Last night I finally got to see Avengers: Infinity War with my dad, aunt, and cousin. I was excited to see this movie for a long time since every Marvel movie had been building up to this major crossover event. I will be writing this review more about how I think the movie was made and what I liked about it; in a way that does not contain major spoilers.
Infinity War doesn’t waste any time in getting right to the point. It picks up from where Thor: Ragnarok left off with Thanos’s ship intercepting the Asgardian refugee ship. From there, Thanos and his minions make quick work of the Avengers as he tries to collect all six of the Infinity Stones. This structure makes sense because there is a lot of ground to cover with many characters to be given decent screen time. So it seems as if the directors were careful to make sure everyone’s appearance was well placed and added to the plot progression. I think this was also done to make sure that the run-time of the movie would not be too long, although it would have been fine with me if it was a longer movie. Infinity War was made assuming that most people who are watching it had been following the events of the MCU up to that time. By now fans know these characters well, so they will have developed a kind of emotional attachment to the Avengers and their allies. I feel that this is the strength of this movie because it makes viewers feel horrible for all that happens to the protagonists as they suffer and fight against Thanos. No one likes to see the good guys get hurt, or worse lose.
The motivation of Thanos for trying to remake the universe in his image seemed odd to me. He made his goal of killing half the the universe seem as if it was a form of mercy so that different worlds could be saved from over population and a lack of resources that he felt would come in the future. He is using mass genocide to save beings from a fate that he saw happen to his own planet, but one that he doesn’t know would happen to others. I am tired of seeing hints from Hollywood that human activity and our use of natural resources to make our lives, and even our planet better, are the problem in the world. However, the reason why this doesn’t ruin the movie for me is because the Avengers are trying to stop Thanos, who thinks this way, from committing what is an objectively evil act. All despots try to make it seem as if clearly evil acts are for the greater good or will end up saving more lives than their actions will take. Thano’s reasoning for his goal strays from the original comics. The comics had him doing this as a way to win the love of a character called Mistress Death. A great quote by Steve Rogers in the movie is that “we don’t trade lives for lives.” This is completely antithetical to Thanos’s way of thinking and I love it!
The acting was great! Josh Brolin did a marvelous job portraying Thanos so that he is not seen as just a big CGI purple monster. The humor that the MCU has been known for is still there and is perfectly placed as usual, especially from Thor and Drax. The characters that get the most screen time are Iron Man, Thor, and the Guardians of the Galaxy with the rest more spread out. I would have liked to have seen more of Steve Rogers since I am a big fan of Captain America and I was curious about what he had been doing since the events of Captain America: Civil War. The Hulk was not a big factor in this movie which disappointed me because I wanted to see him smash the bad guys or have another try at Thanos.
Overall, I would say that this was a good movie that did a great job juggling a mass of characters. It leaves viewers with their hearts in their throats given that many characters end up not making it. For this reason, fans have something to look forward to by this time next year with Infinity War’s sequel. If you are a fan of the MCU, you will like this movie, though the ending will leave you upset. Not because it is poorly made, but because it is not what you would have wanted or expected. If you have not seen any other Marvel movies, or at least not much of them, you won’t have a clue about why some of the characters feel the way they feel or are where they are at this point. So I recommend you catch up first. I don’t think this was best movie in the MCU, but I liked it and found it to be well-done!
Bo Thompson 