Avengers: Infinity War Review
If you’ve read many Avengers: Infinity War reviews, they’d tell you how it is 10 years on since the MCU started, where Tony Stark was introduced to the big screen and, with that, the first ever after credit teaser was revealed. “You think you are the only superhero out there? Mr Stark, you have become part of a bigger universe” Fury tells Tony, but little did we know just how big the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be. Avengers: Infinity War is an event marking the 10 year anniversary of the MCU and there is no better way to celebrate it. Even if this film wasn’t perfect in all areas, it met all of my expectations, having me constantly checking my watch, not because I couldn’t wait for it to end, but because I wanted to make sure there was still plenty more left of the film, as it seemed like it was flying.
Even though the Russo brothers said that Thanos’ motive in wanting to destroy the universe was a lot deeper than most villains, the story was pretty much the same you’d get from most superhero films, to be honest. A big bad, who thinks the mass murder he wants to sow is for the greater good. This isn’t to say Thanos is a bad villain, quite the opposite, even if I felt his motives were nothing unique. What made Thanos so special was his ruthlessness, which is something the MCU haven’t had. A villian who will literally stop at nothing to get what he wants, which, in the end, had me at the edge of my seat over what he would do next. I have only really felt this one other time towards a superhero villain, and that was for Heath Ledger’s Joker. This uncertainty Thanos brings to the movie is there right to the very end of the film, leaving me emotionally exhausted after watching, but in a good way! I’ve never really been a huge fan of Josh Brolin, but you cannot doubt that he did a brilliant job at bringing the Thanos to life.
With Thanos’ big plan to destroy the universe by collecting all 6 infinity stones, there was only one way to stop him, which was for all the heroes that we have seen in the MCU thus far to join forces and take on Thanos and his sidekicks known as The Black Order, creating probably one of the greatest casts in cinema history. Not only are most of the original Avengers in this film, we also get most of the other heroes from the established Marvel Universe, such as the brilliant Guardians of the Galaxy, who, to be honest, stole the show a little in this film, especially Chris Pratt. Not only did Pratt’s character, Peter Quill, take part in probably the funniest scenes, he was also a major part in some of the most emotional scenes, really showing off the his acting chops.
When it comes to the score by Alan Silvestri, it is nothing short of awesome. There are some great new elements to this score, but on the whole it is very traditional to the previous Avenger films, which is important to me. I hate it when sequels get a completely new score, as it ruins the continuity. The only time I find it acceptable is when it’s something like X-Men: First Class, where the cast is completely different, and you can tell there is an attempt at refreshing the franchise.
I am going to move onto some SPOILERS now, so that I can really breakdown what I enjoyed about the film, but also what I didn’t…
As Avengers: Infinity War follows on from the events of Civil War, the Avengers are not together during the big attack on the universe, with Captain America in hiding and Tony the first to encounter the attack without his fellow Avengers, but with one of the newer heroes, Dr. Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Dr. Strange film, but the wizard was great in this film. I did expect him to be a bit more powerful however, this is something of a theme for me with this film, especially when it comes to Thor…
Thor: Ragnarok was a film about how our hero was to learn about his inner strengths, that his hammer was a tool to help him focus his power, it wasn’t HIS power. The Thor we saw at the end of Ragnarok was brilliantly powerful, a true god of thunder. Yet in this film we see Thor spending 90% of the movie looking to create a new weapon to defeat Thanos. I just felt a little disappointed with the backstep Thor took in this film.
Even though I felt some of the characters were slightly underpowered, this was only a minor gripe with the movie but there being countless highlights which made up for it, such as my favourite scene. This being Captain America’s introduction to the film, saving Scarlet Witch from an ambush by the Black Order. With Scarlet Witch backed up against some train tracks in a station, a silhouette appears on the other side of the tracks. The female member of the order, Proxima Midnight, throws a spear at the figure, only to see the spear caught, triggering a revamped version of Silvestri’s icon Avengers theme. We see Wanda turn round, her face go from a scared look to a smile, as she sees a bearded Steve Rogers appear from the dark. This scene gave me goosebumps as I saw my favourite Avenger save the day. It couldn’t have been more perfect.
Another powerful scene was the near-death of Tony Stark, which I was convinced was going to actually happen. RDJ has been playing Stark for 10 years and him dying in this film would have made perfect sense. The scene itself also cemented my thinking due to the way Tony got himself into this near death situation, a one-on-one fight with Thanos, which sees Tony use all of the 10 years experience in full force. It would have been an incredible exit to the franchise, but luckily for him Strange trades the Time Stone, which he has been protecting, in exchange for Stark’s life, this being a great touch, as earlier in the film Strange said he would do anything to protect the stone, even if it meant letting Stark and Spider-Man die.
Sadly the main reason I couldn’t give this film a perfect score is due to the end and how it made it pretty clear what would happen in Avengers 4. With Thanos collecting all of the Infinity Stones, he clicks his fingers and destroys 50% of earth’s population. The way you see half of the population die is that they essentially turn to ash. I loved the fact that Marvel went down this road, as we saw many of the heroes fade away, with nothing anyone could do to stop it. We see heroes like Bucky Barnes and Scarlet Witch fade away, but annoyingly we saw heroes, that we know aren’t going to stay dead, fade away as well, such as Black Panther and Spider-Man. Spider-Man’s death was really sad, seeing Peter sense his death before it happened, therefore relying on Tony to console him as he cries in Stark’s arms. Sadly it just lost a lot of weight, as we all know that he isn’t going to stay dead. I think they could have been more strategic with who they dusted, as, due to this being the very last scene, I left the film a little bit sour as it didn’t have the impact it intended, as I knew these huge characters would be back, meaning so will everyone else.
All in all, Avengers: Infinity War is a great way to mark 10 years of Marvel and even though there was a few minor issues with the film, everything I wanted from it, I got. Great heroic scenes, edge of the seat storyline, and all the heroes treated with the respect they deserve, all getting a great amount of screentime. Unlike most of the Marvel films, the Infinity War has a much more serious tone which I really appreciated, as I sometimes feel the comedy can be a bit disrespectful to the characters I care a lot about. I highly recommend this film to anyone, as it is great movie that genuinely ticks all the boxes.
