It occurred to me as I was leaving the screening of “Avengers | Infinity War” that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is our movie theater version of a Netflix series. The biggest, most expensive series ever made. You could binge all 10 years of it, non stop, in 1 day, 14 hours and 16 minutes BEFORE you caught up with this latest installment.
As you probably already know, this superhero cinematic series is packed with characters and situations that continuously reward the viewer for keeping up with each and every film (and secret endings). Almost everything leads to something else. And, from the original “Iron Man” to 2018’s “Black Panther,” ALL of it leads to “Avengers | Infinity War.”
The is the climactic peak. This is the battle royale. This is IT!
And, wow, this movie is absolutely huge. Massive with a capital “M.” This is the “Lord of the Rings” of comic book cinema.
The film opens with the events immediately following the end of “Thor: Ragnarok.” If you hung around for the post-credits sequence of that film, you’ll remember that a large spacecraft appearing, threatening the escaping citizens of Thor’s home planet, Asgard.
And, that’s pretty much as far as I can go with specifics. I’m keeping this spoiler free.
There’s not a lot of back-story for many of the iconic heroes, so you’d better be caught-up with the rest of us. Like a TV series, the film assumes you know the who, what, where and why of the MCU.
“Infinity War” is filled with so many characters, so many locations, so many twists, so many action-packed sequences, it could have been a complete mess. But thanks to Anthony and Joe Russo’s’ precision direction, we get just the right amount of everyone and everything. Plenty of Iron Man, Spider-Man, Black Panther, Black Widow, Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Thor and so much more.
The storyline is simple but feels insanely complicated due to the massive cast and numerous locations. Don’t worry, thanks to the nimble writing, directing and editing, it moves like a rocket and never gets bogged down.
Critics love to fault Marvel for their lack of significant villains, but “Infinity War” gives us arguably the best superhero villain we’ve ever seen in this universe. Better than “Thor’s” Loki, and better than Killmonger from “Black Panther.” Certainly scarier and far stronger. This purple dude is brutal. He’s a world destroyed and a genocide instigator. He has got a psychotic plan with a lot of personal motivation, but to reach his goals, he needs 6 energy stones hidden throughout the Universe to help bedazzle his golden Infinity Gauntlet. Once Thanos gets these rocks, he basically becomes the most powerful entity in the Universe. Literally, a snap of his fingers will end half of every living thing in existence.
Time to assemble the Avengers… and some other people… and an animal… and a tree.
The film takes all the Marvel characters we’ve come to love in the last decade and mixes them up in a blender full of spaceships, interdimensional portals, storylines and mysterious outer-space realms. Everyone ends up making new friends and tackling new problems, some of which come from simply introducing these heroic nutballs to each other. We get comic gold and powerful new alliances. It’s probably the biggest crossover event we’ve ever seen.
Ultimately, the film is really all about Josh Brolin’s Thanos. It’s his journey. It’s his motivation and in many cases, it’s all his rules. Yes, he’s an animated CG purple-man, but he’s a convincing one. Thanos even bends enough to become the sympathetic and possibly empathetic character. I almost felt bad for the big guy. Almost.
I’m being extraordinarily vague here. I can’t give away the greatness that “Infinity War” holds.
While everyone is (again) fantastic in the film. There are a few stand-out performances. Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord delivers the most honest bits of humor and frustrated curses. And, we actually get to spend a bit of quality time with Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and her relationship with Vision (Paul Bettany). The words “I love you” are hanging just off the screen each time the super-couple appears.
It’s some sort of miracle that an entire cast can be this likable and entertaining.
You THINK you can prepare yourself for all this comic book action and adventure. But, seriously, you are not ready. “Infinity War” is a doozy. The audience at the screening cheered, gasped and laughed through the entire film, but once the credits rolled, everyone sat in stunned silence. There’s so much to take in. It’s just epic.
6 Infinity Stones out of 6
