagine what he was thinking and if this movie was making any sense to him.

Like I said, the movie is really relying on the fact that you've probably seen previous movies so there are some things that were carry overs from previous films, or character development that were "resolved" from previous conflicts (not many). But the movie is also smart because you really don't have to have seen the previous movies, you just have to know who the characters are at this point and that is something Marvel has earned over years of really good movies, but just marketing the crap out of these characters. People know who Iron Man, Spider-man, Captain America, etc, are that my friend can go into a movie like Infinity War, pretty much blind, and come out thinking that movie was awesome.

Now I will say that the fact that it's a lot of action and relies on previous knowledge, it does lose points on being just a good movie the same way DC gets shit for relying on the fans just knowing who these characters are. The difference is Marvel has been doing it for years and earned that assumption, where DC really hasn't, especially in a movie like Suicide Squad. It doesn't make for an incredibly complex Avengers movie, but that's never really been the point, this movie isn't going to be winning Oscars anytime soon, but it's still well made.

This is definitely a movie where the spoilers need to be talked about. I'm probably gonna try and get that out by Monday at the latest because the spoilers kind of set this movie apart from the previous Marvel movies. The last thing I'll say is that this is a dark movie. There's your normal Marvel humor and its good, no doubt about it. But it's dark. I think this movie's critical success should really be owed to Josh Brolin and his portrayal of Thanos, but I will talk about that and more in my spoilers review.

Overall, Avengers Infinity War is a lot of spectacle. There's a lot of great action, lots of interesting stories, and probably one of the best comic book villains to date. There are a couple issues with the time of the movie, the amount of characters and their screen time, and the fact that this movie is almost too much spectacle and not enough substance, but overall, go see this movie. Even if you're not a Marvel fan, go see this movie.

Comment and Discuss your thoughts on Avengers: Infinity War. I must say that this review is coming out on opening day and there are probably some people who are waiting till tonight to see it. Do not spoil anything for people, your comment will be deleted. But send me your thoughts on here or on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.


Thanks and see you next time.